This Is My Brain in Love - I. W. Gregorio Page 0,88
on. If nothing else, I know how to follow a script.
Dr. Harris’s interview passes in a blur. I think I’m polite. I think I avoid any more major gaffes. I think I manage to trot out one or two ungraceful pivots so I can parrot out some of the stock answers Grace and I came up with.
After I pick up my stuff and check out with clipboard woman, I go out to meet my dad, who’s waiting at the curb. I shrug when he asks me how it went. Then, once we get home, I claim a headache, go to my room, and lie down in my bed, where I don’t have to think at all.
This Is My Brain on Hold
WILL
After five minutes of navigating a phone tree and ten minutes on hold, I finally reach our MVCC contact. My heart rate’s 108, and I probably need to change out of my drenched T-shirt as soon as the call is over.
I take a deep breath and rub the wrist holding the phone. “Hi, Ms. Sanchez! I just wanted to follow up on our previous e-mail and see if we could still help you out with the catering for your student activities fair.”
“Yeah, we’re working out the details for that. I still don’t know if I even have the budget for food.”
I close my eyes and look down at the script I prepared for this very reply.
“Oh, that’s totally understandable. There are quite a few other institutions that have the same problem, which is why A-Plus has a program to augment your event with a hybrid of free and low-cost items. Essentially, we’d be able to provide the event with free fried rice and beverages, with the option for your students to buy egg rolls and crab rangoon for a nominal fee.”
“You can do that?” Ms. Sanchez asks suspiciously.
“Oh, yes,” I say, trying to sound as welcoming as possible. Jocelyn and I both agreed that when it came to telling her dad about the plan, we’d ask forgiveness instead of permission. The goal is to have the profit of egg rolls balance out the sunk cost of the fried rice. But even if we end up in the red for the afternoon, if we pass out a couple hundred flyers and coupons to a captive audience? It’ll definitely be worth it. “I can send you a sample contract. All we would require is a fifty-dollar deposit against cancellation, which will be refunded after the event.”
“Huh.” I can tell that Ms. Sanchez is trying to figure out if the deal is too good to be true.
Time to seal the deal with the part that I practiced with Jocelyn a dozen times. “A-Plus is very excited about the ability to offer this service to MVCC, because your students have been terrific customers. This year’s booth at the Boilermaker Expo at MVCC was our most successful ever.”
“Oh, yeah, I think I remember some of the people in my office coming back with dumplings.” She pauses, and I cross my fingers. “Okay, why not. Sounds like a win-win. You can e-mail me the information.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” I say after I do a silent scream and fist pump. “You won’t be disappointed, and I look forward to your event.”
I’m practically buzzing as I put the activities fair up on the whiteboard we got to keep track of upcoming catering gigs. We already have six contracts for the next two weeks, and the four meals we did last week are almost singlehandedly driving the 25 percent increase in profits we’ve seen lately.
I can’t wait to tell Jocelyn, but she only left for her interview an hour ago. I look down the rest of my to-do list for the day. I already did a deep dive into the past week’s numbers, isolating the catering and online orders as the sources of increased revenue. Next up is some website stuff I wanted to do so people could select the Healthy Choices option for individual items.
A little more than halfway through my coding, I hear Mr. Wu and Jocelyn get back. Charged up with the good news, I head into the kitchen only to see the door swing shut as Jocelyn goes upstairs. My heart drops.
I turn to Mr. Wu, who’s muttering in Mandarin. “Did it not go well?”
“She very moody.” He frowns. “So, probably no go well.”
I turn to stare at the door leading up to the apartment upstairs. It’s just a piece