“Limitless, but… lonely? Is that what you are telling me?”
She shrugs. “Well, maybe not! Maybe we will both find absolute fairytale endings with 2.5 kids and assorted pets and supermodel spouses and all that.”
“Okay, I like supermodels,” I admit.
“Or, maybe not!” she continues dramatically. “Maybe our lives are a string of disappointments that plunge us into unrelenting despair.”
“Jesus.”
“So if we have unrelenting despair, in fifteen years, we will look each other up. Deal?”
I shake my head helplessly. “How can I disagree if you’re offering me a way out of my future unrelenting despair?”
She nods sweetly. “Yeah… When we’re old and just about to give up, we will have each other. You’re my emergency parachute.”
“Well, despite the mishmash of metaphors, I guess it sounds like a plan,” I shrug.
Grinning wildly, she flings her arms around my shoulders and hoists herself up to kiss me on the cheek. As she slides back down my body, she has to feel my hard-on, but she just pretends she doesn’t, I guess. She skips out of the room, picking up a laundry basket on the way. Just before she leaves, she leans back and winks at me.
“I’m so glad we got this,” she smiles earnestly. “I can’t think of a better plan, Clay. I really can’t.”
“Happy to be of service,” I joke, pointing a finger gun at her for no reason other than it’s another pointless macho gesture. “In the future, I mean. Maybe. Happy to be hypothetical escape hatch in a hypothetical future of despair.”
After the front door closes, I look around and fight the urge to clean up after her. Somehow, she took a basket of clothes out to head toward the laundry room but there are still clothes everywhere. The kitchen is still in disarray. The living room could use a vacuum.
Maybe later. I’ll get to it later.
Chapter 6
Penny
Present Day - Fifteen Years Later…
As the presentation video comes to a close, I look around the room at each of the investors’ faces. They’re definitely engaged in what I put together, but I don’t know if see that committed fire, that confidence to really buy into what I’m selling.
In the last few seconds I stand and position myself in front of the screen, signaling to the intern with my eyes to turn up the lights in the room. Gradually all the faces turn toward me and I smile with all my heart, turning the charm on full blast.
“You know what, Penny, I just have a question before you get started,” my boss, Nathan, interrupts.
I shoot him a venomous glare. He says he does this sort of thing on purpose, to really test my ability to think on my feet. But after fifteen years at this company, I am completely over it. He just likes to belittle me in front of a crowd. I can tell that the lead investor, Corrine, sees it too. She shoots me a challenging look like, are you really going to tolerate that? Then she crosses her arms and looks at him like, this had better be good.
Not completely clueless, Nathan clears his throat when he feels the chill settle over him. “Just a small detail… Are you completely sourced for the solar panels? I’m pretty sure most manufacturers are backed up for—”
“—yeah, okay,” Corinne interrupts, swiveling in her chair to face me and cutting him off completely.
A tiny chorus of cheerleaders does The Wave inside my heart.
“Yes, of course I’m sourced,” I smile gamely.
She gives me a subtle wink. “I’m sure you are,” she sighs before continuing. “My only concern at this point is that the typical homebuyer for this sort of project is going to be a high-earning younger person, a commuter. There is not a rail line into New York within twenty minutes, is there?”
“Oh!” I answer, somewhat taken aback as I shuffle through my supplementary materials binder. “If I remember correctly, there is a extension planned for twenty-four months out, which would put us—”
“Right at peak buyers’ market,” Nathan finishes for me, infuriatingly, though I know for certain he’s not even aware of any rail extension. I just got the memo two days ago as a matter of fact.
“All right, well, that’s good to know,” Corinne continues tersely, refusing to even glance at Nathan at this point. “So… I guess we’re good here. Can you have final numbers by next week? I’ll get it to the board and get you a decision by the following Monday.”
I plaster a smile on my face, hoping to conceal the frantic, jubilant explosion that’s happening inside me. Corrine doesn’t seem to be fooled. She raises just the outside of her perfectly arched eyebrows and purses her lips almost imperceptibly. I’m fairly certain that would be a real smile on a less surgically perfected face.