Serena stepped gracefully behind the counter and steered her ex-employer toward the office. “Go on, Mrs. M. What can it hurt?”
Fear, hope and worry passed over Hailey’s mother’s face. With a resigned sigh, she walked into the office and flopped into the desk chair. With a lazy wave, she told Hailey to start.
It wasn’t going to be easy to convince her mother to actually pay attention, and open her mind to changes. Especially when neither of them really wanted to be here. But if Hailey didn’t try, she’d never succeed, so she mustered her courage and pushed on. If she was right, they could save the family business and make a better life for all of them, her father included.
“You should have told me business has been slipping for five years,” she chided gently. “We could have done something back then. However, it’s not too late.” She hoped.
“I didn’t want to worry you. You have your own life. You don’t need to be fretting over this old place.” The utter defeat in her mother’s voice was heartbreaking.
This old place? The store was her mother’s baby, her heart. It was important to them all. She’d grown up at Two Angels Gifts. “Oh, Mom. How many times have I said I planned to retire here and run the store? Dozens? Hundreds? Didn’t you believe me?” How could she have missed her parents’ fears and worries? Was she completely self-centered? She should have paid closer attention. Well, as her dad always said, “No sense crying over spilt whiskey.”
“Like I said, the slide started five years ago. As you already know.”
“Yes, when Iris Phillips pulled her stupid stunt. All our money went to lawyers instead of stock. When all was said and done, we broke even on the legal fees but the court battle took ages to finish. I had no funds for new stock so we missed over a year of sales. I hate that woman. If she ever sets foot in here again, I’ll knock her on her ass, lawsuit be damned.”
“Come on, Mom. Mrs. Phillips used to be your best friend.”
“Do you know how much time I spent trying to help her? Trying to dry her out and get her into counseling? How could she turn on me, her best friend?” Her voice warbled with unchecked emotion. She wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the door as if she couldn’t wait to escape the discussion.
Hailey checked an eyeroll. She’d heard this complaint a million times. What had happened to forgive and forget? The betrayal must have cut deeper than Hailey realized.
“Okay, moving on. Then we had a slump, I expect it was the after-effects of gossip. We perked up for a while but summer was slow.” She went through the next four years, explaining the downward trend, despite her mother having lived through it. She backed up her points with the graphs and charts she’d created. One thing she was good at was presentations, she’d done several major presentations every year in her previous position.
“I expect we lost a lot of sales as we stopped ordering as much new, different stock. Instead of clearing out old stock, we held onto it.”
“What else could I do?” Her mother leaned onto the desk and dropped her head into her hands. She looked completely defeated.
Hailey’s heart cracked. She hadn’t wanted to tear her mother down. This was about building things, the store and her mother up. Sometimes, you had to tear down to rebuild.
“Cheer up, Mom. I’m coming to the plan. The good part.” She patted her mother’s shoulder.
“Go ahead.” She didn’t raise her head.
Hailey waited her out. She’d spent nearly a week on this presentation and her mom would see every sheet of paper whether she wanted to or not. When her mom finally looked up, she handed her the next sheet.
“Specialty stores are huge now. Every resort or vacation town has a year-round Christmas store.”
“That’s insane!”
She’d never thought her mom was stuck in her ways, until now. “Crazy it might be, but they are thriving. People love Christmas.”
“You want to change us to a Christmas store? No way.”
Boy, could her mom ever dig in her heels. She was balking before she even heard the entire idea. Hailey knew she’d gotten her stubborn strength from her mother, but she’d had no idea how mulish her mother could be.
“Yes. And no.”
“You’re being as clear as mud.” Her brows wrinkled. Anger crossed her face.
Five years of failing business had turned her mother bitter. Hailey’s heart cracked a little more and she struggled not to snap back. “I want to keep the store as is, with fresh stock and I want to expand into the vacant space next door.”
“Expand? We can’t even meet our rent now. Are you nuts? We’re running on our personal savings. Soon, we’ll have to cash in our retirement plan and you want to expand?”
“Yes. Expand. We’ll take out the wall between the two spaces.” She forged on. “This side will change seasonally and keep the standard gift items, cards, and wrap. The other side will be year-round Christmas. It can’t fail” At least she didn’t think it could fail. Her market research said it would work.
“And where, exactly, does the money for expansion, renovation and stock come from? Your father wants to shut this place down. He won’t spend another dime here.”
A negative response, but at least her mother was showing some interest in the idea. “That’s the beauty of the plan. He doesn’t have to. I’ll buy into the shop and become part owner. The percentage will depend on how much the bank declares the business is worth compared to my condo-cash.”
