Chapter 3
Ani
When Kami and Grace said their goodbyes, and Kami hugged her again, Ani barely felt it. Her body was stuck in some type of survival lockdown mode. Petals dotted the landscape, but she could hardly enjoy them. There was a lot to process.
Kami was Mimi, the other bride for her new wedding.
Grace called her Mimi? She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Grace was so statuesque and svelte and tall and calm and perfect—all the things Ani was not.
Kami kept referring to how well Ani knew her. Well then, why did you dump me, Kami?
Kami seemed barely fazed by Ani’s presence, or rather, pleased by it. What did that mean?
With all the PDA between Kami and Grace, Ani had fuel for nightmares for months.
They wanted to create an entire fountain from scratch, plus a dome, which would require new flooring and altering the land—and they wanted this done in seven and a half months? And Raffi had said yes to it like it was no big deal? Boy was clueless.
Speaking of him, what an absolute jerk and a half.
He was also Kami’s ex?! What? She didn’t remember Kami mentioning him. Although…there had been that family friend she mentioned who she dated toward the end of high school. Kami hadn’t said much about him. Still, this thing was getting far too incestuous.
Did Raffi actually ask her out, or did she misinterpret it?
And he backed right off, just like that? No fight?
And finally…did she really need to take this wedding?
Ani could, after all, say no and walk away from it all. From Kami, from her expressions of love all over Grace, from this insane construction project, and from Raffi, who irritated her and confused her in equal measure.
She could decline, continue with her roster of weddings for the year, and slowly dig her way out of her money hole without Kami’s help.
She’d prefer that. She’d like it, even, saying no to Kami for the first time in her life.
Raffi took a step closer to her, breaking Ani’s doom cycle. “You look like you’re about to either solve world hunger or pass out. Care to share which?” he asked.
Ani put her hands on her hips. She was not about to confide in him about her innermost thoughts, despite the cuteness of his joke. But she did have quite a few things to say to him. “Did you really say yes to the landscaping thing?”
Raffi shrugged. “Why not? They’re paying for it. Would probably improve the place, make it more attractive for future weddings.”
“Of course it will, but that timeline? I know Kami’s taste. She’s not going to want an out-of-the-box fountain from Wayfair; she’s going to want a custom design, something grand and eye-catching and, most importantly, extremely time-consuming.”
“Grand and eye-catching is my style,” he said. She took in his expression of pride as he gestured around the winery and then himself. “Can’t believe I changed out of that wet shirt. Nothing more eye-catching than a massive matcha stain.”
Despite herself, Ani smiled. His tone didn’t seem antagonistic; he was making a joke about what he’d previously been snippy about. Still, part of her wondered if he was making a reference to his hotness. Those high cheekbones were really something. She said, “Leave the designs to me.”
Ani began to walk away, toward her car. The day was more than wearing on her. She needed silence to process everything. She didn’t want to have to continue proving herself in front of this spoiled man.
“About that,” he called, and she could hear him stepping quickly behind her.
“Ani,” he said when she didn’t turn around. She sighed. He sounded pleading and earnest, not demanding. And she really, really didn’t want to admit that a tiny part of her liked the way he pronounced her name perfectly. Ani faced him.
“What about that?” she asked.
“This winery, you know, I told you, it’s very important to me.”
Her eyebrow began its ascent. “And?”
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He was actually nervous. “Do you, I mean—do you have the experience to take on a project like this?” he asked, finally. He had the good grace to look a bit embarrassed by his question.
“Do you?” she shot back.
He glanced away, a cheeky expression on his face, giving her a view of his jawline. So fucking sharp.
“I asked first,” he said.
She didn’t say a word, and there they remained in deadlock while the wind showered them in cherry blossom glitter.
“Aren’t you a doctor?” she said at last, remembering this point. “Pretty sure I am more qualified than an MD for this particular job.”
Now Raffi sighed. “I was a doctor. Almost. I was in my residency when I quit.”
Ani was taken aback. She was not expecting this answer or the sad expression that briefly crossed his face.
“Another story for another day,” Raffi said in a way that intimated he was not interested in sharing it another day, either.
“Sure, sure,” Ani replied.
“I am one of those rare combinations of MD and MBA, though.”
Ani couldn’t stop her eyes from widening. “You have an MBA, too?”
“From Stanford.” He smiled, as if knowing she wanted to ask. His teeth glimmered, a wolfish smile that made her breath catch. Just for a moment.
“You’ve been busy this past decade,” Ani gibed.
“You could say that,” he said, his eyes darkening, and Ani couldn’t help but wonder what was behind them.
She decided to steer them back to the issue at hand. “So, what, you’re going to fire me from the job Kami hired me to do? You think you, Mr. MD and MBA, know better than the Bay Area’s most ‘quaint’ wedding planner?”
He groaned. “You ever considered getting into cooking? Your roasting skills are on point.”
Ani put her hands on her hips again, trying to fight her smile. “Takes one to know one.”
Raffi raked a hand through his thick hair. “All right, all right. Truce. I’m not trying to fire you. You can do the job. I’m just saying, I’m going to be around, is all.” He stepped an inch closer to her. “When it comes to ?, I want to have a hand in every brick that gets laid.”
Ani breathed in sharply at his words. A man this stunning saying “gets laid.” Unfair. It sent a hot zing through her body, she couldn’t deny it.
“Sticking your fingers where they don’t belong?” she chanced, and almost regretted it, until Raffi showed his wolf smile again.
“My favorite pastime. As you apparently know.”
Ani gulped and had to turn away from him to stop the blush that she felt forming.
“I have to go. Another site visit,” she lied. She gripped her tote bag and rushed off, hearing his “See you soon, Ani” in her wake, so slick the words penetrated her skin, try as she might to brush them away.
Ani mentally blacked out the entire drive back to her apartment in Russian Hill, San Francisco. If she had thoughts, they were not deposited into her memory bank.
It wasn’t until she saw the winter camellias blooming in her building’s courtyard that she came back to herself. She needed to decide what the hell she was doing: take this wedding or not. And if she was, she had to debrief with Sanan. And potentially her sister and all of her friends.
Ani took the steps two at a time, and once she got inside her unit, she made a beeline for her room and flopped on her bed.
Her roommate was a travel nurse with night shifts, so Ani often had the place to herself.
Her sister, Talar, used to be her roommate until she got married and moved out.
Since then, Ani had found roommates who were only temporary, because it hurt too much to replace Talar with anyone she could form a real connection with.
The apartment, built in 1910, with creaky original hardwood floors and ornate but drafty windows, was hers and Talar’s, since they first moved in together several years ago.
Ani pushed herself back, laid her head on the pillows, and stared at the small antique chandelier she and Talar had installed shortly after they moved in.
It was time to get serious. Would she take this job or not?
She knew she didn’t want to, that merely seeing Kami on the regular would be painful.
But to then have to plan Kami’s wedding?
The wedding she had envisioned for herself and Kami, the one they had even talked about during their year plus together?
That would be torture. She wasn’t a masochist, and she had no desire to put herself through that.
However.
They were going to pay her twenty grand for the landscape project and another ten grand for her wedding planning fees. That would cut her debt by more than half. She only wished she had quoted higher for her wedding planning fees, because she knew Kami and Grace could pay.
If she didn’t take the job, she would likely have to lay off Sanan.
The predatory interest rates with the credit card company and on the bank loan were simply too high to sustain.
Even without paying Sanan, she would really have to hustle to get new clients.
She only had three weddings booked this summer, and they were all smaller-scale affairs. Quaint.
She shook away Raffi’s haughty voice and directed her anger elsewhere for the moment.
The Avedissians. Those fuckers. Leaving her in this position.
She’d tried every method of getting in touch with them, to no avail.
Ani’s only hope was that the bride, Knar, had an Instagram profile.
She thought she had found her profile, undeniably Knar, with that severe brunette bob and curtain bangs.
It was a private account, but the number of posts kept going up, so Knar was active.
Last week, Ani had made a fake profile and requested to follow Knar.
Now, Ani sat up and logged into her fake account again, but Knar hadn’t accepted her request. Maybe it was too obviously fake and Knar did not fool that easily. She’d need to find another way.
If Ani was able to get access to Knar’s Instagram, she could maybe discover her whereabouts and show up and confront her. Or serve her with a lawsuit, if she had the guts for it.