Page 149 of Bridesmaid for Hire
“You’re scaring me, Brody.”
“I’m sorry,” he says. “But I, fuck, I’m worried that you’re going to be pissed at me, and I’m really happy right now, being with you. It’s been the best fucking twenty-four hours and I don’t want to lose that. I don’t want to lose this.”
“Just tell me,” I say.
He lets out a pent-up breath. “You know, Deanna, the devil woman I was telling you about?”
“Yes,” I say.
“Well, she’s proposing that Hopper Industries expands into the wedding business.”
“Oh,” I say, feeling my heart sink.
“She wants to use the huge, empty commercial buildings that are sitting around town and turn them into venues where ceremonies and receptions can both take place. Churn out cookie-cutter weddings in-house with the event planning staff and well…fuck, apparently Reginald really likes the idea.”
“Okay, why are you nervous to tell me?”
“Because.” He gulps. “I think Deanna’s plan has the potential to hurt your business. I don’t know the ins and outs, but I think she’s trying to be exclusive with certain vendors and take over the wedding scene in San Francisco. And this is something I probably should have told you earlier, but I think I was so wrapped up in my own goals, I forgot about you.” He takes my hand in his. “I’m sorry, Maggie.”
“There’s no need to apologize,” I say as I cup his cheek. “If you were the one trying to put me out of business, that would be a different story, but it’s not you. It’s Devil Deanna.”
He chuckles and then pulls me into a hug. “It is Devil Deanna.”
I ease into his hold, and he lays us back on the lounge chair. I curl into him and drape one of my legs over his as I rest my head on his chest. “Thank you for telling me. The news kind of sucks, but I feel like your idea is better. There is no originality to hers.”
“I think so too,” he says. “But Reginald only sees numbers and the wedding industry is lucrative. Not everyone wants to get married in a hotel, and that’s why Deanna wants to expand the business into other venues and have everything in-house.”
“I don’t know how viable that is,” I say. “I mean, with me, I can offer discounts to my partners, but I would never be solely exclusive with vendors because people like to have options. They like to have a variety of choices and who am I to take that away from them? I think if Deanna has exclusive vendors, she’s doing their clients a disservice, and also pissing off the other vendors out there, especially if they’re all inclusive to all Hopper properties.”
He runs his fingers up and down my back. “Did I mention she’s not the smartest?”
“Seems like it.”
But she’s smart enough to take over an industry with a multibillion-dollar company backing her that has the potential to put me out of business.
This very well could be the beginning of the end for me.
Dramatic, maybe? But I’m having a hard time not thinking of a way this won’t hurt me.
After a moment of silence, he asks, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I sigh. “I’d like to think that after this weekend, after helping Haisley and forming a bond, they’d at least consider me for some work, you know?”
“Yeah, they would be stupid not to.”
But some reason, it almost feels like all this work I put into getting close to the Hoppers is not going to get me what I want.
I don’t think I’m going to successfully insert myself into their business.
I think if anything, I just learned that they’re going to insert themselves into mine.
And not in a good way.Will Magical Moments by Maggie even survive if Devil Deanna’s proposal succeeds?Are there other ways for me to expand what I do?
“I could really get used to this no-swimsuit thing,” I say as I slip the rest of the way into the lagoon, right from our deck.
The night is dark.
The moon is reflecting off the water.
