Page 23 of February (New Orleans #2)

B ridgette hadn’t heard that right.

“They did what ?” she asked as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

“They called my dad. I promise, I told my dad that I thought we shouldn’t–”

“Mon, I believe you. I don’t think you did anything to bring this on.” Bridgette looked down at the comforter. “My dad really just called your dad and said he wanted to sell and do it now?”

“Apparently, there was an increase in benefits.”

“Yeah, that tends to happen once a year. They didn’t plan for that? God,” she said as she flopped back onto the bed. “How are they so bad at this? They’ve owned this company for years. They didn’t anticipate the increase in benefits costs? It literally happens every year, and the company usually absorbs the difference in cost for the employees.”

“I guess there are quarterly bonuses that they can’t pay out if they do that.”

“I’ve told them, like, ten times to make the bonuses annual and performance-based, not just basically a guarantee and done quarterly. Giving them to everyone, regardless of how they perform or what the company can afford to do, just makes it a bigger paycheck once a quarter, but it is essentially a guarantee. Why don’t they listen to me?”

“I don’t know, babe,” Monica said.

“What is your dad going to do?”

“I asked him for the day. I think we should meet with your parents, and I think you need to tell them about your ideas.”

“It’s still their company,” Bridgette replied. “They’re just going to ignore me how they always do, anyway.”

“But you have to try, right?” Monica asked as she moved over to Bridgette’s side and lay down next to her. “Babe, you have to try.”

“They want to sell it. Just let them. I can’t keep trying. You just got here, so you haven’t seen me try for years with them. I’m tired, Monica.” Then, to Bridgette’s surprise, Monica moved again until she was straddling her. “Well, hello,” she said as she slid her hands up Monica’s thighs. “God, you’re hot up there.”

Monica rolled her eyes at her and placed her hands on her stomach, under Bridgette’s shirt.

“You are not just giving up. That’s not you. You need to go in there and tell them that they’re making a mistake; that you can help them figure this out, but they have to let you. You need to explain your ideas and be firm. Tell them that you’re not taking no for an answer. Admonish them for their awful decisions, if you want, or let them know you’ll take care of the business they built, but you can’t just let it go. That’s not you, Bridge. I know you well enough to know that much. And nothing is official yet. My dad says the lawyers are ready, but I can hold them off if I have to. I’m here to help, or I can stay out of your way. Whatever you need, okay?”

“I don’t know how to do that. You know I’ve tried, and I’m not exactly a wallflower about it. I’ve been firm in the past. I’ve told them over and over again that things need to change. They just didn’t want to listen.”

“Then, today, you make them listen. This is too important for them not to listen to you, so you’ll make them listen.”

“You’ll be there?” Bridgette asked.

“Yes. But you don’t need me. You’re going to do this yourself. Let’s get you up now and into that shower you pretend to not know how to use.”

Bridgette smiled up at her and said, “I think I’ll just go home and use my own. I’ll meet you at the office, okay?”

“Oh, no, you won’t,” Monica said as she hovered over her. “Don’t lose that sexy swagger now.”

“Sexy swagger?” Bridgette chuckled while she moved her hands under Monica’s shirt over her back.

“Yes, you have sexy swagger. Don’t lose it now.”

“Well, I doubt my parents consider my swagger sexy,” Bridgette suggested.

“ I do, and they shouldn’t. They can think of it as your confidence, but you need to walk into that office and tell them what they need to hear, Bridge. They need you to step up now and save this company.”

“It would be easier for them just to–”

Monica connected their lips before she could finish her sentence, but Bridgette really didn’t mind. Monica’s lips could be on hers whenever she wanted, for all Bridgette cared. She held Monica closer as they kissed, and her mind calmed. No longer was she thinking about her parents’ company but of how good it felt to kiss Monica and how they could stay in bed all day today, exploring one another for the first time.

“We could call in sick,” she suggested when Monica pulled back for a second.

“No, we can’t,” Monica replied before she pecked her lips again. “Now, get in the shower. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Really? That sounds like the best way to start the day. But you can be in front of me, too.”

“Sexy swagger,” Monica said as she climbed off of her.

◆◆◆

Bridgette pushed at the outer office door and rounded the corner with Monica on her heels.

“Mom, Dad, conference room. Now.”

“Uh…” Dan looked up at her. “They’re not here.”

“Oh,” she let out. “Damn. I thought that was good.”

Monica chuckled and said, “Very assertive.”

“Shut up.” Bridgette smiled at her.

Then, she saw the office door open behind her, and her parents walked through it.

“Mom, Dad, conference room.”

Monica winked at her and moved aside.

“Good morning, honey. What did you say?” her mom asked.

“Conference room. I need to talk to you both.”

“We need to talk to you, too. Let’s go into the office,” her dad said.

“Nope. Conference room,” she stated, and not waiting for a response, she carried her bag into the room, dropped it onto the table, and stood there, waiting for them.

“This is Monica’s office while she’s here. We–”

“It’s fine. I’ll sit at Bridgette’s desk for now,” Monica interrupted.

“Okay. Well, let’s go into the conference room,” Bridgette’s dad said.

Her parents took their time dropping their things off in the office, which meant Bridgette was starting to lose her nerve. She’d been working out what to say and building her confidence the whole way into the office, but with every second her parents wasted, she felt herself losing it. She looked out at Monica, who smiled at her and mouthed, ‘You’ve got this,’ at her. Bridgette wasn’t completely sure about that, but she’d try.

“Honey, we need to–” her dad started.

“No, please, let me go first. I need to get this off my chest,” she interrupted. “Sit.”

Her parents turned toward each other, looking confused, but then they sat down anyway.

“I know you called Arnette.”

“You know? How?”

“Monica told me.”

“She did?”

“Yes, this morning.” Bridgette wasn’t sure if she should reveal exactly how Monica had told her, given that they’d been in her hotel room. “We met for coffee.”

That wasn’t entirely a lie since they had shared coffee that morning, so she went with it.

“Well, that’s what we wanted to talk to you about.”

“I know, Dad. But you need to let me talk first.” She sighed. “You should’ve anticipated the cost for the benefits. It happens literally every single year: they go up. We try not to pass the additional cost onto the employees. Why didn’t you plan for that?”

“Our broker assured us there wouldn’t be a sizeable increase this year,” her mother replied.

“Well, that was stupid of him, and you shouldn’t have believed him. If the cost is too high for the company to take on, you either lower or drop the bonuses altogether, or you have to pass the increase onto the employees; even if it’s just this year because we’re trying to stay in business.”

“Selling is the better option.”

“No, it’s not. And I’m tired of you not listening to me,” she said. “You don’t tell me what’s actually going on with the business until it’s too late; you don’t take any of my ideas seriously; you’re still paying out a bonus when we can’t afford it; and you just want to sell instead of really trying out something that could save us.”

“Where is all this coming from?”

“I’m an adult, Mom. I’m twenty-seven years old. I have a business degree from Tulane. You’ve got me replenishing cards around the state because we had to drop our contractor, and you’ve got no sales team to help us get new customers because we can’t afford it.”

“Honey, we’ve done everything we can,” her dad said.

“No, you haven’t. You’ve never given me a chance, Dad. You’ve relegated me to card design, which is fine most of the time, and I like it, but I have ideas for entire lines of cards that would be unique, and I have plans for online.”

“We didn’t–”

“Want to go online? Yeah, I know. It’s why we’re in this mess, to begin with. I’ve got plenty of ideas on how to keep things feeling local even if they’re available globally, and you won’t even hear them. Why? Just tell me, why? Is it because I’m your daughter, and you can’t see me as an adult who is qualified to make business decisions?”

“What? No.” Her mom shook her head. “We have an idea of how we want our business run.”

“But it won’t be your business anymore, Mom. You’d rather sell it than give me a real chance at running it?”

“We want you to have something left. If you take over and it doesn’t work out, you’ll end up in debt, and so will we. We’re lucky we have someone who’s interested in buying it now, and that will give you some money to–”

“You have that little faith in me?” Bridgette asked as she sat down, losing all of her steam at once. “Really?”

“It’s not that, honey,” her dad said.

“Then, what is it?”

“It’s safer this way.”

“I don’t want safe. I want this company,” she replied. “I’ve always planned on taking it over one day, and you’re taking that away from me because you’re scared.”

“We still need to be able to take care of ourselves, too, Bridgette. Even if we don’t sell to Arnette, you can’t afford to buy us out and run the business. We would have no salaries coming in.”

“What if we can figure that out?”

“How?” her father asked.

“I can come up with a plan,” she replied. “Just don’t sell to Arnette until I do.”

“We can’t wait that long.”

“Dad, I’m asking you for a few days, at most, here.”

“What will you be able to do that we haven’t been?” her mother asked.

“Mom, there are so many things you and Dad haven’t even considered or done yet. There shouldn’t be quarterly bonuses for at least the next year, and if that means we lose an employee or two, so be it. We’re not performing well enough to give them out, and we can use that money to cover the increase in benefits cost. We can also use that time to discuss a true bonus program where it’s annual and partly based on their individual performance. We need to figure out sales and marketing, and I can do that.”

“All by yourself? You can just figure it all out?”

“You never listened when I gave you ideas, did you?” Bridgette asked.

“Of course, we did,” her mother said, sounding a little upset now.

“Then, you’d know that I’ve had these ideas for years, and I tried to give them to you, but you wanted to do things your way. Your way got us here . Give me a chance to present my ideas to you to get us out of this hole, and if you still want to sell after that, I can’t stop you.”

When her father turned to her mother, Bridgette had a chance to look out through the glass and see Monica looking up at her. Monica gave her a comforting smile and a nod, and Bridgette breathed out a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure why exactly she was relieved. They hadn’t agreed to anything yet. But just getting this off of her chest finally felt so good that even if they said no, she could at least tell herself that she’d tried.

“We can give you a couple of days,” her dad said after a moment.

Bridgette hadn’t heard them actually say anything to one another, which meant that they’d silently somehow communicated to one another what their answer would be. Despite how upset she was with them right now about the business, Bridgette had always admired their marriage and hoped to have a similar one to theirs one day.

“Well, good,” she said and looked back out at Monica, thinking about the fortune teller’s comment about dogs and them being right on schedule.