Page 69 of Blame It on the Bikini
With time on his hands, he'd decided to help Frank put the finishing touches on the Mustang. The car show was tomorrow, and Frank was determined to drive the car in the parade. He felt bad that he'd dropped the ball on this project, but Frank had been understanding, just saying he knew he was busy, but if he had time…
Well, he finally had time. When he got to the parking lot, he was impressed with all that Frank had accomplished. The car looked good, with fresh red paint sparkling in the late afternoon light, the chrome bumpers polished, and new tires mounted and balanced.
Frank wiped his hands on a shop rag as he leaned over the engine bay, making final adjustments to the carburetor.
"There you are," Frank said, looking up with a smile as Grayson approached. "Hand me that timing light," he added, gesturing toward the workbench.
He handed him the tool. "You've made incredible progress."
"Thanks. I'm almost there," he said as he connected the timing light to the spark plug wire. "Fire her up."
Grayson slid behind the wheel and turned the key. The engine roared to life with a deep, throaty rumble, then Frank made a subtle adjustment, and the idle smoothed out into a perfect, powerful purr.
"That's it," Frank called over the engine noise. "Shut her down."
He slid out of the car as Frank continued to tinker under the hood. "She sounds good to me."
"Yeah, I'm just double-checking everything. I could use your sharp eye to make sure I haven't missed anything. Once we've checked all the boxes, tomorrow, I'll give her one final wash and detail. She's going to turn heads at that show."
"She will," he agreed.
Frank met his gaze. "I'd like you to ride with me in the parade. What do you say?"
"This is your victory lap, not mine."
"You helped me more than you know."
"I've been MIA the past three weeks."
"Yeah, but when you first helped me, I was having doubts about whether I could even restore this car or not, and your encouragement made me believe I could. So, will you ride with me?"
"I'd be honored," he said, touched by Frank's words. "What can I do to help you now?"
"Before we get into that," Frank said, giving him a speculative look. "Why don't you tell me what's been keeping you so busy?"
"I've been working on an acquisition of a property in Singapore for months, and it's falling apart at the eleventh hour."
"That's a shame."
"Yeah." He ran a hand through his hair in weariness and frustration. "Six months of due diligence, negotiations, flying back and forth to meetings. And now everything's going sideways. The seller's debt is worse than they disclosed, there are environmental issues with the building, and the asking price just doubled because another buyer entered the picture."
Frank leaned against the car, giving him his full attention. "What does your gut tell you?"
"That's just it—I don't know anymore."
"Yes, you do. I worked with a lot of executives in my forty years as a corporate attorney, and I've seen men and women who do their research, investigate every alternative until they're sure they know exactly what they're doing. I've also seen execs who have absolutely no substance, but they can hype, spin, and pretend like nobody's business. They think short term, not long term. They want to win now, especially if it looks like a win. They tell themselves they'll fix the other problems later or maybe not at all if nothing comes back to bite them in the ass."
"I know that type," he admitted.
"I would venture to say you fall into the first category. Because I've seen you work on this car, and you don't go too fast, you don't cut corners."
"That's true."
"Your instincts are sound, Grayson. What are they telling you? Should you keep throwing money and time at this project, telling yourself you've already invested too much to quit, or do you let it go? Do you ask yourself if you were starting fresh today, knowing what you know now, would you still want to develop this property."
He stared back at Frank, his words resonating. "That's a good question."
"See, the hard truth is," Frank continued, "your ideal plan—the one you fell in love with at the beginning—that's already gone. What you're looking at now is a completely different animal. The real decision isn't about whether you can salvage what you originally wanted. It's whether this new version—this battered, expensive, problematic version—is something you'd choose to take on from scratch."
