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“Hey, none of that, don’t make me cover my eyes!” Sarah chides, having returned from the lobby. “Nelson says the Pineapple Dreamsicle is his favorite, but wants to know if he will be able to add chocolate to the Nutty Irish Cream for his wife once the new menu comes out?”
“Absolutely,” I tell her. “We’re very accommodating at Shake Place.” She takes out her phone and presumably shoots him a text with the answer. Then, Whitney adds her two cents.
“You know, Peter, you could totally do an all-chocolate based seasonal selection. Maybe around Valentine’s Day? We could come up with flavors based on traditional boxed chocolates. Ooh, you could even do a little sampler box available only on February 14th. It could be in a heart shaped box and have two ounces of each flavor. It would be something special for couples who can’t afford fancy restaurants. What do you think?”
I nod approvingly.
“Your creativity is astonishing, sweetheart. I’m going to have to put you on salary for all these good ideas you come up with.”
Our gathering of ten is breaking up and everyone is saying their thank you’s and good bye’s. I’ve convinced nearly all of them to call me Peter, instead of Mr. Coleman, and I assure Robert that I’ll make a few calls for him once Broadway opens back up. He departs, beaming.
George and Sarah are the last to leave. Sarah is showing Whitney how many likes she got on Instagram when she posted her birthday cake. George is glassy-eyed as he comes to stand beside me.
“Mr. Coleman,” he begins. “I sure hope you plan to keep that lady around. I haven’t seen Sarah connect with a woman that way since we lost her mom. I would have to hate to quit working for you if you dumped her,” he finishes with a chuckle.
I look at Whitney’s bowed head, her brown curls tumbling as she giggles with Sarah.
“George, I have every intention of keeping her around. She’s brought me something I didn’t even realize I was missing,” I muse.
George claps me on the shoulder.
“I knew you were a smart man, boss. Come on Sarah, it’s time to go, sweetheart.”
The teenager’s head pops up with excitement.
“Miss Whitney says I can come help out at SugarTime when they open back up. Maybe work the register or learn to bake the sugar cookies to start? She says it’s a secret recipe and I can’t even tell you.”
Her dad chuckles.
“All right then. I wouldn’t want to interfere with your top secret security clearance,” he jokes, smiling at his daughter and putting his arm around her shoulders to lead her to the elevator. Once the door whooshes shut, I turn to my beautiful girl.
“Well, it seems our first focus group was a success,” I say. We stroll back to the kitchen companionably as she loads up the dishwasher and tidies the kitchen.
“That was so much fun, Peter. What are your thoughts, by the way? Did you like one flavor more than the others? Which ones are you going to put on the menu?”
I pause for dramatic effect.
“All of them.”
Her head turns swiftly from the dishwasher.
“Really? Ten new flavors?”
“Yep. And I’ve decided to call them the SugarTime Shake Selections. I’ll link your bakery’s website to mine so people know where these fabulous flavors came from. I’m not going to take credit for your creativity, sweetheart.”
Whitney’s eyes go wide and she gasps.
“Thank you, Peter. That’s incredible. It’s going to drive so much traffic to SugarTime and really get our name out there. Come to think of it, I don’t know if my website can handle all that extra traffic. I set it up myself. I did a decent job but I’m not that tech savvy.”
I grin.
“We have some time, don’t worry. It takes a little while to prepare for a launch. I’ll have to find a resource to mass produce some of these syrups and other ingredients for us. I’ll want to use your recipes of course, so I’m not just going find a supplier with their own lavender and hibiscus syrups. There’s a lot of work that goes into these things, trust me, sweetheart. I have a team that usually does supply chain, but since these ideas came from you, I want you to be involved in the process. Is that ok?”
She nods furiously, her brown curls bobbling.
“Yeah, that would be awesome. I love the idea of getting so much say when it comes to sourcing ingredients. That’s not a luxury I’ve had up until now.”
I grin and smooth circles over her back.
“I’ll get my digital team to help you revamp your website, too. It’ll give us another project to work on together. Both of our businesses are going to come out of this better than they were before, just you wait.”
She looks at me happily.
