Epilogue
Sven
He stared at the title of the email, frowning. What now!
“ Bucket List Buddies has ruined my business!”
How could anyone believe that?
Remy had worked so hard to make this a success, and the figures after the second event showed an even bigger spike in requests for more events than the first one. He couldn’t explain why he felt perturbed that someone was complaining, he just did.
He took a deep breath and opened the email before he had the planned call with Remy.
He scanned the content, his ire growing at the preposterous accusations when it came to another pair finding their mate at the ghost hunting event.
That was interesting. Two couples both found their fated mate. Remy could be right, it would make a good selling point, yet he imagined people's disappointment if they believed in such things.
He wasn’t sure the email sender believed in them. This Pennington, it appeared, was furious that one of his pride had found his mate, a male no less, and not a female from his pride, as was proper.
He’d never read such drivel.
Sven was never one to delete an email without responding.
When he saw Remy’s name and how this Pennington accused Remy of making money off setting up “those types of people”—the man had the audacity to put it in quotes—made Sven see red.
He was gay. He didn’t know about Remy, but that was irrelevant, he wouldn’t tolerate this and hit the delete button.
The threats were nonsense. He covered every eventuality with his lawyers, so there was nothing to be concerned about. In fact, he wasn’t concerned about the business… just if Remy saw it, he’d get upset.
His phone rang on the desk, and he snatched it up. “Hello,” he snapped, then realized the time and who was on the other end of the phone when he heard a distressed noise. “Remy?”
“Have I called at a bad time?”
The timid tone got him gritting his teeth and wanting to punch something, preferably Pennington’s nose.
“No, sorry, I just had a situation that… annoyed me.” He was furious.
Only he would not say that with how sensitive he suspected Remy was.
“I want to say well done on the ghost hunting tours. The feedback has been exceptional.” He wouldn’t mention Pennington, he wouldn’t. Why, it was irrelevant.
“Thank you, those who came loved it.” He sounded more confident, and Sven relaxed back in his seat and found himself smiling. “I was thinking we should maybe consider a repeat block,” Remy added.
Sven picked up his pen and twirled it between his fingers. “We talked about keeping it fresh and exciting, so a repeat for now, I’d say no, leave it six months, a year.”
Remy signed down the phone.
“What’s up next?” Sven asked, looking at the list they’d talked about, his pulse skipping at what he’d written.
“Hot air balloon rides. The company I’ve reached out to were very helpful in talking about launch sites and times they can arrange the flights. I am excited about doing a sunset one. This is very popular… romantic.”
Sven lurched forward. Who was Remy thinking of taking? Remy normally asked him if he was going to attend. Why wasn’t he doing it this time?
“The baskets hold sixteen people, four in each section and the person managing the balloon in the middle,” he carried on, but Sven couldn’t get past the possibility that Remy was taking someone on a balloon ride with him at sunset.
He tapped the pen on his desk. Maybe it was time he went to an event. It was good for the boss to be able to say he’d participated. Yes, that was the only reason he was going to look at the names on the spreadsheets Remy sent him. No other reason than looking for a space to fill.
He nodded to the empty office, sat forward, dropping the pen to open his calendar. “Can you send me all the dates?” He realized at the silence coming from the other end of the phone that he’d not let Remy finish talking as he’d lost track, something he never did.
“Yes, of course. I’ll do it now.”
“Thank you. I’ll speak to you next week.” Sven hung up and cursed at how flustered he was. “What the fuck is wrong with me?”
His email inbox pinged seconds later, like he knew it would, because Remy was highly efficient, and there was the email with the title “Hot Air Balloon Dates”.
He noticed his fingers shaking as they hovered over the keyboard. He pulled them back and rubbed them together as if they were cold. This wouldn’t do. It really wouldn’t do at all!
He stared at the email for several minutes, then shut it and his calendar. There was no point in inviting trouble in. Things were just fine the way they were.
If it was a hollow thought, then no one else was there to judge.