Vincent studied her face. "That's the first time somebody has said that to me here."
She called the service manager, who came down with a repair specialist and a realistic estimate. They arranged a suitable loaner, agreed on a documented work plan, and scheduled updates that Vincent could rely on. By the time he left, he had not received a miraculous repair, but he knew who would call and when. That was more than the dealership had given him in three months.
"You didn't sell anything," a young salesperson named Brent said afterward, sounding almost disappointed.
"I helped keep a promise the dealership already made," Kayla replied. "Does that count as work?"
Brent had no answer. Maribel, who had watched quietly, placed a small checkmark beside a note on Kayla's training plan. Kayla tried not to look at it; she wanted feedback, but she did not want to perform goodness for a score.
At lunch she sat with Tyler, the salesperson who had witnessed Chad mock Frank. Tyler confessed that he felt guilty for laughing along, and Kayla asked whether the guilt had helped him decide what he would do differently. He admitted he had been afraid of losing the best leads if Chad became manager. Chad had promised desirable customer assignments to people who supported him and less profitable walk-ins to those who questioned him.
"That's how it worked," Tyler said. "Nobody wrote it down, but everybody understood."
"Then we write the new rules down," Kayla replied. "And we make sure they don't change depending on who likes whom."
She spent the afternoon with the receptionist who had temporarily taken her place, a recent community-college graduate named Sasha Monroe. Sasha confessed that she felt uneasy working the desk because Dean had once corrected her publicly for giving directions to a customer who did not have an appointment. Kayla showed her how to escalate a request safely and told her that offering a chair or coffee would never count against her performance evaluation.
"What if someone comes in and doesn't have the money for the truck?" Sasha asked.
"Then we tell them honestly what things cost. We give them useful information. We do not make them regret walking through the door."
Sasha smiled. "That sounds almost too simple."
"Maybe simple was what we lost."
At four, Kayla called Lily to tell her she would be home for dinner. Lily wanted to know whether the office had a spinning chair, and Kayla looked toward the sturdy chair behind her desk. It did, but she had spent so little time sitting in it that she almost laughed at the question. She told Lily the chair spun and that there were a great many things in the building more important than the chair.
"Like people?" Lily asked.
"Exactly like people."