Never Got Over You -Whitney G. Page 0,36
a marketing director who wanted to host a meeting in one of the stores. I wasn’t sure why that was, and I was secretly impressed with Kate’s unique approach, but I would never tell her that.
I took the elevator to the fourth floor and spotted a few other board members standing behind the counter with Kate.
She tossed her head back as she laughed, making me stop in my tracks at the sound. I couldn’t help but think of one of the first times I’d heard it.
“I could listen to you laugh all day, Kate.”
“You mean that or are you just flattering me?”
“I never say things I don’t mean...”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Holmes,” Kate said as I approached. “We’re just getting started. Everyone, feel free to grab an apron.”
She opened a box and dumped a set of gold and black aprons onto the counter. “As you all know, the best way to market your product is to make sure you know it inside and out.”
I didn’t put on an apron. I just watched.
“Today, I want us to experience the store from the barista side.” She picked up an apron and tossed it to me. “You don’t think you’re above doing this, do you, Mr. Holmes?”
“Don’t worry about him.” Raven, the board member I liked the most, said. “He’s not much of a team player.”
“The apron doesn’t match my suit.”
Kate bit her bottom lip and instructed us to stand behind the counter, as if we were about to serve coffee.
“I’d like to do a mockup interaction since we’re weeks away from rolling out the new luxury menu for higher paying clientele. I’m certain your team is going to encounter a few questions. We need to make sure our five-star marketing matches the service.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, interrupting. “Are you the Chief of Marketing, or the Chief of Customer Service? I’m getting confused...”
“We’ll let you go first, Mr. Holmes.” She ignored my comment and walked to the other side of the counter. “Treat me like you would treat any other customer.”
I stared at her.
“Do you not know the welcome spiel for your own company?”
“I wrote the welcome spiel.” I rolled my eyes, “Welcome to Pier Autumn Coffee—the best place in the country to get coffee. How may I serve you today?”
“I’m not sure.” She smiled. “I saw that you just added some new luxury drinks to the menu. Can you recommend one to me?”
“I can recommend you google it for yourself and let me help the next customer who already has their mind made up.”
She blinked. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a perfect example of what not to do.” She opened a box and pulled out a stack of sleek grey and gold cards. “I took the liberty of designing these invitations that we’ll personally mail to your top tier customers, and we’ll email a version of this to your casual customers. I suggest a training day to make every employee memorize every one of those. Now, let’s try something else—” She looked into my eyes. “I don’t really like the way you made my drink. Can you remake it for me?”
“Yes,” I said. “As soon as you re-pay for it.”
“I need you to take this seriously, James.” She cleared her throat. “I mean, I need you to take this seriously, Mr. Holmes.”
“I’ll take it as seriously as you took ‘us.’”
“What?”
“I’ve never been known to stutter.”
Her face reddened and she let out a breath. “Can you all excuse me and our beloved CEO for a few minutes, please?”
She waited until they moved to the far side of the counter, then she glared at me.
“Look,” she said, pointing her finger. “For the record, I just want to do my job and I’m trying my best to be professional and act like you never existed.”
“You’ve been doing one hell of a job all these years so far.” I glared right back at her. “Shouldn’t be too difficult for you to keep your track record going.”
“Only one of us has a reason to be upset about what happened back then,” she said. “And that person is me. You seem to have moved on and engaged in tons of high profile affairs.”
“None of them resulted in a marriage.”
Silence.
I looked down at her bare ring finger again. “I could’ve told you that you and him weren’t going to work out. Did you leave him, or did he leave you? Oh, wait. Let me guess. You made him a promise you couldn’t keep, too.”
“Fuck you.” She hissed, her chest heaved