Chapter 37
C harlotte paced in front of Sir Cinna-Swirls the next afternoon, practicing what she wanted to say, yes, but also kicking herself for not giving equal attention to what she’d say to Gregory outside of business talk. Should she keep it strictly to Lands and the grand opening? Should she spill her guts about how she’d agonized over her poor choices and say how much she missed his insightful questions, careful input, as well as his biceps, eyes, and tattoos? How much she’d missed him?
She’d have to read his overall vibe before deciding, and that annoyed her because she’d prefer to have all of her possible words rehearsed and ready.
The inner monologue was becoming dizzying when Gregory approached, looking buttoned up and stiff in his dress and his movements. The formality alone was enough to make Charlotte want to crawl into a hole and send out a message offering to have this meeting in a virtual setting. Pull yourself together , she told herself. You are capable and professional and you want to see Lands succeed. She could put aside personal feelings.
“Thanks for meeting me,” Charlotte said.
“Of course,” Gregory replied as he opened the door.
Charlotte caught a whiff of his woodsy cologne as she walked in, and wished she could preserve that scent somewhere inside her heart. She walked toward what had become their usual table—the table they’d sat at the day they met and had returned to numerous times to plot and bicker—but Gregory headed toward another in the corner.
So, she thought, maybe not the time to lay her heart bare. She’d read their last text exchange completely wrong. Best to stick to the business at hand.
“Do you want to get anything before we start?” she asked.
“Why don’t you get settled and I’ll place an order?” he said. “I know what you like.”
Charlotte would take that as encouraging if not for his flat voice—a voice that said he wanted to go back to being colleagues. Okay, then. She told her cracking heart to harden. “Thank you, that sounds good.”
She shook it off as she pulled her laptop out of her bag, opened it, and placed it at an angle where they both could see the screen. Navigating to the presentation and pushing her emotions to the side, she thought, For Lands! , and then chuckled at a mental image of Gregory as Aragon.
Gregory came back with cinnamon rolls and coffee just then. “What did I miss?”
“You know in Return of the King when Aragorn is facing Sauron’s forces and he beautifully says, ‘For Frodo’?” Charlotte answered.
“Of course I do, it’s classic,” Gregory said. “Those are fantasy movies I have seen.”
“Well, that’s what I was thinking of, except it’s us fighting for the theme park and saying, ‘For Lands!’ ”
“And who is Sauron in this scenario?”
“You know, I hadn’t gotten that far.”
Gregory gave her a half smile. “I’ve missed the weird and wonderful journeys your brain takes when you’re stressed.”
Ha , Charlotte thought. He had missed her. The words drew an underscore under her heart while her brain had mild whiplash from the back-and-forth.
“Yeah, well, it’s constant entertainment up there.” She took a cinnamon roll and iced coffee. “Thanks for these.”
“I know how much sugar and caffeine help your process, so really it was in my best interest. Now, what’s your helpful idea?”
Back to business they went.
“Right, that.” Charlotte chewed a bit of her pastry and washed it down with a long pull of coffee. Gregory hadn’t been incorrect about her process. She popped the presentation’s first slide onto the screen.
“Emily caught me up on the details of the grand opening, including the guest list. You’ve all put so much hard work into this and done a fantastic job already, so my suggestions are only finishing touches. The icing on the cinnamon roll, if you will.”
Gregory rolled his eyes.
“I saw that,” Charlotte called out.
“You were meant to.”
“Now, I think the guest list is a little lacking for the kind of reach and impact we want to achieve. It’s all solid—especially the members of the regional press and locals who have been Lands supporters for the longest. But here’s where we can boost things.”
She navigated to a slide showing influencer data she’d gathered with Melanie’s help.
“Influencers?” Gregory asked.
“Influencers,” Charlotte answered.
“Emily and I did consider the influencer route while you were gone, but we decided their tastes were too flashy for Lands.”
Charlotte had noticed the emphasis Gregory had put on the words “while you were gone.” She persisted. “I can see why you would think that. A lot of theme park influencers focus on places like Dreamland and Wonder World, and you’re right that those companies go all out with complimentary stays, dining, and gift cards, and throw every little thing at the influencers.”
“Which we can’t do.”
“No. But we can give them something the other parks can’t.” She paused, both for dramatic effect and for another bite of cinnamon roll. “An underdog story.”
Gregory leaned back and crossed his arms. “Do you think it’s wise to position Lands as a place in need of pity or saving?”
“I don’t think that would be wise, but we wouldn’t be doing that. We’d be giving them an opportunity to help a small family business continue to grow and make them feel like part of that family. Sure, we can’t pay for their travel or anything, and this is kinda last minute, but we can add a new tier of annual pass just for them with a ‘welcome to the Lands family’ kind of message—in a sincere way, not a gross quid pro quo way.”
Gregory looked thoughtful. “Wouldn’t giving them an annual pass be a lot of value to give away?”
“No,” Charlotte insisted, “because they put their lives online, at least the theme park portions of them. If they like Lands enough to come back and use their pass, chances are high that they’ll post about and share videos on whatever platform happens to be popular at the time. It’s a win for us. Here, look.”
She knew Gregory responded to data, which she’d pulled together and double-checked last night. Charlotte showed him the numbers and sample posts from influencers about theme parks not owned by mega corporations.
“The only risk involved,” she told him, “is that we obviously don’t have any say in what they post. If they, for some reason, hate the Manta or anything else about Lands, that could have the opposite effect of what we want. But that could happen with any guest.”
“Not every guest has tens of thousands of theme park fans hanging on their every word,” Gregory pointed out. He chewed his lip. “This could completely backfire.”
“It could,” Charlotte conceded. “But I believe in Lands and Under the Waves and the work you’ve done.”
“The work we’ve done, Charlotte.”
She glanced down and smiled. “Sorry, that we’ve done. It will charm people. I believe in all of it, don’t you?”
“You know I do.”
“Then the risk is minimal. Words like quaint , intimate , and cozy might come up, but we embrace those qualities about Lands. We don’t want to be like a giant theme park.”
“No, we don’t,” Gregory agreed.
Charlotte hadn’t meant her words to be a test, but she knew that past Gregory believed Lands should emulate bigger parks instead of leaning into what made it unique. His answer demonstrated how much he’d come to appreciate Lands of Legend.
While Gregory mulled the idea over, she finished her cinnamon roll. Then he asked, “How much value would we be giving away with the comped annual passes?”
She clicked to the slide with a range based on how many influencers took them up on the offer.
Gregory blinked repeatedly and pressed his lips together. “That is not a small number, Charlotte.”
“I’m aware. But think of the possible results and it will support the return on Ever Fund’s investment.”
He leaned forward into his hands and rubbed his hairline with his fingertips, taking a minute before replying. “You’re right, it’s worth it. Do you need any help with the outreach or invites?”
Charlotte glowed with triumph. “Nope, I have a plan for that. I got some help ready in case you said yes.”
“Of course you did. And I’m guessing you already have ideas for the new annual-pass tier for these folks?”
“Yes, right here. Do you want to go over them now or should I email them to you?”
Gregory glanced at his watch, a beaded bracelet snug against its leather band. “Why don’t you email me everything? I need to—”
Charlotte’s hand shot out, not of her own volition, to grab his wrist and look at the gemstones circling it. Aunt Marianne. It had to be. “Gregory. This is a gemstone bracelet. When did you start wearing a bracelet?”
He glanced down at the bracelet and a fond smile played across his lips, bringing out those lines around his mouth that Charlotte adored. “Recently. Marianne slid this onto my wrist after a stressful update call with Ian a couple weeks ago. Red jasper. She said it’s helpful for boosting confidence and she thought I, quote, ‘could stand to be reminded that I’ve got this.’ ”
Hearing about both Marianne’s gesture and Gregory’s reaction to it lit up Charlotte’s everything with a heartfelt glow. “Aunt Marianne has a knack for knowing what people need.”
“Yeah, she’s great.” Gregory’s face appeared conflicted as he pulled his arm away. “Sorry, but I do need to go check on a few things in the office.”
She hid her disappointment because she wasn’t ready to leave his presence yet. He’d relaxed more as they’d talked and she could see the stress underneath the surface, but couldn’t tell if it was all Lands-related or if any of it was about them. “Anything I can help with?”
“I think you have plenty to keep yourself busy with,” he said. “Your office is kind of covered in supplies for the grand opening, anyway. I mean, assuming you want your office back?”
Charlotte’s family had supported her returning. She had her job. But hearing that Gregory was okay with her coming back? It meant something different. Maybe that they could be friends again. Or more than friends. Charlotte would prefer more than friends, but this meeting had felt like Gregory drawing a line between them and labeling it “business only.”
“I do. But that’s okay, I’ll work elsewhere. I should get to it,” she said through a fake smile. She gathered her things and they walked out of Sir Cinna-Swirls.
“Let me know if I can help, and text me if it’s timely,” Gregory said.
“Of course. Likewise, let me know what I can do as we get closer, okay?”
“I definitely will.”
Unsure of how to end the conversation, Charlotte treated it like a meeting and stuck out her hand for a shake. Gregory surprised her by taking it and pulling her into a tight hug. She gave into her wants, burying her face in his chest and inhaling deeply. He whispered, “It’s really good to have you back, Charlotte.”
He let go and walked away, leaving Charlotte staring after him. Okay, maybe not business only, but he was still holding back. She tried to see things from his perspective: She’d left abruptly, though he acknowledged he and Emily made a mistake by keeping secrets from her, but she hadn’t communicated much while she was on another continent. And she hadn’t expressed to him how much she missed him. Plus he had the most going on with the opening in two weeks—an opening crucial for both Lands and Ever Fund. She could be patient. See what happened. If nothing else, it seemed like they could still be friends. And while that wasn’t enough, she would take it.