John reached across the table and wrapped his hand gently around Jennifer's hand. "Hey, I don't mind. It's okay, you obviously needed to get that out. We all need to let stuff out every once in a while. What's funny is even though we've just met, I feel like we've been friends for a very long time, strange huh?"
"Not strange at all. When I met you at the house for dinner you weren't like any of the business people Michael usually brings home, I felt as if we were friends already too. I can't remember meeting anyone who I felt that way with. It feels good though, it's a shame all our new acquaintances can't feel this way."
"I agree it's nice to feel comfortable with someone. I know far too many people that I feel the opposite with, some I've even known and been close friends with for years. They're nice people and all, but I always feel I have to watch what I say and do around them and I can't be myself. I never quite got to the inner circle with them.
"What did you do before you joined Michaels Company?"
"I co-owned a business for about six years and just recently had to close it down. We ran out of operating capital and owed every supplier large sums of money."
"Oh, that's a shame. What happened, was it the bad economy?"
"The economy may have contributed a little, but mainly it was a bad partner. I started the business with what was a friend at the time. He took care of the business end and I took care of the technical end. I had received general P&L statements every month from the day we started. We never seemed to get ahead. After about a year, our suppliers stopped extending credit to us and put us on C.O.D, we weren't even keeping payments going to them. My partner said it was that we were in a long startup mode. Several years into it I asked for a detailed P&L including everything from day one to see if there was something I could see to help us. What I actually found out was that my partner was using company money to pay for his several thousand dollar a month house payment each month, he repaired his personal car for a little under six thousand dollars and was constantly using the company debit card to purchase personal medicines, dinners and lunches, these were not with our clients mind you. He even had the nerve to have the company pay for an inflatable jumping playhouse rental for his daughter's birthday party. That's why we weren't growing. He was spending all of the money that should have gone to grow and establish our business." John paused for a second and shook his head. "Now I'm sorry, you asked a simple question and I got carried away. And I'm sure you didn't want to hear about all of that. Forgive me."