Page 24 of His Weekend Girl
Many other influencers not associated with the company began to make negative product review videos. The number quickly grew from a few to a few hundred within days. Sales of the candy plummeted. The paid influencers stopped promoting the brand, citing it was damaging their reputations to be associated with it. Sales of other candy not associated with Neptune skyrocketed.
Nathan had successfully hidden that from his Silent Generation father. He wasn’t on social media and loathed anything anyone younger than him. He knew Jack wasn’t keeping up with what was going on and he also knew no one on the board dared to speak to him. Of course, it did help he bought their silence.
Until someone ratted him out.
Now Nathan was stuck in the massive library at his father’s estate while Grant poured over the numbers and Jack toked on a pipe. The tension in the room was suffocating and Nathan felt like he was about to pass out at any given moment. No, he was going to stand firm. He was the next heir to the company and things were going to turn around and –
“Who told you to change the candy formula?” Grant asked as he continued to work over the numbers.
Nathan looked over at his brother, whose eyes didn’t move from the spreadsheet. “It doesn’t matter.”
“In this case, it does,” Grant didn’t look up, “whoever told you that needs to be fired.”
“It wasn’t someone who worked for the company,” Nathan added with haste, “the person has nothing to do with the business at all.”
“Then the next obvious question is why in the hell did you listen to them?” Grant took off his reading glasses and stared down at his brother. “When a man makes a life-altering decision, it’s either because of revenge or ass, so which is it?”
“That was rather crude of you, Grant. I expected that behavior from some of our guests but not from you.” Nathan replied.
“It was rathertrueof me and are you going to answer the question or am I going to physically beat it out of you and enjoy every second of doing just that?” He warned.
“It was Charlotte,” Nathan spat out and Jack turned to him, “she complained the candy bar was too sweet and it hurt her teeth.”
Grant nodded. “And has she had any of the candy since you’ve made the change?”
Nathan swallowed and felt it was steaming hot in the air-conditioned room. “She doesn’t eat candy anymore.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Grant tossed the pen aside.
“Nathan, you’re excused,” Jack replied, “I need to speak with Grant alone.”
“I said I was going to take care of this, Father!” Nathan pleaded. “I just need a bit more time and I—”
“Boy, I said you were dismissed!” Jack’s lips tightened. “Go.”
Nathan looked at his father and glanced at Grant before he finally resigned. Whatever his father wanted to discuss with his brother had everything to do with him and nothing to do with him. “Very well.” He quickly left the room.
Jack walked to the window and looked outside at the massive lush green yard. It cost a small fortune to keep the yard tidy and he was pretty certain his gardeners might have been overcharging him. He also knew they were still worth the price. People far and wide always complimented him on his yard and he took pride in it.
It was the only thing keeping him a bit sane with the news he just heard. His first instinct was to throw his son out the window. He wasn’t sure if he would’ve felt bad about it. “We’re going have to lay off some people, aren’t we?”
“You will,” Grant replied, “I don’t know how many yet. But it’ll be a lot.”
“Define a lot,” Jack pressed.
Grant shrugged. “Considering what I just learned, the soft number is around a thousand.”
Jack bristled. “And the real number?”
Grant let out a breath. “Around 1800.” He shook his head. “And that’s just at first glance. It could be less but we’re looking at a minimum of a thousand people.”
Jack sucked on whatever food he could find in his teeth and shook his head as he continued to stare out into the yard. “I can give him all the tools he needs and he still manages to fail. How in the hell do you have a failing candy bar? It’s chocolate, caramel, nougat, and nuts! Something everyone likes!”
“He changed the flavor. No one wants change unless it is an improvement,” Grant replied, “if you put out an apology, make it humorous and relatable, and change the flavor back to the original, it’ll save some jobs and possibly everyone’s. We don’t have a lot of time, though.”
“Do it. Do whatever you need to do. Call whoever you need to call. And let’s hire some actual real celebrities and not these stupid-ass wet-behind-the-ears influencers, for fuck’s sake.” Jack turned to his son. “I want you to come back.”
It was a request Grant knew was coming but it still shocked him. For years, his family seemingly taunted him about how life went out despite how they all betrayed him. He had to take the insults and criticism every year at every family gathering. He had to play nice, smilejust enough, and quickly leave before they could throw any more jabs.
