“You’re not taking it from a friend,” he insisted. “You’re taking it from aninvestor. When this business takes off, I expect to get royalty checks. Give me a month and I can front the whole thing.”
I closed the beer fridge and opened my next beer. “Unfortunately, I need to pull together the deposit in the next ten days. The laboratory only makes a certain amount per year, and we need to reserve our order ASAP. Even if I was willing to take the full amount from you, next month would be too late.”
“Ah, damn.” He sipped his beer. “Well, I guess it’s not meant to be.”
Not meant to be.Just like Hunter and I in general.
My phone rang again. It was another number I didn’t recognize. I almost ignored it, but I wondered if it was the expo guy again. Maybe he’d changed his mind—which was the kind of good news Ireallyneeded right now.
“Erica Porter speaking.”
“Hi, is this the gemstone lady? From the expo?”
I stood up a little straighter. “Yes, this is Yours Forever Gemstones! How can I help you?”
Hunter came over and leaned into me, putting his ear close to the receiver so he could hear too. Lightning bolts of electricity crackled up my skin everywhere our bodies touched, but for once I ignored it and focused on the call.
“I wasn’t at the expo,” the guy on the line said, “but my mother was. For whatever reason, she loved your idea, and she’s interested in investing. As long as you can make gemstones from dog hair, too. She thinks that would be a big selling point. She wants a diamond made from the same atoms as her Yorkie.”
“Dog hair?” Hunter whispered to me.
“Animals weren’t part of our original business model,” I said into the phone, “but we can absolutely expand to include them! How much does your mother want to invest? Has she reviewed the investment booklet attached to the flier?”
“She wants to invest twenty. Twenty thousand dollars. If that amount is still available.”
I winced. Even with that investment, we would still be short ten grand.
Hunter snatched the phone from my hand. “Hello there, this is Hunter Cade, the Yours Forever director of, um, videography. Ms. Porter dialed me into the conference call from my office. Unfortunately, we are not accepting investments of twenty thousand at this time.”
My jaw dropped so hard it almost unhinged. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I mouthed at him.
Hunter held up a finger to me, dark eyes sparkling with mischief.
“You’re not? But the investment booklet says…”
“There are a lot of investors interested in the pitch,” Hunter explained. “Have you heard of Paxton McNeely? Evenhe’sinterested in the idea. Flew in from Indianapolis to speak with Ms. Porter herself. So as of this moment, we aren’t accepting investment amounts below twenty-fivethousand.”
“Twenty-five… Wow. This is a lot to process. Let me speak with my mother.”
There was a muffled sound as the man began explaining it to his mother.
“You’re going to scare him off!” I hissed.
Hunter covered the receiver. “Trust me!”
“Mr. Cade?”the man on the line said. “We don’t want to miss out on this. We’ll invest twenty-five. Can we sign the paperwork tomorrow?”
Hunter handed the phone back to me and then thrust his fists in the air like he had just scored a touchdown.
“That’s fantastic news!” I said. “I’m free tomorrow to go through the paperwork. Please email your contact information to the address on the flier, and we will be in touch. We’re, uh, happy to have you on board!”
I hung up.
“Yeah?” Hunter asked, grinning from ear to ear. “Am I the man, or what?”
“Twenty-five is still not enough!” I replied. “We’re five thousand short.”
“I can move a little bit of money around,” Hunter replied. “I’ll invest twenty-five grand too. I didn’t want that lady having a bigger share of your company than me!”