Page 8 of Real Forever
“Hi, Madison.” The muscles in Jake’s legs vibrated as he caught her eyes, a luminescent blend of blue and green, soulful, and playful all at once. Mesmerized, he reached his hand out to her and when she took it, the warmth of her skin sped through his veins like heroin.
He noticed a slight pink blush in her cheeks as she smiled and responded, “Hi.”
Lingering a little too long in the handshake, he felt Lauren giving him an awkward side eye glance.Shit. Get it together, man. This is unprofessional, not to mention ridiculous.He had a strict no-dating policy, and an even stricter no-dating-the-clients policy. There was no way in hell this goddess of a woman would ever consider dating a guy like him, anyway.
Jake cleared his throat. “So, Lauren,” he said, sitting down behind the desk, “why don’t you tell me what brings you to the office today?”
Listening while Lauren explained the events that lead to her current financial predicament, he made fastidious notes on his plain legal pad, and requested clarification or further detail when needed. He only caught himself stealing glances at Madison four, maybe five times. Okay, fine—six.
Once Lauren had given him the entire story, he set his pen down and gave her an empathetic smile. “Thank you for taking the time to explain everything, Lauren. I know it’s stressful to chat about these things, and I appreciate your willingness to share this with me.”
Lauren’s posture relaxed, and she sunk back a little in her chair. “Thanks. It has been pretty stressful. I just feel like such a failure, you know?”
Jake nodded. “I understand, but you need to know you aren’t a failure. Your story is very common. NorAsana and other multi-level marketing companies set you up to fail. That’s why they call them pyramid schemes, right? Only a slim margin at the top can succeed. Did you know, statistically, you’re more likely to make money gambling in Las Vegas than signing up to sell for an MLM company?”
“What?” Lauren cocked her head. “No. That can’t be right.”
“They’ll never tell you though. They want you to think success is right within your reach. NorAsana is one of the worst offenders. For example, did anyone at NorAsana ever encourage you to take on more debt to finance your business?” Jake asked.
Lauren paused for a moment before responding. “I guess so. We had these Wednesday Zoom meetings with Tammy, or sometimes with this guy Josh who does marketing, and they would give us these tips for financing our businesses and sometimes they’d suggest opening another credit card or getting a loan against the equity in your house as good options.”
Jake rolled his eyes and turned his nose up. “See, that’s what I mean, Lauren. You can’t be too hard on yourself. These companies do that. They find the three M’s and they do whatever it takes to squeeze every dollar from them.”
“Three M’s?” Lauren asked.
Jake winced. “Sorry. Moms, Mormons, and Military Wives. MLM companies like NorAsana target women in these demographics because they’re often looking for opportunities to work from home, plus they’re very savvy with social media, which is how they get more women signed up under them.”
Lauren lowered her head and began to tear up. “How did I not see this coming? I believed I could build my business on hustle. As long as I worked hard, it was all there. I’m so stupid.”
Jake leaned in and softened his voice. “You believed it because they pressured you to believe it. They give everyone the same propaganda about hustle and putting in the work. If they can make you believe your success is in your hands, it makes it easier for them to convince you your failure was all in your hands as well. Lauren, remember this is a huge, very well-funded machine you were up against. It’s understandable you believed it, and you worked so hard for it.”
Madison reached for her sister’s hand. “Laur, this is not your fucking fault. Those NorAsana fuckwads knew exactly what they were doing. They took advantage of you and all those other women.”
Jake stifled a grin at Madison’s spicy choice of language. “I know this is tough. But we’re going to get you on a path out of this, okay?”
Lauren nodded her head, and Madison lifted her eyes to Jake and smiled, her face filled with gratitude. Her smile made concentrating on the rest of the meeting nearly impossible for Jake. The image of Madison’s plump, pink lips hung in the center of his vision, hijacking his focus while he printed Lauren’s forms from his computer.
“We’ve got two options here, Lauren.” Jake took the stack of papers off the printer and began separating and paper clipping sections together. “The first is to claim bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is the legal process you can follow when you cannot pay your debts. The court would take some or all of your assets to help pay your lenders what you owe. The second option is a consumer proposal. In a proposal, you keep your assets, and your lender agrees to accept a smaller amount, likely somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty, thirty-five percent of what you owe. They agree to this because it’s more than they would receive if you were to claim bankruptcy. You would make payments once a month for five years. The payment amount is based on what you can afford and what the lenders will accept. It wouldn’t change for the full term of the proposal.”
Lauren gave a hesitant nod. “Okay. So, which one should I do?
Jake slid the stack of organized papers across the desk. “Well, I can help you figure it out. First, I’m going to send you home with some information to read through.” He tapped the stack. “It will explain both options in more detail and explain the impact to your credit rating either of these steps would have. I’m also going to send some forms for you to complete. It’s a lot of information, Lauren, but I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. You can complete them as well as you can and I’ll help you with whatever you don’t get done, okay?”
Lauren nodded again.
“These forms give me your full financial picture and allow me to figure out which options might work best for you, and what the details of each scenario might be. I’ll give you a week to go through this, and then we’ll make another appointment to go through it all together. How does that sound?”
“Okay.” Lauren picked up the stack of papers and shuffled through them. “Yeah, it sounds good.” She trailed off and frowned at the pile of documents. “Thanks. Sorry, it’s all so overwhelming.”
Once Jake had explained the next steps to Lauren and booked her second meeting for the following week, he stood up to escort the sisters out.
Lauren reached out to shake his hand again. “Thank you so much, Jake. You’ve been a total lifesaver today. I swear, I’m not usually this much of a disaster.” She laughed softly.
Jake smiled. “It was nice meeting you, Lauren. And thank you for coming in to meet with me.” His throat constricted and his eyes dilated as he turned to Madison. “And it was a pleasure meeting you as well, Madison.”
5
Madison
