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On Monday, Georgia loaded her briefcase, trying not to dread the process of cold-call sales pitches It’d be easier to drive the ten blocks to Sundance’s e sandals The day waslike a whore in church by the time she reached her destination
She waited in her car for asponsors for the Devil’s Tower Rodeo progra the locals—especially after the previous rodeo proia a little They’d both agreed playing catch-up at this late date ht mean no business owners would be interested No sales would reflect badly on her, so she had no other option but to channel her inner saleswoman and sell, sell, sell
Luckily the co the stock contractor, the entertainuests and the individual chute sponsors also had commitments from the banks in Sundance for major sponsorships of the rodeo itself
Her idea—albeit not an original one—was to get the businesses in Sundance, Moorcroft and Hulett to sponsor a grand prize called the cash cohere the winner could choose between a fully processed and packaged whole cow or the cash equivalent Their company had seen success with this type of pro businesses had a big uptick in the aia inhaled a couple of breaths to calm herself and smoothed the wrinkles from her khaki linen skirt New businesses had popped up in the years she’d been away, so she’d start there
Fields, an upscale restaurant that featured locally grown ingredients frorains to beef, pork and chicken, took out a big ad
The hardware store bought a full-page ad As did Lettie froia had to wonder if so it out of pity because she was a poor pitchwoued A sale was a sale And if she had to answer gossipy questions to make that sale, so be it
She’d convinced the dentist’s office to advertise As well as the feed store The local i ball caps, T-shirts and Frisbees for the breaks between events, and they placed a quarter-page ad anyway
All the places agreed to allow proe and flyers in their establishrand prize
When her storowled, she realized she’d missed lunch She ducked into Dewey’s for a quick bite
The restaurant was nearly empty Thankfully the waitress who’d filled her ear with nastiness about Tell wasn’t serving She ordered the soup and salad special, shuffling through her notes while she waited She had quite a few businesses left to approach in Sundance and she hadn’t even started in Moorcroft or Hulett
The server set the salad down first and spilled the soup When she swore in Russian, Georgia’s gaze snapped to the y blonde Then she apologized in English “Sorry It’s pretty obvious I haven’t filled in as a waitress recently”
Georgia said, “No worries,”—in Russian
That startled the woman “It’s not often I run across someone in Sundance who speaks Russian”
“My mother is from Russia”
“Ah I was born in the Ukraine I knew many women who found husbands here Do you speak Russian fluently?”
“Just passably” Georgia slid her paperwork aside and pulled the salad and soup closer “You’re welcome to join me if you’re not busy”
The worab the iced tea” She returned and refilled Georgia’s glass “Busy lunch Feels good to be off ia”