wanted to hear it again.
Christina nodded. At least she wasn’t afraid to fess up to her mistakes.
Her cheeks barely even reddened, and her expression stayed neutral. “Yes. I
was wrong. We want to give you the chance if you’d like to take it.”
“What would that look like?” Taylor asked. “I don’t want to give up
control of my business before it even gets off the ground.”
“You wouldn’t be giving up control. We would need to fine tune your
proposal, as I said, but you’d approve it before I put it through. All the
details would be in there. How much funding is needed, approximate size of
building, your business plans for the first year. If you don’t like what we put
together, and it would be based on what you already have, you would be
able to tell us to make any changes you’d like before it’s submitted.”
“And after that? Am I on my own?”
“Not exactly. We do want to make sure that this works, so part of the
deal is that you’d be willing to work with us on getting everything set up.
You’d basically have a team behind you if you need the help. Making sure
that the renovations to whatever building you eventually choose are
completed on time, making sure everything’s up to code, ensuring that a
schedule is adhered to. Helping you make connections with the shelters and
rescues. Helping with hiring. It’s a lot to take on by yourself.”
Taylor’s head spun with all the things she hadn’t really considered
before. “That doesn’t sound— uh— usual. Like— do you— do you do that
with other companies?”
“We recommend help if they need it. We have a number of names that
we can pass along—”
Taylor had the feeling that Christina was lying again. Or that there was
something she wasn’t telling her. Nothing about this proposal or deal or
whatever it was seemed norm
al. Taylor didn’t know what regular was for a
firm like this, but she was almost certain that it wasn’t guiding a project