Page 13 of Daddy’s Rules

“Looks great,” I let out, flipping through the wire-bound booklet in front of me.

Two people clapped. My mind had wandered too far, to the point I’d almost forgotten who they were, and what they were doing. It was a mobile app, and they were talking customer base growth, about the lack of funds for the additional hands it would take for some of their roll out. It was right there on their last section, labeled under next steps and company growth.

Their lawyer, the only one who’d been smiling in the room, slipped papers across to me. He got paid either way it seemed.

“I’ll think about it,” I said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got another appointment across town.”

They all seemed to smile and nod. I wasn’t in the right mind to invest more money. I didn’t know what they were doing here anymore. I left my seat, buttoned up my shirt, and walked out to the stale smell in the office. Start-ups were fun to invest in, even the ones that smelled like frat houses and were sprayed with Febreze just before I walked in to mask it.

My appointment didn’t exist. I just needed an out. I knew when I was on the edge of recklessness, and tiptoed away from the edge whenever it happened. I went to the diner in the hope of seeing him.

He knew I loved the diner, and he knew I’d be at the club, but maybe I’d given him the impression I was done with him. I was far from done with him. All that talk of a next time was still on my calendar, or it would be whenever he was next around me.

It went against my rules on communication, on patience, on being the calm I wanted to see in others. I didn’t expect him to completely ghost me, he didn’t strike me as a brat, but then again, I’d had a couple of vodka sodas and I took pity on him for being lonely.

Every ding at the door, I looked. Every person passing me, I looked.

But he wasn’t there. I had resources at my fingertips to find him, but that would betray the trust and break the respect of him not wanting to contact me. I did everything right. He was just so different from all the other guys, and maybe it was his plan all along to ignore me.

Eve came back around, filling my coffee cup. “Fix that handsome face,” she chuckled. “It might stay that way.”

I’d been looking at the information I’d brought with me from the office, but only in a way that meant my eyes were on it. Behind them, I wasn’t taking any notice. “Thanks,” I chuckled back, relaxing my forehead. “I’ll take a club sandwich to take out.”

“Alrighty,” she said. “Anything else?”

I sighed and shook my head. “That’s everything.”

The bitter coffee had my eyes peeled wide, on alert. On an empty stomach, my arms were jittery. I knocked the booklet on the ground, and as I leaned under the side of the table, I noticed something poking out from the underside of the booth seating, the same one I was now selfishly taking up as one person.

It was my business card.

The card I’d handed over to Benji.

The reason he hadn’t called.

The reason he hadn’t asked for that next time.

But then why wasn’t he here?

Why wasn’t he trying to find me again?

* * *

A day later, I sat in the same office, with the same men in their same suits—except for the lawyer, he once again appeared smiling in a new suit. I respected that. I’d finally been able to go over the information, and they had some good ideas, but they were asking for far too much, and their user churn had grown, so while the growth was there, users were leaving their app too.

“I can invest more,” I told them. “But only a quarter of what you’re asking. So I can’t sign this as it is. You’ll need to have it redrawn with the correct figures and the increase in equity. If you approve.” Their smiling faces told me everything I needed to know. It happened a lot, asking for more when they didn’t need it so they could get to the figure they wanted.

Their lawyer nodded. “It’ll be revised and you can sign this afternoon.”

“Perfect,” I said, looking to their founder, who reached out and shook my hand.

The lawyer stood. “If you reach out to me, and you can come by my office, I’ll give you the documents to sign.”

“Thompson & Richmond,” I said, reading the card out. I’d heard that before, but not from here.

He chuckled. “Yes, sir. We’re a great firm. Are you looking for any representation?”

“No, but my lawyer will look over the final document before it’s signed,” I said, feeling as if I was speaking slowly, or my brain had connected all the dots and somehow time stilled to help me make sense of things. “If that’s all, I’ll head out.”