Jessica arrived home just in time for dinner.
"How was the temple?"
"Crowded, despite still being a shell of its old beauty. There is still much to rebuild. The new Prima droned on about bringing back the worship of Falak, the original dragon god king and all this nonsense. He was talking about the plans to make the new worship site better than ever before and thus asking for donations. We didn't stick around long once Kelan showed up and started talking to him."
"Kelan was there?"
"Yea, it seems he is rather friendly with our new local abbot. This one seems to have been sent here from... Velyki? I don't know. Thankfully Nyman was able to run interference and we left." Jessica paused as she said the last, but quickly moved to put stuff in her room.
"Nyman ran interference, meaning Nyman was there with you and Cynthia?"
"Well, yes. The Banks family is very religious as well," hedged Jessica.
"Right... Jess, can we talk about us?"
"What about us, Conor?"
"I know last week was rough for us both. Can we please try to start fresh this month? I know you are stressed about the finances and now I know what we are up against. I also have plans to get us out of this situation. Some of my long-term investments should be able to help ease our situation, at least a little. I know we never had much but I should be able to get the 4000 dragons this month, and hopefully before the very last day of the month now that I am planning for it. Please Jess. Work with me." Conor walked over and sat beside Jessica on the couch, gently taking her hands in his, almost afraid she might object.
Jessica looked hard at Conor, assessing. Finally, he saw her sigh and relax. "You are trying hard. I don't know that it will be enough, but you are trying. I was able to pay this month's bills with my savings but, Conor... I am drained. It's been three years since you brought home a solid paycheck. Things were at least manageable when you were working for Father at the GrizlHut but you even got fired from that. Make this work with Jackson's or... I don't know Conor. I just don't know."
"Jess, I will make this work. Just, stick with me, ok? No more park benches, ok?"
"Conor," Jessica took a long moment before responding, "I want to believe you, but You have not given me much reason to. Prove me wrong this month, and I will be impressed. Maybe we will see where things go from there. But, Conor, don't embarrass me like that again. If you can't even provide for us this time, or go a month without embarrassing me or my family, we are done. Understand?" With that, she stood and went to her room.
***
Monday
Jackson's Furniture was slow throughout the morning. Around noon, Conor took a lunch break. As he bit into a peanut butter sandwich, his phone rang.
"Mr. Brantley? This is Abby Wiess from Mr. Nuri's office. I told you I would call with updated numbers. Is now a good time."
Conor set down his lunch and pulled out a small note pad from his pocket. He had learned early in his business life that carrying one was essential because new ideas always came up when you didn't have a way to track them. "As good as any. Go ahead."
"Well sir, I want to start by apologizing. When we set up your initial investments, I was very excited and after the things Mr. Nuri told me, so I wasn't expecting to need cash on hand so soon. Please forgive my oversight, I promise it will not happen again."
"I managed, Abby, but moving forward, there is actually a solution I would like Mr. Nuri to address for me. I would like to have an umbrella company formed for all my future investments to fall under. He can list each of you as the appropriate managers so you can sign paperwork when I need it taken care of, but that way, I can collect a regular paycheck from that parent company instead of trying to juggle various investment payouts. Call it... Vokrizin."
"Why, yes, of course! This makes perfect sense! I will be sure to notify him right away! That would actually make our jobs much easier. In the short term though, I can let you know that at present, the spice income is averaging around 4000 copper dragons per month, and increasing at approximately a 5% rate as new locations pick up the product. Mr. Nuri has also sent a sample to our main headquarters in the capital so that might expand more as well!"
"That is fantastic news!"
"Also, the contract with NewAge Games should be finalized by the end of this week. Mr. Nuri has each of us reviewing the documents for the fifth time just to be sure on it. If everything goes according to plan, NewAge should deposit your portion to our accounts by the end of next week."
"Brilliant. Please leave half in liquid asset so we can have it on hand if new opportunities present, but the other half hold in a business account for investing opportunities and operational costs."
"Of course, Mr. Brantley. Finally, AperturePhoto is doing quite well from all reports. third-quarter earnings are already showing that Mr. Miros had been managing the business extremely well and landed some very prominent contracts. For his own portion, he is reinvesting almost 90% of the profits back into the company and it seems to be paying exponential returns."
"For now, let's try to match that. please make sure that we are maintaining a 10% minimum to Celia's blessing across the board. As for myself, if you could please set up a weekly paycheck for around 900 copper dragons I believe that would be sufficient to see to my needs."
"That should be very doable with everything we have scheduled. Is there anything else I can address today?"
"No, please just have Mr. Nuri send me whatever paperwork he needs to start Vokrizin."
"Of course, Mr. Brantley. Have a great day."