Page 34 of About Last Night

Toni studies me with a worried expression. “You shouldn’t blame yourself because Shae won’t leave you alone.”

“I’m not.”

Toni’s expression doesn’t change.

“Did I?”

“A little, yeah. Why haven’t you blocked her?”

“I have. She keeps texting me from different numbers.”

“So, she’s stalking you.”

I inhale, exhale, and give my best professional smile. “Let’s talk business. Tell me your plans,” I say.

Toni nods. “OK. My plan is for Fourteener Trekking to expand into corporate team-building tours and leverage the money we make from them to fund hiking programs for marginalized kids and adults.”

“Stop right there,” I say, and write down what she said. “That’s a perfect elevator pitch.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

She is so cute and guileless I want to grab her cheeks and kiss her. I don’t of course. Maybe Willa had a point about me not respecting my own boundaries. I shake the thought out of my head and return my focus to Toni’s pitch.

“Imagine you’re trying to sell me on this idea and all the time you have is a short elevator ride. A couple of sentences to summarize your product or idea. That’s an elevator pitch. Go on.”

“I want to create an outdoor education curriculum and lobby states to include it in their school curriculum. I want to expand our women-only tours and be a safe space for trans men and women to experience nature. I also want to expand outside of the US and partner with local, experienced guides around the world. My initial focus is on South America. So much wilderness to explore. Of course, we would only partner with tour operators who are focused on conservation, which might raise the cost a bit, but corporate accounts won’t mind and, as a rule, people who take outdoor adventure vacations are eco conscious. We could do eco tours that include volunteering for a day or two, as well.

“Part of me hates focusing on corporate business clients. But they’re willing and able to pay. We will take those profits and put as much as we can toward our real mission: making sure everyone, no matter what their situation, has a chance to get out into nature.”

“You can also leverage those corporate relationships into a source of donations for your foundation. I’m assuming you want to set up a non-profit foundation for your charity work?” I say, typing as fast as I can.

“Um, I guess so. I hadn’t gotten that far.”

I smile. “That’s why I’m here. A curriculum is an excellent idea, but education budgets are being cut all over the country. You’ll probably have to fund those programs through your foundation, which means corporate support.”

“Riiight.”

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

She gives me a small smile. “It sounded so simple in my mind. Now it sounds really hard and complex.”

I remove my hands from my keyboard. “We’re brainstorming, Toni. That means pie in the sky ideas. From what little you’ve said, this project will need to be broken down into stages. It will probably take five years for you to get half of what you want, and ten years to get the rest, and even then, you won’t get everything you’ve mentioned. It seems daunting, I’m sure, but everything you’ve said is doable. We just have to be methodical in how we go about it. So, dream big right now, OK? We have all week to turn your ideas into an action plan. Or a rough outline of one. Action plans change each year, too, based on what was achieved and not achieved the year before.”

“Oh man, I’m really not cut out for corporate work,” Toni says.

“That all sounded awful to you, didn’t it?”

“A little, yeah.”

“Tell you what, let’s think of this as if we are going to hire someone else to implement it. You’ll still be in the field, trekking all day every day.”

Toni smiles. “Sounds like a plan. Which reminds me, Friday night you promised to go on a hike with me. How does Sunday sound?”

I laugh. “I promised no such thing.”

“Huh, I could have sworn you did.” Toni’s grinning. “Anyway, it would be a good idea for you to experience a guided hike. It would be research for this project. Helping me.”

“I don’t need to go on a hike to help you create a business plan, Toni. Besides, this weekend you will be practicing your presentation so you can blow Greta’s socks off on Monday.”

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