Page 63 of The Hero + Vegas = No Regrets

“Shall I show in your next meeting?” Veronica asks. There’s something in the tone of her voice I can’t quite place.

“Yes. Who is it?” I ask.

She doesn’t answer my question, which isn’t like her.

Before I have the chance to call after her, Avril bursts through the door. “Brother dearest.”

“Avril, you’re going to have to go. I have a meeting.”

“I’m your two o’clock,” she says, handing me an iPad. “You left my business plan at Tavern on the Green, so I’m here to deliver it in person.”

Shit. In all the drama of Thanksgiving, I’d forgotten about Avril’s plan. I’d kinda hoped coming off academic probation would inspire her to finish her degree after all.

“Okay, well, I’ve got it now. I’ll let you know when I’ve had a chance to look at it.”

She shakes her head, a mischievous grin unfurling on her face. “I’m booked in for an hour. You’re not getting rid of me until I have my money’s worth.” She holds out her hand to the small conference table in my office. “Shall we?”

I know Avril well enough to realize I’ll waste more time trying to tell her to leave than just going with it. I sigh and take a seat.

She smiles at me, knowing she’s already won her first victory.

“So,” she says, “I’m here to talk to you about Hotel on Ninth Street.”

She was meant to formulate a plan for her future, not talk about my business issues. “Hotel on Ninth Street? You mean… my white elephant of a building on the corner of Forty-Sixth and Ninth?”

“I could draw you a Venn diagram, but you’ll get the picture soon enough.”

She opens a presentation on the iPad. The front page is a fancy logo for the aptly named hotel. She swipes through to the next slide.

In the moments before she starts talking, I really take her in. She’s wearing black pants and a crisp black shirt. I’ve never seen my sister in business casual before. Seeing her dressed like this, it hits me that she’s an adult—not a kid who needs protecting. At least, not the same ways she did when we were both younger.

“I’m going to ask you to think about this project as if it’s brand new,” she says. “Everything that’s gone before are sunkcosts. We don’t want them clouding our judgement. I’ve done a cost analysis for a new apartment building and for restoring the current building and turning it into a hotel. I’ve also gone through the financials your previous business partner drew up. I hate to tell you this, Worth, but they’re a pile of bullshit. They had a completely illogical average cost of capital, which threw all the other numbers out of whack.”

“I use the same WAC for all my investments.”

“Youmight, but the guy who took your money didn’t—and whoever you had look over the numbers didn’t catch it.”

I pull back my shoulders, feeling slightly uneasy. Did Avril completely misread the financials, or has she really discovered something? And when did she start doing financial analysis? Did she rope Poppy into this?

Did my team really miss something?

“How did you even get the historical numbers?”

“You know Veronica wears the same perfume as Mom?”

That was the last thing I expected Avril to say. “What? Ver— How do you even remember what perfume Mom wore?” Avril was only four when Dad died. Mom never wore perfume again.

“I remember. I stole the bottle out of her bathroom. Poppy and I used to wear it.”

“Huh,” I say. “So Veronica gave you confidential financial information about my business?”

“If you fire her, I’ll kill you,” Avril says. “She’s amazing. And besides, I told her my plan and she’s invested. Let’s get to the end and you can tell me you don’t love her a little bit more for believing in it.”

I roll my eyes. She’s so dramatic.

“Okay, so whatever, you have an issue with your finance people. You can deal with that on your watch. This is my hour.” She swipes to a different screen. She’s had her nails done short, in a neutral color. The last time I saw her, her nails wereblue and looked like ten deadly weapons. Avril really means business. “So it turns out, restoring the current building and turning it back into a hotel isn’t as profitable as your proposed development over a ten-year period. But over a twenty-five-year period, it’s more profitable.”

I start to speak but she cuts me off. “I know that means you have more inherent risk, but let’s talk about reward.”

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