Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
“Heh,” I said, openly laughing at the image of Mr. Business Clark Kent putting on a green apron and a nametag and wandering around the store aimlessly. He looked incredibly successful, and the way he carried himself seemed to solidify it. I wondered if he had even bought his own groceries in twenty years or if he had a personal shopper to do it for him.
Or a wife.
I didn’t see a ring though. Not that I was looking. Certainly not looking.
“I will be an active owner,” he said. “But I think you got a raw deal. If you have been working here this entire time and you actively wanted the ownership, then it is my opinion that the board not only sold you out, but also sold me a false bill of goods. I was coming into this investment with the belief that I was going to be received as a partner, not an enemy. I am just as angry at the board as you are.”
“You have no earthly idea how angry I am at the board,” I countered. “You couldn’t. It’s impossible. They betrayed me and my family in a way that can never be quantified by the English language. And forgive me if I have a hard time believing a successful businessman like yourself would have no idea what he was getting into by buying this place. You mean to tell me you didn’t talk to the board about me? That you didn’t scout the location or talk to customers or anything like that? Because just the bare modicum of research would have told you that I have been here for years, and I planned on staying here until I could pass it down to my children as everyone who’s come before me has done. This is my legacy. My family. My reputation. And you can go to hell.”
I wasn’t entirely sure what I said made complete sense, but at that moment, I didn’t care. It felt good.
As I stormed to the door, Amy appeared in my vision. She was such a sweet girl that I hated the thought of her getting caught in the crossfire. But she was stepping in the path of a dragon. She was bound to get burned.
“Mel, I have a customer at register four, he—” she began.
“I’m off,” I said, cutting her off. “Let Mr. McLaren handle it. Sink or swim.”
I didn’t even pause my stride as I headed right out of the front door. I left my purse inside the office, but I had my keys in my pocket, thankfully. I could come back for the purse. Making the point was far more important.
I got in my car, revved the engine, and pulled out onto Patterson, heading for home.
5
VICTOR
Well, that was… something.
First off, I was angry that apparently the board had pulled a fast one on not only Melanie but me too. They’d put me into a hostile situation, and it was wildly unethical. But for that, as she so eloquently pointed out, I had only myself to blame. I should have done the kind of research and investigation that I would have done for any of my clients that were looking to invest. The fact that I didn’t was an embarrassment that I could only chalk up to the fog of divorce and my desire to have something fall into place that was easy.
Though the person who got screwed over the most was Melanie. It was hard not to feel bad for her. She had every right to be angry, and I planned on taking that up with Chuck the next time I talked to him.
She had brought up some good points. As a person who had been working at the store for years, she knew far more about how it operates, and no suit nor any board member could deny that. She was a wealth of information about what would need to be done to help the store as well as what works well as of currently. If only someone would listen to her and be willing to do something about it.
I had heard this refrain time and time again in fledgling and failing businesses. The people on the ground knew what needed to be done but were hamstrung by people who worked at a corporate office and thought all things should fit in the same size boxes. An idea was only worth implementing if it was something that could be done company wide.
And in my experience, every time that top-down philosophy was held on to by middle management and executives who knew their only contribution was exerting power for the sake of power’s exertion, those companies suffered. It was the workers who had the ideas that helped, every time. I had no intention of pretending my ideas were better than Melanie’s or anyone else who worked at Brewer’s Grocery just on the merit that they were mine.