To The Rude Guy in Apartment Five - J. S. Cooper Page 0,45
in the street. That doesn’t bode well for me taking Jagger for a ride and then dissing him.”
“Yeah … maybe it’s not such a good idea. You might catch the feelings.”
“Honestly, I’ve already caught the feelings. Or rather, I guess the feelings never left. I guess that’s what I’m really worried about. I don’t want to sleep with him and then feel even more connected to him.” I sighed. “I can’t go through that emotional upheaval again.”
“I understand, trust me.” Jane sighed. “There’s nothing worse than catching feelings for an idiot.”
“Oh, yeah? I want to hear your story sometime.”
“Sure thing. Maybe we can go for drinks this weekend or something?”
“Sounds good to me. We can invite the girls.”
“I’ll mention it to them today, but I better go. I have some preliminary slogans to share with Tate for our first marketing campaign.”
“Ooh, good luck.”
“Thanks, girl. I’m going to need it. Bye.”
We hung up, and I got back in the queue, trying not to look at the faces of the people in front of me as I realized they had probably heard my entire conversation. I got to the counter, placed my order, and then stood off to the side. Reviewing my notes, I decided that I really had to step up my questions, especially if this silent partner wanted to let go of employees. I didn’t have a contract and I knew that as an at-will employee, I could be let go for any reason and that made me nervous.
They called my order and I grabbed my drink and blondie and headed to a community table where I took a seat next to two elderly ladies. I looked at my note pad, turned the page and grabbed my pen from my bag.
I wrote, “Cool Credit or 800 Club” at the top of the page. “Goal of the app: Teach people of all ages how to have the best credit score possible. Scores above 700 are good and above 800 are great. Only 20% of Americans have a credit score above 800. How many people know their credit scores? How many wait to find out their scores when they want to buy a car or a house? That’s too late!!!”
I stared at my notes. This was all information I’d gathered from our company meetings. I had to go further if I was going to show that I was a valuable asset to the company. Credit scores could be raised by paying off loans and credit cards on time and in full, but everyone knew that. I knew that certain cards gave better benefits than others. But there were already apps and websites that did that and did it well. That wasn’t a way to distinguish ourselves from the pack. I wanted to submit my first blog post as a press release to the financial magazines and blogs, and I wanted it to be picked up and featured, it had to be both unique and helpful to the consumer. This first post would set the tone for the office. The response, good, bad or nonexistent, would let us know how well the app was going to fare once it went live.
I took a bite of my blondie and sighed. I wasn’t coming up with any original ideas, and the books I’d bought were way too dry. I needed to think of something else before tomorrow. And then it struck me: Jagger knew all about finance. He had a business degree and an MBA and I knew he’d worked at a hedge fund for a little bit. I wasn’t sure what he was doing now, but surely he’d have some thoughts. Maybe he’d talk over things with me. Give me some ideas.
I sat back and sighed. Was I just using this as an excuse to contact him? Just this morning, I’d kicked him out of my apartment saying I needed time to think. How was I going to contact him now, not even twelve hours later? But I knew in my heart that I’d already made the decision. I sat there debating what to say when I called him when I noticed one of the older ladies looking at me.
“You all right, dear?” she asked me, her eyes kind as she gazed at me. “You’ve been doing an awful lot of sighing in the last few minutes.”
“Oh, I’m okay. Thanks.” I gave her a wry smile and nodded at my pad. “Work problems.”
“Anything we can help you with?” She nodded at her friend. “We’ve