Chapter 5 Clara #2
“Yes. I’m here about the doll. I’m not a journalist. I—”
Flo claps her hands together. “I wondered how long it would take for a spin doctor to turn up here.”
I clear my throat and can feel my cheeks flushing.
“As I mentioned, I was hoping to speak to you first. Then I was planning to head over to talk to you, Jack, not Harry, because I saw on the doll website that you manage distribution.” They’re both just staring at me, blank faced.
“But of course that plan is a little mixed up now. And I just want you both to know I want to help the community. I’m here to find a way forward and work out how we achieve that. ”
Jack reaches for his coffee cup, taking a long sip. “You want us to take the videos down.”
“Well, yes, but more important I want to make things right,” I say.
Jack looks more guarded than the carefree man I met last night.
“Davenport is sorry that it took the video to get our attention. I’m still learning about the history of your relationship with us, I’ve been working in a different division for the past year so I wasn’t involved in the Evie project.
I firmly believe that there’s a pathway to fixing our professional relationship and regaining your trust in our business. ”
“I firmly believe that you came here to fix your company’s image,” Jack says, his voice even. “We don’t need Davenport’s guilty offerings.”
Flo’s smile widens. She looks proud of him. “You know, that’s my handwriting on the box. I took a calligraphy course in the nineties and the talent has never left me.”
“Oh,” I say weakly.
“I sewed the dresses for the first hundred dolls or so, too, but then Jack here went and got himself a viral infection and—”
“It went viral,” Jack interjects quickly. “The doll went viral online. I don’t have a viral infection.”
Flo tsks at him and continues, “My hands couldn’t take it. Now I oversee the younger ones and their sewing machines. We have a little club at the art school.”
“That’s… incredible,” I say, and wonder if it would be rude to ask Flo for her notebook to write this down. I decide it definitely is.
“It’s a collaborative project,” Flo continues, launching into the same doll history she covered in her videos. This time explaining about how it was all started by Jack of Harry’s. Feels a little different when the man in question is sitting in front of you.
“Ms. Girard, there’s nobody more in awe of what you’ve created here than me.
Davenport was once a small business, too, and it’s with those values in mind that I started the small business program.
I’m sad that I didn’t come here a year ago, before I left for my new role.
I’d love to know everything there is to know about your project. ”
“Haven’t you already copied enough?” Jack says.
The words catch in my throat. I was na?ve to think this wouldn’t be difficult. This community is hurt and it’s Davenport’s fault. Of course they weren’t going to welcome me with open arms.
“I can see that you’re hurt, and I understand why. I’d love to talk about things we can do to make this right. I have a very generous investment budget available to me and lots of ideas about how we could elevate what you’ve achieved.”
“Ms. Flo,” Jack says firmly, like the mention of money triggered some kind of guard-dog mode, “I wasn’t expecting to be so delayed and I haven’t opened the store yet.”
She gives him a look that could curdle milk and walks away to put in our order, muttering something in French that I can almost guarantee is about Jack and doesn’t sound complimentary.
When she’s out of earshot he turns back to me. “It’s cruel to get an old woman’s hopes up.”
“Are you kidding?” I say. “I’ve met CEOs with less fire in their belly.
She might be old in age but she isn’t in mind, clearly .
” He raises an eyebrow. “I meant what I said, Jack. I’m here to fix things.
You should be proud of what you’ve achieved so far.
I’m sorry that this… incident… has impacted you as well as your neighbors. ”
He gives me a small, begrudging smile. “You need to get to your point, Clara.”
“I know you probably don’t want to have anything to do with our company after the incident that inspired the videos.”
“You mean the theft,” Jack says dryly.
I wince. “I know you’ve got a great thing here. But what if you had someone with experience, with expertise, to help you capitalize on this, to grow it and manage it? To make this bigger and better.”
“You’ve missed a chapter, Clara. I’ve already had the spiel from one of your colleagues. It was a scam.”
“I’m not scamming you. I have six other businesses signed up to the program that I’m back overseeing. I can arrange for you to meet them.” Onboarding Jack was not the purpose of my visit but there’s something about this quiet little town and the community it’s fostered that makes me excited.
Maybe I’m looking at things under the hazy glow of the stories Jack told me that made me laugh.
But maybe signing him up would fix things.
I can’t think of one person who wouldn’t be impressed by a community assembly line of what’s already a bestselling product.
With Davenport’s small business program, it could be huge.
Jack finally speaks after letting me sit in silence for a minute, desperately anticipating his answer. “Why would I trust anything from Davenport?”
“Because it’s not Davenport, it’s me. I’m here. And I don’t want to take anything from you—I want to help you, help the town. Help you deal with the viral success of the doll.”
There’s a long pause. Then he says, “You talk a really good talk.”
I blink. “I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or not.”
“It’s not,” he says. Then he adds, “The people in this town are good, decent, hardworking people, and they’ve been hurt before.
Their confidence in your company is nonexistent, and I can’t let their confidence in me shake too.
As charming as you are, Clara Davenport, you can’t charm me into being screwed over twice. ”
I don’t know what to say. As much as I want to shake him and beg him to let me fix this, I can’t say I blame him for not wanting anything to do with us. With me.
We sit in silence for a moment as the teenager from earlier drops off our French toast. He retreats faster than Flo did. Jack picks up his fork and plays with his food. “You really want to help this town, Clara?”
“I do.”
He stares at me for a long beat. “Then go back to New York and tell your fancy executives to take their doll off the market and leave us alone. We don’t want you here, we don’t want your money, and we don’t want your help.”
I nod, trying not to show how rattled I am. “Jack, I—”
He puts his hand up to silence me. “I need to open my store, Clara. Have fun in Maine.” He stands, throwing a few bills onto the table and lifting his plate and cutlery.
He doesn’t say another word to me and holds up his stolen tableware to Flo on the way past, saying, “I’ll bring these back later.”
She tuts at him, then turns her head to me and tuts again.
Flo’s eyes bore into me from behind the counter as she reties her apron like she’s preparing to go to war. And she’s got a town behind her.