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Ihad been doing a lot of thinking that morning. When I called Melanie, it had been with the intention that I wanted to talk to her—not just about the ideas she had for improving the store, though. I wanted to talk to her about how we could transition things back to her in time.
The idea had been rolling around in my mind since I found out about what the board did to her, and while I hadn’t wanted to just come right out and say it when she was being combative, it seemed like the right thing to do and had been weighing on my mind. So, I wanted to tell her that I did plan on it, for sure, and go over how we would do it after we talked about some of the concrete plans that we could hammer out together today.
As for if we picked up where we left off the night before, well, that would just play itself out, wouldn’t it?
I didn’t want to meet up somewhere public. Doing that would both put us on display for other people but also possibly prevent either one of us from being honest with our actions. If we were somewhere more private, it would allow for that honesty. If thatled to something, then it led to something. If it didn’t, I also was already home and could lick my wounds in private.
In the kitchen, I spent a good portion of the time between the call and when she would show up making an array of sandwiches. Much like I told her, I could slap stuff together between bread with the best of them. Toasted warm chicken sandwiches, cold cucumber sandwiches, I had them all. One of the things that had been left behind by the previous tenant was a three-tiered serving plate, which I employed to make a centerpiece and stack the sandwiches on.
With the food ready, I went into the bedroom and made sure I looked presentable. A polo shirt wasn’t my normal favorite, but the one I had on was nice and fit well over my shoulders. It looked business-casual, which was what I was going for. If things happened here today, I wanted it to be organic.
I had just washed my hands and decided that I looked as good as I could under the circumstances when the doorbell rang. I crossed over into the living room and opened the door. Melanie was outside, looking curious and confident, a big smile across her red lips and her eyes wide and focused on mine.
“Afternoon,” I said. “Please, come in.”
“Thank you,” she said, brushing by me as I held the door open for her. Her perfume hit my nose, and I felt my knees weaken. It was a unique smell, one that I couldn’t quite decipher, but was the same as she had worn the night before. My stomach tightened at just a whiff of it.
I watched as she passed by me and went into the living room. She was dressed like she was going to work, I guessed, khaki pants, a blue button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbow.It wasn’t a particularly sexy look, but somehow, she made it sexy anyway. I got the impression everything looked sexy on her.
“The sandwiches are in the dining room,” I said. “Please, help yourself. I made enough for several people.”
“Got carried away?” she asked as she walked into the dining room and saw the massive stack.
“I told you. I like bread,” I joked.
She pulled a small plate to her from the stack beside the sandwiches and put a couple of the halves together. I was politely surprised to see she wasn’t being dainty either. She was stacking them up, and I happily followed behind her and did the same.
“So, I was thinking,” Melanie said as we took the sandwiches to the living room and sat down with them. “What if we took out that wall on the left side like we had spoken of last night, but put in a drive-through? I know it sounds weird, but lots of stores have them for their pharmacy. It could be a pretty unique thing that if you only had less than ten things on your order, you could call ahead, we could do the shopping for you, and you could pick it up at the drive-through, right?”
“Honestly, I think that’s brilliant,” I said. “I love the idea, and it would be a wildly unique thing just to Brewer’s Grocery that no one else would have.”
“That was the idea,” she said, chomping on a cucumber.
“You know, I’ve been doing some thinking too,” I said. “It’s why I called you over. I wanted to talk to you about this in private.”
She got a pained expression on her face, like she had been dreading the conversation we were about to have.
“I see,” she said, seeming resigned.
“I wanted to talk to you about the future of the store. Specifically, the ownership of it.” She seemed to brighten. “My reasons for investing were dual, like I told you. Part of it was for the purpose of investing because it’s what I do, but also, I wanted to give back to the community that raised me. So, I figured once we have these renovations done and things are goings well, maybe I can sell a portion of what I own back to you.”
“So, I would be in control of it again? Officially?” she asked, her face brightening with hope on each word. I nodded.
“That was the idea. I thought it might take a couple of years before everything is upgraded, but then once it is, if we can make a consistent profit, which I believe we can, then I will gradually sell off enough of my investment to you that you will be in control of the future of the company, and I will retain a minor stake just for investment purposes. What do you think?”
She shook her head, tears pinching the corners of her eyes. She looked away briefly and picked up the water bottle she had brought in with her and took a sip. As she sat it down, she looked back over at me with a softness in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before.
“I think that would be amazing,” she said. “Absolutely amazing. Thank you.”
I smiled.
“Don’t thank me yet,” I said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us before then. But I believe we can get there. Wewillget there.”
I was struck again by how pretty she was as she shook her head and tried to gain composure of herself. How was she single? Itdidn’t make any sense. Men should be throwing themselves at each other to compete for her. She could have her pick of any man in Murdock, if she only knew.
“These are damn good sandwiches,” she said after a while.
I laughed.
