"That condescending finance thing where anyone who doesn't give you a spreadsheet is fake."
I closed my book.
"I didn't say he was fake. I asked what he does."
Sarah walked toward the bedroom.
"He has vision. That's what he does."
The phrase irritated me more than it should have. Not because I was jealous yet. Because it was the first time Sarah used another man as a measuring stick for me. Over the next month, Jared's name appeared everywhere. Jared thinks this brand is underpaying.
Jared says I need to position higher. Jared says my content feels too safe. Jared thinks I should stop taking advice from people who don't understand creator economics. The last one was not subtle. I asked Sarah whether Jared knew anything about our finances.
"Why would he?"
"Because his opinions seem to reach them frequently."
She rolled her eyes.
"You're threatened by him."
"I don't know him well enough to be threatened."
"Exactly. You don't even try."
I met Jared for the first time at a restaurant two weeks later. He arrived twenty minutes late wearing a navy suit with no tie, a watch large enough to catch light from three tables away, and the expression of a man entering a room he assumed had been waiting for him. He apologized without sounding sorry and placed the key to a Lamborghini on the table before he sat down. Sarah noticed me notice it.
"Nice, right?"
Jared smiled.
"Reward for momentum."
I asked what model year it was. He laughed.
"Man, you're one of those details guys, huh?"
"Occupational hazard."
Dinner went downhill from there. Jared talked about capital as if he personally invented it. He mentioned people by first name who I suspected he barely knew. He described debt as leverage when it financed his lifestyle and fear when it financed anyone else's. At one point he asked what I did.
"Risk consulting."
"Corporate?"
"Mostly."
He nodded sympathetically.
"Golden handcuffs."
"They feel more like health insurance and a salary."
Sarah sighed. Jared grinned.
"See, that's the difference. You're built for preservation. Sarah's built for expansion. Neither is wrong. Different operating systems."
It sounded generous until I realized he had just categorized me as useful but limited. Sarah loved it. On the ride home, she stared out the window for several minutes. Then she said, "He gets it."
"Gets what?"