“Don’t send it until tomorrow. I got it.”
Huh, I guess he had been paying attention.
“Ok.” My nerves fluttered, but I pushed them down. I really didn’t have a choice, and I needed to get on the road already. “Ok. And call me if there’s anything. It doesn’t matter how small. I’ll have reception.”
“Don’t worry about it; I got this.”
He better. And with that, I was out the door.
Jeff and Julia were waiting for me in their office. “As much as we love the idea of a flight tour, Audrey, we think it’s a little small for what we were hoping.” Jeff always launched straight into business as soon as the niceties were done with, and I’d come to appreciate that. Some clients loved to chatter, and while it was lovely to get to know them, I felt guilty for rushing them when we had a deadline to meet.
Julia jumped in. “Not that we want to go big! Lord knows we can’t afford anything like that.”
“Right. We want the line to stand for itself, but flights just seemed so …”
“Boring?” I offered with a smile.
Julia heaved with relief. “Oh, thank god you’re not mad. Yes! We’ve done so many here at the cellar door that it just seems so old hat, and we were really hoping to go with something more hip.”
“Good for the ‘gram, my son calls it.” I bit down on the laugh that threatened to come out and nodded.
“Of course. That’s completely understandable. It’s still relatively ‘hip’ in the city, especially for rum, but” I held out a hand, “I understand you want to go with something a little different and a little bigger?”
They nodded.
When they offered nothing else, I continued. “So can I assume that you want to go with the cocktail event?”
“Well, that’s what we wanted to talk to you about.”
Oh, no. Please don’t make me go back to the drawing board. The other ideas were either too expensive or too … well, boring.
“In the draft you sent us, you mentioned it would be like a mini degustation, with the food and cocktails paired … but the expenses you estimated didn’t seem like enough for that to be possible.”
Sweet relief filled me. “Yes. Actually, I’m glad you brought that up because it’s a lot easier to explain in person. Now, degustation was the wrong word, but it was the closest I could come to ‘multiple bite-sized meals in a row’.” I chuckled. “What I’d really like to do is have the catering focus on local produce and produce a number of options that match the cocktails we decide on, and they’ll be walked around and handed out to each guest.”
“And everyone would be sitting or standing?”
“Sitting, but we’ll arrange lots of options, like bar tables, couches, some armchairs, all in groups of three or four so people can come together, but it keeps the atmosphere more intimate. Especially because we’ll limit the event to around fifty people.”
“And the price?”
“Well, I based the estimates on some early quotes, so it may change. And for the food, it all depends on the cocktail list and what works best, what’s in season, all of that. But once we set a budget, I can promise you we won’t go over it.”
They passed a look between them, but they were still smiling, so I took it as a good sign.
Jeff nodded and held out a hand to me. “Sounds like we have a plan.”
My smile widened. “That’s fantastic. I’ll get to work immediately and keep you updated.”
17
Jackson
As I stumbled into my apartment, I idly wondered if I had enough ice to cover the number of bruises I was sporting.
Filming this week had been brutal, but today’s action scenes, including a particularly acrobatic aerial sequence, had left me battered. Thankfully, I wasn’t expected back on set for a few days, which left me just enough time to sleep off most of it.
The issue with rehearsing fight scenes for four straight hours before filming for another four meant that the moment you came to a standstill, your entire body wanted to find the nearest flat surface and remain there for as long as humanly possible.
