Page 60 of Must Be Love - Irresistible Bachelors

It sucks. The product really works. Maybe I can figure out what part of semen is causing the improvement in Amber’s skin. If I can reformulate the serum without the actual come but have the same effect on skin, then I could get FDA approval. No one ever needs to know how I came up with the formula.

“Okay, yeah, you’re right. I’ll tell Amber.”

“Good,” Mike says. “You’re lucky to have a woman like her.”

I smile. “Yeah, I know. She’s the best. I might not have her for long when she finds out what I did, though.”

Mike shrugs. “She might surprise you. I think she’ll forgive you.”

“You don’t even know her.”

“I know you. I’ve never seen you so happy, especially not when you were with that ex of yours. If you care about her as much as it seems, she probably cares about you a lot, too. She might be mad. Scratch that – she’ll definitely be mad. She’ll forgive you, though.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I always am,” Mike says, taking a long drink of his beer. “You know, maybe I need to start hanging out at skincare conventions. Apparently, that’s where you go to meet the ladies.”

I laugh. “It’s not worth it.”

My phone rings, interrupting what Mike might have said next. The caller ID belongs to my sales manager at Blake Cosmeceuticals.

“Hey, Judy,” I answer.

“Oh, thank God. I’m sorry to bother you on a Saturday, Dr. Blake, but we’re in crisis mode.”

My heart drops. “What’s going on?”

“We can’t fill all the orders.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Something is wrong with the numbers. Allen Beauty Supply is pissed.”

“Shit,” I mutter. “That’s not good.”

Allen Beauty Supply is one of our biggest buyers. They took a chance on us when we first started out. If they’re mad…that won’t be good for us.

“I’m sorry, Dr. Blake,” Judy continues. “I’m not sure what happened.”

I sigh. “It’s fine, Judy. I’ll be in the office in a little bit.”

As soon as I hang up, I finish the rest of my beer.

“What’s going on?” Mike asks.

“An issue with the distributer, it sounds like. Sorry to cut this short, but I have to go.”

Mike waves me off. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll do it again next month. Maybe my ankle will be healed by then.”

“Here’s hoping. Have a good rest of your weekend,” I get up and put my coat on, tossing some cash on the bar. “Thanks, Dave.”

Dave gives me a half-wave, and I head out. I don’t know what I’ll be walking into when I get to the Blake Cosmeceuticals office.

Good thing I didn’t go crazy with the alcohol tonight.

Judy is pacing the floor when I arrive at our uptown office. It takes up two full floors of the skyscraper. One houses our R&D labs, and the other is for sales, marketing, and all of the other departments. With the way things are going, we might need to expand to a third floor soon. We started with just one floor a couple of years ago.

“Tell me what’s going on, Judy.”

“I’m really sorry you had to come all the way down here,” she begins.

“Don’t worry about it.”

I keep a foot in every door of my company. I go over numbers, review orders, suggest possible stores to target for our sales team, and work in the R&D labs. That being said, I’m in my dermatology office across town more often than I’m here. Plus, when I’m in the labs, it’s usually at night after everyone has left. I don’t get a lot of face time with the rest of the company.

“So, here’s the issue,” Judy says, walking me to her desk. “Somehow, there’s not enough inventory at the distributor to fill all of the orders. To get everyone some product, we reduced the size of each order instead of canceling some to fill others. Allen Beauty Supply’s order was cut in half, and they are not happy about it.”

“In half? Dammit, how is that possible? What happened at the distributor?”

“I’m not sure. I checked the records, and nothing seems off to me, but I only reviewed it quickly. You might catch something I missed.”

“Get me all the orders we sent to the factories and the requests from the distributor. I’ll figure this out.”

“Will do, sir. But you should know, Allen is on the phone.”

“Shit. How long has he been waiting?”

“My best customer service girl is talking with him. I think she has calmed him down, but…”

I nod. “Good, good. I’ll go take over. Hopefully, I can smooth this over and keep his business. If Allen pulls out, we’ll be hurting to make our numbers. We might need to…”

I stop talking. Judy is in charge of our sales department, but that doesn’t mean she needs all the details. It’s more important to focus on fixing this right now.

Jerry Allen, the CEO of Allen Beauty Supply, is an understanding man…until he isn’t. I’ve been on the wrong side of his temper before, and I’m not thrilled to be there again.

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