"I'm doing fine. Because I have a good job." And I still had some of the money left that my dad had given me. Once I ran out, that might be a different story. I knew the clock was ticking. I needed to land my first account before I lost my apartment.
"Still. Thousands is different than millions. I do not want to know what living is like without being able to take a bath in 100 dollar bills whenever I want."
He was right. I wasn't used to having to watch my cash flow. I probably shouldn't have been buying this dress for Bee. But I wanted to.Not because I like her."I said I'm doing fine."
"How is the new venture going?"
I didn't want to talk about it. I never failed at anything. But I wasn't even close to having enough cash to start my own ad agency. And without my father's name backing me, no one was willing to give me a loan. My side business helped. It was currently the only cash coming into my new business. What I needed was more clients. Pilfering my father's new hires was easy. I needed more access to high-level employees. But I didn't want to spend my time growing that. I wanted to be starting my own company, not introducing men to sluts. After spilling the news to my dad that I had other plans for my future, he had basically said he was done with me. That was a year ago. I thought I would have started the agency by now. It was still a while off at this rate, though. "It's going slower than I'd hope."
"Well, when I'm in charge of MAC International, I'll reinstate your allowance."
"I don't need it," I said. "I'm going to do it without Dad's money."
"Eh. It'll kind of be my money then."
"Still." I didn't want handouts. Especially not from my little brother who hadn't really worked a day in his life. I was sure he was capable of running MAC. He had majored in finance at Harvard to appease my father. But the money was his only motivation. He didn't really want to run a finance company either. I didn't want to live like that. I wanted to prove that I had what it took to make it on my own. My dad would see.
"You didn't answer my question. What does this girl do?"
"She's a secretary at Kruger Advertising."
"Really? Mom and Dad will be thrilled about that," he laughed.
"I don't really care what they think."
"Clearly. Maybe that's why you're falling for her. Because she's the complete opposite of who our parents expect you to wind up with."
"Maybe."
"I knew it! You are falling for her."
"I didn't say that..."
"You kind of did. How much access do you think she has to files at Kruger?"
"I'm assuming she has clearance for everything."
"So, there's your answer."
"What?"
"You're not going to want to take your clients with you from Blue Media. They're a huge conglomerate. Burning your bridges with them wouldn't be helping you. But taking Kruger's clients? That's a different story."
"You want me to use Bee to get access to Kruger Advertising's client list?"
He shrugged. "You said you didn't love her. So I don't really see what the problem is."
I looked down at the dress I was holding. Matt was right. I was already getting Bee to trust me. It would be easy to convince her to get me access to the documents. Or at least I could steal the information from her computer without her knowing. If I had a list of clients, I'd be able to get a loan even without my dad cosigning. I might not even need a loan if I could get one of Kruger's large accounts to sign with me right away. I shook my head. That seemed dirty. Even for me.
"Unless you do love her..."
"No. I don't even like her." But I did. I couldn't stop thinking about her. That's why I was at the store buying her a dress.
"If you say so."
"And that's actually a really good idea. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it." Because I was distracted. Bee had thrown me off my game. And I didn't want to risk losing her over something stupid like that. Matt had no idea how to start a business. His advice wasn't exactly something I was looking for.
"You were blinded by love."
