Page 86 of A Fae in Finance
“Okay.” I hit CTRL+Page Down until I reached the Inputs tab and looked at her expectantly.
She cleared her throat, scanning her page. “First, the initial capital expenditures for the project. We’re bringing that down to sixteen million dollars.”
I changed the assumed hardcode and looked at her again.
“The materials costs,” she said. “We can scavenge cobwebs and acorns easily. We are more concerned about ensuring we do not have an adverse effect on mortal habitats as we source our materials. So the cost will be primarily for an environmental study.”
This had me raising an eyebrow. “Who will do this environmental study?”
“We will need to find a consulting company. Your team can help us interview them.”
Doctor Kitten jumped down from the windowsill and onto the desk. I held up an arm to keep him off the keyboard. He rubbed his face against my hand, looking irritated.
“Fine. I’ll put a plug in for now.” I typed$1,000,000, just for fun, and then looked at her. “Do you want to separate out labor? Will you be paying your scavengers?”
“For now, we will not concern ourselves with wages for the faerie teams.” She shook out her paper and ran a finger down the page. “Many of these will still require more information.”
Doctor Kitten made another attempt at the keyboard, but I caught him before he started editing my Excel.
“It’s better for us to write down what we can, at least,” I said. “That way maybe the returns won’t shift as much when we get better numbers.”
She shifted in her chair. “We expect very high returns, lady. Our labor costs will be low.”
I shrugged. “People might worry about exploitation. We need to be careful about things like that.”
As I said it, I CTRL+Page Up’ed into the Control tab of the model.
“I will concern myself with the assumptions,” she said.
An email came in from Kayla, popping up in the lower right-hand corner of my computer screen. The subject line readA Few Questions.
I glanced at the preview.Hi Miri, I am having trouble—
“My lady, Jeff has requested that I work with our new analyst on a valuation assignment for your company. It would be helpful if I could take a half hour to give her instructions.”
The Gray Knight frowned at me. “The model updates are our priority, Lady of the True Dreams.”
I glared at the sharp slope of her nose, intending to melt it off her face with the heat of my anger. But her nose stayed fixed firmly in place while my gaze melted into an appreciative stare.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “I just need to—”
“This task is urgent. Continue along the Inputs tab.”
I did as directed, following her line by line down the Excel sheet.
Several minutes passed. Another email popped up from Kayla. Subject line:Am Concerned.
The Gray Knight caught me looking andtsked.
“Sorry,” I said, out of habit, and immediately felt irritated with myself. It wasn’t a crime to look at my own emails on my own computer.
She sighed and shifted in her chair. “As I was saying, please look at row 97. Our debt module assumptions require some refining.”
A third email from Kayla entered my periphery. Subject line:Please Help.I made a mental note to explain to her the vastness and understated grandeur of our compliance department, who read every single email sent on our servers.
I looked around the room, shaky and a little desperate, and saw the toilet. “Um, I need to use the bathroom,” I said.
She jerked her chin toward that corner. “You may,” she said, very graciously.
