Page 123 of February

Monica wasn’t sitting in her chair how she had been all morning, and Bridgette hadn’t seen her outside. She worried that Monica might have just hopped on her plane, needing to get back to her life in New York even sooner than she’d originally thought, and that Bridgette needing a little time to herself had ruined them.

“What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy,” her mom replied. “Do I need to get your dad? Do we have more to talk about?”

“No, it’s not–” Bridgette stopped when she realized that they do have more to talk about now. “Actually, yeah.”

“He went to the office to make a few calls to the printer. Let me get him.” Her mom pressed the intercom button on the phone and said, “Honey, can you come back into the conference room, please?”

“Sure,” he said.

A second later, her father was in the room, closing the door behind him.

“What’s going on?”

“Bridgette needs to talk to us,” her mom replied.

He sat down next to his wife.

“I was talking to Monica earlier,” Bridgette began. “I’m not sure where she is now, but–”

“She went back to her hotel to talk to her father in private.”

“Oh,” she said, relieved that Monica wasn’t gone yet. “Well, she told me that her company–”

“Is making an offer?” her dad interrupted. “We know. They made it.”

Bridgette leaned forward in her chair and asked, “What? Monica made you an offer?”

“No,” her mom replied. “Monica told us that Arnette would be calling us with an offer and that she wouldn’t be involved anymore.”

“She said that?”

“Yes, before she left for the hotel. We got a call from one of their attorneys, who gave us an offer.”

“Oh,” Bridgette said, slumping back in her chair now.

“And it was more than what we thought they’d offer,” her dad added. “Enough for a good severance for every employee, and they said they could hire on most of the staff if we wanted and either relocate or keep Baton Rouge open. We’d have enough to find our next business or job, and you would, too.”

“I see,” she said, thinking of Monica the moment the words were out of her mouth. “So, when do you sign?”

“We’re not,” her mom replied.

“What?” Bridgette’s eyebrows lifted.

“Honey, we just told you that we’re giving you the company to run. We gave you our word, and we’re not going back on that.”

“Mom, if their offer is really that good, you should probably–”

“You just spent hours telling us how you could fix our mistakes and turn this place around. And now, you’re telling us to take the offer?” her dad asked.

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that if the offer is really that good–”

“It’s not as good as keeping the business in the family and giving you the chance you want to try to make this something. Monica gave us a list of web designers or developers she wanted us to give you. She said she had her assistant vet them, and they’re all reputable. You can have them update the site we have and add the whole cart thing to it.”

“She did?”

Her mom nodded.

“So, you’re sticking to what we talked about? I’m taking over?”

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