Page 18 of Fake It Till You Make It

Hiccup barked back and that was that.

For the next several hours, Eli had to stop his eagle eye routine and actually attend to his clientele.

Problem was, Calvary Vet had more females than felines filling the reception area. Well, that wasn’t actually true, there were definitely some cougars with their claws ready to swipe at the only masculine prey. The exam room door opened, and an impatient Eli escorted the last of the ladies out the door.

It was the end of the day and Amarie had used the time to make herself invaluable—un-fireable.

“Why is my phone pinging with tomorrow’s appointment reminder?”

“Because I wanted to remind you about tomorrow’s farm appointment today,” she said slowly, as if he had trouble understanding her.

“First off, I don’t need reminders in my own clinic. Who told you to take the appointments online?”

“You did.”

“Now, that there is a fib. Lying to me will get you booted out the door.”

“You said the front desk is my problem.”

“Yeah.”

“So, that makes me management.”

“That’s not in the policy.”

“I read your single-sheet policy manual. It’s not expressly prohibited. I took creative liberties.”

“Well don’t. Post-it notes did the job.”

“For you. All the YouTubers recommended this free cloud-based software for the practice.”

“Anybody ever tell you the internet’s not real? I’m running a business. Not an entertainment profile.”

Amarie was quick to defend her process improvements. Social media had been her constant companion. With tens of thousands of people tuning in for her PerkyLateBloomer InstaG reels and TikTok videos, she’d found a safe place to share her authentic self.

“Leveraging social media is a great way to get your brand message in front of potential customers,” she defended.

“And how’d you get my cell phone number?”

“From the employee roster.”

“Momma,” he bellowed. “What in—you gave her—that’s confidential information.”

His mom peeked her head out. “You said it was for employees only. That’s me and Amarie.”

“Thank you, Leah.” Amarie gave a mock high-five. “As the office manager, we have transitioned to an online patient management system that allows our pet owners to schedule appointments via our web-based portal twenty-four hours a day. That means they don’t have to wait for one of us to answer the phone. And then there are Zelle payments.”

“Don’t need it. Cashbox worked for my father. Nothing was wrong with the way it was,” Eli said through clenched teeth.

“Trust me, you’re too impatient for my dissertation on thehigh cost of operational inefficiency. So, in addition to old-school cash and checks—ew, can you say dirty money?—we now accept contactless online payments. The money is deposited directly to the clinic’s account for immediate availability.”

Eli brows pitched low, his expression thunderous. He glared at his mother. “Tell me you didn’t give our financials to a complete stranger.”

“She’s a part of the team, Eli.”

“Fine,” he spat. “Come tomorrow, I want you to teach me everything you’ve changed.”

“Really?” she asked. Russell had never been interested in anything she did as long as it was done.