“This is it. I promise,” he said.
“Okay. Let’s get this over with,” I said and got out of the car. Dad was smiling his big, goofy smile like this was about the most fun he could have.
Once inside, Dad walked slowly up and down the aisles studying the shelves, and I followed along behind. On our fourth loop around the store, I noticed the pimply kid behind the register eyeing us like we were going to steal something.
“So what should we get?” I whispered.
“These.” He pulled a pair of sunglasses off a rack. “They sell these at the CVS in Crellin for ten dollars.” The sticker on the glasses read “$11.99.”
I looked at the glasses and then at the kid behind the register. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Yes, you can. Just do it,” he said and handed me the glasses.
I didn’t move.
“Now! Go!” he said, shooing me away.
There was no way my father was going to let me chicken out of this. This wasn’t like deciding I didn’t actually want to jump off that cliff into the waterfall on vacation last year in Mexico. People don’t need to be able to jump off cliffs into waterfalls. But being able to negotiate? That, as my father had been telling me all afternoon, was a “life skill,” something I had to learn how to do or I’d spend the rest of my life getting ripped off.
I turned around, walked to the register, and put the glasses on the counter.
The kid tipped his baseball cap back to look at me. “That’ll be twelve dollars and ninety-two cents.”
“Seems kind of high,” I mumbled.
“What?”
“Seems kind of high.”
“There are cheaper ones in there, I think.” He pointed at the rack. “You want to go check?”
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. The guy was trying to be helpful, and now I was going to give him a hard time. I stood there for a minute not sure what to do next. Then I turned around and started back to the rack, but there was my dad, standing right in front of it, pumping his fist in the air. I guess it was supposed to be some kind of, “Hang tough, son,” thing, but it just made me feel even more like a wimp. And not because I was too chicken to negotiate but because I was too chicken to tell my dad how stupid this was.
I took a deep breath and turned back to the register. “I’m not trying to give you a hard time, really. I want these glasses. It’s just they seem like a lot, you know, for what they are. I was thinking they’re more like ten-dollar glasses. That’s what they sell them for at the CVS in Crellin.”
The kid pulled off his cap, smoothed back his hair, and then put it back on. “So go to Crellin then, I guess.”
“But don’t you want my business?”
The kid looked over my shoulder at my dad who had this look on his face like he’d just seen me make a basket from the middle of the court in the last second of the game.
“Is this a dare?” the kid said.
“No. I’m just trying to negotiate with you. If you lower the price, I’ll buy them here instead of going to Crellin.”
“Man, I can’t negotiate with you. This isn’t my store. Do you know what Renny would do to me if he found out I was selling his stuff for less than he said to?”
I looked back at my Dad, who tick-tocked his head as he thought about this. Then he nodded and mouthed, “Okay.”
“Okay,” I said to the kid. “Sorry. I’ll put them back.”
“So it was a dare?”
“Not really.”
“I don’t get it. This is weird.”
“I know. You’re right. It is. Sorry,” I said and walked out.
“So?” Dad said as we drove home.
“So what?” I said. “That was so embarrassing.”
“But you didn’t get in trouble. You didn’t get arrested, right?”
“Right,” I admitted.
“And you learned something else too.”
“Yeah, don’t negotiate at the Gas Mart.”
“No. Make sure that the person you’re talking to has the authority to negotiate.”
“Oh, right, that too,” I said.
By the time we got home, it was too late to make the calls, so first thing the next morning Dad and I locked ourselves back up in the office, and I called Pinehurst Food Corp., which had tied with Elwin Farms for the lowest prices.
“Hello, may I speak to Carl, please?” I said. Carl was the guy I’d spoken to the first time, and Dad said I should ask to speak to him again because it was important to develop relationships in the business world. Also, I knew Carl was the owner of the company, so he’d have the power to negotiate.
“For you, Carl!” shouted the man who’d answered.
A second later, Carl was on the line. “Yeah.”
“Hi, Carl. This is Tristan Levin from Petersville. Maybe you remember—”
“Yeah, yeah. I remember. You ready to put in your order?”
“I’m actually calling about the price you quoted us.”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“I just wanted to make sure that it was the best you could do for us. You know, because we’re a small business just starting out and any additional savings we could get would really help. Also, even though I know we’re not ordering large quantities now, if the doughnut stand does as well as we expect it to, we’ll definitely be increasing those numbers.”
I’d done my pitch perfectly. I’d punched my words. Not a single “um” and only one “you know.” Based on what Dad had said, I fully expected the next words out of Carl’s mouth to be, “Well, sure, I’d love to help you out, and I do think I can do a little better. How about we cut that price by five percent?”
But that’s not what happened.
“What?” Carl said.
I repeated my pitch word for word a little louder this time, wondering if maybe Carl’s hearing
