AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The Boy I Know and Love
Braden
Ihavebeenamiserable sack of shit for the better part of the last two weeks.
I wouldn’t have thought that a breakup with a girl I hadn’t even met in person would fuck me up so much. Then again, I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with her, either.
I’ve been trying to maintain a positive headspace, but it’s not easy. So, I’ve been compartmentalizing. And throwing myself into the three things that are constants in my life right now—work, school, and Harper.
Harper is with Maia for another night, so it’s been all about work and school. Last night when I couldn’t sleep, they combined, and I wrote out a plan to help expand reach and growth for The Pit. And because I’m a sucker for pain, I’m on my way to the office to talk to my dad about it.
He says he wants me to take over, and to my surprise, Iwantto do that. But I need to do it on my terms, not his.
I rap my knuckles on his door frame, and he looks up from the desk he’s sitting at.
“What’s up?”
I step inside as I say, “I wanted to talk to you about something. About The Pit, actually.”
“Okay.”
“Look, Dad, I know you wanted one of us to take this over—and let’s face it, that won’t be Brent. As much crap as I’ve given, I enjoy this. But I can’t spend my life trying to run it as your business. I want to grow and make changes I think will help keep it thriving, but I need you to listen, to be open to that.”
He appraises me, looking me up and down fully before leaning back in his chair. “I never wanted you to think you couldn’t come to me with ideas, Braden. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Do you promise you’ll hear me out?”
He nods. “Sit down. Talk.”
Taking a deep breath, I sit down in the chair by his desk. “Okay. First, I think we need to start utilizing social media more. I know you think we have more business than we know what to do with, but it might not always be that way. My generation lives on social media. It’s how we communicate. Tapping into that is important. Second—”
“Stop.”
My shoulders slump. “Dad, please.”
He holds up his hand as he grabs something with the other. “I just want a pad of paper so I can write this all down. Keep going.”
Filled with determination, I look straight at him and say what will probably be the toughest sell. “We need to add some vegan options to the menu. I know we have a couple of basic vegetarian things, but vegan is a big deal and I don’t see that going anywhere. Catering to that means attracting new and different people and establishing ourselves as a place where everyone can easily grab a meal.”
“My only concern with that has been adding more to an already crowded menu.”
“I know, and I thought about that. I think there are simple ways we can do it to utilize dishes we already have, but make them vegan. Using jackfruit in place of pulled pork or chicken is an easy vegan option that we can use in both the sandwiches and the tacos we do, as well as topping our burgers. We’ll still use the same barbeque sauce, so it’s just learning the jackfruit part. And speaking of burgers, coming up with a great vegetarian burger recipe that’s flavorful and hearty will give us a chance to expand all our burger options to be vegan. We can even look into vegan bacon—buying or making our own. And finally, using either tofu or tempeh to make vegan spiedies could really round things out. Yes, it will be extra work, but I was thinking we could look at some of the outliers on our menu that don’t have multi-use ingredients and do them as specials instead.”
He leans back in his chair again. “You’ve really thought about all of this. What else?”
“My final thought is that we should consider taking advantage of the food truck market. I know it seems silly when we have a restaurant, but we could offer just a few of our appetizers and main dishes and drum up more interest. In the summer, there are festivals everywhere. I mean, just locally we have the Strawberry Festival in Owego and the Spiedie Fest in Binghamton. Tapping into that market can help us grow our business even more. Maybe even consider opening another location one day. That’s much farther down the line, but I want this to not just succeed where it is. I want it to grow. You taught me to want that.”
Setting his pen down, he looks at me, the corners of his mouth pulling into the tiniest smile. “I’m proud of you.”
My eyes widen. I’m… shocked. Those aren’t words I frequently hear from my father—if at all.
“I know. I don’t say it nearly enough, but I am. And not just because of these ideas. Because I see passion in your eyes. You’re doing this because you want it, not because of me or anyone else. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you. To find what you love and live it. I wanted you to know your life doesn’t end at age eighteen. It doesn’t have to become boring and dreary. That’s not what life’s about. If you let it, it can be an exciting adventure through every stage. I’m sorry—in case I haven’t said that enough—if I didn’t make you feel that way. I’m proud of you for following your heart and finding the right path for you, doing what makes you happy in every way.”
I stare at him for a moment as my throat clogs with emotion. “Thank you.”
He gives a little nod and says, “Now, what do you think we should start with?”
“If you’ll trust me with it, I can start ramping up social media right away. Maia has some ideas and things to teach me, and I enrolled in a class specifically about marketing through social media next semester. I also think we should focus on the vegan menu options. Getting those in place and rolled out is important. Once we feel comfortable with that, we can revisit the food truck idea.”
