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Nate Miller was a decent man who tried his hardest to live up to the expectations of the people he cared about. He was a good son, a good brother, and a good friend to anyone lucky enough to know him. He was patient and smart and thoughtful. And ironically, he did care about other people, and he did want to give back to the community. He had become (or had been all along) his own stock answer to the question he said he hated so much.
All those years ago in high school when she’d somehow felt that he was the only person who could really see her… It was uncanny. Now, after all this time, she still felt that connection. Only this time, she was the one who saw him for what he really was.
She watched him walk to his car. She’d done the right thing asking him to leave. Not because she didn’t care for him, or because she thought he was really in love with Jessica.
But because she wasn’t sure where the two of them would end up. And the thing was, somewhere in the middle of everything that had happened in the past few months, she had fallen in love. Truly deeply in love for the first time in her life. And nothing had ever scared her more.
Monday morning was bustling at the shop. Not with actual live customers, but Dhara had come in early to help Lauren handle the flood of virtual customers who had placed Internet orders. “I think we’re going to need some more help besides my mom and the aunts,” Dhara said gleefully.
Lauren looked at the computer screen in amazement. “I think you’re right.” There were nearly 200 orders to fill. It seemed impossible to believe. But in the short span of two days Baby Got Bump had somehow gone viral.
“This is what we do,” Dhara said. “First, we put a hold on new orders. Not only will that allow us to catch our breath, but customers always go crazy when they want something they can’t get. Like when Apple makes everyone wait in line for their new iPhone and then they run out.”
“Doesn’t that just make people angry?”
“Yes, but in a good way.”
“Okay, you’re the marketing person, so I’ll take your word on that,” Lauren said.
“Then we contact all the customers and we offer them a discount if they’re w
illing to wait an extra couple of weeks before we get out their orders. Then, we work day and night until we fill them.”
“What about wages?” Lauren had no idea what the going rate was for skilled seamstresses, or anything else for that matter.
“Let me handle that,” Dhara said. She pulled out a notebook from her work tote and began jotting down figures. “Anything else?”
They had a budget. They had a place to order supplies. They had a workspace, at least, temporarily. Now all they needed was to put their plan in action.
“One more thing,” Lauren said, “I know you were looking for a marketing job, but this idea could be something really good. Do you think you might consider a partnership? Fifty-fifty between us? I would be responsible for the designs and the work flow, and you could handle the business end of it? The website and the orders and all that?”
Dhara smiled like she knew something Lauren didn’t. She pulled out a folded sheet of paper from her tote. “I already took the liberty of drawing up a contract between us. Just in case you offered.”
Lauren opened the paper and quickly read the contents. “This looks good. I’ll have someone look at it tonight, just to make sure we’re both covered here.”
“Of course.” Dhara began to squeal. “Oh, my God! I can’t believe this! I own a company. Well, I own half a company. You’re not going to be sorry, Lauren, this is going to work. You’ll see!”
They gave each other a hug.
“There’s just one more thing,” Dhara said.
“Uh-oh, why don’t I like the sound of that?”
“No, it’s totally cool, it’s just…you should probably know that I didn’t come up with Baby Got Bump all on my own.”
“Oh, lord, please don’t tell me you plagiarized it or anything.”
“No, nothing like that. It’s just, my girlfriend came up with that one night when we were messing around.”
Lauren felt like the world’s most clueless wonder. “Girlfriend? Oh, I had no idea!”
Dhara flushed. “It’s just we’ve been keeping things on the low down. Just in case it didn’t work out, but I’m pretty sure we’re going to be moving in together, so you need to know about that, too.”
“Does your family know…I mean—”
“Does my family know I’m gay? Oh, yeah, they’ve known forever. But my mother would kick my ass if she knew I turned down a perfectly good marketing job for a woman. The thing is…this new venture between us has so much more potential than the job I turned down. I really think it’s totally worth the risk.”
“And your girlfriend is cool with us using Baby Got Bump?”
