Page 21 of The Funnel to You

Chapter Thirteen

Matt

Upside down Caramel Macchiato with Oat Milk

Having Sasha at my parent’s house, doing dinner prep with my mom, and laughing with my sister is amazing. It just feels right. I came inside to get the tools for the grill and the meat out of the fridge to see her chatting away with them while they cut up the vegetables. She fits in here so well and I can’t help but feel comfort in knowing that she is here. With me. Mom obviously loves her and she got the thumbs up from dad too. Not that I had any doubt. Sasha is amazing. Seeing her here with everyone just solidified that for me.

“Once you ladies finish chopping all of that, do you want to come outside under the umbrella while dad and I grill?” I ask as I make my way to the back patio door.

“Yep, I’m going to grab some drinks and then we will be out shortly, don’t leave the patio door open long – you’re letting all the cool air outside.” My mom scolds me playfully so I quickly close the door behind me and join my dad over on the patio. It doesn’t take the girls long to come out and join us with drinks, the salad, and a few other extras in hand.

While we finish cooking and prepping for dinner, conversation moves to childhood memories and vacations. We both enjoyed our time at Estes in the fall and beach days at the Outer Banks. We both went around ten with our families, her going a few years before I did. My mom is visibly amused when she realizes that Sasha is older than I am. I already knew that though. Luckily, we are able to make it through nostalgia without breaking out the embarrassing elementary program or teenage acne photos. Thank you, Lord!

Dinner comes and goes without any issues or awkward conversation, and then I offer to drive her home after we are done cleaning up in the kitchen. She had a seltzer with dinner and I don’t want her stressing over finding a ride. I don’t usually drink over at my parent’s house in case I need to pop out for something, so that worked out well. We say our goodbyes and Sasha promises to come by again for another Saturday night dinner sometime soon. Then it’s off to my car to make the short drive back to her apartment. Dad offered to bring her car back to her place tomorrow when my parents head out for some errands so she doesn’t have to try to figure that out either.

“So, how do you think today went?” I ask her as I pull out of the driveway. My Civic provides a bit of room for her to stretch her legs, but not so much that she feels far away from me. Seeing her get comfortable in my car has me thinking of summer drives with my hand resting on her thigh instead of on the steering wheel.

She lets out a deep sigh and leans her head against the headrest, looking out the window. “I am hurting absolutely everywhere and I am exhausted, but I think today went really well. I don’t know if anything is going to come from the contacts I made today or the conversations that were started, but it’s a whole new group of people, so I’m hopeful. And I had a great time tonight with your parents. Thank you again so much for letting me tag along. How do you think this morning went? Ready for the next steps with my project?” She asks me. I can sense the tiredness of her voice and know she is going to crash hard tonight. I have to keep my eyes and mind focused on the road and the question she just asked me and not on her getting in her bed tonight.

“You did incredible today. Seeing everyone with your cards and talking about your table was really neat. And you finally got to meet mine and Ashley’s parents.” I smile at her quickly before bringing my attention back to the road. “I think we can take tomorrow to recover and then we will reassess next week to see what next steps would make the most sense. Take tomorrow to make a list of contacts and who you want to connect with as a potential client or collaboration and we will start there at our next meeting.”

She nods at me and then goes back to staring out the window.

“You good?” I ask her. She’s quieter than normal and I don’t know how to fully read her right now when I can’t see her face clearly.

“Yeah, just tired. I guess I’m a little worried that today wasn’t enough and all the work we have put into everything is going to be a waste. But I really want to make this work. For me and for Ashley. And for you too,” she gives me a little smirk then continues, “I guess I’m just not wanting to get my hopes up too high but still patiently optimistic. Does that make sense?”

“Definitely. I want this to work for you too. And I enjoy spending time with you too, if I’m being honest. So, if this turns into more Saturdays spent together at the market and then grilling out afterwards, I won’t complain about that.” There. That’s out there now. I’ve kept my interest pretty subtle up until now and even that comment can be deemed as a friend thing, not necessarily more. But I want to start letting her know that I am interested in more. More than interested, desperate for it. I hear her take in a breath and then grab her purse. I didn’t even realize we were almost to her place already. That went way too quickly.

I pull up next to the sidewalk and put on my hazards so she can exit safely.

“Thanks, Matt.” She says as she unbuckles and pulls her keys out of her purse. She takes another few breaths before turning to make eye contact with me. I take a moment to just appreciate how beautiful she is. Not a drop of makeup on right now and she couldn’t be prettier to me. I have to stop myself from telling her that and instead just nod my head and smile in acknowledgment. She smiles back at me then opens her door and starts to get out. “I’m enjoying spending time with you too.” And then she steps out and closes the door. I wait until she is inside her building before I give myself a little congratulatory “YES!!” Quietly of course, because I don’t want someone hearing on the sidewalk. Once the light goes on in her bedroom, I head for my place and start working on the next phase of growth – for her business, and for us too.

The next morning, I take some time mapping out the week ahead. This includes ordering her coffee for the week, some mornings at the shop and then a few mornings as a delivery to her work when I know she has to leave early. I hope having a note to leave it at the Service Desk and then call her is enough to actually get it to her each morning, but I will hopefully find out soon.

Then, I work on compiling a list of everyone she met with yesterday. She had a list going on her phone of the connections she made and little notes to go back to for reference, so I have a master list to go off of. At least until she goes through this list and decides who she wants to prioritize.

I’m excited to see what comes of these and how many of them will be collaborations or even full product deals. I get creative with Sasha’s ads for the next week and then the suggested videos. I use some money on ad spend so that enough of this is legit on her end to make sense. I’ve been watching who engages with her content for months, so this part is becoming easier and easier to manipulate.

What’s going to get my creativity going is the collaborations. I can’t just cold message all of these places. I need it to be their idea. So, the spa that connected with Sasha is going to start seeing a lot of content about color theory and makeup brands that also feature skincare. One of those makeup/skincare brands is going to start seeing Sasha’s tutorials from last fall on transitioning skincare to winter skin needs as well as the benefits of connecting with smaller influencers. And the permanent jewelry company is going to get several requests for a lipstick charm this week. Social media “suggested” content has become my favorite thing to play with – especially in a target demographic that pretty much lives on social media channels. It doesn’t take more than a suggestion or two before the clicks start coming in.

Will all of them go the way I want them to? I can only hope. But my success rate with this is very good. My sister doesn’t call me “Mastermind” for no reason. Yes, I know about that.

It’s finally a decent hour, so I send a message over to Ashley.

Me: Hey. Are you recovered enough to get some work done today?

Ashley: No. I am dead. Everything hurts. Please tell me we don’t have to do this every Saturday!

She follows it up with several gifs that convey how sore she is and apparently, with quite the mess of hair.

Me: You don’t have to do this every Saturday. I’m thinking of giving you a week off and then going back into it. What all do you have planned for Fourth of July content this week? With everything planned for the farmers market, I didn’t get the final content plan from Sasha and I want to double check it against what I am working on.

Ashley: Yeah, give me a sec.

A minute later she sends me a picture of a notecard with the content schedule for the week. It’s all videos and pictures that are already done and scheduled to post. Part of what they have been working on is getting ahead of the content schedule. Batch creating, recording, and scheduling it out so that way they aren’t stressing about consistency.

They’re going for a traditional and classy Americana look series this week with basics in summer skincare, all day makeup looks, and pool friendly eyeshadows, liners, and mascaras. Perfect. I’m glad they are going simple with this. Ashley did an all-out look last year and then borrowed one of my hoodies. That thing still has blue glitter on it. And my mom has even tried to wash it. Twice!

---