“No worries. I’m going to walk around. We can talk about it tomorrow at work,” I winked. “Take care of yourself.”
Chapter Two
Brandon
“How on earth are you going to get that painting into your house?” Josh asked as we left the art show.
“That’s a good question. I’m not sure. Maybe take the sliding glass doors off from the back deck?”
“What I would give to be so rich that I could buy paintings that don’t fit through doors. You know, it is really odd that you would spend that much money on that. Is that a lot of money to you? I mean, I don’t think you and I have the same view of what a lot equals.”
“Oh, come on, Josh, you know it’s a lot to me. Don’t you remember how I freaked out that first day you were teaching me how to trade stocks?” I laughed at the memory. “When I lost all my money on one trade because I was being stupid?”
Joshua was a day trading expert and made his money at home while he followed the latest stock trends. I had managed to convince him to teach me privately, since day trading wasn’t exactly a class you could take, and I was getting bored.
He was really good at what he did. We’d met a few years before at a friend’s party and I remember thinking that his job was the coolest. At the time, I was neck deep in my own company and working every waking moment. I traveled more than I was home and had just signed the paperwork for my divorce. Josh’s life seemed like paradise.
He talked about waking up whenever he wanted and spending the day watching the news and sometimes buying stocks. Other days, he just took notes and didn’t buy anything at all. If I had known about stocks and investing when I was younger, I was sure I would have picked that as a career. It sounded interesting and much more fun than the manufacturing business I had been running.
“Brandon, you just sold your business for, like, a billion dollars; losing five hundred dollars in a trade is nothing to you.”
“Five hundred dollars is a lot of money,” I protested. “Just because I can replace it easily doesn’t mean I don’t value it.”
“Maybe if you weren’t a billionaire, we could continue with this argument. For now, I think I’m going to claim that five hundred dollars isn’t a lot to you,” Josh laughed. “Where are we going now?” he asked as we loaded into an Uber.
“I’d like to follow that hot blonde we saw back there, but since that isn’t an option, let’s find a club and chill for a bit.”
“That girl looked like a real-life man eater,” Josh laughed. “Did you see how she looked at that guy when he grabbed her arm? I thought we might have to rescue him from her if he hadn’t let go when he did.”
“He seemed like a chump, for sure.”
The air was crisp for a summer night, much cooler than we were used to in Los Angeles, but probably not cold compared to what others in the country dealt with on a normal basis. Our driver zipped through the streets and pulled up in front of Avalon, a hip, new dance club.
“Let me do the talking as we go in here. We don’t want a repeat of what happened last time,” I said as we made our way past the line to get inside.
“Hey, I thought a tip would help.”
“Tips are out. You have to know people to get into the clubs. Or at least, they have to know you. We don’t live in the two thousands anymore,” I stepped in front of Josh as we went straight up to the bouncer who guarded the front of the club.
“Yeah, yeah. I think you could flash a smile and get us into any of these clubs. They’ll let you in just because you’re good looking. And if you show your identification, we’ll get a VIP table, for sure.”
“That’s only because they want me to spend thousands of dollars. The clubs obviously don’t understand how frugal I am.”
“Frugal,” Josh laughed. “Like the million dollars you just spent for a painting? Yep, that’s my friend. Frugal Brandon.” He made a dramatic motion with his arms as he pointed me out to the ladies in the line. “Hey, ladies, this is my millionaire friend Frugal Brandon; come find him when you get inside.”
“Very funny – and technically, I’m a billionaire now.”
Josh continued to laugh as we made our way in and the owner placed us at a VIP table. Although I wasn’t interested in spending a ton of money, I couldn’t exactly turn down the best table in the house. At least a nice VIP spot was helpful in getting the ladies to come visit with us so we didn’t have to roam the dance floor looking for them.
Despite spending so much money on the painting, I really didn’t like spending money all that much. Only when something was really important to me did I fork out enormous amounts of money, otherwise I felt like I lived a pretty normal life. Okay, maybe not a “normal” life like other people would live, but I wasn’t out buying Ferraris or taking private jets each weekend. When I flew on a private jet, it was through my JetCard, and only for very special occasions.
“It was a really expensive painting. But I get if it was important to you and you wanted it, that’s cool. It’s your money, man.”
“Like I said in the gallery, it reminds me of my son.”
“I’m sorry; I was just joking. It’s got to be hard not having him around.”
“Well, let’s get this conversation out of our sadness hole and onto the hot ladies in the club,” I quickly said as I felt myself getting choked up.