CHAPTER SIX
Dennis
“Will you teach me about business, Daddy?” Annamarie asks. “I have a certificate in accounting from France and I have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, but I have no practical practice.” Her brows furrow for a moment and then she says, “Experience. No practical experience.”
“I think maybe we could enroll you in a few business classes, little girl,” I reply. “And I’ll make sure you stay on top of the work.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” she says, “but that is not what I asked you for. I will take classes if you think I should, but I want to learn from you, Daddy. If you buy the apartment building, I will work for you, and you can teach me.”
“I don’t know about that,” I say.
“I do not mean you have to pay me. Je serai apprentie. I mean…how do you say it in America?” She furrows her brow again, and it’s about the cutest thing I have ever seen. “Um, I think intern is the word. I will work for you so I can learn.”
“I’m not sure if I’m going to get the building,” I say.
She sees right through me and her eyes flash. “You said the loan will go through because of the valuable.”
“Valuation,” I say, and realize I’ve just admitted it. “Valuation is a way to determine how much value a property or a business has, how valuable it is.”
She smiles. “I see. You said the bank would loan the money to you because of the valuation and you said the project is a sure deal.”
“Yes, but I’m…”
“Why do you not want to teach me, Daddy?” she asks, and if her furrowed brows are cute, that’s nothing compared to how cute she is when she pouts.
“I was very wealthy once,” I reply. “But I lost everything. I did projects like this one.” She waits and I don’t see any way around just telling her the truth. “There was a change in the real estate market, on the lending side of things. I had great properties, but the buyers couldn’t get loans anymore. I used up all my money to keep my employees working and then finally, we had to just give up the project. The bank took it back.”
“You used all your money to keep your employees,” she says in a voice filled with wonder. “You wanted… Oh, Daddy… You… argent pour la nourriture. I mean, you made sure they still had money to live on?”
I nod. “Exactly. I used up all my money and I don’t want to do another project and just be a failure again.”
“Failure? What does that mean?”
“The business failed. I failed. I’m a failure.”
She swipes on her phone and hands it to me. “Type it here, Daddy.”
She has a French translation app on her phone. I tap out FAILURE in the box and hand it back to her.
“L’échec? Tu?Tu te moqués de moi en ce moment?”
“Little girl,” I say. “There’s nothing more breathtaking than when you speak French, but I don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I ask did you really call yourself l’échec, a failure? I ask are you kidding me right now?”
“I lost everything, princess,” I say.
“How long?”
“What do you mean?”
“How long did you take to lose all your money?”
I’m confused but I shrug and say, “I kept it going for about a year and a half.”
“So, your employees worked for a year and a half because you put your every last euro in… dollar in the company?”
“About a year and a half,” I say, “like I said, I have to be sure because another failure isn’t something I want to deal with again.”