Can't Get Enough (Skyland, #3)(26)

“Mr. Bell?” That deep, molasses-rich voice I remember from the party pours over the speaker and fills my office when Hendrix’s assistant patches her through.

“Hendrix, hi.” I turn away from my home office view, a stretch of Malibu beach, and fold my arms on the desk. “Thanks for taking my call.”

“Of course.” She clears her throat. “How can I help you?”

A grin cocks one corner of my mouth at her formal tone. I’ve already seen this woman turn a party out and cry in the matter of an hour. Not to mention the commiseration we offered each other down at the dock. I think we’ve skipped formal, but given the circumstances and her relationship with Zere, I understand the space she’s trying to insert here.

“I was hoping I could help you,” I reply. “Or at least your fund. Maybe. I’ve been looking for new opportunities.”

“Oh, sure. Well, like I said, the Aspire Fund focuses on supporting Black women entrepreneurs. As I’m sure you know, women make up less than two percent of all venture capital funding, and Black women less than half a percent.”

“And yet Black women statistically have some of the highest returning, most successful ventures,” I say, leaning back in my chair.

There’s a small silence from her end before she speaks again. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“I read that you and two friends there in Atlanta started the fund.”

“Yes, two of my sorority sisters, Kashawn Phillips, who I met in undergrad at Georgia State, and Nelly Brewer, who became kind of a mentor years ago when I was first starting out.”

“Divine Nine is a great network,” I say.

“Are you Greek?”

“Nah, I’m a college dropout. Didn’t get that far.”

“I didn’t realize, but you seem to have done well enough for yourself.” A bit of humor warms her voice. “Where’d you drop out of?”

“Caltech.”

“Is that where you launched your app?”

“My girlfriend while I was there actually designed the app. She was much smarter than me.”

“Really? And did she drop out, too?”

“Um, she was already an associate professor, so no.”

“Whoa-ho-ho-ho,” Hendrix chuckles. “Age gap. Forbidden love. You’ve got my attention. Do I wanna know the whole story?”

This isn’t why I called, but just like on Saturday night, I find myself smiling too wide and telling her too much.

“I didn’t realize she worked at the university. I got a late start in college. Took a year off to work with my dad.”

“What did he do?”

“He was an assistant coach for the Vegas Vipers.”

“Basketball?”

“Yeah. When it became clear I wasn’t good enough to play ball in college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do so I worked in the organization doing whatever needed to be done. I’d gotten accepted to Caltech, but deferred. By the time I started, I was twenty years old.”

“Okay, and then what happened?” she asks, a note of reluctant interest in her voice.

“I met LaTanya off campus and didn’t realize she taught at the university. We got… friendly right away.”

“You mean you had a one-night stand?”

“Blunt, aren’t you?” I laugh, flipping over the heavy hourglass on my desk. “But yeah, that’s what happened. By the time we realized I was a student there and she was faculty, it was too late. It wasn’t against code or anything, unless she was my teacher, which she wasn’t.”

“So what happened?”

“Two things happened. We created an app and a baby. She wasn’t sure she wanted to keep it, but then decided I’d make as good a father as anyone else.”

“A ringing endorsement,” Hendrix says with a chuckle.

“Pretty much. We really liked each other, but neither of us thought it was permanent. We’d actually already cooled things off when she found out she was pregnant. She was thirty by then and knew she wanted a kid, but wasn’t sure when or if she’d ever want a husband. We were good friends who decided to raise a child together.”

Hearing my words out loud I realize just how far past appropriate this conversation has gone.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to… I called about the Aspire Fund.”

“I know, but now I have to hear how you turned an ill-advised affair with an older woman into a billion-dollar enterprise. Spill the tea.”

“I lived in Vegas for a good part of my life since that’s where my dad worked. And he was in professional sports. That combination led me naturally to a fascination with sports betting. Online betting started in the late nineties, but the technology wasn’t there for an app till the early two thous. We got in on the basement. I knew the industry and LaTanya understood the technology.”

“And the rest is history?”

“The rest became history,” I say. “But it was a lot of luck and hard work first. So I know what it’s like needing help in the earliest stages of a business.”

“So you invest in a lot of young businesses?”

“Oh, yeah. I even make investments that my advisers deem unwise, but just feel right to me. Guess that’s the gambling background coming into play.”