Chapter 23 Renata’s mauve heels
Renata
“It’s a pleasure doing business with you,” says our new flower vendor. She stands from her chair in the boardroom to shake my hand.
“The pleasure is our’s,” I tell her. “With the increase in wedding events at our hotel, we’re looking forward to using your services exclusively.”
“And I’m very grateful for the opportunity,” she says with a genuine smile.
“Please help yourself to a complementary dinner on your way out,” Lily says, as she shows her out of the boardroom. “Our restaurant is rated one of the best in Silverlake City.”
“I’ve heard that,” the woman says. “I think I might, thank you very much!”
Lily shows her out and then closes the boardroom door.
“Excellent work, Lily,” I say happily. Now that we only have one flower vendor, it will streamline our wedding event services significantly.
No more complicated coordinating with different companies, figuring out where the trucks will go and ensuring that there are no allergies or out-of-season shortages.
We’re well on our way to becoming a complete wedding service.
“You were wonderful, Renata,” Lily says, a sweet smile on her face.
I love how shy she still is with me. I can’t help myself, I take her into my arms and kiss her behind the ear. She giggles.
“How long until our next meeting?” I ask.
Then the door bangs open. With supernatural speed, I disentangle myself from Lily.
It’s Xia. She looks suspiciously back and forth between Lily and I. Lily gives me a guilty look, and she definitely looks flustered.
But I’m not going to give anything away to Xia.
“What is it, Xia?” I snap.
She grins at me mischievously. “What’s going on here?”
“Nothing’s going on. We just finished up a meeting with a vendor.” I smooth down the edges of my blazer.
“Mm-hm,” Xia hums. “I see you’re wearing your nails very short, Ren.”
“Xia…”
“On both hands…” Her eyes widen when she looks over at Lily. “And it’s an unseasonable time of year for a turtleneck, isn’t it, Lily?”
I clear my throat. “Xia! What are you here for?”
She cocks her head. “I think you’re going to want to come down to the first floor pool. Right now.”
“I’m going to stake her!” I shout furiously, looking out over the scene unfolding at the hotel’s water park.
Our water park is three storeys high, taking up the entire west wing of the hotel.
It includes a full splash pad, a wave pool, a lazy river, two hot tubs for adults, and three water slides at the very back.
Presently, it is filled with an assortment of badly behaved influencers, documenting their various shenanigans on smart phones and buzzing drones.
There are at least a dozen of them trying to see how many people they can fit on one water slide, which is clearly a violation of pool rules and basic physics.
A gaggle of outrageously-dressed models are attempting to have a fashion show in the wave pool, displacing the families who are trying to enjoy it with their children.
There’s a dolphin frolicking joyfully in the largest diving pool at the center of the waterpark.
“Why does she always have to involve live animals?” Lily sighs.
“We can’t have dolphins here,” I add. “They’re a protected species!”
“Don’t worry,” Xia says, waving her hand. “That’s just Arun.”
“Oh!” Lily says, looking over at the happily-chortling dolphin. A small child leans over the pool to pet him on the nose. “Yep, I see it.”
A prism of sparkling light reflects across the water park as the rainbow fin of a mermaid catches the light. Mel from Human Resources is lounging with her fin half-immersed in the water by a soaking pool. She’s reading a worn paperback entitled “Bitten by Desire.”
“That book’s really making the rounds,” Xia comments.
“Mel’s a mermaid!” Lily says, delighted. “Ooh, I didn’t know mermaids were a real thing!”
Hallie emerges from the pool’s entrance with a distracted expression on her face. “Ok, Xia, I think I’ve got the mattress surfing under control…”
“Mattress surfing?” I snap.
Her eyes widen when she spots me. “Oh! Um, hi Ren!”
“Where is the mattress surfing?”
“The ballroom staircase.” She winces. “But I told them to only use the old mattresses, not the new king-sized ones we just got in!” I gape at her in horror. “It’s actually going really well, Renata! The hotel is getting tons of exposure, and Lexi worked really hard on this…”
“Where is she!?” I demand, scanning the chaos.
Then I spot her, posing with a small gaggle of brightly-attired influencers in one of the cabanas.
She’s standing beside an exorbitantly expensive statue of a flamingo, which is certainly not justifying its price tag.
She’s addressing the camera on her phone charismatically, wearing a mauve bikini and…
I gasp sharply.
And my favourite Manolo Blahnik heels.
“Alexandra Price!” I scream, my voice supernaturally loud.
It reverberates through the enormous water park.
Everyone - magical, normal, families, influencers - stops and looks over.
From the cabana, my sister lowers her overpriced designer sunglasses (it is past sundown and we’re indoors) and peers over at me.
“Oh, hi Renata!” she says, with a little wave. Then she hurries (wearing my shoes) over to where we stand.
“I’m so glad you made it!” she chirps, gesturing at the disaster she’s inflicting upon my hotel.
“Don’t bullshit me, Lexi,” I snap. Lily, Xia and Hallie all take a careful step backward. “You knew I would never approve of this nonsense…”
“This isn’t nonsense,” she retorts, taking off her sunglasses. “This is fun, Ren! And we need some more fun. Everyone’s been so uptight and freaked out since Tudor was imprisoned, and the whole thing with the evil witches or whatever. Sometimes it’s important to let loose, you know?”
“I absolutely do not know. Do you know why? Because all I have time to do is work. All I do is work because you and your ridiculously stupid schemes mean that I have to do my entire job of running a multi-billion-dollar hotel chain while also cleaning up your messes…”
“This isn’t a mess!” she says, gesturing to the enormous mess behind her. “This is a party! A party that’s going to draw a lot of attention to our hotels, and make us more money!”
“This is what you do,” I yell at her. “This is exactly what you do, Lexi, you take, and you take, because you’re just a spoiled little newborn vampire and you don’t understand what it means to work hard, or to sacrifice…”
“Jesus, you’re such a martyr!” Lexi moans. “Nobody asked you to sacrifice yourself, Renata! On the contrary, we’re all asking you to chill out a little bit! Tudor’s not here anymore, you don’t need to nail yourself to a cross!”
“Yes I do!” I shout, although I can feel myself running out of steam. Fighting with my sister is so exhausting, and I don’t know how much longer I can do it for. “I have to keep working, and holding everything together, because another Tudor could be at our door! You heard Celine, Xavian is…”
“Fuck Xavian, and fuck all of those other vampires,” Lexi says, rolling her eyes. “If they try anything, it doesn’t matter. We’ll figure it out together. Celine, you, me, and Hallie.”
“I’m not having this discussion with you again,” I mutter angrily. “Just give me back my god-damned shoes! If you want to have a party, you can clean up after it yourself! I’m not babysitting you any more. I have more important things to do!”
“Fine,” Lexi kicks off my shoes, and saunters back over to the cabana.
I hiss at her as she leaves, and I grab my mauve heels.
Then I storm out of the water park.