Chapter 28
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were given over to university classes and studies.
Colin did away with the previous term’s haphazard manner.
He was there to learn, the opportunity was a gift, he needed to be responsible.
… All the adult arguments finally began to make sense.
Colin found himself often thinking of Lenny on those days.
Especially when he took time to do almost nothing.
Sitting under a tree in one of the university quads, wandering through the library stacks, lingering in a student café, listening to the talk swirl about him, pretending to be busy working a problem.
All the things Lenny had yearned for. Colin often lifted his cup to the memory of his departed friend.
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays started with a long, hard swim, then were given over to the growing fund. He continued to make new investments, closing off positions whenever his analysis reached the critical juncture.
Arnold and Sandrine had invested some of their retirement savings.
Through them, the college endowment inserted what they called a modest amount.
All of Roland’s partners and most of the firm’s support staff were involved.
Ditto for the firm where Ethan worked. A number of Mira’s and Lucas’s friends at school were putting in every dime they could scrape together. Counting on him.
Just after Thanksgiving, Colin’s personal take passed the million-dollar mark.
He didn’t tell anyone. He assumed Roland and Aaron both knew, though neither said a word.
After that summer’s five thousand–dollar cash injection, Colin had taken nothing more.
He spent money on clothes, Uber, the occasional meal, the coffee shops, cinema.
Otherwise, the numbers alongside his name meant very little.
Symbols on a screen. For Colin, the most important reward came from having gotten this concept very right.
The pressure was still there, the tension highest just before he called Lucretia and gave new instructions.
But alongside the constant sense of walking the financial tightrope, Colin also felt a growing calm. He knew he was good at this.
Then the second week in December, everything changed.