"Celebrate?"
"With what?" I say. "We have a fridge full of LaCroix and a half-eaten bag of Funyuns."
Jian stands up. "I will get cake," he says, deadpan. "It is a special occasion."
He leaves the room, probably headed to the Safeway down the block where he buys all his food in exactly the same order every time. Maddy leans back and puts her feet on the table, crossing them at the ankles. "Are you freaking out?" she asks. "Yeah," I say, "but in a good way. Like, maybe for the first time, I think we might actually pull this off."
She smiles, softer this time. "We're not out of the woods, dude. But we're not in the parking lot anymore."
I laugh. This is why she runs sales. She could sell oxygen to a fish. My phone vibrates. I check it: a new email from my mom, subject line "Proud of you!!" She's probably tracking my calendar or has a Google alert set for my name. I ignore it for now. Maddy watches me. "You gonna tell your mom?"
"Eventually," I say. "Maybe after the check clears."
There's a lull. For a second, it's just quiet, the three of us orbiting around the reality that our dumb project is now a business. A real one. Jian returns with a chocolate cake, paper plates, and three plastic forks. He slices it with a plastic knife like he's performing a medical procedure. We eat.