Episode 1105: Impossible

Michael answered with assurance that she’d shuffled things around to accommodate Justine’s desire to help her brother and sister-in-law. Justine thanked Michael for her understanding and promised that she would get as much work done as she could remotely and she intended to take care of the mess at the bookstore as quickly as possible and return to the office full time.

Managing her father was not tops on her list of enjoyable activities but she’d been the unanimous choice to rein him in while Ava sat vigil at Sebastian’s bedside. Justine knew if she didn’t take care of it Xavier would make a misguided attempt to help Avalon that ultimately wouldn’t help anything. Her father didn’t need a target and Bassie didn’t need to wake up to the news that Xavier was even more entrenched in Ava’s business let alone a situation where Ava might perceive Xavier as a hero for saving the bookstore from their father’s evil clutches.

So here Justine stood, having to set aside her own work projects and deal with her father, most definitely not her idea of a good time. The only plus was that being here dealing with her father meant she wasn’t dealing with her sister at the theater.

The best of times saw Adria as an exacting hard to please client and these were decidedly worse times with the sisters at odds over Xavier. Maybe contending with her father would at least be something of a reprieve in comparison to Adria’s pickiness and accusations of disloyalty. They clearly needed a break from one another if their working relationship was to continue and to preserve what little their was of their sisterhood.

It didn’t say great things when spending time with her father felt like the slightly lesser of two evils but that was her lovely family for you.

With a sigh, Justine walked into the store and found her father behind the checkout counter with a harassed looking clerk lecturing the young man in the art of upselling.

“But-” the clerk tried.

“No buts, just do it. I can’t babysit you. Sell, sell, sell, that’s all you should be thinking. The sale isn’t final just because the customer thinks it is. Every single time you should entice them to buy at least one more item than they intended. Now get it done. I have other things that need my attention like streamlining the inventory. If it isn’t a bestseller we shouldn’t waste floor space on it.”

It didn’t sound like the worst idea to Justine, pretty smart actually, a change she might have made were it her store but she had a feeling Ava wouldn’t love it and that was who she was supposed to advocate for here, a good business model wasn’t the end goal, preserving the bookstore to be as Ava wanted it was. Justine shook her head realizing what an impossible task this would be when coming at it from the point of view of someone diametrically opposed to the way her father thought.

Episode 1106: Vulnerable