Silicon Valley Sweetheart (3 page)

“My uncle kicked me out last night. Surely this was his doing. According to him, I was out all night having sex with strange men. I grabbed my stuff and came right to the airport. I’ve been here all night...”

I let out a small giggle. “Well, he was right about one thing... There was a strange man. Oh wait, that was you…,” I said sarcastically.

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.
Don’t cry,
I told myself.

“I’m so sorry.” He pushed the armrest between us up, put his arm around me, and said, “Just sit here with me and rest. Everything will work out. It always does.”

Even though we’d only met the night before, his arms felt strangely comforting. I had never felt so safe. So protected. I wanted to believe everything would be okay.

In an instant, I was asleep.

“
W
ake up
, sleepy head. We’re just about to land,” Mark said.

It took me a second to open my eyes. It seemed like we’d only taken off moments ago and before I knew it, the Golden Gate Bridge was visible outside my window. I still hadn’t figured out yet where I was going to stay tonight or how I was going to get there.
One thing at a time...
I thought.

As soon as we landed, I pulled out my phone to see if my uncle had responded. Nothing. I’m not even sure I expected a response from him.

Mark stood up and grabbed both of our carry-on bags.

“What do you think you’re doing with that?” He looked at me like he didn’t understand what I was saying.

“You don’t have to carry that,” I said, trying to take it from him. “I can handle it.”

“You don’t really believe I would let a lady carry her luggage, do you?” he smiled wryly, continuing to walk towards plane door.

“Suit yourself.”

Once we were off the plane, we kept a fast pace walking towards baggage claim. Neither of us said anything. It was uncomfortable walking in silence.

“I’ve told you about me... Probably more than you wanted to know. What’s your story?”

He slowed down.

“Well, contrary to some narrowly held beliefs, I’m not strange...”

Even though I had just met him, he was right, he didn’t seem strange. At least he didn’t seem like the deranged stalker-type of strange. I don’t know what it was, but something made me feel like I could trust him.

“This is home. I’ve been in New York the past month on business. We just acquired a company there and I was helping to integrate the merger. Now I’m back in the Bay Area where I live. Hopefully, it will be a while before I have to travel again.”

We continued to talk as we made our way to the baggage claim. When the luggage starting coming onto the carousel, Mark suddenly froze. His shoulders tensed up, and his jaw got tight. I wondered what had happened.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him.

“Fuck!” he whispered under his breath. I could tell he hadn’t meant for me to hear that. He grabbed my arm and pulled me close. “Please just go along with this. I’m begging you. I’ll make it worth your while. I will owe you big time!”

A tall, muscular man wearing a suit and dark glasses approached us. “Mark, your father wants to see you immediately. I’m to take you directly to his office.”

The way this man said Mark needed to go with him worried me. I wondered if he wasn’t some sort of mob henchman or something like that. Mark didn’t seem too concerned, though. He put his arm around my waist and introduced me to him. “Martin, this is Shirin, my fiancee. Please help us with our bags.”

Turning towards me, he said, “Shirin, this is Martin, my father’s driver.”

I was reassured to know the man in front of me wasn’t there to take us to some desolate location where I would never be seen or heard from again.

Still, I had no idea what was going on. But, at this point, Mark was the only soul I knew in San Francisco. And for some unknown reason, I felt safe with him. Hopefully, he was going to take me somewhere near Stanford. Plus, going with him would resolve my challenge of getting out of the airport.

I
t took
about 45 minutes to get from the airport to his father’s Silicon Valley office. The building was huge. It said Woodham Industries in big letters on the side. Unlike the skyscrapers I was used to seeing in New York, this was a large single story building that was completely glass on the outside. There were tons of cars in the parking lot.

As we walked into the large lobby, the marble floor caused a slight echo. A blonde receptionist greeted Mark as we entered. He waved at her. After entering a combination into a lock pad on the door, he held the door open for me and I stepped through.

“Where are we going?” I whispered.

“My father’s office is at the back of the building.” We must have walked past a hundred cubicles. The room was abuzz with the sound of people working. I could tell this was a high-tech company. We continued to walk until we approached what appeared to be another lobby. Mark stopped at the mahogany reception desk. We could hear voices behind the closed doors. The windows were frosted. I could make out two figures in the office, but I couldn’t see who they were.

“Fred, this is a problem. As long as your son continues to be ‘Playboy of the Week,’ no one is going to take him seriously. He’s nowhere near ready to take over this company. Especially when he can’t keep himself out of the newspapers like his latest stunt with his Porsche. I don’t even want to know how much that incident cost the company.

“And, even if he could manage the company, he doesn’t possess your technical capacity. You need someone who can take over the technical part of the business, too. Who have you groomed to do that?”

Before we could hear his father’s response, a slender brunette in a very stylish pantsuit walked in. She was more dressed up than the other employees I had seen. I assumed she must have been Mark’s father’s assistant.

She smiled at Mark and said, “Hi, Mark. Your father has been waiting for you. He should be done with his meeting in a few minutes. He wanted me to tell you he’d like you to wait for him in the Spyglass conference room.”

“Thanks, Lisa. Let me introduce you to Shirin.”

She turned to me and said, “Nice to meet you. Can I get you some coffee?” She seemed friendly.

“No, I’m fine. Thank you.”

“Would you please let Fred know that I am here?” Mark asked.

She nodded and went back to her desk. It seemed strange to me that Mark would use his father’s name instead of referring to him as his dad.

Mark grabbed my hand and we started walking again. He directed me to go into a small conference room. He shut the door as soon as we got into the room.

“When are you going to tell me what is going on?” I asked.

“Sit down,” Mark said, pointing to one of the chairs in the room. Taking a seat in the chair next to me, he slumped down. He rubbed his hand through his hair, “Just some family problems. My dad has cancer. It’s terminal. My stepmother is attempting to persuade him to sell the company before he passes. If that happens, I’ll lose everything. I’ll be out of a job. The proceeds of the sale will go into a separate trust, and everything my dad has spent his entire life trying to accomplish will be gone.”

I thought for a moment. “Aren’t most Silicon Valley companies public? There must be some shareholders or something who would have to approve the sale of the company.”

Mark shook his head. “My dad never took the company public. He wanted to retain control and didn’t like the restrictions going public would put on him. It’s funny. He got started at the same time as many of the other legendary Silicon Valley companies. Even though most people outside of the industry have never heard of him, he’s very well known in the industry. He’s done well for himself.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Three engineering-type guys walked in. They were all dressed in jeans and polo shirts. Note to self: no one here seems to dress like they do in New York.

Mark introduced them to me as James Pearson, Pete Cheng, and Jay Patel. They seemed pleasant.

“Hey, Mark. Glad you’re here. NTL had to shut their line down. They’re stuck until we solve this design issue. We need to figure out a solution to this problem like yesterday,” James said.

He pulled out his laptop and set it on the conference room table. He plugged it into an LCD projector. “We believe we’ve isolated the problem to this,” he said, pointing to a complex math equation that came up on the whiteboard. Looking at Mark, it was clear he had no clue what he was looking at. I stared at the equation. It was familiar to me.

“Did your father say whether he wanted us to wait for him to get here or start without him?” James asked.

“We should wait. He should be here in a couple of minutes. He’s the one with the technical smarts,” Mark said.

“I heard about your latest car crash. What the hell happened?” Jay asked.

“Oh, that...” I could see the question made Mark uncomfortable. He just shrugged his shoulders.

No one noticed me pull out the newspaper I’d bought earlier at the airport. I glanced at the picture. The headline read, “Bad Boy Mark Woodham’s Fiery Car Crash”. I realized it was him. I quickly put it aside before anyone saw me.

As the others talked, I continued staring at the equation. My father had drilled me to solve this kind of equation when he would teach me about engineering back at home in Tehran.

I could see a look of relief on Mark’s face when a man with an air of authority walked into the conference room and took a seat at the head of the table. I assumed it was Mark’s father. He was much shorter than I had expected. From the way he sounded, I expected a much larger man. He nodded to everyone and asked, “What do we know so far?”

“We believe we’ve identified the source of the problem. It appears to be with this equation,” James said, pointing to the board. “So far, we have not been able to come up with the right solution to solve this issue.”

I could see Fred was concerned. “What are you doing to resolve this?” he asked. I could see that James didn’t know what to say.

Suddenly, I spoke. “Of course the equation won’t work. The coefficient in the gate-level subroutine is inverted. Set it right side up and things will smooth out for you.” I couldn’t believe what just came out of my mouth. All eyes turned toward me. Did I think I could solve a problem that perplexed the engineers of this company?

“Go on,” Fred said. Mark watched me intently.

“May I write on the whiteboard?”

“Of course,” Fred nodded.

I walked over and began modifying the equation. “You see, if you restore the coefficient and bound the data flow accordingly, that should eliminate the noise you’re currently getting at the logical level.”

The room went silent. All four engineers stared at the problem up on the wall and what I had written on the whiteboard. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Suddenly Fred spoke.

“I think she’s pinpointed it. Good job. Of course, we’ll need to do some testing. But, this proposed solution may just have solved our biggest problem.”

Turning to me, he said, “I don’t think we’ve met yet. Are you the new engineer James has been telling me about?”

Mark took that as his cue. I was relieved he jumped in. He stood up and said, “No, she’s not an engineer at Woodham Industries, yet.”

Turning to his father, he said, “Dad, I’d like you to meet my fiancee, Shirin.”

Fred held out his hand. I reached across the table to shake his hand. I could see the disbelief in his eyes.

Mark continued, “We met while I was working at our facility in New York.”

“I guess congratulations are in order!” Fred exclaimed. “How long have you two been dating?”

Oh no. Mark hadn’t shared any of this part of his plan with me. I wasn’t completely sure how we’d be able to pull this off.

“We met awhile back in New York. I’m sure you can see how easily I fell in love with her. It was love at first sight for me. For you too, hon?”

“Um... well... um... no, it wasn’t love at first sight for me.” I wasn’t prepared for this. “But, with some time, he’s grown on me and here we are.”

Well, it was true anyway. Less than 24 hours ago, Mark was trying to get me to sleep with him at the nightclub where we met. If it had been love at first sight, it would have been a different story.

“I see. I take it you’re an engineer. Where do you work, Shirin?” Fred asked.

“I don’t have a job, yet. I’m scheduled to start Stanford this semester. That is... if I can resolve some issues that have arisen in the past 24 hours. I’ll be studying engineering. If my course load isn’t too heavy, I’m going to look for something part-time.”

“Stanford. That is excellent. I’m an alum myself. Will you be getting your Ph.D.?” Fred seemed pleased that I was going to his alma mater.

“No, sir. I completed some of my general education requirements at a community college in New York while I was working to save money for school. Based on the credits that can be transferred to Stanford, I’ll be starting as a sophomore. My father had taught me how to solve these equations before I immigrated here.”

“I see. It looks like he did a great job.”

Fred stood up. “James, please begin simulating Shirin’s solution immediately. I really think this could work.”

Turning to me and Mark, Fred said, “Shirin, it’s been a pleasure meeting you. Will you and Mark join me and Mark’s stepmother for dinner at the club this evening? Seven o’clock?”

Mark nodded. “We’d be happy to get together with you and Brenda tonight, wouldn’t we, dear?”

He looked over at me. “Um... yes, of course. I look forward to seeing you later on, Mr. Woodham.”

“Please, call me Fred.”

“OK, Fred. We’ll see you later.”

Mark got up from the conference room table and I followed his lead. He didn’t say anything to me as we walked through the office back to the front of the building. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see most of Mark’s coworkers were watching me. My mind was going at 100 mph trying to process what in the world was going on.