Chapter 5: Raph

"The first app I ever developed?" She heard him say to the small crowd around him. "It was a reminder app. I programmed it to automatically text me at a certain time everyday to remind me to pick up my girlfriend. Haha!"

As if on cue, the crowd laughed with him.

"But we've come such a long way from that. Now we develop systems that predict things."

"Oh, fortune telling apps," Dell piped in. "How interesting."

The man looked pleasantly surprised to see her. "My word, if it isn't Dell Santos from Uni!" He leaned in and kissed her cheek.

"So it is Raphael Lagan! I didn't expect to see you here."

"I didn't expect to see you here."

"How have you been?"

"I've been great!" He spread out his arms. "CEO of ElemTech, in case you haven't heard. You have heard of ElemTech, right? Big Data and Predictive systems? All over the news recently for getting a $500 million investment from Rocketship Internet?"

"You're the CEO of ElemTech?!"

"The one and only."

She punched him playfully on the arm. "You go, dude! I'm glad you still remember me?" She wasn't really very girly in college. And he was in sports. Everybody loved him.

"Why wouldn't I? I had a big crush on you back in school," he replied casually.

Dell was a little taken aback.

"You... You did?"

"Yeah!" He beamed. "You were this sophisticated girl who was so hard to reach."

"I was not."

"Was, too."

"Not! And why didn't you ever tell me?"

Raph laughed. "Because I was afraid of you." Raphael turned back to the crowd he was talking to. "There was this one Valentine's Day in college. I heard she liked Macadamia chocolates. And I fought tooth and nail just to get to buy the last box to give to her. But when it was time to give it her, I just chickened out. Ended up eating the lot myself. How sad is that, right?"

The crowd laughed. Dell smiled, but she had to look down as she hooked her hair behind her ear to hide her blush. Raphael turned his attention back to her.

"Gosh! It's so good to see you again. What do you do now?"

"Oh, I work at a bank now."

"She doesn't just work at a bank," Dell heard a woman's voice say.

She looked around and saw this gorgeous young woman with long wavy blond hair in a tight white dress that showed how perfect her figure was. "She's only one of the top performing Vice Presidents of Kelly Bank, Ral," she continued.

"Bianca!" Raph exclaimed happily.

Bianca walked, no, floated, gracefully to Raphael's side. Raphael easily put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her towards him.

"Dell, I'd like to introduce you to Bianca. My partner."

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