“Oh yes I am! I can’t believe I let you hijack me last night! I should have been working and yet…” she didn’t finish that statement and she pushed her face into the water so that he couldn’t see her blush.
“You’re flying to London with me today, Joline. And we’ll leave as soon as we’re ready. No need to get through security.” His hands soothed her as he explained, “You’re going to take a look at your new store there and interview managers who will set it up and run it for you while you’re not there.”
Joline looked over at him, blinking back the water droplets that attached to her lashes. “London? We’re not ready for a London opening. I only just narrowed down the possible sites! I’m meeting with a realtor tomorrow morning.”
Rais stepped into the shower, taking the soap out of her hands and finishing the job. “You are ready. You’re just too nervous to follow through on anything. Take the risk. Dive in. I’ll help you with any advice you need.”
He was right! She’d been searching the internet, scouring the various real estate markets for a London store. She’d finally decided on the site she wanted, but hadn’t followed through on finalizing the contracts…because she was afraid of the increased risk.
“The first time I saw you, I wanted to ask you questions about business,” she told him, looking up into his strong features. He was rubbing the soap all over her body and being so sweet and gentle. “But I thought it would have been rude. I didn’t know anything about you except for your reputation in the business world.”
He smiled slightly as he winked at her. “Now you know me a bit more thoroughly. Ask me anything.”
Relaxing against his body, Joline smiled up at him. “I probably will.”
“And you’ll come to London with me?”
She thought about it for a moment. She didn’t want him to think she was weak in business. Not moving forward with the London store, even though she had decided on so many of the details, would be a weak path. She was going to be strong and confident. She’d researched all of the details, now she needed to just follow through on her decisions.
“I’ll have to call and cancel my ticket, but yes. I’d like to go to London and check out some of the possibilities. There's one in particular that I was looking at that might work.”
He considered telling her about the phone calls he’d made last night, but he probably should reveal that little intervention once he had her in the store he owned. She might be more forgiving at that point.
“We leave in an hour,” he told her.
She spun around, her mouth hanging open as she processed that statement. Fly to London in an hour? She was stunned, shocked at the possibility of that kind of freedom.
He misinterpreted her expression as he massaged shampoo into her hair. “Leave the New York store to your assistant. You need to look at the bigger picture. It sounds as if you are too caught up in the minutiae to effectively grow your business.” After rinsing out her shampoo, he took the conditioner and poured some in her hair. “Trust me on this, Joline. You need to delegate. First of all, I’ve done a background check on your employees and you’ve hired excellent people. Almost all of them want more responsibility. If you don’t give it to them, they’ll go somewhere else. And secondly, you have to decide if you want to be a manager or a director.”
His words rang true. It was one of the reasons she’d hired several of the people for the New York store but that didn’t mean she wanted to release any of her control. But he was right. If she wanted Jeseks to grow, she needed the help of good staff members. She needed to release control and delegate.
His question was intriguing though. She’d always thought that a manager and director were basically the same thing. “There’s a difference?” she asked, leaning against him as he conditioned her hair, his strong fingers pressing against her skull and helping her relax.
“Definitely. A manager runs the business. A director grows the business. Remember that,” he told her as he kissed her nose before pushing her backwards under the stream of water to rinse out her hair.
As she pulled on clothes that had somehow been delivered from her apartment, she thought about what he’d said and she suspected that he was right. She’d been so worried about getting all of the details right that she hadn’t had much time to think of the bigger picture, the higher level growth of the stores. She’d done a good job of getting things going at the New York store, but now it was time to release the task of day to day running to someone else.