Chapter 2 #2
“The wedding would have to be outdoors,” Raffi began, realizing this was the first time he was giving an aesthetic tour of the space and he was unprepared.
Why hadn’t he thought ahead? He had studied the science of winemaking as much as possible last year, and had given tours of the wine cellar and production area to vendors, but now he tried to envision the space as a prospective couple—his ex-girlfriend and her wife-to-be—would view it.
He continued, leading them toward the garden, the most stunning space on the property.
“The guests could walk this way after they park. Ample parking, too, so that’s not a problem.”
Raffi could feel Ani scrutinizing him, and he could tell that she could tell that this was his first rodeo.
The idea of hosting events at ? hadn’t even occurred to him until Ani inquired about the wedding.
That’s when he’d checked out her site and started to question whether her aesthetic aligned with his vision for the winery.
He did regret his careless words, though.
And not just because she had slammed him for it.
His entire body had itched after his dad’s comment, after Sevan’s shirt was ruined, and he just… let it out. A dumb move.
Plus, Kami’s glee in hiring Ani had to signify her confidence in the wedding planner. She obviously trusted Ani. So if Grace and Kami wanted to hire her, that was fine with him. He didn’t want to pick linens. Well, okay, he kind of did; he didn’t hate that stuff.
They approached the garden, where the air smelled faintly of rosemary, and someone among the three women gasped, probably Kami. “I knew your dad had bought the winery, Raffi, but this is even prettier than the photos.” She sighed.
Raffi was especially lucky with the timing of this tour because the handful of cherry trees were blossoming, their pink flowers blushing on their branches and sprinkling the grass like confetti.
Grace turned to Raffi. “I wanted to get married at an Armenian venue since I know how important Mimi’s Armenianness is to her, then your place popped up when I straight up googled ‘Armenian wineries’ and I had this feeling.”
“It’s going to be damn nice in the fall. Actual leaves on all the grapevines, turning yellow and red. You said in your email you were thinking of a September wedding?” he asked Ani.
“Yes,” Ani and Kami said at the same time. Ani stiffened.
“What about catering?” Ani asked. “Do you have a kitchen that can support catering staff?”
He…thought so? He had no idea, honestly.
“Yes, we do.”
“And your max capacity?” Ani asked, as if she already knew he had no fucking clue.
He knew the indoor capacity, because that was a fire code thing, posted inside. But outdoors, he’d have to eyeball it.
“Two—” Raffi started, trying to read Kami’s and Grace’s expressions to ensure “two hundred” fell within their range. He could probably fit two hundred here. Right? Neither of them seemed fazed, so he continued.
“About two fifty.”
Ani glanced around skeptically. “About two fifty. I see.”
He suddenly felt that the number was rather high. A breeze blew past, making him wish he’d worn his sports coat, and a shiver rattled down his spine as Ani studied him.
“That’s fine,” Kami said. “We want it more intimate. One hundred or so people.”
“Tiny for an Armenian wedding,” Raffi said, surprised, but also pleased because now that he thought about it, two hundred fifty people could definitely not fit comfortably seated in the garden.
“We want to do some traditional rituals, and some modern.” Kami giggled, holding Grace’s arm. “Obviously.”
It did occur to Raffi then that the first wedding to be held at ? would be a queer one. His father would absolutely hate that. But too fucking bad, Dad.
And with that thought, Raffi felt his father’s gaze on him. He glanced up to see his dad on the balcony, presiding over the grounds like a malevolent landlord. Which, technically, he was.
Kami seemed to catch his eye, too. “Oh my God, parev, Moushig! Long time no see! This place is stunning, like actually magic.”
His father nodded in her direction. He might disapprove of Kami’s choices, but her parents had still been important business allies to whom he was metaphorically indebted, and he wouldn’t want to upset them.
Ani continued to grill Raffi with questions he had never considered before.
What was the electricity situation like out there?
Could they have hard liquor on the premises as well as wine and beer?
Was there a noise curfew? Raffi swallowed and squirmed his way around each subsequent query she threw at him.
Ani seemed to have regained her composure after the shock of seeing Kami, although every now and then, when Kami nuzzled into Grace’s hair or kissed her hand, Raffi would witness that green shade return to Ani’s cheeks.
It baffled him that she would choose to accept this job, grinning and bearing her way through it.
Once the tour was over, Kami and Grace said they needed a minute to chat. They walked into the villa, which left Raffi and Ani alone.
She stood there, and he could see her chest rise and fall as she breathed, while a gale of pink petals showered around this beautiful woman.
Then she spoke. “You’ve never held a wedding here before, have you?”
Raffi felt like he’d been slapped in the face. Had it been so obvious?
“Well,” he countered, “maybe a wedding like this will be a first for both of us.”
She straightened, turned her chin up slightly. “My portfolio is not up to date.”
“Uh-huh,” he said disbelievingly, and then once again he instantly regretted letting his inner voice out. He was being a jerk, and her knitted brows were driving still more guilt into him. He had to turn this around.
“Listen,” he began. “I feel like we started off all wrong. Let’s try again. Lunch? My treat. No lawsuit rocks involved. There’s a place nearby with these life-changing truffle fries.”
Ani turned cold suddenly. Her eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms. “No, thank you. I don’t date vendors.”
Vendor! He had never been called such a boring, sexless descriptor in his life.
But he wasn’t trying to ask her out. He really did want to press reset on their introduction. Still, the rejection was clear.
Raffi of the past would have taken her no as a challenge to amp up the charm and try to convince her, but not anymore.
“My bad,” he said. “I didn’t mean as a date. Just, you know, peace talks over truffle fries. But I fully respect and fully heard your no.”
She didn’t seem entirely comforted by his words. The look on her face, the tilt of her eyebrow, suggested she was confused.
Raffi didn’t have time to piece together the meaning of her features because Kami and Grace had waltzed back outdoors.
Grace started. “We love the venue, we love that your and Mimi’s families go way back, and everything is almost so perfect—”
“But,” Kami picked up, “we were wondering if we could ask you for a teensy favor, just a couple additions.”
“Uh, sure,” Raffi said, knowing Kami had never asked for anything teensy in her life.
“I really do want this to be the wedding of my dreams, and I always imagined getting married under one of those, like, neoclassical domes. Brick or stone, big and romantic, lots of vines all over the place. Tons of flowers, too, we need more flowers. And also—”
Raffi was processing what this meant, exactly, when Kami hit him with more.
“I’ve always, always wanted fountains and pools.
There has to be water, the vibes are so pure, so immaculate, like holy water anointing the wedding, you know?
So if you could build some kind of water feature to match with the dome and with the winery, of course, then we could have our wedding here. ”
Raffi was calculating the costs of everything, and he was seeing hundreds of thousands of dollars flash before his eyes.
His father had money, yes, lots of it, but Moushegh had put Raffi in charge, and if the first thing Raffi did was go beg Daddy for a huge chunk of cash, he wasn’t doing himself a favor.
Dad hardly believed in him now, Stanford MBA or not.
Raffi had strong-armed his way into keeping the winery alive, feeling like a little kid covered in glitter glue begging, “Trust me, Dad. I can do it!”
He chanced a glance at Ani, whose jaw had actually dropped. He caught the moment she realized it was open and shut it. Cute. So he wasn’t off base, thinking this was an insane ask.
“The, uh, the cost—” Raffi began, keeping up what he thought was a professional, impartial tone. One of a vendor.
“Oh!” Kami said. “We’ll cover the cost, obviously.”
Raffi couldn’t stop his eyes from widening, then he reined them in. He decided to go for smoldering instead, realizing this was the final sell. “Of course, this all sounds very doable,” he said, completely clueless as to whether or not any of it was, in fact, doable.
Ani cleared her throat. “Um, we’d want to make sure the design of these landscaping features aligns with your wedding vision.”
“For sure,” Grace said.
Kami smiled hugely at Ani. “That’s why we want you to oversee all the design and management of the project!
We totally trust you. You’ve always had the best taste and sometimes know what I’m thinking before I even know it.
And we’d pay you for it on top of the wedding planning. What did we say, Gracey?”
Grace replied, “My parents paid their landscape designer twenty K, so we felt that would be fair.”
Kami clasped her hands together. “Please say yes, please say yes.”
Raffi noticed that Ani gulped at Kami’s comment about reading her mind.
He was also processing this new development in the already new plan.
Ani seemed to know a lot about the nuts and bolts of wedding planning, but he wasn’t so sure about this design sense that Kami seemed to gush over.
Raffi had good taste; everyone said so. Okay, maybe “everyone” was his mom and grandma, but they were women of discernment (with an alarming number of opinions about throw pillows).
Besides, it was his winery—well, he was the steward of the winery, anyway.
He couldn’t have someone telling him what to do with it.
“Yes,” Ani said, seemingly strained. “Of course.”