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“You don’t sound like it.”
“I’m very good at my job.”
“Of course you are.”
What does that mean?
“But being good at something doesn’t necessarily mean you enjoy it,” Jason continued. “I quit my last job because, even though I excelled, I grew to hate everything about it.”
“I’m mostly a financial planner. I help people manage their finances. Make smart investments. Give them the assurance that they’ll be safe and secure in their retirement. It’s rewarding.”
“Low-risk investments?”
The way he said it raised my hackles. “There’s nothing wrong with being cautious, especially with money.”
“Life is all about risks.”
“Life is aboutliving.”
“But if you don’t take risks, are you really living? Or just counting the days until you die?”
I frowned. “Taking risks with money, mine or my clients’, is as foolish as hang gliding off a mountain.”
“What about your clients? Don’t they push you to expand their portfolios? Bet on a new venture? A company that might explode and be the next Apple or Amazon?”
“There’s a far greater chance that new ventures will implode,” I said. “Costing my clients their hard-earned money and control over their future.”
“Not everything is about security.”
Now I was mad.
“My dad worked his ass off his entire life because my grandmother had no concept of saving for a rainy day,” I snapped.
“You don’t like your grandma?” He looked at me as if I had just kicked a puppy.
“I love her,” I said, surprised that he would think that. “You’d never know she was seventy-five, doesn’t look or act it. Always the life of the party—she’d be dancing there with Brie right now. Has amazing stories from her Bohemian lifestyle. Literally traveled across Europe when she was twenty-one.”
“She sounds like a blast.”
He said it as if that was the opposite of me. My grandmawasmy opposite, but it rubbed me wrong, the way he said it, the unspoken criticism of my life choices. “Then when I was fifteen,my dad died. She sold the family house and took me traveling the world for six months.”
“What an amazing experience.”
“Sure, it was fun. We went everywhere I wanted. Saw the pyramids in Egypt. Went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Lived on the beach in New Zealand for two weeks and took an Alaskan cruise. But when we got back to Connecticut? No place to live and no money in the bank. She’d spent every dime from selling the house for a six-month trip around the world. We barely made it, surviving because I budgeted my very small inheritance to make it last, and Social Security payments from my dad’s death, and worked through high school. The only reason I could go to college was that my dad had set up my college fund the day I was born and contributed to it every month,andI got a scholarship. I realized then that it’s all fun and wonderful to do whatever you want whenever you want, but someone has to pay for it in the end. I make sure my clients are safe and secure for their future, so they don’t have to worry about their mortgage or living expenses. That’s my job, and I’mverygood at it.”
“But you’re here,” he said with a shrug as if he hadn’t listened to a word I’d said. “St. Claire isn’t known for attracting the frugal-minded, so you must have a wild streak in you.”
“I’m here because my boss made me come. My five-year work anniversary just happens to coincide with my birthday on Thursday, so this trip was my bonus. Believe me, I asked for the money to put in my retirement instead. He said no.”
Jason looked at me in shock. “You’d rather take the money to use in forty years than enjoy a week at an all-inclusive resort on the most beautiful island in the Caribbean?”
“Yes. This—” I waved my hand to encompass the whole decadent island “—is not practical.” As I said it, I believed it... yet I loved this island. I would never admitthatto Jason.
“Don’t you have a dream?”
“Don’t you?” I snapped. “Or did you always want to be a bartender?”
I regretted the words as soon as they slipped out. I didn’t realize I sounded so mean, that Jason’s comments about my life had made me so defensive.