Page 119 of Don't Go Faking My Heart
"And the visitor's center has had more visitors in the last fourteen days than it has all year!" Chick Hanks says.
From where I'm sitting at the front of the room, I see Bill roll his eyes. The door to the conference room opens, and my heart drops.
Philip wears a falsely apologetic smile as he takes the seat next to Bill. With a deep bruise and steri-strips over a crack on his nose, he gives me a once-over that makes me wish I'd shaved my head and worn sports goggles.
A few more people share their success stories, but my excitement disappeared the second Philip walked through those doors. It doesn't matter that his hair looks awful. It matters that he's here at all, and Teddy looks like his prize pig just won the state fair.
"There's no question that Jane's company?—"
"Jane & Co.," Rusty corrects sharply. Is he being defensive of me? Or of all of us?
"Of course," Teddy says. "Jane & Co. did an exemplary job on their campaign. Every person in this room saw a notable spike in sales, myself included! We can't thank them enough, can we?"
The Chicks clap at this, and most of the room joins in.
"In fact, we should thank them all the more, because Dumfries Holding was so impressed by the increase in sales that they've upped their offering significantly. Mr. Dumfries?" Teddy points to Philip, who stands.
"I know y'all have work to get to," he says, as if saying y'all didn't make him want to gag, "so I won't beat around the bush. I came here to offer a package to take over Maple Street and a handful of other businesses throughout town." Teddy somehow already has Philip's presentation ready to go and puts it up on the screen. It's clean and slicker than a greased pig, and while Rusty and I purposefully avoided making an overly stylized presentation, Philip has leaned into it like he’s trying to awe the simple folk. "And the best part," he says, "is that I've been authorized to offer an additional fifty percent."
Several people gasp excitedly. In the back of the room, Tia covers her face.
"You come in here all fancy and tell us you're only offering fifty percent—" Chick Allen says.
"No, an extra fifty percent," Chick Hanks says.
"Oh. That's a lot of money."
He's already gotten to the Chicks? We can't lose them! Panic triples my pulse.
I look at Rusty, who's frowning. Philip is throwing around money like it grows on trees. I know Dumfries is big, but I never knew them to increase an offer so dramatically in such a short time. They either low-balled their initial offer or we did our jobs a little too well. We made the town's commerce so valuable, they're desperate for it.
"It is a lot of money," Philip agrees. "Jane's company?—"
"Jane & Co.," Chick Hanks snaps, making me want to squeeze him into a hug.
"Right, Jane & Co. showed us what your businesses are capable of. We feel our offer reflects that."
"We who?" I ask.
Philip's smile is long-suffering. "Dumfries Holding, of course."
"And who are they?"
"My grandfather and the executive team, as well as the board of directors."
"And all of these men from Chicago must really love Sugar Maple to make an offer like that. I'm sure they have the town's best interests at heart."
"Of course we care about the town. Better yet, we care about making it money." He laughs.
"If everyone sells to you, what stores will we see on Maple Street?" I ask.
"We'll put similar stores in place."
"Oh, right. The diner will become a Vox?"
"We wouldn't put Vox on Main Street, USA," Philip says, like the idea is absurd (which it is). "We'd put in a Patio Diner."
If someone had walked in with dog poop on their shoes, I don't think the room could look more turned off.
