Page 31 of Mr. Not Quite Perfect

“Thank you,” I said as I took a sip. “This is delicious.”

“So what happened?” Alice said as we all sat back on the couch.

“Okay, well, as you know, Travis and I met at the charity dinner. We kind of flirted. It was fun, and he was trying to get meto leave with him that night. And I was like, ‘I don’t do one-night stands, but I have an idea.’”

“Oh.” Alice looked surprised. “What was the idea?”

“Basically, I told him that I always had this fantasy of meeting someone at a bar and pretending I didn’t know them.”

“You what?” Foster said, looking surprised, his eyes wide.

“I was drunk, and I guess I was just saying whatever was in my head. So anyway, we exchanged numbers, and we set up a date that he was going to approach me as if he didn’t know me. But of course when the date happened, I wasn’t drunk then and I was super embarrassed. I was feeling like a fool, and I didn’t want to go through with it. So we ditched that idea and went drinking and dancing.”

“Okay,” Alice said. “Well, that sounds fun.”

“It was a lot of fun. Anyway, we ended up back at his place, and well, the rest is history.”

“You guys banged,” Foster said, and Alice gave him a look. “Sorry. You guys made love,” he said quickly.

I laughed then. “I don’t think it could be called making love, seeing as it was essentially the second time we met and we were hooking up. But it was fun and exciting, and I don’t think either one of us thought it was going to lead to anything. Anyway, I ended up staying the night, and the next morning we kind of got into an argument. No, I really don’t want to say what it was about because it was stupid. And then I sent him a text telling him off, and we didn’t see each other or talk until yesterday.”

“Oh shit,” Alice said. “That must have been awkward.”

“It was super awkward, and I don’t really know where I stand now.”

“So are you guys going to continue hooking up or…” Alice raised an eyebrow.

“No, definitely not. I’m not hooking up with him again. As far as I’m concerned, he’s just my boss.”

“And you guys are going to San Francisco together this week,” Foster said, smiling beguilingly.

“Yes, but it’s for a business trip, and we’re going to have separate bedrooms and everything.”

“Okay,” Foster said, nodding. “Of course. Strictly professional.”

“Is that going to be hard?” Alice asked. “I mean, if the sex was good, won’t you kind of feel like you want to do it again or…?”

“The sex wasn’t that good,” I lied, “and I definitely don’t want to do it again. There are plenty of good-looking guys at Covington and Associates, and I’m sure I can find someone else to date.”

“Okay,” Alice said, smiling. “So you’re okay being his assistant?”

“I mean, it wouldn’t have been my first choice,” I said honestly, “but it is what it is. I can learn a lot from him. He’s the CEO, and Covington and Associates is one of the most well-renowned hedge funds in the world. I can write my ticket if I do well as an assistant.”

“Yeah, you can,” Foster said with a small smile.

“Then I guess we should start the educational portion of the night.”

Alice and I looked at each other and groaned. “I guess so,” I said. “What exactly are we discussing tonight?”

“I figured we would talk about portfolio mixes.”

“What?” I said, having no idea what he was talking about.

“We’ll talk about clients and how to consider their age, salary, and retirement plans so we know what sort of portfolio to put them into.”

“Okay,” I said, licking my lips nervously. I felt like he was talking in a foreign language.

“For example, if someone’s twenty-five years old, and they plan to retire at sixty, then we can put them in a higher-risk portfolio. Which just means we’ll allocate more stocks. For example, someone in an extremely high risk might be a hundred percent stock, and someone in a lower risk might want to be seventy-five or eighty percent stock. However, the closer you get to retirement age, you want to be less risky, so you’ll have them in a higher proportion of bonds.”

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