“And how much do I owe you for them? I do have some cash here.” The cost she noted was cheap, as far as Ryatt was concerned. “Don’t you guys add a markup for having to go and collect it all?”
She laughed. “No, we sure don’t. Maybe we should. Maybe we shouldn’t.” She gave a wave of her hand. “It’s probably better for all of us if we just keep doing what we’re doing.”
“It’s hard to run a business that way,” he noted, “not capturing all that employee time, plus the gas and the wear and tear on the vehicle, right?”
“Do you know much about running a business?”
He nodded. “I took some business classes in college, and I really enjoyed them. Wanted to do more in that area,” he shared. “But I quit, joined the service, thought I’d go back and finish college after my tours.”
“Aha,” she replied. “So is that what you’ll do when you leave here?”
He frowned at her. “I really don’t know. I always thought about doing some retail sporting goods shops, but not sure I’m necessarily up for it.”
“You could do all kinds of stores that don’t necessarily have to be retail,” she noted.
“Like what?” he asked.
She shrugged. “How about a digital online store?”
“Maybe,” he said. “I don’t know. More things to consider.”
“Well, at least you have the time to think it over.” She added excitedly, “Any time you want to talk about it, I’d love to.”
“Why? You like business?”
“I run a couple online stores,” she shared. “They’ll never make me any self-sustaining money, but I always figured it couldn’t hurt to have something as a secondary income.”
He nodded. “That’s very smart. Too many people never think about what comes after.”
“Exactly. In my world whatcomes afterwas the loss of a mother, a father basically drinking himself to death, and, if I hadn’t been doing what I was doing,” she stated, “he probably would have taken all my money too. As it is, I’m okay, and my father, now that I’ve convinced him to let me handle the money, still has a roof over his head.”
“I gather your father’s still not adjusting to his loss.”
“No, I’m not sure anybody ever really adjusts to their losses,” she noted quietly.
He nodded. “Well, I’m not doing a good job on that myself, so I’m really not somebody to talk.”
She smiled. “Back to that again, huh?” she asked. “You’re doing fine. Just keep doing what you’re doing, and you’d be surprised what you can accomplish, even given a little bit of time. Anytime you want to discuss business, I’m happy to have those conversations. As I told you earlier, I have a marketing background from my previous job, but I also have the practical real-life applications of running my own online businesses too.” Then she checked her watch. “And now I need to get back and finish off too many things before my day’s over.”
He stopped her and suggested, “Well, maybe, one of these days, we could do lunch or something?” Immediately he backtracked. “But, of course, I know you’re really busy. So, I mean, if it doesn’t work, then… you know that’s fine obviously.” He was astonished when he watched a real smile break across her face.
“I’d love that. Thanks. How about lunch tomorrow?”
He stared at her in shock.
“Or did you just mean some time in general?” She flushed.
“No,” he replied quietly. “I’m serious. And I would love to have lunch with you tomorrow.”
She grinned. “It’s a good thing because now I’ve got all kinds of business stuff rattling around in my head.”
He smiled. “I’m not against that kind of conversation. I really do love it.”
“Good, we’ll have lots to talk about.” And, with that, she gave a little finger wave and disappeared.
Ryatt sat here on the edge of his bed, pondering what had just happened. Wasn’t he just thinking about how he was depressed, how he hated the crutches, how none of this rehab was productive? What just happened here?
Shane popped his head around the doorframe almost immediately afterward. “I’m not exactly sure what I just heard,” Shane noted, “but did you set up a date?”