"Your Galaian Wrath, Khatun Baker." Crimson set the drink down in front of Cali.
"Thank you, Crimson." But when Crimson turned to leave, Cali stopped her. "Please, sit."
"Wh… what?" Crimson stuttered.
"Sit." Cali gestured to the spot across from her.
"But…" Crimson glanced toward her assigned area.
"Mae will make sure your customers get served. Now, sit," This time, it wasn't a request, and Crimson slowly did, sliding her tray onto the table. "So tell me, Crimson Dae, why are you working here and not at Dae's End?"
"Is there a reason I have to work there?" she asked defensively.
Cali was surprised at the attitude. "No, but I know for a fact that you do. I also know you pretty much run the place."
"Tell that to my broder," Crimson muttered.
"I see." And Cali did. She had five older brothers, and while she was three hundred and twenty-five years old, it had still taken her nearly four years to convince Triz she could handle The Brink. "So, you've left your family business?"
"No, I'll still be working both places," Crimson admitted.
"That's not going to work."
"What do you mean? Are you firing me? Without giving me a chance? That's wrong!"
"Stop." While Cali didn't raise her voice, she let a trickle of the Zagreus power she usually kept in check bleed through. It had the desired effect, and Crimson immediately stopped speaking. "I am not firing you, but you have to know you can't successfully work both places." Cali held up her hand when Crimson started to open her mouth. "Not because you couldn't do it, but because your broder is going to expect you to still do everything you did when you were at Dae's End full-time. So, tell me what's really going on."
"I… I want to expand Dae's End," she whispered.
Of everything Crimson could have said, that was the last thing Cali expected, and it started her mind racing. Space was at a premium on a Star Base, and it was expensive. If her memory served her right, the area on either side of Dae's End was already rented, and the businesses were turning a profit, which made expanding that way impossible. There was an unused area, but it was far from the market level and wouldn't get much traffic.
"I don't think you can afford two separate locations on the Star Base."
"I do not want to expand Dae's End on this Star Base. I want to expand it to all the other Star Bases." Crimson's ambition caused Cali's eyes to widen. No one other than Wik Corp had a business on every Star Base.
"While your family's muttas are amazing," Cali knew that for a fact because she liked to go to Dae's End to have their malted beverages, "What makes you think there will be a demand for them on other bases?"
"Because I listen to my clientele, especially the ones that travel between the Star Bases, and they keep telling me how they wished they could get our muttas everywhere."
"But your tad and broder don't see it that way." Cali knew the answer to that already. She'd been trying to convince Oba Dae to allow her to sell their muttas at The Brink, but he refused. He felt it would pull customers away from his bar instead of expanding his clientele.
"No, they feel it's too much of a risk," she muttered.
"They're right; it would be risky. First, you'd have to secure a location large enough to not only serve your mutta but brew it. Unless you are planning on having your tad do all the brewing for you from here."
"He doesn't have the capacity for that," she admitted.
"So, then you're going to have a consistency problem with your product unless… Do you know how to brew?"
"I do, just not as well as my tad or broder. They like me either out front or doing the accounts." Cali watched Crimson's shoulders sag. "I suppose it was stupid of me to think this was possible."
"I didn't say it was stupid, or even impossible," Cali's words had Crimson looking at her in surprise. "What I am saying is that it's going to take some time and a lot of hard work on your part to make it happen."
"I'm not scared of hard work."
"I figured that since you're willing to work two jobs to make your dream happen. So, I'll tell you what. After your shift here, go home and work up a serious business plan, and I mean serious. Include everything you know you'll need to brew your mutta