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Luke winced at hearing the words even though he already knew it was coming. What did she mean he wasn’t going to get the funding? How could she already tell? He had the building space all worked out. He’djustshown it to Lydia. She’d loved it. He’d already envisioned how he would set things up. This didn’t make any sense. “I just... Sorry, what?”
“I know that’s not what you wanted to hear from me today,” Mrs. Amisfield began, “but I believe it’s better to get right to the point. I could have submitted your plan and let the rejection come back, and we could have this conversation then, but I don’t like wasting my clients’ time.”
“I appreciate that,” Luke said because he wasn’t sure what else to say. Did he thank her for all her wasted time spent answering his questions? Did he walk away with his head in his hands like he wanted?
“You have the beginnings of a strong application here, but there is some concern about your revenue stream. You say here that you want to provide youth classes and programs free of charge?”
Luke met her eyes. Was that what all this was about?
“It’s admirable, of course,” Mrs. Amisfield said. “But for a brand-new business, just getting off the ground, without a substantial track record, saying the wordsfree of chargemakes banks hesitate.”
“Right,” he said, deflating inside. “I was planning on finding donors to support the youth programming. I think I put that in there.”
“And again, a great idea in theory, but if the donors don’t pull through and you’re running around providing all these free youth classes, who’s paying your staff? Who’s paying for equipment repairs or rentals? Who’s keeping the lights on?”
The more questions she asked, the more Luke started to feel like an absolute idiot. He’d basically arrived at this appointment with a lot of great ideas and not a great plan to execute those ideas.
“The concern is that by focusing on the youth, you won’t have enough regular clientele to be making the money we need you to make in order to give you this loan.”
Luke nodded as she closed the file on her computer screen. He picked up his folder from the desk, tucking it under his arm.
“I’m not going to submit this right now because I’ve been doing this job long enough to know what the answer will be,” Mrs. Amisfield said. “The risk is just too great. But if you come up with a better business model and find a way to minimize that risk, I’ll be happy to take another look.”
“Thank you,” Luke said, struggling to get the words out when all he really wanted to do was toss his business plan into the Hudson. “I really appreciate your time.” He stood, shook her hand, and walked out of the bank without feeling anything. The defeat was too great to even wrap his head around it.
Nothing really sank in until he walked back into Fitness Forum, finding Dara and Jules standing at the front desk. Then the reality of the situation landed in his gut like a load of bricks.
“How’d it go?” Jules asked quietly as he approached.
He mustered something that might have looked like a smile and shrugged off her question. “I’ll get it next time.”
“Your girlfriend was in your office,” Dara said as he shuffled past them and down the hall.
Though he knew Dara was joking, his thoughts immediately went to Lydia. When he opened his office door, on his desk was a piece of paper folded into a card with a four-leaf clover sketched on the front. He opened it and read the note inside.
I know you crushed your meeting. But here’s some luck for you to keep in the bank for next time you need it. P.S. Your office is a disaster.
Lydia had signed her name with a tiny heart. Luke looked around at his office. He still hadn’t bothered to hang his certificates back on the wall or organize his things after the renovations a few months ago. He’d been too busy with his clients and preparing his business plan—preparing to leave Fitness Forum altogether. He supposed he would have nothing but time now.
Luke balled up Lydia’s homemade card and tossed it across the room, the force of his failure burning like acid in his chest.
Thirteen
Lydia
There were a few things Lydia was willing to be late for, and a toasted lox and cream cheese bagel was one of them. It was a farther walk than her usual lunch spot, so she hurried back into the elevator, waiting impatiently for it to spit her out in front of Poletti’s. She wanted to sit for ten minutes and enjoy every last caper before she had to get ready for the firm’s marathon training session. Since she’d completed her long run yesterday with Luke, and was technically doing another run today with the office, on what was usually her rest day, she’d decided to give herself the weekend off.
As she popped out of the elevator, she texted Luke to let him know her plan.I just don’t want to overuse all these excellent muscles I’m building. Also, how did your appointment with the bank go?
That’s probably a good idea if you’re running back-to-back, Luke replied almost instantly.Maybe just do some light cross-training Monday so it’s not three full rest days between now and our next short run.He said nothing about his business plan, so either he was really busy with all his recertification training, or maybe he hadn’t heard anything yet. People always said no news was good news, but how long would the bank take to make a decision about his loan?
Lydia carried on to her office, staggering to a stop when she reached the doorway.
There, on her desk, sat her proposal for the Manhattan Youth Center with a bright red pen mark scratched through the front page. She dropped her tinfoil-wrapped bagel on the desk and flipped the first page of her proposal open just to be sure she wasn’t seeing things.No, this was definitely the proposal she’d handed Jack last week.
It had taken her weeks—no,months—to complete. How could it possibly have passed through every member of the leadership team already?
Lydia skimmed through the pages looking for comments...for notes. Even a little frowny face would have made her feel like someone had actually taken the time to read it. There was nothing but the red pen on the front: a single, straight line, left there like the words and diagrams beneath it meant nothing. She was so shocked, all she could do was stand beside her desk, hugging her arms to her chest like that might contain the all-consuming disappointment that threatened to spill out of her. She hadn’t even noticed that Jack had stopped outside her office door until he spoke.
