“I should have asked what the plan was,” he said, about twenty minutes in, when we’d gotten through the basics. “When Mom and Dad told me about the loan, I was so focused on the business that I didn’t — I didn’t really think through where they were going to live. I assumed they had something.”
“They did have something,” I said. “They had this.”
He looked uncomfortable. “I know. That’s what I’m saying. I should have asked.”
“What does the business actually need in the next six months?” I asked. “Not what you’d like. What it needs.”
He laid it out: the lease payments on the storefront, the initial equipment and inventory, his own living expenses while the business was in the startup phase and income was unpredictable. He had salary from a part-time job at a tech support center to cover his basics. The business loan was for the business. His operating cushion for personal expenses was limited.
“So you can’t contribute to Mom and Dad’s housing,” I said. Not an attack — a question.
“Not right now,” he said. “Maybe in six months.”
“Six months is a long time to not have a plan,” I said.
“I know.”
“The thing is,” I said, “the assumption that I’m the housing plan — that assumption left you off the hook for thinking about this at all. And it left Mom and Dad off the hook too. It’s easier not to plan when there’s an assumed fallback.”
Adam looked at me. He was quiet for a moment. “That’s fair,” he said.