I let out a sigh and dropped my head back against the couch.
I took down the last of my tea like a shot and looked squarely into his face. “Alright. Go ahead.”
“I met with Clint, who is Gabe’s friend,” Nick said.
“The police officer,” I said, nodding.
“Yes. He talked over the whole situation with some of the guys at the station. It turns out, the investor didn’t actually do anything illegal as far as they can tell. He’s really bad at his job, but not a criminal. So, that angle isn’t going to work for you. What he did say is that Justin did still steal from you. He took that money out of your account without your permission, which means he committed larceny. If you have any way you can prove that he took that money, then they’re able to arrest him and you can go through the legal channels,” Nick said.
“And if I can’t prove it?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I don’t think there’s any way I can prove it. The records show the money was taken out. But it doesn’t show who did it. And even if it did show that Justin took it out, obviously he had something that convinced the bank he had the right to do it. I can’t prove he actually stole the money from me. I really wish I could, but I can’t think of anything.”
I wasn’t surprised by the news. From the very beginning, I knew it was a long shot to actually have anything happen to Justin. But I had gotten hopeful. I was expecting Nick to apologize for not being able to help me anymore and leave. Instead, he reached into his briefcase and pulled out a file. He held it out to me.
“Here,” he said.
“What’s that?” I asked without taking the file.
“Since I couldn’t get your money back for you, I wanted to try something else. I plotted out how long it would take me to help you get it back for yourself. It’s essentially the same thing Justin was trying to do, just I’m actually going to do it correctly. This file has my predictions and my plan. Go over it. If you think you want to do this, let me know. I won’t charge you. Not a cent,” he said.
I took the file from him, stunned. I was still staring at it when he got up, told me he hoped I felt better, and left. The file stayed sitting on the table for another few hours, untouched as I tried to process what was happening. Right before bedtime, I opened it and looked through the papers inside. As soon as I did, I knew I would be working with him.
12
Nick
I should have done more. I didn’t know what it was, but I really felt like I should have done more. As soon as Bryn messaged me back and said she wasn’t feeling well, I should have thought of some way to try to make her feel better. At least gone by the deli and gotten her some chicken soup or something.
Of course, she said she was feeling sick to her stomach, so maybe getting soup wasn’t the best option. But I could have done better than just showing up at her house ready to break the bad news to her. Maybe I could still do something. When I left her, she was staring at the file containing the plan I had for investing her money. She’d been like that for a while and I didn’t think she even noticed that I was leaving.
It was entirely possible I could go back and bring her something.
Of course, that was yesterday. So, by now she probably had come to her senses and figured out I left. Which also meant she had gone through the file. Only, I hadn’t heard from her. I had no idea what she thought about my proposition. It seemed like a fantastic idea at the time when I put it together. After all, speaking with Clint and Gabe, I was pretty well resigned to the fact that she wasn’t going to be able to get her money back through Justin.
I knew he had done something wrong. He had obviously broken laws and should be held accountable. He’d stolen a tremendous amount of money from her and lost it all. He deserved to be arrested, brought up on charges, and tossed behind bars for a good while. I would have said he deserved everything he had coming to him, except that it seemed he didn’t actually have anything coming to him.
It wasn’t something I wanted to admit, and definitely not something I would say anywhere near Bryn, but he had been smart. This wasn’t something he just did on a whim. He had been planning it, possibly for a really long time. When he decided it was time to take all the money out of her account, he did it in a way that couldn’t be traced back to him. He knew he didn’t have authorization to take the money and that it would be seen as theft if she detected it. So, he made sure no one figured it out.
Like she said, he really thought he would be able to get away with that. In his grand scheme, he would funnel all the money out of her bank account and hand it over to an investor who would be able to quickly multiply the amount. From there, he could just put Bryn’s money back into her account and the profits into his. As far as he was concerned, there was no harm no foul. She would never find out what he did, never get a chance to be hurt or offended, and he would have plenty of money to play with.
And if it had worked, he wouldn’t have stopped. If he had managed to pull it off and get all that money back in, he would have just done it again. It would have happened over and over until he either got tired of it or made a mistake.
It turned out he made the mistake before he even got the chance to try it again.
But that still left Bryn in the dust. He had taken everything from her, and while I didn’t have any responsibility in that, I felt compelled to make things right for her. I put together a plan that showed her it was possible for her to resurrect her account using effective investing strategies. It was perfect.
At least, it seemed perfect until I was sitting in my office realizing I’d showed up at her house while she was sick, didn’t bring her anything to try to make her feel better, dashed her hopes, and left her with an investment plan she didn’t ask for. It wasn’t perfect. It was presumptuous.
Well, shit.
I was trying to balance writing up a report to send to a client and contemplating how I was going to fix the mess with Bryn when Gabe popped his head into the office.
“Hey,” I said, looking up at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Somebody wanted to say hi,” he said.
He stepped further into the doorframe and guided his wife into view.
“Cynthia!” I said happily, standing up and coming around the desk as they came into the office. “What are you doing here?”
She still had a cast on her arm, her entire left side was all black and blue, and she was limping, but at least she was up and about. I gave her a very careful hug, and she smiled at me.
“I couldn’t stay cooped up in that house for another minute,” she said. “I needed to get out and see the world again.”
“Gabe wasn’t taking care of you right? You just give me the word,” I said, and she laughed.
“Thank you, Nick,” she said. “Gabe did a great job taking care of me. A little bit too good a job sometimes. He didn’t want me to do anything, even when the doctor said I could start doing more. Finally, today my mom came over to spend some time with the baby, and I told Gabe I was breaking out. Either he could come with me, or I was going to figure out how to do it on my own.”
I laughed. “That a girl. how are you feeling?”
“Still pretty awful,” she admitted. “But it’s getting better.”
“That’s good to hear. Do you guys have plans for lunch?”
Gabe and Cynthia exchanged glances, then took their heads.
“No,” Gabe said. “We just came by here for a quick visit.”
“And I’m sure it had absolutely nothing to do with you wanting to know what’s going on with the situation with Bryn?” I asked.
Gabe pretended like he had no idea what I was talking about. “Oh, is that still going on?”
I shook my head and scoffed. “Let me get this file sent, and we’ll go grab something to eat.”
“Do you mind if we just order something in?” Cynthia asked. “I got some really unpleasant looks when we were walking in here, and I’m pretty
sure a woman called the police on Gabe.”
I laughed. “No problem. What sounds good to you?”
We dug through my desk drawer full of menus from takeout places around the area and settled on Thai.
The food came relatively quickly considering the sheer volume we ordered. We went back into the breakroom to eat it at one of the large tables.
We had just started dishing out the food onto our plates when Bryn showed up at the door.
“Hi, Bryn,” I said, shocked to see her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I had no idea you were eating lunch. Your receptionist told me I could find you back here. I don’t mean to interrupt. Just give me a call later.”
Cynthia shook her head and waved her in. “No, don’t be silly. Come on in. Join us. As you can see, there is more than enough food to go around.”
“Are you sure?” Bryn asked.
“Absolutely,” Gabe said.
She thought for a few seconds, then cautiously reached out and served herself tiny amounts of a few of the simplest options. We ate and chatted for a while, and then Cynthia’s phone alarm went off. She adjusted herself carefully in her chair so she could get her phone out of her pocket.
“Oh,” she said. “It’s time for me to take my medicine.”
“We’re going to have to go,” Gabe said. “As soon as she takes her medicine, it makes her tired. We need to get home so she can rest.”
“Okay,” I said. “Thanks for coming by. It was really good to see you.”
I gave her another careful hug, then gave one to Gabe. They promised to visit again soon, and I set a time to check in with Gabe about his clients. They walked out, and I turned back around to Bryn. She was busying herself boxing up the leftovers and moving them into the refrigerator.
“Thank you for lunch,” she said. “It was delicious.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. Are you feeling better?” I asked.
“Some. Not a hundred percent.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yes,” she said.
I stopped and looked at her, not entirely sure where the conversation was going.
“Yes?” I asked.
“I’ll work with you. After you left, I went over all the papers, and I’m really interested in what you are thinking.”
“I’m so glad to hear that,” I said.
“It’s not going to be immediate. Getting the seed money to start off the new investments is going to take me a little bit of time. But I will accept a few extra orders to make the money,” Bryn said.
“That’s fantastic. There’s no rush. You just let me know when you’re ready and we’ll get started. Now, you’re okay with the estimate I gave?” I asked.
“Yes. That all looks good.”
“Great. I look forward to getting started,” I said.
“Thank you for doing this. It’s really going above and beyond,” she said.
“It’s not a big deal,” I said, trying to minimize the significance so she didn’t feel guilty for the work I put into it.
“It is, though,” she said. “At least, it is to me. And I don’t feel right with you not accepting any payment. We should—”
“No,” I said, holding up a hand to stop her. “I’m not going to talk about it. You aren’t paying me for this. I want to do it for you. Okay?”
She finally nodded. “Alright.”
“Good.”
I walked her to the door and thanked her for coming in. She looked exhausted as she left, but I didn’t say anything. Hopefully we could get started soon and the stress would be gone.
13
Bryn
Nope. There was no getting used to it. No matter how many mornings I woke up feeling sick as a dog and wanted to do nothing but wallow in bed, it was still horrible. There was some r elief in that the worst of the sickness seemed to fade by the midmorning or afternoon and I was able to be functional again. That gave me enough time to eat something and shove some work into the few hours before the exhaustion struck.
Then I passed out, slept like a rock, and started it all over again the next day. All in all, it sucked. By the fourth morning straight of it happening without any relief, I knew I couldn’t just keep on going like this. Wishing it would go away and thinking I could drown it by guzzling as much water and tea as I could hold wasn’t working out for me. What also wasn’t working out was ramping up on my workload.
I had just enough energy and motivation every day to get the absolute minimum done. It was enough to keep my clients happy and the workflow going so I could maintain my usual income. But it wasn’t enough to increase at all. Now that I had the need to save up for my seed money in front of me, I had to get it together. That money wasn’t going to make itself, and I didn’t want to have to wait for months and months to have it.
The chance to make my money back was intriguing and obviously appealing. I didn’t even think about that possibility before Nick brought it up. It was a way for me to right the wrong in that I would have access to my nest egg again. I would no longer have a constant reminder of how much Justin screwed me over. But it wasn’t just wanting the money back in my account that was urging me to get my act together and increase my workload.
Part of me worried Nick wasn’t going to be this kind and generous too long into the future. He said there was no rush and we could get started whenever I was ready. But I wasn’t sure he actually meant that. If I took too long, he might have filled up his schedule and not be able to work with me anymore. Or he might not be willing to do it without commission anymore.
I needed to get in while the getting was good. Which meant I needed to get into the clinic.
Just the thought of it made me even more miserable than I already was. I hated going to the doctor. I had since I was a little girl. The whole thing creeped me out, and I dreaded every aspect of it. From walking into the waiting room full of sick people and gross, germy magazines, to weighing myself in front of people, of sitting there in that cold, stark examination room and explaining why I was there to every person who came in. It just wasn’t my scene.
But I couldn’t deal with feeling like this for much longer. I needed to get to the bottom of it and find out if there was anything I could do to hasten recovery along.
Fortunately, my doctor had an appointment early in the afternoon, and I snagged it. The time should be right during the fairly functional portion of my day.
I timed my arrival perfectly, so I barely had to wait for the nurse to call me back. She brought me over to the scale, and I noticed I had lost a few pounds.
“What brings you in today?” she asked when we got into the examination room.
“I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my stomach over the last week and a half or so. I feel really sick when I first get up in the morning and for a while after. Then things get better, but I’m completely exhausted. I’m pretty sure I either ate something bad or picked up a stomach bug somewhere along the lines. My appetite has been really off, too,” I said.
The nurse nodded and put a thermometer in my mouth. “That would explain the weight loss. And by the look of your skin, I would say you are pretty dehydrated.”
“You can tell something like that just by looking at my skin?” I asked.
She nodded. “Absolutely. Remember, your skin is the biggest organ in your body. It uses water just like all the other organs. But if you aren’t getting enough water, your body will draw it out of your skin to make sure the vital systems get to it first. Dehydration is common, but it gets worse when you’re dealing with a stomach illness. I’ll get the doctor. She’ll be right in.”
I didn’t have to wait long for the doctor to come in, but as soon as she did, had to go back through the explanation of how I was feeling all over again. She looked at my chart and nodded.
“Are you having sex?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “Not in a little while.”
“And you said it’s has been going on for about a week a
nd a half?”
“Yes,” I said.
She nodded. “Well let’s do a pregnancy test anyway just to rule it out.”
I nearly threw up right there. “I’m positive that’s not it,” I said. Thinking back, it had been at least three months since I’d last slept with Justin. I’d have known if I was pregnant by now right?”
The doctor gave me a cup and directed me to the bathroom. My hand shook as I held the cup and deposited my sample. After a few tense moments in the exam room, the doctor came back in. “Well you aren’t pregnant.”
I nearly wept with relief. Not that I didn’t want to be a mother someday, but this wasn’t how I’d wanted to go about it.
She continued. “There’s been a particularly nasty stomach bug going around this season. We’ve seen a couple of people every day dealing with it. It looks like you might have gotten a bad case of it.”
“Okay,” I said. “Is there anything I can do about it? Any medicine I could take her anything?”
“Not really. It’s a virus, so there aren’t any antibiotics or medications like that you can take. With things like this, you usually just have to let it run its course. What I recommend is making sure you get plenty of rest and are staying hydrated. I know that’s not always easy when you’re sick to your stomach, but not having enough fluids can actually make you feel sicker. If water doesn’t appeal to you, or you find you feel queasy after drinking it, try ginger ale,” she said.
“How long is this going to last?” I asked.
“There’s no guarantee one way or another. For some people, it only lasts a few days. For others, it can take a couple of weeks to get through. You will recover from it faster if you get plenty of rest. Eat if you have an appetite but focus on foods that are gentle and easy on your body. Toast, rice, pudding. Things like that. Avoid extra spice, oils, fats. All those things can make you feel worse.”
She told me to go home and rest, gave me another warning about getting dehydrated, and said to call back if I wasn’t feeling better within a couple days. I left the clinic with a recommendation to try electrolyte drinks and protein shakes if I was having trouble with solid foods.
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