Chapter 20

A beautiful breakfastsat in the center of a conference table in the Fox offices when I arrived at precisely six a.m. Gigi was sitting at the head of the table, nibbling on a chocolate eclair as she chatted with a couple members from the accounting team.

I joined Camille at the side table where carafes of coffee and juice had been set out.

“Tell me you know what this is about?” I said under my breath.

“Can’t be anything good.”

Gigi burst into laughter, startling half the room into looking her way. My grandmother was a lot of things, but chipper wasn’t usually one of them.

“She’s in an awfully good mood.”

“That’s what worries me,” Camille said just as her husband, Joel, joined us.

He nodded and thrust his empty coffee cup under the carafe spigot for a refill. “We must be in big trouble.”

“Bigger trouble anyway.”

Not like the Fox company had been chugging along smoothly. The last few years had been a roller coaster of ups and downs, with Gigi challenging us to find solutions to falling revenues, all while refusing to implement the changes that would make the most impact.

“Let’s get started everyone,” Gigi called. “We’ve all got places to be, I’m sure.” She nodded toward our cousin, Reggie. “The commute to Spokane isn’t an easy one.”

He chuckled. “Heck, this is like a school field trip for me. It’s nice to get a chance to see you all.”

Reggie managed the two Spokane stores, while Camille and her husband oversaw the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia locations. I’d worked with Gigi to oversee everyone else. She’d been grooming me to eventually succeed her, but that was before she’d started making noise about selling the whole operation.

Camille and I exchanged one last glance, her eyes reflecting the same foreboding I was sure mine did. I picked up my coffee cup and went to the seat at Gigi’s left hand. Camille and Joel took seats beside me. Reggie sat on the other side of the two accountants, always the odd man out.

“Good morning. Thank you all for clearing your schedule for me.”

We all nodded. When Gigi asked you to show up, you showed up.

“Pleasure to be here, Gigi,” Reggie said before taking a huge bite of his jelly roll, resulting in a glob of purple falling directly onto his tie.

“Yes, well, obviously this is not a social visit,” Gigi said, “though I’m glad you enjoy the pastries.” She swept her gaze over the table, but it was me she watched most closely. “I’ve had a look at the latest revenue reports. Our projections were off, and not in the right direction.”

“How bad is it?” I asked.

“Bad enough it calls for drastic action. We cannot sustain these losses any longer.”

Camille leaned forward. “You’re ready to talk about scaling down, then? If we close our worst performers—”

“That won’t cut it,” Gigi interrupted. “All it will do is tarnish our name. Fox will be known as a dying company. No, thank you.”

I straightened in my seat. “The Fox Entertainment launch went well. We don’t have enough data for long-term projections, but I feel confident the numbers will support a plan to rebrand and relaunch.”

Gigi sighed and shook her head. “It’s just not feasible.”

“What do you mean? That’s the plan we agreed on. If my launch was successful, you’d consider it for a new path forward for all our stores.”

“Yes, and I meant that.” She patted my arm. “But that was before these new sales reports came in. We simply don’t have the capital to close down stores while we retrofit them with new inventory and advertise the changes. Rebranding existing stores will be much more difficult than launching a new store, as you did. We’d have to train customers to think of an existing store differently, and some of those stores have been there for a decade. It’s an uphill battle.”

“So, what’s the solution?” Reggie asked.

Ah, my sweet, innocent, na?ve cousin. I knew where this was heading. I could tell by the grim set to Camille and Joel’s faces that they did too.

“We have to sell.”

“Oh, Gigi,” Camille said, voice sad. “Surely there’s another way to give Chase’s plan a shot. If we don’t have the capital, sell the Olympia stores and use that money to relaunch another Seattle location.”

“I didn’t bring you all here to argue about possibilities. This is happening. If we’re lucky, one of the larger book retailers will absorb our holdings. If not, we’ll have to liquidate.”

“That’s it?” Camille said, voice sharp. “Our whole careers are just over?”

Gigi sighed and rubbed her temples, looking old and tired. “I’m sorry, dear. I wish it could end differently, but this is best for all of us. We’ll get some money back out of the business this way, and you all have a small bit of equity built into your employment contracts. Along with a generous severance, you can start over.”

“I don’t want to start over,” Camille said, sounding forlorn.

“I’ve got another meeting.” Gigi pushed back her seat and stood. “Phil will go over the numbers with you. Sorry, loves. We had a good ride while it lasted.”

My stomach dropped. This was really happening.

“Gigi…”

She placed her hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently. “I’m sorry to renege on our deal, Chase. It was a good effort. It just came too late.”

She walked out of the room, leaving a stunned silence behind her.

“Wait,” Reggie said. “Does this mean I’m out of a job?”

“It means we’re all out of a job,” Joel said shortly.

My stomach turned, my bagel sitting like a concrete block in my gut. “I’m sorry, you guys. I really thought if I could make this new store a success, I could set us on a different path.”

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make her drink,” Camille said. “It’s not your fault.”

“I should have pushed harder sooner. Done something more.”

Camille stood and rounded the table to hug me. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure something out. We’re smart, capable people, and we will rise from this mess, right?”

I patted her back. My sister had a young daughter. She and her husband had both dedicated their entire adult lives to Fox. Of all of us, I would rebound the easiest.

I wasn’t disappointed for me. I was disappointed I’d let my family down.

“Don’t worry about me,” I said. “Take care of your family, Camille.”

She sniffed and nodded, drawing back, eyes glimmering. She tried for a smile. “One day, maybe we’ll be glad this happened. Gigi held us back in so many ways.”

“Speak for yourself,” Reggie said as he headed for the door. “I’ve got a good thing going in Spokane, and now I’m fucked.”

He slammed the door behind him.

Camille, Joel, and I all exchanged wide-eyed looks. Reggie was usually so even-tempered, verging on annoyingly cheerful in a silly puppy sort of way.

Phil, the sole accountant remaining in the room, cleared his throat. “Uh, did you all want to go over the numbers?”

“Just leave the information with us,” I said. “I know how to read a spreadsheet.”

Phil nodded and got to his feet, in no hurry to stick around for this drama fest.

“I’ll go make sure Reggie’s okay,” Joel said, even though he looked like he wanted to do nothing of the sort. “Just fill me in on the ugly details later?”

“Sure. Thanks for falling on the sword. I’ve got to get over to Union Heights, though I don’t really know what point there is…”

Camille sighed. “Maybe you can open an independent store?”

I thought of Austin and smiled a little. We could be struggling indies together. Maybe it would bring us closer together.

A silver lining on this shitty storm cloud.