I showered and changed after the game at light speed, because itwas a new day. Someone was waiting for me, and we didn’t have to hide anymore. I could have cared less about my twenty-second birthday. This was the bigger milestone.
Annie walked my way to close the distance between us as I emerged from the locker room, arms extended and leaping into my arms when I was close enough.
“Good game, bub,” she said.
“Thanks for being here,” I whispered in her ear, soaking in the moment of holding her in front of everyone. “Can I give you gross public kisses?”
She giggled. “Absolutely.”
At the bar, I kept Annie in my lap, remembering how just one birthday before, I’d been sad, lonely, and unfulfilled. A year later, I had it all: my dog, my girl, my house, and my friends.
And all because one of my closest friends got married to his high school sweetheart.
Chapter 43
Annie
SEPTEMBER | Balance: $39,763
My hands could have been running under a faucet with how wet they were, taking a page out of Nick’s sweaty hands book. Outside the conference room door, Marcie squeezed my arm. “You ready?”
“Let’s do this.”
Marcie was back from maternity leave. The board had agreedto add The Athena Agency as a spinoff of Athlore, bringing on a unique set of investors to help us get it off the ground.
And I was taking Bill’s board seat. He’d decided to retire, with Dev stepping up as president. I was now going to be a partner at Athlore. It had taken months to work out the legal logistics, and we were headed in to sign off on all the changes: forming The Athena Agency, adding me as partner to Athlore, and bringing in The Athena Agency’s investors.
I was relieved that Bill was retiring, as his values didn’t really match the rest of the firm anymore. The rest of us were of the mindset, as long as the work gets done and money is flowing, who cares how it goes?
However, we were keeping to moving Nick to Marcie’s representation. We didn’t want any of the clients I’d be inheriting from Bill to feel like I was favoring Nick because we were together.
But as Marcie and I walked into the conference room, an extra person was sitting there who I didn’t expect.
There were Tomas, Dev, and Allan, plus Guy and Kitty, and Mikey. I expected the latter three because they were backing The Athena Agency.
But not Nick.
Our attorney on the business transfers, Ali, grinned at my confusion.
“We’ve had someone else request to become an investor,” she said.
“Him?” I asked, pointing to Nick. “Marcie, do you know about this?”
“I think you should hear him out,” Marcie said. “He wanted to make sure you and I had enough financial backing to kick off The Athena Agency.”
“What? No. You can’t do this,” I said to Nick, then turned to Ali. “I’m not diluting my shares.”
“We are,” Mikey said, gesturing to himself, Guy, and Kitty.
“If you decide you don’t want him in, we have two differentcontracts drafted, one with him and one without,” Ali said, sliding the two contracts across the table to me.
I flipped open to the exhibit that showed each shareholder’s financial contributions. Nick’s almost made my heart stop.
Marcie and I would each receive $40,000 cash, with another $20,000 going to the business.
That was exactly the amount I needed to pay off my mom’s medical debt.
“Nick,” I whispered, tears flooding my eyes. “You can’t.”
