“Yours Forever?” Hunter said too enthusiastically. “Tell me more!”
I held up a photograph of an emerald. “These gemstones aren’tjustmanufactured in a lab. They’re created using carbon atoms extracted from yourspecial someone.That gives each diamond, ruby, or emerald a composition unique to that person!”
Hunter slid over to a different spot on the couch and raised his hand. “Um, excuse me, fancy business lady,” he said in a nasal voice. “I’m just a regular working-class Joe Schmo from Anytown, USA. If I want to give Missus Joe Schmo a diamond necklace made from my carbon atoms, how do I give those to you? Do I have to donate a kidney or something?”
“I’m glad you asked!” I said with a giggle. I lowered my voice and added, “I actually had a canned joke about needing to cut off a finger. Okay, okay, back to my pitch.” I cleared my throat. “AtYours Forever Gemstones, all we need is a single strand of hair. That’s all it takes to make a custom variation of one of our six signature gemstones!”
Hunter slid back to the other end of the couch. “Paxton McNeely here,” he said in his haughty voice. “How much would it cost for Joe Schmo here to order such a special gemstone? Two million dollars? Three?”
I grinned. “Our products are far more affordable than that! We have varying price models depending on the size of gemstone you want, but our custom one-carat diamonds start at just twelve hundred dollars.”
Hunter blinked at that and dropped his act. “Woah. That’s a lot cheaper than I expected.”
“Exactly!” I said excitedly. “And our margins are great. We’ve partnered with a lab that charges us about five hundred dollars per carat.”
He stared off, lost in thought. I took another long drink of my beer before continuing.
“So there you have it.Yours Forever Gemstonesare more special than other lab-created gems, they’re ethically produced, and they’recheaper.There’s no reason not to invest!”
I had skipped a bunch of my pitch in the middle, but I didn’t care since we were just having fun. Hunter drank the rest of his beer and smiled at me.
“You’ve convinced me. I’ll invest.”
I laughed it off. “You meanPaxton McNeelywill invest. I’m glad you liked the pitch. Too bad I wasn’t able to give it at the expo.”
Hunter put his pizza plate down and stood. “I don’t mean Paxton. I’m talking about me. I want to be a real investor.”
I gave him a funny look. “Are you doing another bit right now?”
“My financial advisor has been trying to get me to diversify my royalty earnings,” Hunter said, deadly serious. “I’ve already maxed out my IRA for the year. Truth be told, when I walked into the expo to use the bathroom yesterday, I was kind of hoping to find something worth investing in. And it looks like I just did.”
Is he serious right now? He wants to invest in my business?
“Hunter, I don’t think…” I said, trying to think of an excuse.
“Back when we were teenagers,” he said, “you believed in me. When everyone else was telling me to go to college and give up on my YouTube channel, you gave me the push I needed. You told me to stick with it, because youbelievedin me. I want to return the favor by believing in you. Idobelieve in you, Erica. You’ve always been coming up with creative ideas, and all of them were really good. Well, except for the pink-dyed pets thing.”
“That pets idea was definitely a dud.” I kept waiting for him to tell me he was joking, but his dark eyes were locked onto mine, filling me with confidence. “But Hunter, this is a lot of money we’re talking about. I can’t ask you to do that.”
“I know it’s not polite to talk about religion, politics, or money,” Hunter said carefully. “But I just got paid twenty grand by Mercedes for the Formula One event. That money has been sitting in my bank account earning next-to-no interest. I’ve been trying to decide what to do with it. Let me do this, Erica.”
My heart soared when I heard his words, but then it sank. “Twenty thousand isn’t enough, unfortunately.”
He blinked in surprise. “It’s not? If you’re contracting through an existing gemstone lab, then you shouldn’t have much overhead. A website, some administrative costs, and marketing.”
“Wow,” I said. “You sound like you know your stuff, and you didn’t even have to go to business school.”
“I’ve had to learn a lot while managing my channel,” he admitted. “It’s not just recording and posting videos.”
I realized my beer was empty. “Want another?” I asked, heading toward the garage.
“Sure.” He followed me down the three steps and around Dad’s old Mustang. “So, how much money do you need?”
“The gemstone lab doesn’t do on-demand orders,” I explained while fishing two more beers out of the fridge. “They require an up-front deposit for the first hundred orders. We needfiftygrand for that. Then, when we receive orders from customers, they get paid out of that initial deposit.”
Hunter took his beer and leaned against the garage wall. “Ah, damn. I can invest twenty no problem, but the rest of my money is tied up. In order to investfifty, I would need to wait until my YouTube royalties get deposited next month.”
Putting aside the shock of learning that he made that much moneyper month, I shook my head. “Giving me fifty grand is too much, Hunter. Heck,twentyis already way more than what I feel comfortable taking from a friend.”