‘W
14
e made a ten-million-dollar investment. We will now recover thirty-six million dollars,’ I
said.
I made my final comments on the last presentation slide. We had invested in City Properties, a
Manhattan real-estate firm gone bust. Fortunately, the property market had improved after our
investment and we tripled our money.
‘Fantastic. We should sell. Now that is what I call a home run,’ Jon said. ‘What a deal! Well
done, Radhika.’
‘Jonathan and Craig guided me through it all,’ I said.
I came back to my seat. I called Debu. I wanted to tell him about Jon’s praise.
‘Hey,’ he said.
‘What’s up?’
‘Just working on a pitch. I don’t think we will get it, though. How about you?’ Debu said.
‘I am at work. Another deal closed.’
‘You called for a reason?’
‘Yeah,’ I said. However, at that moment I didn’t want to tell him my success story. Perhaps it
was better not to share it than to do so and not get an enthusiastic response.
‘What is it?’
‘Well,’ I said and wondered what to say next. Why was I hiding my success from him?
‘I just had a good day at work,’ I said.
‘What? Managed to make more money?’ He laughed.
He was being funny. Still, I didn’t like what he said, or maybe it was just his tone. I ignored
his barb.
‘No just... I don’t know. I just felt good. Grateful for what we have. We should be grateful,
no, Debu? We have so much. We have independence, jobs, health, family, a great city we live in and
love. We have love. It’s a lot to be grateful for, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, baby. We do.’ He sounded like he was about to yawn. ‘That’s sweet. Anyway, I better
go back to my pitch.’
‘Sure. Sorry I disturbed you.’
‘Bye, baby,’ he said and hung up.
I went back to my screen.
‘Killed it.’ Craig came to my desk and high-fived me.
‘Don’t we always?’ I winked at him.