Talk about your small wonders.
“So?” Cassie pushed her empty plate enough away from her to rest her elbows on the table and clasped her coffee cup between her palms. “How’s it going with the jewelry stuff?”
“Mmm.” Bonnie nodded and swallowed a bite of waffle. “It is sooo cool. Eventually, Mr. Frannelly is going to teach me how to make molds for my designs with his fancy software and a 3D printer, but right now I’m learning how to do simpler stuff with this stuff called precious metal clay. You form it into whatever shape you want, put it in a kiln and then poof—you’ve got jewelry. The heat just melts away the clay and leaves the design.”
“That’s cool,” Evie agreed. “What have you done so far?”
“A few pendants, and a set of earrings. I probably could have done more, but I don’t want to waste the product he brought me, so I’m going slow.”
“We will buy more,” Roman said to his plate rather than the table at large.
“Soon, you will need a storefront,” Kir offered.
“Oh, and pretty cases to display your stuff on,” Cassie said. “And some advertising. Or maybe booths in some of the local art fairs.”
Bonnie put down her fork and held up her hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Y’all are gettin’ waaay ahead of yourself.”
“It is never too early to plan your business.” Sergei leaned back in his chair at the head of the table and rested his forearms on the armrests. “If nothing else, it would be good to capture ideas as they come to you. Better that than to try and remember later.”
“True,” Evie added. “I started doing the same thing when I think of an item we need to carry in one of our clothing lines. If I wait until it’s time to attend a trade fair, it’s harder to remember what we need.”
“Supplies would be good to track, too,” Cassie said.
Kir nodded. “And business training.”
“Eww,” Bonnie said, finally surrendering any hope of cramming more food in her stomach. “Why business training?”
It was Roman who answered, and while his tone was matter-of-fact, it was clear he was warming up to the discussion. “Because, even if you hire out your office duties, you need sufficient knowledge to review their work and confirm they are not stealing from you.”
Oh.
Well, that made sense. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a prayer of remembering any of the stuff they were sharing once the sugar high hit. “Hang on.” She pushed away from the table and headed for the kitchen where she’d left her backpack. “Let me get my computer.”
Thirty minutes later, she had a hell of a list. Everything from training she should consider, to digital storefronts and marketing ideas. She stared at her computer screen, a mix of delight and absolute terror stirring all the food she’d eaten in a slightly disturbing way. “Holy crap. Am I really going to do this?”
“Yes,” Roman said. And it wasn’t just a gentle statement either. More of a pronouncement punctuated with the same finality as a Supreme Court judge.
“Are we done yet?” Emerson asked. With his arms crossed on the table and his chin on his forearms, he looked like he’d just endured an hour-long dissertation on geometric principles.
Bonnie couldn’t blame him. Her head was about to explode, too. “You know what? I think we are.” She looked to Roman. “Got any issue with hanging around long enough for me to decompress with some Minecraft with the big man?”
Roman shook his head. “No. I have updates for Sergei on André’s and need Kir to run background checks on a new employee.”
“Cool.” She winked at Emerson and hit the save button on her Word doc. “Let me save this puppy and we’ll find a good place to chill and do some mining.”
She was just about to close her laptop when an error message fired back at her.
Your disk is almost full.
What the hell?
She tried again and got the same message.
Roman leaned over for a look at the screen. “What is wrong?”
“It says the disk is full and won’t let me save the document.” She glanced up at Cassie then tried again. “This thing was mostly empty when you gave it to me, wasn’t it?”
“I refreshed it,” Kir said. “There were only OS and basic application files. You had a terabyte of free storage.”
The same message popped up.
“Well, apparently, I don’t anymore.”
Kir stood and came around behind her. When a few clicks of the mouse wouldn’t give him what he wanted, he took the whole machine and sat back down at the table. In less than a minute, he stopped typing and frowned, looking up. “Someone’s partitioned the hard drive. The primary was left with almost no storage. The other is completely full of data.”
Sergei uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. “What kind of data?”
Roman stood and rounded the table, planting himself squarely behind Kir.
Kir scanned the screen, his fingers moving wickedly fast atop the keyboard. “Hard to tell for sure, but it looks like...financial data.” His gaze cut to Bonnie. “Where did this come from?”
“I don’t know. The only thing I’ve ever used it for is surfing the web and email. Except for when I tried to do that iMovie thing and almost chucked the whole computer out the window.”
Everyone around the table got eerily silent, waiting for Kir to figure out what the heck was going on.
Olga stepped into the opening and scanned the lot of them. “What is wrong?”
“Uncle Kir is fixing Aunt Bonnie’s computer,” Emerson said. “She broke it.”
“I did not.”
“Well, it’s not working.”
Evette tapped her son on the shoulder. “Emerson, cool it. Give Kir some quiet to work.” She shifted her attention to Olga. “Everything go okay with the men?”
“Yes, all the food is gone.” She held up a phone and looked to Bonnie. “But Miss Bonnie left her phone on the counter. It has been ringing for half an hour.”
“My phone?” She scooted her chair back and hurried to retrieve it. “My phone never rings anymore.”
Before she could wrap her hand around the casing, Roman beat her to it. He thumbed open the screen. “Not a call from your contacts.” Not waiting for any direction or permission from her, he punched the accept button. Whoever was on the other end answered mighty quick because Roman all but barked, “Who is this?”