Page 100 of The Bet
“A failure?”
And so she told him, in a vague way, of how he’d once had a thriving business but everything went downhill when it failed. Their house had been foreclosed on when her father had run out of money because he’d tried to pay his employees’ wages.
“Why did it fail?” he asked, his voice low.
She shrugged. “Just.”
He was quiet for a few moments after, and looked at her as if he had many questions to ask her, but he didn’t, except to say, “And so he gets down about it, from time to time?”
“Yes.”
“I’m so sorry, Izzy. That can’t be easy on you, especially with you being so far away.”
She shrugged. “It does. It sucks big time.”
“What does he do now?”
“He had to take on a normal job. He wanted to put food on the table, and keep a roof over our heads, and he did, he does. But the personal pain has been too much. He has bad days. Off days.”
“And that’s why you don’t take anything from them?”
“That’s why I promised myself I’d put myself through college, and not take a dime from them.”
“I can see that about you.”
“And I need to do well in my exams this year because I want to get one of those internships with a big company.”
“I’m sure you’ll do just fine, but if you don’t, I could always put you in charge of one of my small businesses.”
Her eyes opened wider. He would do that for her?
“I don’t have a big corporation like Tobias does, no fancy building or management structure to speak of. I’m very entrepreneurial, and I like to outsource and make the most of this digital revolution, but hell, yes, if you ever want to get dirty and jump into a business where you have to make your own rules as you go along, I’d be happy to offer you something.”
“I’ll bear that in mind.”
