Exes With Money Aren’t Miracles, FYI.
Exes With Money Aren’t Miracles, FYI.
Day 137 of The Andie Chronicles
“What did you think of the warehouse?”
Standing in line at this tiny hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese cafe was becoming a daily ritual.
Usually, I would stand there alone, but today as I was departing my office, I found James doing the same thing. He grabbed me by the arm and asked if he could join me.
I couldn’t refuse him, nor did I want to.
Moments like this were rare, even though we lived together and should have been completely sick of each other’s company.
James took a bite of his roll and moaned at the taste. They were pretty damn good, hence the never-ending line from Monday to Friday.
“Yeah,” he stalled, “Yeah I like it. Though I agree with Sophia, I think we need more space. The first launch is going to be huge.”
“Oh, I guess I’m not up with the numbers.” My position as a humble designer meant I wasn’t privy to the numbers. Though I internally hoped our Head Buyer, Sophia, would have told me by now.
James pulled his phone from his suit jacket pocket and pulled up an email and handed it to me.
“Opening numbers for the launch. Fifty-three designs and three hundred across the size range.”
I did the math in my head. It was close to sixteen thousand units we needed to order before we even had one customer.
“Fuck, that’s a lot. More than a lot. It’s kind of gross, don’t you think?”
I risked James disagreeing with me. I risked him getting annoyed, chastising me, and belittling me for my unpopular opinion. Instead, he looked pensive, cocking his head. “Yeah it’s a lot, but a lot is good right, babe? It’s what we wanted, wasn’t it?”
Finding the words at that very moment was hard. No, impossible. Arguing about what was happening in my business and my life hadn’t got me far. My protests had backed me into this corner, where I had to agree with everything or be forever exiled from my own life.
I didn’t want to give anyone any more ammunition than they already had.
“Of course, it’s what we wanted. I guess I didn’t think we wanted it this soon, you know. I remember it was you who said we wanted the build to be organic, natural, local sort of thing.”
James nodded. “Yeah, I did. But that’s before we found the thing that meant we didn’t have to go through the ugly growth stage. You know? We found Douglas.”
We found my ex’s money, is what James should have said.
This money of Douglas’ would only get us so far. In my head the questions raced around my mind; what would happen when we didn’t sell out on the first day?
Or after the first month or year?
What would happen when we don’t do what Douglas wants us to do because we have no clue what we’re doing?
I feared some of the answers to those questions were buried in that contract of mine if I could decipher it.
“I guess he’s our miracle, then.”
I finished my roll and we strolled back to the office. Back to the hype, I thought, back to the land of false promises.
You’re reading The Andie Chronicles, the 2023 romance-fiction series from the 1 Lovelock Drive (1LD) universe.
By the way, this all started when Andie turned thirty-five, and her then-boyfriend didn’t call her.
Or the day after that.
Or the day after that, too.
Everything started to unravel when her BFFs got into bed with her ex, too… ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
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