Landlord Wars(36)
He covered the phone. “You came at just the right time to save my sanity.”
“What’s going on?” I said, as a crew of workers loaded parlor palms onto a truck at the curb. “Why are the plants here and not at the venues?”
Victor let out a long breath, closing his eyes briefly. “Because James quit, and I haven’t had time to hire another coordinator.”
On the plus side, Victor was good at his job, and everyone wanted to work with him. On the downside, Green Aesthetic didn’t have enough coordinators to handle the load, and it looked like my boss was ready to crack. “Why didn’t you call me?”
If James had quit suddenly, and Victor was running all four venues, this was bad. Victor was a genius at design, but he was terrible with running the daily ins and outs.
We moved out of the way of more workers taking product from the back of the store to the street, and Victor said, “I screwed up. But I’ll fix it. That’s not why I wanted you here today.”
Glancing around, I wasn’t so sure he could get things running smoothly. This would be a tough one for me to untangle, but I loved this sort of challenge. “I don’t mind helping.”
Victor gestured for me to enter the shop and followed behind me. “Forget all this. I have something more important to talk to you about. Do you remember when I hired you that I told you I’d retire soon?” Yeah, and I’d hoped he hadn’t been serious. Working for Victor had been a dream, and I wanted it to continue. I wasn’t ready to find another job. “I said I would give you as much experience as possible, remember? Well, time’s up. I’m retiring.”
“Now?” My voice came out in a squeak.
This was too soon. No one would hire me with less than a year of managerial experience. And there were only a couple shops like Victor’s in the city to begin with. But Victor had worked his ass off for decades; who was I to begrudge him his retirement?
“I understand,” I said, my heart sinking.
The plans I’d laid were once again not going well, although this time it wasn’t due to my neurosis. I’d have to find another job immediately if I wanted to hold on to my apartment and continue helping Elise with tuition and Mom with her bills. I pressed my fingers to my forehead at the pressure building behind my eyes.
Victor touched my shoulder and smiled gently. “Sophia,” he said. “I’m not laying you off. A couple years ago, I couldn’t have imagined being able to hand off the business to someone else. But everything changed the day you walked through the door. You have the passion and talent I was looking for in a design manager, and you’ve even grown the business in the short time you’ve been here. I’m offering for you to take it over.”
This was the second time in the last twenty-four hours that my brain couldn’t catch up to reality. First with Max and that naughty kiss, and now with Victor. “Wait, what? Are you serious?”
He laughed. “There’s no one I feel more comfortable entrusting the business to than you, not even my son.”
I swallowed, holding back a well of emotion. From the moment we met, Victor had felt more like a father figure than a boss. And now he was offering me something I’d only dreamed of having sometime in the distant future. It felt too good to be true.
“You’re the best boss I’ve ever had,” was all I could come up with, blinking back tears. “When I finally managed to branch off on my own, I thought I’d be building from scratch. I never dreamed of anything like this.”
Victor rubbed his jaw and looked around. “Not from scratch, but things don’t look too good at the moment, do they?” He chuckled. “Today’s chaos is my fault. In all honesty, I don’t have the energy anymore, and I want to retire.”
Regardless of how incredible this opportunity seemed, the truth was I’d only just moved out of my mother’s house and was barely keeping my finances in check. “I’m honored that you would consider entrusting the business with me, but I don’t think I can afford it.”
His face brightened, a twinkle in his eye. “I already thought of that. From what I’ve gathered, you’re the sole provider for your family, and that’s a big responsibility. If you run the place, I’ll maintain the capital so you don’t have to. I have no doubt you’ll build the business in ways I never could, and in turn, I’ll take a portion of the profit. We’ll set up a contract so that you can buy me out over time. It would be an investment for me and a career for you.”
He looked around the storefront. “I love this place, but I just can’t do it anymore, doll. I’m in my fifties, but physically I might as well be fifteen years older. Tim is threatening to leave me if I don’t step back and reduce my hours.”
Tim was Victor’s boyfriend of twenty years. Victor had come out later in life after a rocky adolescence of trying to fit in. He’d had a son with his one high school girlfriend when he was just eighteen—talk about surprise and confusion mixed together. But Victor had always said that raising his son was the best blessing he’d ever been given. He’d also stayed close with his son’s mother, regularly checking in on her.
“Tim would never leave you,” I said. “He adores you.”
Victor smiled. “Maybe, but we’d like to live out our golden years together, and he deserves more of me. You’ve already brought in new clients with your unique twist to green design, and our customers are beginning to associate the place with you. It’s as much yours moving forward as it is mine.”