After dessert, the group returned to the Grill & Glory office building to continue reviewing the company's business and financial records.
On the way back, it started to rain. December rain in New York is often accompanied by a sharp drop in temperature. It had been 16°C when they arrived in the morning, but by 4 PM, the temperature had plummeted, and pedestrians on the street were quickly bundling up in coats and scarves.
The car pulled up to a street-side spot near the office building. After stopping, Ryan smoothly opened the glove compartment and found an umbrella inside. "Boss, there's just one umbrella here. How about you ladies use it, and Aiden and I will run over?"
The parking spot was about 200 meters from the office building. While the rain wasn't too heavy, running there would still get them soaked.
"Running in this weather, you'll probably be calling in sick tomorrow," Grace said to Aiden, who was in the driver's seat. "I have an extra umbrella in the trunk. Aiden, can you pop it open for me?"
Aiden Thompson unbuckled his seatbelt. "I'll go get it."
He opened the car door, stepped out into the rain, and retrieved the umbrella from the trunk. After opening it, he tilted the umbrella so that it covered the car door.
Grace froze as she watched him from the back seat. His suit, polished shoes, and long fingers holding the black umbrella made him look incredibly sharp. Standing there in the rain, everything else around him seemed to blur out.
In that moment, Grace's heart skipped a beat, uncontrollably.
Sitting next to Grace, Scarlett Harris also noticed this. As Grace started to open the door, Scarlett quickly followed her out of the car, stepping under the same umbrella as Aiden. "Thanks."
"Scarlett, why don't we share an umbrella?"
Scarlett Harris snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Ryan standing by the car door. How she wished it were Aiden Thompson standing out there instead. Pushing aside the twinge of disappointment, she forced a smile and said, "Sure, let's do that."
Scarlett got out of the car, and she and Ryan shared the umbrella.
Aiden Thompson held the umbrella and walked ahead with Grace. The folding umbrella wasn't big enough for two people, so it was angled mostly in Grace's direction.
Scarlett watched this scene from behind and cautiously turned to Ryan. "Ryan, looks like Grace and Aiden are getting along pretty well, huh?"
Ryan grinned. "Well, everyone in the team gets along. It's not just them."
Scarlett thought about the group dynamic and agreed. Everyone was close-knit, like a big family. Aiden holding the umbrella for Grace didn't seem that special. After all, Ryan was holding an umbrella for her, too.
Back at the Grill & Glory office building, Jack Bennett arranged for them to use a conference room to continue reviewing the materials.
They each sat at different tables, with piles of paperwork in front of them.
It was now 5 PM, the temperature was still dropping, and the sky outside was getting darker.
Scarlett had dressed lightly today, and the drop in temperature made her feel chilly. Looking at the others, they were all absorbed in their work, taking notes or reviewing documents, and the room was quiet.
Should've bought a jacket when I picked up the shoes earlier.
"You guys cold?" Scarlett asked.
Grace looked up. "Not too bad. Are you cold?"
Scarlett hugged her arms around herself, rubbing them for warmth. "It's freezing. The temperature's dropped so fast."
Ryan glanced over at the air conditioner in the corner. "I'm a little cold, too. Let me turn it on."
Grace stopped him. "Hold on, I'll go ask them first."
She stood up and walked over to the office next door. Jack Bennett's son, Dean Bennett, who was in charge of operations, was in there.
David saw Grace walk in and quickly met her halfway. "Ms. Li, what can I do for you?"
Grace said, "The temperature suddenly dropped, and we're all a little underdressed. Is it possible to turn on the heat in the conference room? We understand you have some rules about this, so I wanted to check with you first."
"Sure thing, no problem. I'll get it for you. The rules are mainly to keep things eco-friendly."
"Thanks so much."
David went to the conference room to adjust the temperature. "Anything else, just let me know."
"Will do."
Once the heat was on, the temperature in the room started to rise, and Scarlett began to feel warmer.
She said, "When I was in the UK, they had heating everywhere except outdoors. Back home, a lot of places don't have it, and it's such a pain."
Grace replied, "Yeah, it's all about the climate and habits."
While they chatted, Aiden Thompson remained focused on his paperwork.
Scarlett glanced over at him a few times. She had come to join this project because of him, but they hadn't really spoken much.
After a while, Aiden stood up, picked up a document, and walked over to Grace. "Grace, there's an issue with these numbers."
Grace took the document from him, and Aiden leaned over the table, pointing to the data. "For a restaurant chain, their promotion costs are too high. They're eating up 8% of their total revenue, which doesn't make sense."
Grace studied the numbers and agreed. In the U.S., it's typical for large restaurant chains to spend around 0.5% to 3% of their revenue on promotions each year. Promotion costs vary widely depending on the platform, the type of influencer, and the format used. For example, a lifestyle influencer with a million followers on Instagram might charge anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 for a regular post, while a food blogger with the same following could charge $3,000 to $5,000 for a combination of posts, stories, and videos. For Grill & Glory, a mid-sized chain, spending 8% of their revenue on promotions seemed unusually high.
Grace said, "Can you go ask Dean Bennett to break down the promotion costs for us? The more detailed, the better."
"Got it."
By 6:30 PM, Dean Bennett suggested taking the team out for a nice dinner. However, considering how much time they'd already lost today, Grace Li politely turned down the offer and decided to order takeout through DoorDash instead.
Once the food arrived, they quickly ate and got back to reviewing the documents.
By 7:30 PM, Dean Bennett finally had the finance team send over a detailed breakdown of the promotional expenses.
Grace reviewed the records and noticed something odd: according to the data provided, a big chunk of the company's promotional budget had been paid to social media influencers and short-video creators.
She searched for the listed influencers online and found that they had, in fact, promoted Grill & Glory.
Having worked in the consumer industry for over five years, Grace knew how things operated. In recent years, it had become common for restaurants to work with influencers to create "viral" dining experiences. She was familiar with the going rates for such promotions.
Grill & Glory currently operated only in a few cities within New York State. For a promotion campaign, they should've focused on local food influencers. That would've kept costs reasonable. Hiring national influencers with millions of followers, on the other hand, didn't make much sense when the brand wasn't even expanding outside the state yet. It seemed like a waste of money.
Grace quickly sent a Slack message to Aiden Thompson:
"Aiden, the promotional expenses seem fishy. Can you pull the contact info and campaign data for the influencers listed? Thanks."
Aiden replied almost immediately: "Got it."
By 8:00 PM, everyone was still working hard, but Scarlett Harris checked the time and sighed to herself. It was going to take her an hour and a half to get home, and with a morning meeting tomorrow, she'd barely have time to wind down.
After a moment, she messaged Grace:
"Grace, what time are we heading back?"
Grace saw the message and understood that Scarlett, though polite, was hinting that she wanted to call it a night.
Since this was Scarlett's first time on a due diligence trip, Grace didn't want to overwork her. She replied:
"Let's leave at 8:30."
"Thanks!" Scarlett quickly responded.
At 8:30 sharp, they packed up and left Grill & Glory's office.
Once they got into the car, Grace pulled up the data Aiden had sent her and skimmed through it. After a moment, she turned to the others and said:
"I'm going to make a few calls. Let's keep it quiet for a bit."
"No problem," Aiden said, keeping his eyes on the road.
Grace dialed the first number on the list. The phone barely rang before someone picked up. She softened her voice and said politely:
"Hi, this is Grace Li from Grill & Glory's finance team. Sorry to bother you this late—do you have a moment?"
"Sure," the person replied. "What's this about?"
"I just wanted to confirm something regarding the promotional video you did for us. Did you send us an invoice for the campaign?"
"Yes, I mailed it out last week."
"Got it, thanks. Just to double-check, the total amount on the invoice was $8,680, right?"
"Wait—what? No way," the person sounded surprised. "I only got paid $1,980."
Grace quickly apologized. "Oh, my mistake! Must've been a mix-up on our end. Thanks for clarifying."
After hanging up, Grace called another influencer, only to get a similar answer. The amounts listed in the company's records were significantly higher than what the influencers had actually been paid.
Grace leaned back in her seat and said calmly, "Grill & Glory's promotional expense records are fake. The amounts they reported are way higher than what was actually paid."
Scarlett, sitting in the back, frowned. "Why would they fake their promo expenses? If they're spending more on paper, it just makes their profits look worse. What's the point?"
"They probably did spend that money," Grace said, scanning the data again. "But it wasn't on influencer promotions. They're hiding something else."
Aiden, still driving, chimed in: "You know, something felt off earlier. When we got to the restaurant around 1:30 PM, it was still packed. Lunch rush should've been over by then. I thought that was weird."
Ryan, who had been quietly listening, nodded. "You're right. I noticed that too. When I visited their locations before, there were long lines every day. Their food's good, sure, but the crowd sizes didn't seem normal for weekdays."
Grace tilted her head thoughtfully. "They're probably paying people to stand in line to make the place look busy. That kind of thing isn't cheap, so they're burying those costs in the promo budget."
Scarlett looked skeptical. "But their barbecue really is good. If it's just for appearances, I guess I can see why they'd do it. It's all about marketing, right?"
Grace shook her head. "The food they served us was probably their best. It doesn't mean the average customer gets the same experience." She turned to Ryan. "Check Yelp, Google Reviews, and any other review platforms. Let's see what customers are really saying."
"On it," Ryan said, pulling out his tablet.
A few minutes later, Ryan let out a low whistle. "Okay, here's the deal. Their Yelp rating is 4.5 stars, which looks good on the surface. But a lot of the recent five-star reviews seem fake—like they were bought. If you scroll further back, you'll see a bunch of complaints about the food quality going downhill. People are saying they're using cheap frozen ingredients. For their 'fresh' options, they're charging $150 for a two-person barbecue set—double the price of their regular set."
Grace crossed her arms. "This is typical for restaurant chains that expand too fast. They cut corners on quality to save costs, and it hurts their reputation. Throw in rising labor costs and rent in a place like New York, and the pressure to stay profitable must be huge."
Ryan nodded. "Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of mixed reviews now. The bad ones were just buried under the fake positives."
"So," Ryan asked hesitantly, "do we still move forward with this project?"
Grace thought for a moment before replying, "We've been working on this deal for three months. We owe them a chance to explain themselves. Let's meet with Jack Bennett tomorrow and see how he responds. If he can't give us a straight answer, we're done here."
"Sounds good," Ryan said.