CHAPTER 16
Carol
One week later
I haven’t talked to Colt or my dad in a week.
And to make matters worse I got fired. They cited the terms of my contract which strictly forbid romantic relationships with clients. As if our romance had much of a chance to even take off. It was obviously a vendetta from Jared. Apparently they’ve already replaced me with a new girl who has bigger boobs, wears tighter clothing, and has lower grades. She reached out to me for advice. She was so excited about her “future” with the company. Weren’t we all?
I search through more job listings. I figured there would be plenty this time of year. I mean, don’t companies do a lot of hiring in January? They’ve got money in the budgets for the year so they start looking in December. Well, apparently they’re not looking for me.
My dad’s not paying my rent anymore so from here on out it has to come from my savings. And if I run out of money it’s not like I can go home anytime soon. At this point I’m not even sure what qualifies as home.
I’m embarrassed, alone, and burning through what little money I do have.
In order to get a job I need a reference, but Jared and Mister Dudley already told me not to expect one from them.
“As per the terms of your employment,” they said over the phone. “As per the terms,” I repeat in an annoyed and derogatory voice.
I’ve barely been sleeping this past week and I can’t start now. I have to keep looking for work.
I go to the kitchen and search for some coffee, but there’s none to be found. Did I really already drink it all? Jeez.
Wait. I have some of those instant three-in-one coffee, creamer, sugar packets in my bag.
I go to my bag and feel around for the packets but can’t find them. “I know they’re in here somewhere,” I say. Great, now I’m taking to myself. When my roomie gets back to start the next semester she’s going to think I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have.
I pull out the stack of paperwork. Oh yeah. I forgot all about that. I guess I won’t need to be finishing this up.
And there the coffee packets are, in the bottom of course.
I make a coffee and settle in on the couch with my laptop in tow. I look at the stack of papers and laugh. What a joke making me do all that work leading up to Christmas. Jerks.
I look a little bit closer at the name on the top. Okay, that’s weird. There’s Colt’s contract right there, not that I even know what it entails.
They never even really showed me how the business worked. Just told me I’d learn in time. Well, I guess the time is now. I might as well learn something from my time there, even if it’s after the fact and it’s self-taught.
I probably shouldn’t be reading this, but I’m curious. Not only that it’s real world experience and I have to be able to draw on something if I finally do land an interview and then get grilled with real world questions.
It looks pretty standard. I start reading through the first few pages. I’ve taken a couple business law courses and even business writing. Maybe I’m just a student without real world experience but by about page four it really starts to change in tone and word choice as it morphs from simple to extremely complex. All the industry-specific wording and references to charts and graphs and appendixes are almost like a maze that leads to nowhere.
I pull out a pen and paper and try to visualize what everything says. Futures contracts are complex but I understand them as that’s my field of study.
I draw a triangle which quickly becomes a rectangle and before I know it there are like ten sides to this thing. It seems like the contracts get bought and sold and packaged and resold…this looks a lot like those credit default swaps that brought the housing and banking sectors to their knees in September of 2008.
Wait a minute.
I read further and suddenly I feel the hair stand up on my arms.
I flip back to the first page and see the big X in the area for Colt’s signature.
Does he even realize what he’s gotten himself into?