Andy Hertzfeld and a few others later speculated that Powell had been scheming to meet Jobs. “Laurene is nice, but she can be calculating, and I think she targeted him from the beginning,” Hertzfeld said. “Her college roommate told me that Laurene had magazine covers of Steve and vowed she was going to meet him. If it’s true that Steve was manipulated, there is a fair amount of irony there.” But Powell later insisted that this wasn’t the case. She went only because her friend wanted to go, and she was slightly confused as to who they were going to see. “I knew that Steve Jobs was the speaker, but the face I thought of was that of Bill Gates,” she recalled. “I had them mixed up. This was 1989. He was working at NeXT, and he was not that big of a deal to me. I wasn’t that enthused, but my friend was, so we went.”

安迪·赫茨菲爾德等人后來推測，鮑威爾是有意安排了跟喬布斯的相遇?！皠趥惾撕芎茫撬赡軙阌嫞蚁胨婚_始就鎖定了他?！焙沾姆茽柕抡f，“她的大學室友告訴我，勞倫收集有史蒂夫的雜志封面，發誓說她一定會遇到他。如果史蒂夫真的被算計了，可真夠諷刺的?！钡莿趥惡髞韴猿终f不是那么回事。她去參加那個講座只是因為她的朋友想去，而且她都有點兒搞不清要見的人長什么樣。“我知道演講人是史蒂夫·喬布斯，但我腦子里想的是比爾·蓋茨她回憶說，“我把他們搞混了。那是1989年。他在NeXT工作，對我來說他還沒什么大不了的。我熱情不高，但是我的朋友想去，于是我們就去了。”

“There were only two women in my life that I was truly in love with, Tina and Laurene,” Jobs later said. “I thought I was in love with Joan Baez, but I really just liked her a lot. It was just Tina and then Laurene.”

“我一生中真正愛過的只有兩個女人，蒂娜和勞倫?！眴滩妓购髞碚f，“我原來以為我愛瓊·貝茲，但我其實只是很喜歡她。我愛的，只有蒂娜和勞倫。”

Laurene Powell had been born in New Jersey in 1963 and learned to be self-sufficient at an early age. Her father was a Marine Corps pilot who died a hero in a crash in Santa Ana, California; he had been leading a crippled plane in for a landing, and when it hit his plane he kept flying to avoid a residential area rather than ejecting in time to save his life. Her mother’s second marriage turned out to be a horrible situation, but she felt she couldn’t leave because she had no means to support her large family. For ten years Laurene and her three brothers had to suffer in a tense household, keeping a good demeanor while compartmentalizing problems. She did well. “The lesson I learned was clear, that I always wanted to be self-sufficient,” she said. “I took pride in that. My relationship with money is that it’s a tool to be self-sufficient, but it’s not something that is part of who I am.”

勞倫·鮑威爾1963年出生在新澤西，很小就學會了自立。她父親是海軍陸戰隊的飛行員，是在圣安娜一次墜機事件中犧牲的英雄；他當時在引領一架受損的飛機著陸，兩機相撞后，他堅持飛行避開居民區，而沒有及時跳傘逃生。她母親次結婚，結果那個男人是個酒鬼和虐待狂。但她母親覺得自己不能放棄這段婚姻，因為她沒有經濟來源養活一大家子人。有10年的時間，勞倫和她的3個兄弟只好忍受著家里的緊張氣氛，循規蹈矩，自己解決問題?！拔覍W會了一個很明確的道理：永遠要自立?！彼f，“我為此而驕傲。我跟金錢的關系是，它是實現自立的一種工具，但是它不是我這個人的一部分?！?/span>

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, she worked at Goldman Sachs as a fixed income trading strategist, dealing with enormous sums of money that she traded for the house account. Jon Corzine, her boss, tried to get her to stay at Goldman, but instead she decided the work was unedifying. “You could be really successful,” she said, “but you’re just contributing to capital formation.” So after three years she quit and went to Florence, Italy, living there for eight months before enrolling in Stanford Business School.

從賓夕法尼亞大學畢業后，她在髙盛做固定收益交易策略師，接觸數目巨大的資金，為公司作自營交易。她的老板喬恩·科爾津（JonCorzine）想說服她留在高盛，可她最終覺得這份工作沒有啟發性。“你可以變得真正成功，”她說，“但你只是在為資本的積聚作貢獻?！币虼?年后，她辭職去了意大利佛羅倫薩，在那里住了8個月，然后來到了斯坦福商學院。

After their Thursday night dinner, she invited Jobs over to her Palo Alto apartment on Saturday. Kat Smith drove down from Berkeley and pretended to be her roommate so she could meet him as well. Their relationship became very passionate. “They would kiss and make out,” Smith said. “He was enraptured with her. He would call me on the phone and ask, ‘What do you think, does she like me?’ Here I am in this bizarre position of having this iconic person call me.”

他們在周四共進晚餐之后，她邀請喬布斯周六到她在帕洛奧圖的公寓來。凱特·史密斯開車從伯克利趕來，裝作是她的室友，這樣就也能見到他了。她回憶說，他們的關系充滿激情?！八麄冇质墙游怯质怯H熱，”史密斯說，“他為她著迷。他會打電話問我，‘你看怎么樣，她喜歡我嗎？’我處在多么奇特的位置啊，這個偶像級人物居然會這樣給我打電話?！?/span>

That New Year’s Eve of 1989 the three went to Chez Panisse, the famed Alice Waters restaurant in Berkeley, along with Lisa, then eleven. Something happened at the dinner that caused Jobs and Powell to start arguing. They left separately, and Powell ended up spending the night at Kat Smith’s apartment. At nine the next morning there was a knock at the door, and Smith opened it to find Jobs, standing in the drizzle holding some wildflowers he had picked. “May I come in and see Laurene?” he said. She was still asleep, and he walked into the bedroom. A couple of hours went by, while Smith waited in the living room, unable to go in and get her clothes. Finally, she put a coat on over her nightgown and went to Peet’s Coffee to pick up some food. Jobs did not emerge until after noon. “Kat, can you come here for a minute?” he asked. They all gathered in the bedroom. “As you know, Laurene’s father passed away, and Laurene’s mother isn’t here, and since you’re her best friend, I’m going to ask you the question,” he said. “I’d like to marry Laurene. Will you give your blessing?”

1989年的新年前夜，他們3個人一起去伯克利，到名廚愛麗絲·沃特斯（AliceWaters）開設的餐廳潘尼斯之家就餐。同行的還有喬布斯的女兒麗薩，當時她11歲了。晚餐上發生的某件事引起了喬布斯和鮑威爾的爭吵。他們各自離去。鮑威爾留在凱特·史密斯的公寓過夜。第二天早上9點鐘，有人敲門，史密斯打開門，喬布斯站在那兒，手中拿著他采的一束野花?！拔夷苓M來見見勞倫嗎？”他說。她還在睡著，他走進臥室。幾個小時過去了，史密斯等在客廳里，沒法兒進去拿衣服。最后，她只好在睡衣外面披了件外套，去畢茲咖啡店（Peet-sCoffee）買了些吃的。喬布斯直到午后才從臥室出來?！皠P特，你能來一下嗎？”他問。他們都聚到臥室里。“你知道，勞倫的爸爸已經去世了，勞倫的媽媽也不在這兒，既然你是她最好的朋友，我就來問你吧?！彼f，“我想娶勞倫。你會祝福我們嗎？”