“Oh no, that one doesn’t count,” I said. “I’d rather date the guy from the website.”
“Do me a favor and keep your profile visible for a little bit. It might be fun to at least talk to some decent guys…assuming there are decent guys on our website. Sometimes I wonder.”
“Fine, I’ll make it public tonight. I’m going to head out for the day. I’m trying to get a long run in for my marathon training; any chance you want to join me?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.
“Nope. Have fun with that torture.”
“See you tomorrow, and maybe you can actually offer a little help next time Tom gets his sweaty butt into my cubicle. I thought we were friends.”
“I know, but it was so fun to watch you squirm.”
“I hate you and love you all at the same time.”
“I know. I love you, too,” Mattie said as she waved goodbye and I gathered my things for the day.
My endorphins were still racing through my system after flirting with Brandon. It was the perfect time to go for a long run and zone out a little. I wasn’t all that great at running, but it was the best stress reliever around.
Chapter Four
Brandon
“If you watch this trend, you’ll be able to catch the upsell just before it starts. Then you can’t take a break, you can’t walk away from your computer: you have to watch diligently for the downward movement to start so you can sell.”
“Josh, you make it sound so urgent. How much an I really going to lose if I go to the bathroom during a decline?” I laughed.
Josh took his job of stock trading very seriously. Even when I joked with him, his face stayed solid and he didn’t react to my attempts at humor. I appreciated his serious nature around teaching me his investment techniques, but even a good businessman had to take a leak every now and then.
Learning about stocks seemed a natural next step for me. I hoped after taking a break from business that I might step into running something new down the line. It was sad that I didn’t understand the stock market more than I did, especially considering I’d only been able to sell my company after going public and getting top dollar on the market.
“If you are asking me a serious question about when to take a break, I’d say to make sure you have an iPad with the tracking information on it so you can carry it around while you’re watching for the bubble to break.”
“Then I’m allowed to pee?”
“Yes, then you can pee. But you can seriously lose millions of dollars if you mess this up, Brandon. I’ve seen a stock drop up to five dollars within minutes. If you have a million shares of stock, you just lost a hell of a lot of money, even for you.”
“I understand, Josh; I’m just messing with you. Can we take a break for the day? My mind just isn’t in the investing mode right now. It’s sort of a pile of mush. How do I turn you back into my fun friend and out of this cranky stock trader?”
“You’re the boss.”
It was true – technically, I was paying Josh for his time, so we could do whatever it was I wanted to do. He was also my friend, though, and I valued his time and expertise in this field. I hadn’t made my money by using people and I didn’t want to start now.
Throughout my years in business, people were what got me through. I hired the right people at the right time and everything seemed to come together perfectly for my company. I’d been interviewed about the success of my manufacturing firm and had to admit that it wasn’t just me that made it successful. It had been the combination of everyone doing exactly what needed to be done at just the right time.
“We’ll just take a little break; I know you need to get going soon.”
“Yep, I’d like to get in on the surge for that R
andall company. I’ll need to go soon so I can follow that trend.”
“Hell, just log into your account here. I’ll probably learn more from watching you than from trying to do it before I really know what I’m doing. At this point, I feel like my investments are just a donation to charity until I’ve figured out how to turn it all around.”
“Are you sure? I can get pretty wrapped up in it and won’t be able to just log out until a sell order comes.”
“Yep, I had some other business to do, anyways. I’ll pull up next to you here and watch you while I get this stuff done.”
I didn’t actually have business to do – more like checking my Dating the Rich account to see if Delilah had returned my messages. Her account seemed to disappear very quickly after we were talking, but then late night before, I’d noticed it was back up and running. She was mysterious: I had to at least give her that much.
“Oh, the dating site; how’s that going?” Josh asked as he noticed me logging in. “Have you found the love of your life yet?”