Page 22 of Fabulous Filthy Friend

No one saw this coming. No one could have predicted the way the market tanked over the last year. I know I’m not the only one who lost money—their own or their clients’—but it doesn’t make me feel any better when I have to explain that this is a part of the deal if they’re going to play the market.

It’s a gamble. One that could make you millions or put you in the doghouse. My personal losses necessitated HRD4U in the first place, but my clients don’t have the luxury of becoming someone else for a while to make extra cash. Most of them have businesses, important jobs, mortgages, wives, and kids…

Things that a lot of people lost when their portfolios ended up in the shitter. And it doesn’t look much better now than they did six months ago. The only hope on the horizon is the rumor that the Federal Reserve may be making an interest rate cut soon. But with the government, we never know if it’s all bullshit or if it will really happen.

It would mean a nice surge in a lot of portfolios, including my own. Not enough to make HRD4U unnecessary, but it would be something. And for clients with larger investments than my own, it could mean millions.

A knock on my door has me jerking out of my pity party. Dan leans against the jamb with a knowing grin and his sandy-blond hair a disheveled mass instead of slicked back in perfect placement like usual. He looks like he may be having the same type of day I have had. “Does your Monday suck as much as mine?”

I nod and shove my office chair away from my desk with a groan. “How could you tell?”

He chuckles and holds up his hands. “Lucky guess.”

Or I look as shitty as I feel.

I glance at the clock on the far wall. It’s only 4:30, but I can’t stay for another hour. Not after the weekend I had. Not after my fight or non-fight whatever the hell it was with Rachel.

My meltdown.

That’s probably the most accurate description.

Dan hitches his thumb over his shoulder. “You want to get out of here and grab a drink?”

A drink or five…

I wouldn’t normally be going out for drinks on a Monday night, but a cold beer or nice whiskey or bourbon sounds pretty good right now. “Yeah. Actually, that sounds awesome.”

With a heavy sigh, I push out of my chair and lean over my desk to shut down my computer, letting the numbers that have given me so much grief over the last few months vanish—at least until I get in tomorrow and have to deal with them again.

I follow Dan out to the hall, and we weave through the central secretarial cubicles on our way to the elevators.

“Mr. McAllister?”

I grimace at the sound of my name coming from Darlene’s lips, but I turn back to her with a forced smile. “Yes?”

She waves a stack of pink message slips at me. “I know you didn’t want to be disturbed earlier, but you have a few messages.”

Not wholly unexpected, given the fact that I’ve been shut away in my office all day without taking any calls. Though I don’t want to know the answer, I need to ask all the same. “Anything urgent?”

She bites her lip and glances toward Marty’s office, but with his door shut, there’s no way the boss can hear whatever she’s about to tell me. “I wouldn’t say it’s urgent per se, but Dustin Kelly called again, right before lunch.”

“Shit.” I glance at Dan, who gives me a sympathetic look.

He’s heard all about my issues with Mr. Kelly over the last few months, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to hear about him again.

“Did he leave any specific message this time?”

Darlene shakes her head. “Just that he wants to talk to you.”

I run a hand through my hair and groan. “I don’t know what the hell he expects me to say?”

All he does is rant about how much money he lost like there’s anything I can do about that. There are only so many times I can explain it to him and have it go in one ear and out the other. There are no guarantees in this business, and that was made clear.

Darlene twists her hands together and shifts uncomfortably. “I know, sir, that’s why I didn’t interrupt you with his call.”

I pat her on the shoulder in an attempt to help assuage some of the dismay on her face. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with him…”

Eventually.

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