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When he left, I pulled up my email. Seeing Bryn’s name on the most recent message made me smile. There was nothing really personal about the message. She was just checking in about the plans and giving me her idea of how much seed money she wanted to make for her investments. But it was still good to hear from her. I was looking forward to helping her build her savings back up not just so she could have the money, but so she could put the experience behind her.
I typed up a quick response to her message agreeing to her seed amount but paused before I sent it. Reading through her message again, I noticed something hesitant about the wording. It was hard to detect tone or emotion behind written words, but her message struck me as unsure. It was almost like she thought my offer was going to disappear. It wouldn’t be the first time an investor played lip service to a client to try to impress them or make them feel better. But that wasn’t what I was doing.
I was serious about helping Bryn, and I wanted to make sure she knew that. Adding a section to my email response, I mentioned setting up contracts. Even if they were just between the two of us and not the formal ones I used with my regular clients, they would hopefully be a way for her to feel more secure and know this was something she could truly rely on.
To give her an idea of what my contracts entailed, I attached a basic version. It only took a few moments for her response to pop up into my inbox. When I opened it, I found the contract I sent filled out and signed. Seeing that made me smile. She was taking the whole thing seriously, and also wasn’t trying to pull back or run away because she wasn’t sure what was going to happen.
I cared about all my clients. At least, I cared about their financial goals and helping them to achieve them. It always made me feel good when they were excited about what was to come and seemed driven to push forward and make things happen. But this was different. For most of my clients, investing was just something they were expected to do. They grew up in families that invested and had strong financial training from the time they were young.
That didn’t mean that it wasn’t fulfilling to help them build their portfolio. But it was a certain thrill to help someone who didn’t have that foundation reach new levels. It was even better with Bryn. I really wanted this for her. And spending the extra time with her didn’t hurt. Not that I was going to let myself think about that. This was a professional arrangement. Not to mention not wanting a commitment and a girl who just got through a rough breakup wasn’t a good combination.
I printed out the copy of the contract, signed it, and scanned it back to her for her own records. That finished, I checked contacting her off my list of tasks for the day. Her being the one to reach out to me gave my productivity for the day a boost, so I was feeling ahead of the game. Now that Gabe was back in the office, even if it was only on a temporary basis, the days of overwhelming busyness seemed to be behind me.
I tried to get my mind back into work but was having trouble focusing. Every time I tried to bury myself in the numbers, my thoughts wandered back to the night before and the images that played through my head. I shouldn’t have been thinking about Bryn that way. I definitely shouldn’t have been getting myself off when thinking about her that way.
But I couldn’t help it. This girl was getting under my skin. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was about her. She was beautiful, there was no denying that. And she was funny and charming when she had moments of brightness through her anger. There was more than that, though. There was something else that kept making me lose myself in thinking about her. I’d never had this kind of reaction to a woman before, and it was getting to me.
Even with the productivity boost and having Gabe back in the office, and perhaps a little bit because of that, I ended up staying at the office late. As I was leaving, my phone rang. Seeing my brother’s name on the screen surprised me.
“Hey, Darren,” I said.
“Are you just leaving work?” he asked.
I paused. “How did you know?”
“Look to your left,” he said.
I looked over and saw my youngest brother walking down the sidewalk toward me, waving. I waved back and ended the call.
