She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack, so I rubbed her shoulders. “Relax. One thing at a time. Can you call the lab? Don’t you have a personal contact there?”
“I do, but it’s late…”
I massaged Erica’s shoulders until she relaxed. Then, when she was able to breathe calmly, she called the laboratory on speakerphone. Her contact answered on the second ring.
“Yolanda! It’s me, Erica Porter. I didn’t think you would answer since it’s almost eight…”
The woman on the other end laughed. “Oh, I’m working all right. We’ve been going through the orders we received today. I was just about to call you to confirm everything is legitimate. I was afraid it was a glitch.”
“It’s all legit. We had an unexpected boom in sales.”
“Well, next time give us a warning when you’re running a marketing campaign. If we had a heads-up, we could confirm these orders faster.”
“Sorry! I’m so sorry. It was some stupid YouTuber who mentioned our business on his channel without telling us.”
I pretended to look hurt. She ignored me.
“Can you meet the orders?” Erica asked nervously. “I know our original retainer was only for one hundred, and you said production capacity fills up fast…”
Yolanda chuckled into the phone. “That’s what we tell small businesses who have never worked with us before. We try to lock-in as many sales on retainer as possible. But for higher-volume clients such as yourself, we are happy to make room in our production schedule! Especially at the original price of five hundred dollars per carat. I’ll send over a revised contract immediately so we can lock you in…”
“Oh that’samazing!”Erica said, slumping onto the dining room table with relief. “Thank you! Thank you so much! I owe you for this…”
But my business sense was tingling. Yolanda seemedoverjoyedto have all of these extra orders. They weren’t just doing Erica a favor out of the goodness of their heart.
Original per-carat price,I thought to myself.
I shoved Erica aside and leaned down to the phone. “Hi, this is Paxton McNeely, director of marketing and logistics forYours Forever Gemstones. I have to admit, we’re not pleased with the pricing you’ve offered us. That’s the reason we’re calling. We have a competing gemstone laboratory who can offer us a more favorable price, especially at these high volumes.”
Erica muted the phone and hissed, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
I turned to face her. “Do you trust me, Erica?”
“I trustyou. But I’m not sure I trust Paxton McNeely, who just promoted himself to director of marketing and logistics!”
I cupped her cheek tenderly. “Do. You. Trust me?”
She pursed her lips. “That depends on how the rest of this phone call goes.”
I kissed her on the forehead and unmuted the line. “Yolanda? Are you still with us?”
“I’m here. I’m reviewing our pricing models. What competing laboratory has offered you a lower per-carat rate?”
I grimaced. Maybe my bluff wasn’t going to work after all. Erica was staring at me with wide, alarmed eyes.
“I’m bound by a non-disclosure agreement, and can’t tell you which laboratory,” I said.
“I understand that. Can you tell me the location? Is it the one in Sacramento, California?”
I looked at a terrified Erica, swallowed the lump in my throat, and said, “Yes.”
There was a very long pause on the line. For several heartbeats, I was certain that I had fucked up. I could feel Erica’s trust in me circling the drain.
“Paxton,” Yolanda’s voice finally said. “For a customer of your size, I can approve bulk pricing of four hundred dollars per carat for all new orders placed after we sign the paperwork.”
“Not good enough,” I said, feigning disappointment. “That price needs to apply to all the current orders. Beyond the original hundred that were already paid for on retainer, of course.”
“Agreed,”Yolanda said without hesitation. “I’ll draw up the paperwork immediately. Do you want me to include you on the email?”