Chapter 2: Making Tough Decisions
Sam POV
Finally arriving at S&P Books, she immediately sees that there are only 4 customers in the store. Looking at her watch she sees that it is only 10:30. Being a hour late isn't that especially when the lunch crowd hasn't come in yet so she relaxes just a little. On her way to the back of the store she passes the college student they just hired 3 months ago. "Good morning Kai, sorry I'm late. I had a long night. But how are you today?" "I'm doing great Ms. Sam just trying to keep up with studying and what better place to study then a bookstore." Sam loved Kai's enthusiasm and her love for books that's why she was hired. Even before offering her the position, she used to sit in the store for hours reading, doing homework and would help customers out from time to time. She became a regular so much that people automatically thought she worked here. So her getting a job here was inevitable.
"Kai I keep telling you to stop calling me Ms. It makes me feel old."
"Sorry Sam, It just comes naturally"
"So, is Carly in the back?"
"Yeah she is she's been waiting for you."
Uh Oh! Sam knew what that meant. Ever since the store has been in jeopardy carly hasn't been the easiest person to get along with. Usually with her always being the positive one but now she is so stressed, it makes her bitchy. "Thanks Kai." Sam said turning towards the office that she shares with carly.
Going into the back of the store, she is still amazed at the size they were able to get for the whole place. They were able to get a nice sized store which isn't too big nor is it to small but it's just big enough to accommodate book signings and events that the store holds. Now only if they could keep S&P open. In the back they were able to fit 2 desks, a mini refrigerator, a microwave, while still having enough room for storage. Opening the door to the back room, she sees that carly is on the phone. So she goes to her desk and gets settled to have what carly calls her Talk. carly has been her best friend since the first day of college, they shared the same dream and became. While carly is still on the phone she looks over at her wondering why she was still single. She is a very beautiful woman and any man would be lucky to have her. She has her own business, her own place. Maybe she was holding out for someone special, whoever it was sam thought she deserved happiness. Hanging up the phone carly turned and stared at sam with a seething look, and she knew this Talk would not be nice. After staring at her for what seemed like 5 minutes.
Carly finally said "so are you going to tell me why you were late this morning?"
"Carls it's not that big of a deal, I just overslept."
"you are a workaholic, you don't oversleep especially with the store being in jeopardy. So tell me what's really going on." Said carly
Sam couldn't tell her how she really felt. She couldn't tell her she felt like a failure and they hadn't even lost their store yet. She couldn't say that she dreaded coming in the store every day. And she couldn't say that she just wanted to give up sometimes.
So instead she said "I was up all night trying to come up with solutions to save the store."
"Did you come up with any ideas?"
"No, none that really helps. Mostly I thought of reducing our prices, but we already did that as low as we can, while still being able to pay the bills. But that still hasn't changed a thing, we need to make a major profit in the next 3 months or we lose everything."
"I have a couple ideas to save the store, but it will cost us."
"Cost us? Cost us how?" I am really not trying to spend money on someone who really isn't going to help. They are just probably going to consult us and then charge us way too much just for their advice.
"I was on the internet, and I was searching for people who specialize in helping to rebuild struggling businesses. I found one that I think we should consider hiring. Now I know that you don't agree with me on this, but I really think this is the direction we need to go in."
"We can't afford to be paying anyone. I don't know about this, we would be depending on someone else's ideas to save our store. When this person doesn't know anything about us or what this store means to the community." She didn't want someone telling her what was best for their store, when that person wasn't even there from the beginning.
Carly thinks she's just being unreasonable so she said "Sam let's think about everything, we need something to change. If not we lose our lives, and we lose our pride. I don't know about you but I think this is the only option we have left. So why don't you just think about it, and let me know your decision. But in two days with or without your decision I will be making this call to hire someone, because I refuse to lose this store. Even if have to spend my savings to pay someone I will, because I'm not giving up without a fight."
With that being said carly got up and walked out of their office leaving Sam to think about a lot. Was she being unreasonable?
Was she holding back because she was too afraid to have someone else save their store when she felt it was her responsibility?
She didn't want to let her pride get in the way of something that was bigger than how her ego would feel.
Her pride would be forever damaged if she didn't take a chance on someone. She needed to realize this just wasn't about how she felt, because she has a partner in this same situation. So deciding to swallow her pride and hire someone, even if that means spending more money that they really didn't have.
