To his horror, the moment he opened his mouth to say so, he burstinto tears.
Dominique scowled at him again.
Connor covered his mouth, but it was too late to hide the factthat he was crying. A wave of nausea rolled over him, making his stomachclench. His head started to pound like he was in the middle of the worsthangover of his life.
If the floor had opened up and swallowed him whole right now, hewould have been grateful.
“Don’t youdarecry at me,” Dominique said, her voicerazor-sharp.
Connor sniffed, wiping his tears on his jacket sleeve, trying tostop more from coming. He hadn’t slept. He hadn’t eaten. He’d done everythingshe asked and put up with crap like this the whole time.
She was easily the worst client he’d ever had, and he justcouldn’t take it anymore.
“I’m sorry,” he said, trying not to sob.
“You’ve been impossible to work with since day one, and I’ve givenyou a million chances. Fix your mess and don’t expect to get paid for this.”
She’d given him a million chances?
Connor replayed that in his head, the words bouncing around,echoing, getting louder. He’d put up with a lot of crap, but he wasn’t about tolet her rewrite reality when he knew that wasn’t what had happened.
“I’ve worked harder on this than I have on any other wedding of mylife. You’ve changed your mind at every turn and I’ve been playing catch-up theentire time. I haven’t slept for eight hours in a row for weeks. I haven’teaten anything other than a coffee since Thursday. I’m sorry you’re not happy,but these are things you approved. And then you changed your mind on theflowers at the last minute and I stayed up topersonallyhand-dye them,individually. My entire bathroom is pink. I have given you my best.”
“If this is your best, I’d hate to see your worst,” Dominiquesaid. “You have no business being a wedding planner if this is how you treatyour clients.”
No business being a wedding planner.
Connor was suddenly standing in front of his father, enraged atthe idea that his son was giving up his college education to do what he lovedinstead.
“You’re a waste of space,” Dominique said.
Connor looked up at her, straightening his back.
He was willing to take a lot of bullshit, but not that. And if shealready wasn’t planning on paying him…
Screw this.
“You know what?” he said, stomach knotting up tighter with everysyllable. “You’re right. I have no business being here. I quit.”
Dominique’s mouth fell open. “You can’t quit! The wedding istoday.”
“I know,” Connor said, his confidence returning even as his legstrembled with fear at what he was about to do. “And these flowers belong to me,so I’ll be collecting them before I go.”
Connor watched with a tiny spark of satisfaction as she lookedaround the room at all the flowers she’d been complaining about moments beforein horror.
He knew he was blowing his best shot at getting his career toreally take off, but the look on her face after all the pain she’d put himthrough almost made up for it.
He didn’t have any intention of collecting the flowers--he wasn’tthat petty, and he didn’t want to hang around any longer than he had to, but itwas nice to give her the smallest taste of what she’d put him through.
“Have a nice wedding,” he said, turning his back on her andwalking away, making sure to keep himself as straight and tall as he could.
Connor could feel his career crashing and burning around him as hestepped out into the bright sun outside, but his heart was lighter than it hadbeen in weeks.
What the hell was he supposed to do now?
Chapter Two
Six months later…
