by Ashlee Price
I was thinking about lots of things, mainly my father, when I heard a bit of a disturbance in the front area. I could hear the tone that my friend was taking, and it seemed like someone was causing a problem. When I got up there, I could see that several people were arguing. It had all stemmed from who was next in the queue.
“Are you two really fighting about this?” I know that they were customers, but in reality it was two grown men who couldn’t get along long enough to get through a line. I was sure that they had been waiting for some time, but I couldn’t let chaos rule. My father would have never let it happen, and that was part of the reason that I made sure to get involved. Johnson always figured out a way for everyone to walk away happy. I wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work with the likes of the two of them, but I knew I had to try.
After listening to the problem, I got both of their orders and gave them to them on the house. I had them promise that they would come back with better attitudes. As they left, Melissa told me that I was silly to have let them go the way I did.
“Why would you give them freebies because of the way they were acting?”
“Because it was just an honest mistake and sometimes it’s better to diffuse a situation than to make it worse. There wasn’t much I was going to do that wasn’t going to make it worse. Just seemed easier to get them calmed down and send them on their way.”
She kind of shook her head and warned me that I was going to start a precedent that I didn’t want.
“This isn’t the law we’re talking about, Melissa, it’s just a couple cups of coffee.”
“Okay, Jesse, but remember that I told you it was going to be this way. You’ll see. You know that I like to see the best in people, and even I know that giving out free drinks if they cause a ruckus isn’t going to be good.”
I agreed a little, but that was mostly because I didn’t know what to say. Was it really that bad to let it go just that once to make everyone happy?
***
As the week wore on and the lines got longer, Melissa was proven right. It was becoming a problem. I still didn’t know why in the world the place had gotten so popular, but I didn’t really have time to think about. It seemed like I spent half my day trying to corral and calm the people down. I had to figure something out, because we couldn’t make as much coffee as was needed and serving them in time was almost impossible.
“Are you ready for today?”
I looked up to Melissa and asked if the new girl had showed up. I knew that it was just her second day, but I was afraid the day before had been too much for her. It wasn’t every day that there was a fist fight in a bistro line over a cup of coffee, but it had happened yesterday.
“I haven’t seen her. She isn’t supposed to be here for a little while. Who knows, maybe she’s just running late?”
I looked about as dubious as I felt. I didn’t think that Amanda was coming back, and I didn’t blame her. The Ground Bean was getting out of hand, and it wasn’t the first time that I wished my dad was still around. He would know what to do about all of this.
“Well, I guess you can call that temp agency in a little while when they open. See if they will send me another couple of candidates over here. It isn’t going to get any better until we get some more help in here.”
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks, Melissa, I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“You would be very busy, I suppose.”
I kind of laughed and went back to the paperwork that I was supposed to send to the accountant. The numbers didn’t add up, and though the man was magical, there wasn’t going to be any denying that the money just wasn’t there. While the bistro was doing well, it would seem that my father had had a lot of debt, and I was now strapped with it. Even with all of the business we were doing, it didn’t feel like it was ever going to be enough.
Chapter 2 – Cade Scott
“I’m just trying to figure out what it is that I’m supposed to be going there for?”
My assistant wrinkled her nose up and I could feel my eyes darkening. I wasn’t in the mood, never really was, but this day above all others was worse. This was the anniversary of the day long ago that had changed my life forever, and I knew that I wasn’t going to get through it without snapping at everyone. I couldn’t help it and I’d long since given up trying. Kindness was overrated and a surefire way to get run over. I wasn’t worried about that happening anymore.
“It was something that your father insisted on, remember?”
I sighed and sat back down at the desk I’d inherited from the same man who now breathed down my neck from his position on the board. When he had given me Scott Tech, I’d thought that it was his way of making things right. Little did I know that it was really just his way of getting his hooks even deeper into me than before. It wasn’t a way for us to be closer, but for me to do all of the work and for him to still have the final say. Everyone on the board would go with what he wanted. He was still my boss, and although my father was retired, he was still there every single day to watch over me, dictating my every move.
“I don’t care who insisted that I go. I’m the CEO. I want to know why.”
Caroline just shrugged. I watched her dark brown eyes look anywhere else but where I was looking. I was making her nervous, and though I didn’t feel any guilt, I knew somewhere inside that it was wrong to make her want to squirm like that.
“I can call Samuel if you would like me to. I don’t know if I can get a hold of him right now, but I’ll do my best to track him down and patch you through to him. If I knew, I would tell you, but I really have no real idea what is going on.”
I believed her, kind of. She wouldn’t lie to me. But I didn’t quite believe everything that she was saying. If she didn’t know why, she wouldn’t be looking at me as if she did. I felt sure she was feigning ignorance, and after I pressed her for a time, I finally got some sort of an answer.
“The company is very small, but they have a viral coffee brew that your father would like to capitalize on.”
I didn’t get it. What did coffee have to do with new technologies? I asked Caroline the same question, but that was where she really did run out of information. Her blank look told me that she actually didn’t know the answer to all of my questions. The idea of it bothered me, though. I tried not to let it, but it was impossible.
“I’m not sure what you want to know, sir. I’ve told you everything that I know. I’ll put a call in to your father and send it through when I get a hold of him. He can tell you more than I can.”
She was like a robot in her loyalty to my father. I knew that she wasn’t going to tell me anything she wasn’t authorized to. In the end it was a waste of time, and I told her not to worry about calling him. I was going to call him myself and see what he wanted.
When I dialed his cell phone, it took him several minutes to call me back and when he did he was out of breath. I didn’t want to think about what he was doing with a woman who was more than likely half his age. The only solace I got was to think that he would keel over one day and that would be the end of that. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about him pulling the strings from the board. I knew, though, that if there was any way he could pull the strings from the grave he would find it and send some shyster lawyer to enforce it.
“Scott, I thought you would be over at that bistro. I want you to check it out and see if there’s an angle that we can get into.”
“Why do we need an angle?”
“I’m thinking about buying that girl’s recipe. The co-owner was her father, and now that he’s dead there’s a good chance I can get it rather cheap. I hear there’s a bit of a money problem with the business, so it’s time to pounce.”
“And what does that have to do with the tech company?”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s just a good opportunity to make some money. You don’t think I made all my money with a few patents, do you? How do you think
I bankrolled the first couple of years? That’s why I stay on the board. You have a lot to learn, Scott.”
I wanted to yell at him, but I knew that it would do no good. It would just pull the strings tighter.
“I’ll go down there if you want me to.” I wanted to tell him that I’d been doing every stupid thing that he wanted me to do for some time. Ever since I’d taken the job of CEO of the company, I’d done nothing but compromise to make things run smoother for him.
“Good. You’ll have to make it quick. I hear they had a line most of the day and it closes early in the afternoon. I don’t want you to put it off another day.”
“What is it that you want me to find out that you can’t find out yourself?”
“I want you to see if it’s a good investment. Get a vibe for the place, the customers and the person who’s running it. It’s a young girl, about twenty-four, and I want to know how easily I can bamboozle her with a crappy deal.”
The worst part wasn’t even the words he used; it was that he was preying on a girl’s dead father to make him some money. That was the side of my father that no one really saw. He was good at hiding it, but I knew that he was the metaphorical snake in the grass, and I was going to be his minion.
“I’ll go down there, but if it’s such a small bistro, I don’t see why it’s worth that much to you.”
“Just go down there and see what’s going on. There’s a line there every day. It’s there for a reason, and I want to know why. But more than that, you need to use that charm of yours and seal the deal.”
I hated the way he said it, but before I could say anything else, my father was off the phone and I was left looking at it like he had lost his mind. I was sure that he had every intention of doing exactly what he planned. Now I was going to help him destroy a woman who’d just lost her father.
I should have felt worse, and I should have refused, but that was what I was. I just had to go get it done and see if she was a good mark.
To Read the Rest of the Story Click Here
Sneak Peek: Billionaire’s Domination
Book 1: Insist
By: Ashlee Price
Prologue
Nicola King is close to graduating from culinary school and is looking for her first real job. She has big expectations, but they’re dashed when all she can find is a position making deliveries for a local catering service. Nicola tries to tell herself that it’s the first step up the ladder, but just days into her new job she is already starting to question that assumption.
A chance meeting leads to a daily delivery to a rich and handsome investment group CEO. Jerold instantly takes to Nicola and offers to give her a real opportunity. This could be the break she needs to start her career. All she has to do is say yes.
But there are many things that Jerold wants to ask of her, and if she isn’t ready to say yes, Jerold knows that he’s going to have to insist.
Chapter 1- Nicola
I waited in line like everyone else, but I wasn’t sure why I was there. The temp service had called and asked me to come in. I thought that I was there for a job, but it seemed I wasn’t the only one who’d been called in that day. I started to worry that I was going to have more hoops to jump through. I really didn’t like the idea of having to compete with all of the people lined up in the office.
“Nicola King?”
I raised my hand like I was in school and weaved my way through the standing people to the voice in the front. She smiled at me and ushered me into her office. I remembered Nadia from when I had come to Algon Temp Service months ago looking to get a jumpstart on my job hunting. She was very helpful, and after I took all of her tests, Nadia told me that she would do her best to find me something. I was really hoping that today was that something she was talking about, because I was ready to get started.
“It’s good to see you back here. Sorry about the lines in the front. We just got a new client and I think the news of it has made things a little chaotic, but don’t you worry, Nicola, I have found you something that I think will be perfect for you.”
“Really? I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that. I graduate in a couple of weeks and I have been worried about finding something.”
“You got a head start, and I think that’s going to help you down the road. You would not want to be behind all of those other applicants.”
I looked back towards the small glass window in the door and I knew that what she said was true. If I had to wait behind all of those other people, my chances of getting a job were going to be even smaller than I’d imagined. In a town like Brewer, there were always more college students graduating than there were jobs to support them. I didn’t want to move away from Brewer, though; it was my home, and going down to the temp service had been a way of trying to ensure I could stay.
“I’m happy to hear that. I tried starting early because I figured with over a hundred students about to graduate, there was going to be a lot of competition.”
The older blonde just kind of nodded her head and looked through some documents in front of her. She was reading something to herself and I could see her lips moving slightly as she read. I tried not to look too bored. I was feeling restless, and if Nadia had something for me, I would be more than happy to take it. It didn’t really matter what it was, as long as it was in my field of study.
“So, this is what I was able to find.”
She told me about a local catering service that needed some help. They worked with many of the larger businesses in town to supply their employees with lunches and dinners, even breakfast sometimes as needed. I was getting excited because it sounded like a good fit, but I wasn’t prepared for the actual job.
“So will I be cooking?”
Nadia looked up at me from behind her thick-framed glasses and shook her head. “Since you have no real experience, they want to start you out doing some delivering. I know that it is not exactly what you were wanting, Nicola, but I think this is a good opportunity. It will give you some experience and you will get to meet a lot of people that are in the business. That’s how you can build up your connections and get into something more attuned to your skills.”
I was graduating from culinary school in a couple of weeks, and I hoped that she was right. I didn’t know how I was going to tell my family that I was going to be a glorified delivery driver. It was not going to be easy to convince them that I had been right to go to the school in the first place. Now I didn’t know what to say, but I was nodding my head and agreeing to the job before I really thought about anything else. One way or another, it was still a job, and that was something that I needed at the moment.
“I thank you for finding me something so quickly, Nadia. I look forward to starting the next chapter of my life.”
She smiled at me, and before long I was signing a contract for temporary employment at Jesse’s. Nadia gave me a sheet of paper with details on the where and when, and we said our goodbyes. I felt a little better as I passed the many people who were still waiting in almost the same spots as when I had seen them before. It may not have been what I wanted – not by any stretch of the imagination – but at the end of the day, I was grateful not to be in their shoes. At least I had a job, even if it was just driving good food around.
I kept reminding myself of that as I made my way home. I also had to find a way to word it so that it didn’t seem like I had settled for less. I had to convince my parents of that, and maybe myself a little bit too.
When I parked out front of the rundown three-story house that I’d grown up in, there was a steady tension in my body. I tried to shake the feeling. It was Friday afternoon and it was time for a family dinner. A smile painted on my face, I moved towards the familiar door and wondered if I was ever going to get my parents to be happy with my career choice. The job that I had just gotten wasn’t going to do that, but at least they couldn’t say I wouldn’t be able to do anything with my degree.
Walking through the front door, I was bombarded by m
y two little nephews. They’d seen me coming up the cobbled walkway and insisted on wrestling before I got in the door. I played along, anything to take my mind from what was going on, but we were stopped by the sharp voice of their mother, my sister.
“Boys, leave your aunt alone.”
They heard the tone and scurried away before I could get up from the position I had fallen on the floor. “Really, Nicola, do you have to wind them up so much?”
I grinned at her and kissed her cheek. “If I don’t get to wrestle and spoil them, what is the point of being an aunt?”
“You are a person that they look up to.”
I knew where that was going. A conversation was about to break out that I didn’t want to have. “I’m going to go see if mom needs any help in the kitchen, Karen. Your hair looks good.”
She smiled and put her hand up to the fresh do and I just kind of laughed a little. A compliment was the only way to get my sister to stop her steady efforts to get me married and pregnant like she was around my age. She reminded me of my singleness all the time, but I tried to ignore all of that. I was not ready to settle down. Not when my dreams of cooking for the rich and famous were still not a reality.
***
I moved towards the white swinging doors that led into the kitchen. My mom, Angela, had her apron on, and somehow she knew that I was the one who’d come in. “Nicola, go ahead and put an apron on and help me.”
I was surprised that she knew it was me. She hadn’t even looked up. “How did you know it was me, mom?”