She gives my hand a little squeeze. It sends a tight, tingly feeling down every nerve. “Nope,” she says, “that’s it.”
That’s it? Is that a joke? My mouth dries up, and my heart feels like it’s skidding down a Slip ’n Slide hours after someone shut off the hose. If she won’t bring up the kiss, I have to, but it takes a bit to generate enough spit to speak up. “Okay, but can we talk about the—”
“Get a load of this!” Aunt Carol’s squawk startles us both with a jolt. Jesus Christ. The interrupting genes are strong in this family.
“What is it?” Ellie asks. “Did you find a good deal?” I guess our private conversation has gone public again.
Carol holds up a flimsy Kohl’s ad that folds in on itself before we can read it. “Up to eighty percent off the whole store! How do they keep their doors open doing this sort of shit?”
“Up to eighty percent probably means only some clearance is eighty percent off,” I explain. “The rest will be, like, thirty percent. But it gets you to show up.” I hope that will be the end of it and Ellie and I can resume our discussion, but no such luck.
Carol straightens, craning her neck over her shoulder to get a better look at me. “El Bell is right. You are a marketing genius.”
I stop myself on the verge of a venti-size eye roll. It doesn’t take a genius to understand basic advertising tactics, but before I can argue the point, Ellie takes my hand and squeezes tight again.
“She’s so smart,” Ellie swoons. “And she hasn’t even taken any marketing classes yet. Just gen eds. Can you believe that?”
“You better hurry up and graduate so I can hire you to fixMonarch’s marketing,” Carol says. “What do you think we need? An Instagram? A Google account?”
I bury my teeth into my lip. Any chance of that private conversation is officially gone, so I guess I might as well weigh in. “I think a website is probably a good place to start,” I suggest. “Have you thought about an eCommerce shop? Selling some of your stuff online?”
Carol’s frown pulls the droop of her cheeks down even farther. “Sounds complicated.”
“It doesn’t have to be. I can show you.”
“Jesus,” Carol huffs. “I feel like I should be paying you already!”
“See?” Ellie says. “I told you. You’ll be drowning in business as a marketing consultant the second you graduate.”
Carol’s nod is so aggressive, she’s at risk of a neck injury. “I feel like all these new shops have something Monarch doesn’t,” she says. “Like Sip or that new bookstore with the dog on the sign. They’re doing nutso levels of business. It’s like they know something I don’t. What am I missing, Murph!?” Every sentence out of Carol’s mouth is a decibel louder than the last, the verbal equivalent of being shaken by the shoulders. What’s worse is the way she stares at me, eyes wide and expectant, like I’m supposed to reveal the secret formula to her right here, right now.
“I think it’s about making the store less of a store,” I start, hoping Carol’s lack of marketing knowledge will mask the fact that I’m talking out of my ass here. “Running a shop is one thing, but making it into a destination creates community, you know? Coffee shops have it easier. They’re meant to be the kind of place where you sit and stay for a while, read a book, talk to afriend. And the bookstore, that’s the same way. They created this setting where you could just come and…be.”
“I don’t want people to justbe,” Carol says flatly. “I want them to spend money.” It’s not very Zen hippie aunt of her, but I get it, and although I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to say, I keep talking anyway.
“I think Monarch is somewhere you go for a purpose, just to do something and get it done. You buy a necklace or a candle and then you leave. Whereas a place like Sip feels more like a community center. There are events and concerts and people you want to see. If you can turn Monarch into more of a destination, a community that people want to belong to, they’re more likely to come by more often and spend more money.” My eyes flit to Ellie, who nods, either impressed or faking it well. When I turn back to Carol, she blinks at me, slack-jawed. I guess I actually landed on something pretty good there.
“Damn, Murph. You’re one smart cookie,” Carol says.
Ellie’s laugh shakes her shoulders without making a sound, and her blue eyes sparkle with amusement. “Told you she’s a genius at this stuff.”
“Not a genius,” I correct her. “I just have a decent sense of how people think.”
“Oh sure.” She nudges me playfully. “Like a genius.”
Carol laughs and slowly shakes her head as she studies us. “Geez, you two bicker like an old married couple. It’s crazy to me you’ve only been dating a year.”
“Is it?” Ellie nuzzles her head into the crook of my shoulder, close enough for me to breathe in grapefruit again. “What’s so crazy about it?”
“You’re just so comfortable with one another. Maybe it’s ’cause you’ve known each other since high school.” Carol steeples her fingers and presses them to her lips. “You know what it is? I think you built your relationship on a really solid friendship.”
“That’s true.” Ellie responds a little slower than feels natural. “We started off as just friends.”
It’s not lost on me that we’re still starting off right now.
“That really shows,” Carol says. “Never lose that friendship.”
“We won’t,” Ellie says. “Right, Murph?”
