All the Lies - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,35

exactly?”

Alex raises one of his eyebrows and gives me a look as if to say, I thought that you would never ask. Then he launches into a long discussion about his father's hedge fund and his role as one of its top directors.

“I know that over email you mentioned that you possibly wanted to invest some money with us,” Alex says. “Is that still the case?”

I give him a nod. I'm keenly aware of the fact that he hasn't asked me what I do for a living yet and I wonder how long it's going to take him.

“How much are you thinking?” Alex asks.

“I'm not really sure,” I say, moving my hands out of the way to allow the server to place two glasses of scotch on the rocks in front of us.

After we order, Alex raises his glass and makes a toast.

“It's nice to have you back in my life. It has been way too long.”

“Hey, thanks for inviting me,” I say, hitting my drink with his.

The thick expensive glasses make a loud reverberating echo. I bring it to my lips and revel in the oak colored liquid running down the back of my throat.

“So, I don't think I ever asked, but what kind of work are you in?”

I think about my answer carefully. I don't want to lie, but I don't want to come out with the whole truth either.

Hardly anyone knows and I'd like to keep it that way.

“I've been doing a lot of day trading. I've gotten quite good at it so my nest egg kind of grew. I like it because it frees me up to do a lot of other stuff in my life like woodworking, camping, hiking, reading, that sort of thing.”

“Oh my God, man. It's like you're retired,” Alex says.

At first, I take it as an insult, but I quickly realize that he doesn't mean it that way at all. He's looking at me with admiration.

“I wish that I could do something like that with my life,” Alex says, finishing his drink and waving over to the server for another. “Don't get me wrong, I like my job, but it gets stressful.”

“You know, you don't have to work all those hours. You could take it easy. Everyone needs a little bit of self-care, isn’t that what they're calling it these days?”

“Self-care? What the hell is that?” Alex asks. “I work over 100 hours a week and if I don't, then I'll have to work 150 hours the next one. Is there even that many in week?”

“So, that's all you do? Work?”

“Yup, pretty much. These three days off would have been the first days that I have taken off since Emma and I met. Wow, I can't believe that it has been that long.”

Our food arrives.

Alex ordered oysters and a lobster tail. He digs into it feverishly as soon as it arrives. I'm not very hungry but the taco salad with avocado and green onions is delicious. It's also huge, much bigger than I thought it would be, taking up almost half the table.

I finish my scotch and order another round. At this point, Alex is on drink number four, but who's counting?

“So, you never told me about how much you were thinking of investing.” Alex brings the conversation back to the basics.

I take a big bite and chew, debating whether I should tell him the truth.

“I have a few investments in real estate but have more liquid investments in the stock market. I think I'd like to allocate… Two million.”

When he hears the amount, he chokes on his food.

I smile at the corner of my lips and take another sip of the smooth and delicious scotch from the top shelf.

“Wait, seriously?” Alex asks after a moment.

I shrug.

“Are you serious?” he asks, putting his hand over my knuckles.

I nod.

“Okay, dude, you totally made it sound like you were just a day trader, not like you had actual serious money.”

I shrug, taking a bite of my salad.

“I'm not sure what you wanted me to-” I start to say, but he puts his finger in my face, shaking his head.

“You showed up at the party dressed, pretty subpar, to be honest.”

“What are you talking about? I was wearing a suit.”

“Oh, come on. I know suits. That one didn't even cost 400 bucks.”

I laugh.

“Are you seriously telling me that you're one of those secretly wealthy guys that just goes around dressing like a normal person?”

I continue to laugh. I find his shock to be purely comical.

“Okay,”