Chapter 7 – Grace
Jessica had been right about one thing. Flowers United seemed highly interested in gobbling me up. Their initial email inquiry was followed by two phone calls, and now I had Phil standing in my shop. There was no chance of the two of us falling in love, Hallmark-style, however. He looked more lawyerly than any lawyer I’d ever seen, and the first thing he did when he walked in was frown at Piper before checking his gold watch, as if the concept of seeing a child outside of school was inconceivable. It was only seven a.m. for crying out loud.
I gestured to the table and chairs where we did bridal consults. “Have a seat.”
Phil nodded. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, I’ll try not to take up too much of your time.” He glanced over at Piper again before sitting. She was loudly digging through the crayon and marker box she kept at her own little table, but once she found what she was looking for, she sat quietly and did her thing.
“Are you ready for us to exchange information so we can give you a formal offer?” Phil asked. “We’d both sign a confidentiality agreement, of course. I have it here if you’re ready. ”
Right to the point. I could respect that. Unfortunately, my mind was not made up at all. In fact, it had been at war since the first email from them. Part of me was dying to see a future I’d never considered for myself. The other part wanted to make it all go away so I could continue on as I always had. You picked a career. You worked hard. Forever. The End.
“I’m sorry. I’m still not sure what to think.”
Phil frowned.
“I have been doing some research. I know they talked about the possibility of buying all the assets, acquiring the lease, and I would just… go off into the sunset. But then they mentioned there’s also the possibility of keeping me on for a set number of years to manage the store. And you would offer me more in that case, but there would be claw-back clauses in place if sales dropped below a certain level. Is that right?”
Phil ran his finger along the edge of the table. “Yes, those are two possibilities. And in that case, you’re right, we would make you two different offers. But that’s after you show us your sales numbers since opening, your management software, your distribution agreements, and your tax returns. We would need to see everything. And that takes time to sort through. Which is why the sooner we start this the better.” His hand closed in a fist, and he tapped the table with it.
It was like a tiny, but firm, power play.
I did my best not to give him a reaction. Yes, he was intimidating me, but the last thing I wanted was for him to know that.
I twisted my fingers together in my lap where he couldn’t see them. “What’s the plan if I say, no, I’m no longer interested? You move onto the next flower shop on your list?” I glanced over at Piper. I’d always found the skritch-scratch of her crayons on paper a comforting sound. Today, it was also a reminder that whatever I decided had to be in her best interest, too.
“Not exactly.” Phil glanced around the shop, stopping to gaze at the row of succulents I grew in cute little pots along one wall where they’d get the most sun. At this hour, the light was barely starting to peek between the buildings and hit my windows. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but what they really want is your specific location. You deliver to all the high-rise buildings around here. That’s a lot of birthdays and anniversaries and secretary gifts and whatnot. That’s why we’d also keep the same name, phone number, and website, at least at first.”
He leaned in. “But, if you were to say no, I wouldn’t put it past them to open up shop in this same area and run you out of business. Nobody wants to do this the hard way, though. I promise their offer will be more than fair.”
What a horrible thing to insinuate. And he was using ‘they’ and ‘we’ interchangeably, depending on whether he wanted to distance himself from the situation. That made me distrust him almost as much as his threat to take me down You’ve-Got-Mail style, minus Tom Hanks and his adorable golden retriever.
Could they just take what they wanted? I never should have talked up my business to this guy. I hadn’t revealed any actual earnings, thank goodness, but he knew my margins for direct orders were excellent. Isaac and Dean had made sure of that. And while I did fulfillment for the bigger guys, including Flowers United, I didn’t rely on it. I guess they wanted that direct route to my customers all to themselves.
I needed Dean’s help, stat. And I hadn’t talked to him since the dance. Not in person, and not on the app. This wasn’t exactly the best time to hit him up with a favor. But Dean loved business stuff, so maybe he’d forget all about admitting he liked me, and me responding the way I always did—by avoiding him.
“Phil, you’ve given me a lot to think about, and you’ll hear from me soon. In the meantime, I’ll email you if I have any questions.” I stood up and waited for him to do the same. It took him a second to realize he was being dismissed, and he frowned.
I continued to wait. I didn’t have a lot of great business instincts, but I could hold my ground. And more importantly, I could keep my mouth shut from here on out.
“That’s your answer?” he asked .
“Yep.”
I followed him to the door and locked it behind him, taking in a deep, cleansing breath once he was in his car.
“Is your meeting done?” Piper asked. “That wasn’t as long as you said.”
“It’s all done. We’ll get you to school in plenty of time. You can keep coloring for a few minutes.” With shaking hands, I took out my phone and walked to the back, making the call before I lost my nerve. Dean picked up right away, which I supposed was better than leaving him a rambling panicky message.
“Grace, is everything okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. Sorry.” Of course, he’d assume I’d only call him in an emergency. Probably because I only called him in an emergency. “I just need your advice. I have someone interested in buying Beautiful Blooms.”
“Were you putting out feelers? I didn’t know that was something you were considering.”
“I wasn’t. But um, they said if I don’t let them buy me, they might just put up a shop nearby and run me out of business.”
“They said WHAT?” I heard Dean snapping his fingers at something, and whatever noise had been in the background suddenly stopped with the shutting of a door. “Have they made you an offer?”
“No. They’ll need to look at the shop’s finances first. I haven’t shown them anything yet.”
“Okay, good. Who is it? Who’s interested in you?”
“Flowers United.”
“Hmm.” I could hear the clicking of Dean’s keyboard as he looked them up. The clicks were just like him. Confident and decisive. And that was exactly why keeping my distance from him was necessary. Even his typing sounded sexy to my ears.
“Do you think they would really go to all that trouble?” I asked.
“I have two theories. Either, yes, they want to set up shop there by any means necessary, and if so, they’d make you a great offer to wrap this all up. But my other theory is that they’re hoping to scare you into taking a low-ball offer from them. In either case, it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to sell. This is your baby, Grace. I’ll help you fight them off.”
“Piper is my baby. I’m actually…” Oh, why couldn’t I say it? “Is Isaac in the room with you?”
“No. I do have you on speaker, but it’s just me, and my office door is shut. Do you want us to wait on him?”
“No.” That came out a little too emphatic. But I couldn’t talk to my brother about this. He was as emotionally invested in the business as I was. “Let’s keep this between us for now.”
“Hold on a second then. I’m going to text him ‘never mind.’”
“You already told him someone’s trying to buy Beautiful Blooms?”
“Grace.” He had a growl to his voice I liked way too much. “All I did was tell him to come see me. Why don’t you want him knowing?”
“Because… um, because selling doesn’t sound like the worst thing ever.” I rubbed my palm into my eye socket. It was like admitting I liked to litter. Or that I secretly hoped Sylvester eventually caught Tweety Bird and ate him. Okay, that second one was true.
“Let’s start with the names of anyone who’s contacted you. Who said they might run you out of business?”
“His name is Phil.” I gave him Phil’s name and number, and scrolled back through my email, looking for any other contact information. “He tried to make it sound like he was doing me a favor, letting me know the consequences of not taking them up on it.”
“Like he was playing good cop/bad cop?”
“Yeah.”
“Typical. I’ll find out who he is, and who he represents,” Dean said. “And full disclosure, I’ve already texted my assistant Connie and asked her to look into any other acquisitions Flowers United has made in the past few years. She’s very discreet. ”
“Thank you.”
There was a long pause, and for the first time, I felt the awkwardness of how we’d left things.
“You’re always welcome, Grace.”
“I know.” I was starting to get emotional, and that couldn’t happen. I rested my forehead against the wall of the back room and tried to compose myself. The last time I cried in front of Dean, he pulled me onto his lap and held me like a baby. The moment was imprinted on my DNA. I could never look at him the same way again. Forget men riding up on a horse. The real fantasy was a man who took care of you at your worst.
I was so relieved when he started talking business-y again.
“Could you write up everything that’s been said in person or over the phone, and compile it with anything they’ve given you in writing and email it all to me? I’ll text you my email address. I have a meeting starting soon and I know your mornings are busy. Why don’t we meet up today aaaatttt…” More clicking. “One? You’ll have someone covering you then, right?”
“I will.”
“Good. I’ll send you the address of where we can meet. It’s a business I need to check out that’s not far from you. We’ll get to the bottom of this. Don’t worry.”