Sweet Love - Mia Kayla Page 0,3
to me as their last hope. I had come here with no ideas, only a determination to analyze the issue and to save the company. But the aha moment had hit me when I talked to Charlie.
I rubbed at my day-old stubble, noting that I would have to shave tomorrow. “I’ve figured it out.” It was as though a light had switched on in my brain just minutes before, showing me how I was going to save Colby’s. “We have to totally rebrand. We can’t just turn things around with new products. We need a total rehab from top to bottom.”
The new girl had hit the nail directly on the head with her comments.
Kyle knocked my desk twice, and then he pointed at me. “And this is what you’re good at. You’re good at taking a company that’s failing and making it rain money again.”
Wasn’t it the truth though? I’d moved from New York City back to Chicago, leaving a job that I loved, a place where I was appreciated, and a place that paid well.
I was the executive director of the Commercial Loan Workout Division at Financial State Bank in Manhattan. For companies not making a profit and were about to be kicked out of the bank, I would help them by either cutting expenses or getting rid of their line that was no longer profitable. That meant firing employees if I needed to. I knew how to get the company from the red and back into the black. That was what I did, and I excelled at my job.
I knew I could do this. There was no heart in this transaction. It was simply a favor to my nana, the woman who had basically raised me by herself because my parents were never home, working to build this company up.
I’d do this job, like I’d promised Nana I would, just as I did my job at Financial State, within the allotted time period and get back to my life in New York.
“I met a girl.” It was so random, yet it had everything to do with branding. “She hated the name Colby Chocolates, hated the packaging and how our original chocolate bar tasted.”
“Hate is an intense word,” Kyle scoffed.
Maybe I was exaggerating. A chuckle escaped as I thought of her face when I’d opened the candy bar and torn off a piece.
“She actually doesn’t care too much for candy and chocolates. But she does think the branding is off.”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “Tell me you’re not dating this girl because that would be an interesting dinner conversation topic, especially when you invite her to meet the parents.”
I laughed without humor. “Maybe she has a point though. Colby’s is everywhere. It’s the name of every candy bar instead of embodying the candy bar itself.”
Kyle shrugged. “Well … yeah. Dad grew this company to where it is today, and I’m sure he is pretty damn proud of his name and believes it should be plastered everywhere. On our uniforms. On trucks. On all the candy bars. A logo on the back of our other branded candies. Anyway, I don’t see him changing it up anytime soon.”
That was the problem.
“He has to think of what is best for this company, not feed his ego.” I moved my mouse to fire up my computer.
I had gotten her first name but not her last. All I knew was, she had started recently, and Casey knew her. I wondered if she worked in our marketing area, and if so, that would make sense because she had an eye for things. If I had trouble locating her, I could always ask Casey.
Kyle peered over on my screen as Charlie’s picture popped up. “She’s cute. Big bro, why are you stalking the new girl?”
“I’m not stalking the new girl.”
Interesting. So, she was our new computer tech person. I would have never guessed that.
When I shut my screen, Kyle reached for my mouse and moved it, so her picture would pop up again.
“So, what are you gonna do? Are you going to ask her why she doesn’t like our chocolate?” Kyle asked, breaking me from my thoughts.
It hadn’t crossed my mind, but that seemed like the brightest idea my brother had ever come up with—to pick her brain a little more.
“I think I’ll do that.” My voice was soft, reserved, as my eyes took in the woman on my screen.
Charlotte Grayson had the brightest smile I’d ever seen on a company photo. Two dimples were set deep