Page 284 of Under Her Skin
Chapter1
BLAINE
November15th:
“The background check has cleared, Blaine. You can start your charity work at The Children’s Hospital today,” my secretary, Blanch, lets meknow.
“Great,” I answer her over the intercom in my office. “Can you call Kate and Kent in their offices and send them in here,please?”
“Will do, Mr. Vanderbilt. And would you like me to bring in the coffee service for your meeting withthem?”
“That would be very nice of you. Please dothat.”
I’ve been practicing my please and thank you’s as often as I can. Turning over a new leaf means changing the usual way I talk to people too. I used to think there was no reason to use gratuitous remarks when you are dealing with people inbusiness.
Kate is the one who is in charge of helping me with my hard edges. Kent is in charge of helping me figure out what I can do to make my business fairer to the local economies. So far, we’ve yet to come up withmuch.
The door to my office opens up and my brother and sister come inside, followed by the coffee cart, complete with pastries for our morning meeting. “Good morning,” I say as I sit at mydesk.
“It’s nice if you get up and greet the people who come into your office, Blaine,” Kate tellsme.
I nod. “I’ll try to rememberthat.”
She shakes her head and grabs Kent by the arm before he can make himself a cup of coffee. “Wait! Blaine, you need to practice doing that. Then it will become a habit and you’ll do it automatically. Get up, come shake our hands, greet us with a smile, and say some nicewords.”
With a sigh, I get up and go with my hand extended to do her little exercise. I take her hand first. “Good morning. My, don’t you look pretty today? Tell me, how did you sleep lastnight?”
I earn another shake of her head, sending her blonde curls bobbing away. “Blaine, that’s too personal. And the pretty remark might be considered flirty or sexist. Stick with the normal, ‘good morning, lovely to see you’ thing. Okay. Now, try to do better withKent.”
I turn to find Kent waiting with a tight-lipped expression. “How do you do, sir?” I ask as I shake hishand.
“Not very well, Mr. Vanderbilt,” he says as Kate and I both look at him with confused expressions. “I’m trying to give you the chance to interact with someone who’s not having a great day,Blaine.”
“Oh, I see now. Okay,” I say, then take a step back. “What seems to be the trouble, oldman?”
“Not ‘old man,’” Kate correctsme.
“Fine. What seems to be your malfunction, jackass?” I laugh, but it’s only me who’slaughing.
“Come on,” Kate whines. “Be serious. Watch me.” She reaches out to shake Kent’s hand. “Good morning, Mr. Vanderbilt. How is your daygoing?”
“Terribly,” he says with a fake frown. “I bought a bag of tools at your store today, and when I opened it, I found it was missing three of the tools the label said it had in it. When I went to the customer service counter to return it and get a refund, I was told they don’t issue refunds on electronics. I told them they were tools, not electronics. The lady pointed to the one electric thing in the picture of the tools inside of the bag—an electric screwdriver—and gave me asmile.”
I start laughing, and then Kent really frowns at me. “That’s crazy,” I say as I pour myself somecoffee.
“And that really happened to me yesterday, Blaine. At the store right here in town, that happened to me. We have real trouble here,” he says, then makes himself acoffee.
“You should leave the cart, Blanch,” I tell her. “It looks like this is going to be a lengthymeeting.”
With a nod, she leaves us, closing the door behind her. Kate picks up a cinnamon roll and an apple juice, then takes a seat. “My advice is to make up a new refund policy comparable to any of the other large chain stores. After we get that done, then I will implement a training program for the customer serviceemployees.”
“That sounds like progress,” I agree as I take my seat again. “And I’ve been cleared by the hospital to do some charity work there for the holidays. Today I will begin. So can I count on you two to work on the refundpolicy?”
Kent leans forward and says, “I think we need to stop buying everything so damn cheap,Blaine.”
“Whoa, that’s my main thing. I buy things cheap so I can sell them cheaper than anyone else does.” I shake my head as I lean back in mychair.
“Well, the cheap crap shows up in the stores either broken, nearly broken, or missing parts. I know you’re making it all work and the customers keep coming back, but it’s not fair to keep taking people’s hard-earned money for the same crap over and over again,” he says and gives me a little smile at the end. “What if that wasyou?”
