“Is my granddaughter’s car ready?”
Diane checked her phone.
“Ten more minutes.”
“Good.”
“Frank?”
He paused at the door.
“Thank you for not making this about embarrassing my staff.”
He looked back at her.
“Diane, public embarrassment is cheap. Better systems are expensive. Spend the money.”
She nodded.
He left the conference room and went to find Emily.
Emily was sitting at a small round table near the customer lounge with her phone in one hand and her insurance application open on the screen. Marcus sat across from her, helping her locate the vehicle identification number on the purchase form without touching the phone or taking over the process.
When Frank approached, Emily looked up.
“Did you have another leadership summit?”
“Apparently.”
Marcus stood. “I’ll check on the detail bay.”
“You don’t have to run away,” Emily said.
“I’m not running. I’m strategically giving family members space.”
Frank smiled. “He learns fast.”
Marcus left.
Emily finished entering the VIN, submitted the insurance request, and placed her phone on the table.
“Can I ask you something without you turning it into a lesson?”
Frank sat across from her. “I can promise to try.”
“Did you know this might happen?”
“What?”
“People treating us differently because you came in dressed like a normal grandpa.”
Frank looked down at his canvas jacket.
“I am a normal grandpa.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
He considered the question carefully.
“I knew it was possible,” he said. “I didn’t expect it, and I certainly didn’t come here hoping to catch anyone.”
“Then why not call Diane? You could have saved us two hours.”
“I could have.”
“And all of this.”
“Yes.”
Emily leaned back.
Frank could see she was not accusing him exactly, but she was testing the fairness of his choice.
“You wanted me to have a normal experience,” she said.
“I did.”
“That wasn’t normal.”
“Unfortunately, for some people, parts of it are.”
Emily looked toward the showroom.
A family had just arrived in a minivan. Two small children climbed out, one carrying a stuffed dinosaur. A salesperson went to greet them almost immediately.
Frank followed her gaze.
“When I was twenty-one,” he said, “I came home on leave with enough money saved to buy a used pickup. I went to a dealership in uniform because I had come straight from the bus station. Salesman looked at my pay grade, decided I couldn’t afford what I was looking at, and tried to move me to something with a cracked windshield.”
Emily looked back at him.
“What did you do?”
“Left.”
“Did you buy somewhere else?”
“Yes.”