"But of course I will help develop a product," I continued. "We all work here, and we all have to pitch in."
"We can't design and test a whole new product and manufacture it in time for Christmas," another engineer complained.
Honestly, dealing with engineers was like herding cats. I resisted the urge to massage my temples.
"I'm not talking about a new product," I said. "Just maybe an add-on for an existing one, like the sprinkle maker or the icing piper. The marketing team is thinking we can produce a limited-edition Christmas set with our normal product plus a few of these little add-ons, mark the price up, you know the drill."
"I was working on some add-ons for the sprinkle maker," one man said sheepishly. "I've designed an attachment to create little multicolored snowmen and reindeer." He showed me photos of the samples on his phone.
"These look ready to go!" I said, smiling at him.
"Yeah, I guess they are. I made them for my daughters. They’ve been using them a lot recently, so I know the design works."
Of course he had done that for his daughters, because he was a good father, unlike my own.
"Perfect," I said, trying to shake off any feelings of resentment. I was a grown man and a billionaire. I shouldn't still have issues with my father.
"Anything else?"
Another woman piped up, "I have a few frosting nozzles. I wanted them to make more natural plant-like decorations. My partner uses them for her wedding cake–decorating business." She showed me pictures.
"Looks like Christmas garland," I said, studying the picture of the elaborate cake.
"Yes, I was thinking that’s what we could market the attachments as."
"How did you make these?" I asked her.
"I 3D printed the prototypes then machined the final."
"We'll work with these and start talking with the machine shops," the chief engineer said. "The factories are more than willing to work with us, since they know we keep the lights on. Plus it's Christmas, and everyone needs extra money. I'll talk to operations, but I believe there are at least two factories that should have capacity."
"I'll come up with a couple more ideas," I said, "and run them by you all. The marketing department wanted to have at least three different sets they could advertise."
When Platinum Provisions had first introduced the cooking equipment line, I hadn't been all that interested in it. I cared more about the lifesaving surgical equipment and expanding our drilling products. But people seemed to respond well to the chef products, and if the marketing department thought it was a good idea to pay Romance Creative to market these products and it helped me keep control of my tower, then I was all for it.
In the car on the way home, I sketched out ideas for new cooking tools. Chloe used these in her baking, so maybe she had some ideas for a special Christmas product. I smiled thinking about having her alone.
Just for business, of course.
13
Chloe
We had a slight break between shooting the challenges. Most of the film team was finalizing edits and show structure for the web premiere. Romance Creative did assign Zane and another camera guy to follow us around and film us while we shopped for the next contest.
"Tomorrow's challenge is about Victorian desserts, so keep that in mind when you grocery shop," Anastasia said to us when we were all assembled in the lobby. "We thought you might have some interesting ingredients to use that we didn't think about. Plus Trader Mike's wants some footage of its stores in the show."
"I thought we have to figure it out on the fly?" I asked.
Anastasia laughed. "No, but we have to make it seem that way. We'll have shots of you leaving and coming back into the studio with your purchases. Also, Dana said to tell you all that the trailers for the show were released already and to please share them with your followers."
While Anastasia answered questions, I tweeted the preview clips ofThe Great Christmas Bake-Offout to my followers. Not even ten minutes later, my phone was blowing up with messages about how great my desserts looked and how delicious Jack looked. Speaking of everyone's favorite billionaire bake-off judge, when he walked through the lobby, Jack didn't seem all that pleased to see me even though I smiled at him.
Whatever. I knew his secret. He wanted my cookies, and he wanted them bad. Too bad Hartleigh was determined to ruin his morning.
"What is your problem?" I asked her after Jack disentangled himself from her. "He clearly doesn't like you."
"Yes he does! We arein love," she said.
