“Yes,” I say. “I can.”
“Wait… how? I mean, I know you guys do pretty good here, but—”
“My family,” he says. “It’s wealthy. Remember?”
“Ah,” she answers. “I see.”
“It’s that kind of wealth. Half a million isn’t nothing, but it’s not going to bother us much, if at all.”
“Okay then. So we tell them and see what shakes loose.”
“Come here.”
She walks over, looking a little hesitant. My blinds are still open and anyone could look in here and see us.
“You need to talk to me first,” I say. “I’m not going to play ball if you keep things from me.”
“I know. I shouldn’t have done that.”
I tighten my fingers on the desk. “But more than that. I can’t protect you if you do things without discussing them with me first.”
“I was afraid you’d tell me no.”
I laugh a little. “I probably would have.”
“Well—”
“But we could’ve talked about it,” I say over her. “We could’ve had a discussion. Maybe you could’ve convinced me. Do you really think I wouldn’t listen?”
“No,” she admits. “I don’t think that.”
“Good. Then please, next time, talk to me.”
“I will.”
I want to get up and go to her, but I hold back. I’ve been craving her body so badly lately. We’ve only been together for short moments since I finally felt her deep inside, since she looked up at me with my cock between her pretty lips and swallowed every drop.
“I’ll call Darin and see how this goes.”
“Keep me updated?”
I nod. “Of course. I’ll keep you in the loop.”
She bites her lip but nods. I like that she’s not apologizing. But she clearly knows she fucked up.
She leaves my office and I go around the desk. I sit down and hesitate for a moment. I have to think about how I’ll play this. We’ve only had the account for a few weeks, so losing half a million won’t look great. Darin will be pissed. He’d be pissed no matter what account, but this one is obviously special.
But I know I have to tell him right away. Hiding it will only make it worse.
“Yo, brother,” he says, answering on the second ring.
“Hey, man,” I say. “Look, is this a good time?”
“Sure, just got back to my hotel. Signed a new client. Some asshole that invented those, like, weird frozen ice cream balls?”
“Dip’n’Dots,” I say. “Fun and delicious.”
“Right, well, he’s rich. So he wants to be richer.”
“That’s how it goes.”
“What’s up?”
I hesitate for a second. I glance out my window and can see Val sitting at her desk, swaying back and forth slightly as she types up an email or something.
“Look, it’s about that special little account you gave me.”
He sighs. “I thought we were done with this.”
“It’s not that. I just… shit, man. We lost them some money.”
He’s quiet for a long moment. “You did what?”
“Lost them money. You wanted us to be aggressive about how much we make for them and we made some bad bets.”
“It’s been, like, a fucking month,” he says.
“Six weeks,” I correct. “I believe.”
“Six weeks is like ten seconds in investing time. What the fuck happened?”
“We bet on a fledgling company and it was a bad bet.” I drum my fingers on the top of my desk. “That’s all it is.”
“Who is ‘we’? You mean, Valerie did?”
“No,” I say, voice tight. “I did. I was involved in making the portfolio.”
“So then you both fucked up.”
“If you want to put it that way.”
“How much did you lose?”
“Half a million.”
He’s quiet for a long moment. I can practically feel his tension through the phone line. I shift in my chair and lean forward, hunching my shoulders slightly. I wish I could do this in person and see the look in his face.
He’d be mad if I lost that much for any client. He’d have to do damage control and Darin hates doing damage control. He wants to live in a world where we make no mistakes and everyone we know makes a lot of money. Unfortunately, in the investing business, even if you’re really, really good, some people get unlucky.
But I wish I could see if it’s fear in his eyes or annoyance.
“That’s a lot,” he says. “Why the fuck did you gamble with that much?”
“It would’ve paid out ten times that,” I say. It’s an exaggeration, but not by much.
“Still. What the fuck, Jacob?”
“Look, tell them what happened. Tell them I’ll recoup their losses. Personally, if it comes to that.”
“It won’t matter.” He sounds tense, angry. Maybe afraid, but I’m not sure. “Look, these guys…”
“They’re what?” I ask. “These guys, what?”
“They’re not the kind of guys that take this shit lightly. They’ll see it like we stole from them.”
“That’s not how investing works. We didn’t make any guarantees.”
“We also didn’t tell them we were going to make some risky bet with half a million dollars.”
“Come on,” I say, starting to feel my anger rise. “You’re really going to act like it’s the end of the world?”