My steps are slow as I make my way to his office. This feels so much like the first time I walked in here and he told me he wanted me to go ahead with the plan. He’s already sitting behind his desk, and I close the door behind me as I enter. Might as well do that now in case he really is unhappy with the work I’m doing. None of it has interfered with my actual job. At least, for the most part. There are few things I run numbers on up here, but not much.
“How’s the marketing plan going for your friend?” He leans back and clasps his hands in front of his chest. Why does he keepdoing that? It looks odd, and kind of like he doesn’t know what to do with his hands.
“It’s going well. We’ve been focusing mostly on social media. She also handed out business cards at a town festival.”
“Did it work?”
I’m not sure which he’s talking about. You can’t really know the success when they are done in tandem.
“Which one?”
“Both. Unless you didn’t separate them out.” He cocks his head to the side as if I don’t already know that.
“The social media posts are definitely working. She said online orders have seen a big uptick. I don’t know the exact numbers, but she wouldn’t tell me it’s helped if it didn’t.”
“And the business cards?”
“I don’t have data on that yet. We’re supposed to meet tonight to go over a few things, plus the next step in our plan.”
Everything I tell him is a piece of the truth. Pierce has been sending me actual numbers, and the progress has been pretty amazing. Honestly, Piper should be proud of herself. She’s doing things for the winery nobody else has managed. It would be a lot better if Pierce would tell her he knows. As much as I want to, I can’t be the one who breaks the news. Not only would she be incredibly pissed at me, but her brother would as well.
He leans forward, elbows on the desk, his hands still clasped but now they look like a steeple. Sort of like that song we learned in Sunday school. I’m not a fan of this pose either, but at least I seem to have gotten his interest again.
“Can you tell me a little about that?”
While I can’t give him a ton of information, I can relay some of what I’ve discussed with Piper.
“She’s mostly been using static posts and videos in her socials, but we’re going to try going live. We have to be carefulwith the different platforms because of what they allow and don’t. But we think it will be a good move.”
He grins and leans back in his chair once again. “I’ve been hearing that from a lot of our clients. Making themselves available to their customers gives them an upper hand.”
I don’t know about upper hand. It does let people get to know you better. The more your audience connects with you, the more likely they are to support you in your business endeavors. Hell, it’s how I’ve become a fan of some clothing companies and I’ll always buy from them.
“We’re working on some popup type events in the future, but I won’t have data on those until we can get them scheduled.”
“Sounds good. If you need any help, let me know.” I stand and head toward the door. Being in this office with him is not my idea of a good time. “You’re doing good work here. Keep it up and you’ll be in one of the top spots here.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
Before he has a chance to offer any more wisdom, I hightail it out of his office. The last thing I want to do is be in a position of power at this place. If that ever happens, I’d much rather have my own firm. At least then I could work with companies I care about and not have to play the numbers game quite so hard.
Cole is already at my desk when I get there. “Drinks tonight?”
This guy always seems to want to go out after I get out of the boss’s office. Yes, it’s office politics, but I’ve never been one to play them.
“Sorry, taking my girlfriend out for dinner.” Finally, I can say that. The rush of that one simple word on my tongue is enough to keep me from being too annoyed at the Cole.
“Cool. Well, if you change your mind, you know where we’ll be.” As if I would ever choose them over Piper. Girlfriend or not. “I’d love to pick your brain about what you’re doing with your side project.”
Of course he would. That’s not going to happen. He has been handed everything since he started working here, and passes off all the actual work to other people. I refuse to be the one who lets him take advantage of me. Not that I don’t believe in helping my coworker, but so many in the office have piled his stuff onto their desk, and it’s not their job. Just because he’s related to the boss doesn’t mean he gets special treatment.
The end of the work day cannot come soon enough. Maybe it’s not a bad idea to start thinking about doing my own thing. I’ll see what Piper thinks. She’s the only person I trust to tell me if it’s a good idea or not.
Piper’s door is unlocked…again. Maybe she should get one of those locks with an app. She’s more likely to remember because it’ll be on her phone. Other than me, the only people who really come to her house is her family. She has all packages delivered to the office because most of them won’t go the extra half mile to take it to her house.
A problem I never had when I lived down the street. But I was with my parents back then. They’ve moved away since I graduated high school.
“Is that you, Beau?” Her voice is loud in the quiet house. It’s shocking she doesn’t have music playing. But I guess the tinkle of bells attached to the door let her know my presence.
