The Lace Garage also boasted a bakery attached to the front office. Homemade cakes, cookies, and muffins, designed and curated by yours truly. They go together. I was good with my hands. The bakery front office was decorated in lace and cherries, rims and photographs of classic cars. If someone was just coming in for an oil change, they could enjoy some devil’s food cake with buttercream frosting while they waited.
I thought I had it made. Best crew in town, best location, best prices, and the cookies were better than the local bakery. But a little over a year ago, a fancy franchise opened up near the mall. It took up a huge lot like a dealership and used the same kind of overzealous lighting to pull in the eye. The joint even had the worst name—Roads. How uncreative can you be? They did everything by the book, no specialties, no gimmicks, but they managed to keep their prices cheap.
In the course of a year, Roads was already running me out of business. I certainly had my loyal customers, but Roads was eating up the menial jobs, the oil changes, the windshield and brake pad replacements—in other words, our bread and butter. If the neighborhood moms could do it cheaper, they would. I still kept the hobbyists and the aficionados, but Roads was quickly absorbing all of my run-of-the-mill customers.
“Laney, that cake was heaven on earth.”
Mack got that same afterglow from a good meal that most people get after sex. My strawberry cake was special… A whole pint of fresh strawberries went into the batter.
“Hey, Lane, check this shit out:” Mack read from the magazine I assumed came with the mail drop.
Edison Roads, CEO of one of the fastest growing companies in America, Roads Automotive, has just signed on to open a second location in Springfield. Not only has this dashing entrepreneur made the Forbes List of Thirty Under Thirty, he’s poised to take America’s Most Eligible Bachelor title this year too. This is a man who can’t be stopped.
When he finished, I cleared my throat. Mack was trying to show me the full-page glossy spread. I saw a blur of abs and pecs, dark hair, and bright-blue eyes, but I refused to get any closer.
“Mack, take that rag home and burn it in the woodstove, how about that?”
“I was just going to add it to the pile in the john.”
I turned my attention to Clem.
“Clem, what if you brought your truck into Roads? Have them check the brakes? You could bring me back a full report, the receipt, the lay of the land, tell me how the competition keeps luring them in.”
“Lane, it’s money, pure and simple. The greatest evil of all but the most basic motivator. I can go undercover for you, but the bottom line will be price and convenience. Hal says he’s got six guys working in that place. That’s twice what we got here at Lace.”
“I think I might have a piece of cake after all.”
Frosting, like money, shared the evil but motivating factor. A sweet deal will lure anybody in.
2
Edison
Business was growing so fast it made my head spin. Five years in, and I already had more stores than my team could handle. We went public and got into the franchise game. But I held on to creative control and oversaw every store that opened. I usually stayed on location a month or two to make sure things were up and running to my standards before letting the franchise owners take over and run a store with my name on it.
I grew up on ramen noodles and boxed mac-n-cheese, had hit the Forbes ”30 Under 30” list, and had exceeded my own wildest dreams. But running a franchise meant little time for my personal life. I wanted to have it all someday—wife and kids, picket fence, a dog and a cat, a boat in the bay. But I didn’t even have time to date. My life consisted of work from the moment I woke until my eyelids closed. But, as they say, lightning doesn’t strike twice, so I ran with the luck and put my all into it, because eventually, even the best luck runs out.
Springfield was a perfect town—not too big, not too small. The median income was high, and the school districts were highly rated. The people here cared about their city, and it showed, on the main streets as well as the residential ones. Springfield was picture-perfect middle America, and I could easily imagine building a life in this town.
However, when my time came to a close, I moved on with the business. I was only coming back a couple of times a year to visit and make sure the store was running up to my standards. It was. Springfield had a great team, one of the best in my company. I loved working the floor with this staff, who were better than stand-up comedy and liked to have fun with one another as well as with the customers.