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“Then what the hell are you doing talking to me? Go and have fun. Who knows, maybe you can get engaged by this weekend and take the heat off me,” DeeDee teased.
“And maybe hell is going to freeze over too. Love you DeeDee. I’ll talk to you tonight,” she said.
“Love you too. Bye for now.”
When she put down the phone, Kenneth walked over and asked, “Is it a bad time for lunch?”
“No. Not at all. My sister just needed to bounce something off me. You said you have siblings, right?”
“Five brothers.”
“So you know what it’s like when one needs advice.”
“Not really. We’re close, but talk mostly about business decisions, not our personal lives,” he said.
“That’s really…sad.” Even though DeeDee could get on her nerves sometimes, she couldn’t picture not having her around to lean on. And the nice thing was, DeeDee leaned on her too. “I guess my sister and I are more like friends. Kind of like you and Billy.”
“I could tell from the pictures all over your living room that you two were close.”
“Hopefully after this weekend we still will be. I gave her some advice that I hope was correct. If not, well…”
“Shanda, your sister is a grown woman who is responsible for her own decisions. You can give advice, but it is her choice to follow it or not,” Kenneth said in a serious tone.
She stared at him and then replied, “Spoken like a person who probably doesn’t ever take advice. Am I right?”
He chuckled. “You’re not wrong. Would you like to continue this conversation at lunch, or would you rather reschedule?”
“Lunch sounds great, but last night you promised we could talk about you today.”
He shook his head. “You may have said it, but there wasn’t an agreement on my part. Besides, I’d like to hear more about Home Blown. Maybe we can discuss your business plan over lunch.”
“God, now that is a boring subject.” She dreaded going over what she called a hot mess of a plan. It was more or less trial by error. Over the past year, there had been a lot of errors too. If her granddad had any inclination of how poorly the shop was doing, he probably would regret giving it to her. I want to make it work; I just don’t know how.
“I promise, what I have to say won’t bore you. If anything, you’ll probably be excited to return to the shop and put it into practice,” he said.
Shanda snickered. “I think this is your way of getting out of talking about yourself.”
“On the contrary, you’ll find when it comes to business, I’m very serious.”
And you’re about to find that when it comes to business, I’m clueless.“Then let’s go to lunch.” Hopefully I don’t lose my appetite.
Kenneth was tryingto help Shanda, but she needed more help than he was prepared to give her. One hour at lunch quickly turned into two. He hadn’t made much progress, as she struggled to answer his questions. He knew it would be challenging, but now he believed it might be impossible.
When they arrived back at her shop, he walked her inside. “Why don’t I come back this weekend and we can work on a strategy for increasing sales over the next quarter.”
“Doesn’t sound like much fun,” she said.
“Fun won’t save your company,” he stated. It was going to take hard work and a lot of sacrifice to turn things around.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked.
It was something he didn’t have the answer to. “You need my help.”
“And that’s why you’re here? Because Home Blown is struggling? Because if that is the case, then, thank you for lunch, and please don’t come back.”
He could see she was hurt. Why? Kenneth didn’t expect gratitude, especially after telling her all the things she was doing incorrectly, but why wouldn’t she accept his offer? “You don’t want my assistance?”
“No,” she said, her arms crossed.
