Nothing Personal: A Novel of Wall Street by Offit Mike

Author:Offit, Mike [Offit, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2014-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

twenty-six

It had been a long time since Warren had been in Los Angeles. His father had taken him there once when he was twelve years old. They had stayed in an oversize Mediterranean-style villa in Bel Air, the home of Marissa George. Her daughter was a promising junior, and Ken Hament had developed a reputation for working with younger girls. The tennis court was carved into the side of a hill, and a swimming pool was cantilevered over a sheer drop. Warren had spent the day like a movie mogul, sunning by the pool while his father pounded balls with Kelsey.

After three days, the fifteen-year-old had asked Warren if he played. His father had given him strict instructions to stay off the court with her, but she had started teasing him. Finally, after two hours of her insulting Eastern tennis and explaining how she could beat both of her brothers, Warren asked her if she’d ever played against boys her age. She had not.

“Well, if you had, you’d know by now that no girl can beat even a lousy guy.” Warren had put all the condescension a twelve-year-old could muster into the comment. It led to an unrefusable challenge, a match, and Kelsey in tears, her confidence shot and the Haments’ California vacation cut short. Ken had taken Warren to Disneyland anyway, which Warren had hated.

“Time passes, and every generation gets stronger and better,” Ken said. “If I ever catch you being mean to a girl again, I will smack you silly.” He was right. Warren doubted if he would stand a chance against the tiny but powerful teenagers on the women’s tour now. The memory caused him a pang of regret for what he’d said to Larisa. She was working so hard, and he took her for granted, he concluded. Relationships between two fully engaged people were not exactly easy. It had to be harder for an attractive woman, with men undoubtedly hitting on her all the time. When she’d come home from Texas, she had tried to patch things up, but he was convinced she had been lying to him. He just couldn’t get past it. They had drifted apart, and he could feel her anger whenever he saw her in the office. He was anxious for a chance to get away, and it came quickly.

Weldon Brothers sponsored an annual outing at Pebble Beach for some of its best clients. Warren had invited John Conklin from Wisconsin, and the two senior investment managers from Warner Savings, the large savings and loan Warren had been assigned when he started selling.

Warner had grown from a $300 million institution in LA that no one on Wall Street cared about, to one of the four largest savings and loans in California, at $11 billion in assets, in just a few years. Most of this growth had come about by selling certificates of deposit to their customers, and that money had been invested largely in junk bonds and mortgage-backed securities. Two men, Karlheinz Beker and Pete Largeman, were in charge of picking how the money was put to work.

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