Chapter 50
Harper
The next nightwe’re settled in Violet’s living room with Scarlett and Joss. They’ve brought wine, chocolate cake and pitchforks because I spent the day explaining to Scarlett at work, and Violet has been filling in Joss yesterday and earlier today as they cleaned up after Ben’s party.
I fill them in on Drew’s latest reiteration of his threat. One he was keen to remind me of when he was suspicious I’d talked to Alex yesterday at the party.
“That absolute motherfucker.” Violet slams her hand down on the table after we all sit down.
“Language, Violet.” Joss gives her a look.
“Oh, you’re one to talk.” Violet rolls her eyes.
“Oh no, I meant you should expand on your language. Because he’s an absolute cunty little fuck who deserves to be flayed alive.”
A laugh bubbles out of me for the first time in days, and I nearly choke on my last sip of wine.
“Oh, I like her.” Scarlett smirks at me.
“Me too.”
“You’ll like me more when we figure out how to get you out of this mess because there’s no way we’re letting this fuckfaced pigeon shit win this. Nothing gets in the way of true love if I can do something about it. Violet can tell you.”
“Except you get in your own way.”
“We’re not discussing that right now, Violet. Stay on fucking task, will you?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Violet gives her a mock salute.
“All right. How much money are we talking here? Because I don’t know if you know but you have some famous friends that might be able to donate or get their friends to donate.”
“It’s a lot. At least twenty million for a new building, ten million to repair the one we’ve got. Then we’d still need to fund staff and programs in the place, plus rent.”
“What if you rent a new place instead of build or stay where you are, there’s got to be something already out there that we could modify. Might even work better and you wouldn’t have to worry about renewals like this, where governments and old dudes with grumpy dispositions make decisions for you.”
“Even then, with the renovations to bring it up to speed for our needs, it’ll take time. And we’d have to store the objects in the meantime. If they close us down, they’re only giving us three months to transfer everything to other museums or auction them off and clear it out. There’s no way we can renovate a new space in that time. So we’d have to store the objects offsite somewhere, which will cost a fortune.”
“What about some of the other museums? Do they have spare storage space they could take some in, in the meantime while you renovate? Temporary loans? Even I have a little bit of secure storage space for the bigger pieces I don’t keep at my office. I could give you some of that.” Violet offers.
“I could ask around. It’s possible.” I shrug.
“I know a couple of realtors. I don’t know if any of them do commercial, but I bet they could put us in touch with someone. We can research buildings tomorrow. Maybe there’s even something historical where we could pitch it as saving history twice over,” Scarlett offers.
“As long as we can get proper HVAC and lighting.” I tilt my head because the idea isn’t a terrible one.
“Right. Of course. I have someone in mind. I’ll go call them now.” Scarlett offers.
“Yes. You do that. Violet, get your husband and tell him to call everyone he can think of. Ask them how much they can donate. It’ll save their guy. Alex is well liked? Yeah?” She pauses to watch me nod. “Good, give them the old band of brothers’ speech. Then tell them we will praise their names to the end of time if they can pitch in to do this. I’ll make sure it gets them publicity and more deals. And you know that calendar we were going to do? Let’s make it a coffee table book. Rare, numbered editions. Signed. We’ll auction them. See which of the boys is willing to play ball. You better be willing to put that gorgeous ass husband of yours on the sacrificial altar first.”
Violet raises her brow. “I’ll allow it. This once for a good cause. But he’s the one you’ll have to convince. He did say, Colton first.”
“He’d do it for me. That boy knows he owes me for all the ways I helped him get you.”
Violet shakes her head another smile playing on her lips. “We’ll see what he and the other guys say.”
“I’m not kidding. Depending on who agrees… with those abs and my camera… We could probably raise another million.”
“You know who you’d need to make it two. So do you want to call him or should I?” Violet gives Joss a pointed look, and for the first time this evening I see her face falter the slightest bit.
“We’ll discuss that later. The rest of the guys first, yeah?” Joss makes a face at Violet.
“Good. It’ll give me time to come up with the lecture.”
“Good. It’ll give me time to drink more wine.”
“I feel very lost.” I raise my brows at them.
“I’ll explain later. Let’s just say, Joss has a history with a certain quarterback.”
“A history? I see…” I’d gathered as much yesterday but I didn’t want to assume.
“What she’s trying to say is—”
“Joss, focus. This girl’s only got a couple of days and you’d need it all just to describe how the two of you ended up in that situation.”
“Fine. Where were we… Oh yes. Funding. We’re gonna need to get a 501(c)3 together and I’ll have to talk to your director. Think she could round up some of the other directors from the other museums? Getting the funding to support everyone’s jobs will take a little longer. Maybe we can find them interim work or at least workspaces where they could get some things done.”
“Yes, I think she can do that.”
“All right. Get her on the phone for me, will you? I’ll see what I can do.”
“Okay.”
Everything moves so quickly that within the hour, we have a decently well shaped plan for how we’re going to save the museum and its staff without needing the votes. By the time Scarlett heads home, and Joss, Violet, and I retire to our rooms I feel like some of the stress is subsiding.
* * *
When I’min bed that night though, I can’t help but feel like I still need to do more. The plan will hopefully get us the money, make it possible to save the museum regardless of how things fall, but it can’t stop Drew from enacting a revenge plan, with or without his father’s help. He could put something in the news, claim to have insider information through me, and it could do real damage to the institution’s reputation regardless.
The only thing that would truly neutralize it, is if I leave the institution. The thought rolls through my mind like a lead weight. I know it’s what I need to do, but leaving it behind makes me sick, especially with no plan to go forward. I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling for an hour before I sit up, blinking as I look at the time. It’s super late, but I need air. A glass of water. Maybe a quick pace out on the deck before I can fall asleep again.
I slink out to the kitchen, at least reassured that Alex isn’t here so I won’t end up on top of a counter. When I get to the fridge though, the light’s already on and I see Joss sitting at the counter.
“Great minds think alike, apparently,” she says when she sees me, smiling as I grab a glass from the cupboard.
“Why are you awake?” I ask.
“Past mistakes.”
“That makes two of us then,” I say glancing up at her as I pour a glass of lemonade, opting for something sweet.
“Are yours six foot four with blue eyes too?”
“Not quite. I really feel like I need the back story on that.”
“Ugh. Sometime soon, just probably not in the middle of the night. Violet’s right. It’s a long one.”
“I see.”
“Or rather, I guess it’s not that long. It could be shorter, summarized by the fact that I didn’t appreciate what I had when I had it.”
“Ah. Yeah, well I’m a little familiar with regrets and decisions one wishes they could take back.”
“I got that yesterday, looking at your ex and Alex. Even the way they look at you, it’s obvious which one really loves you.”
“And which one is that?”
“You don’t need to ask that. You know, but for the sake of the argument—the one who snuck off mid-party to fuck you.”
I sputter a laugh out, trying not to choke on the lemonade.
“I hope Violet warned you about me.” She grins.
“She did.” I return her grin.
“Good. So what’s got you up?”
“I have to quit the museum. I know I do, but I’m terrified of what that means. I have no idea what I’m going to do next.”
“Quit?” She frowns.
“Even if we can come up with the money, if I stay and Drew and his father go through with their threats… It’ll ruin the museum’s reputation for a long time. They already have enough on their plate as it is—even with the votes and money, they have attendance issues and staff cuts they need to make. They don’t need more problems—ones needlessly created by drama that has nothing to do with them. If I take myself out of the picture, there’s no reason to go after them.”
Her lips crumple and she nods her understanding. “Yeah, I suppose that’s true.”
“So I’m going to quit today.” I frown, taking a sip of my lemonade.
“And then you’re going to come work with me.”
“What?” I look up at her abruptly.
“You’d be the perfect partner for the non-profit I’m starting. Then I wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on Violet, and you have a lot of the same connections—especially when it comes to your museum.”
“Oh…um. Wow. Yeah, I guess that it could make sense.”
“I know we don’t know each other that well but I think we’d make good partners. You remind me of Violet. Sensible and down to earth. It’ll balance out my chaos.” She grins. “Plus Colton seems to like you, so if he says no to me, I bet he won’t say no to you. And since he’s the key to this little book we’ve got planned…” Her lips curl in a knowing smirk.
“Colton won’t say no to you. I saw the way he looked at you yesterday.” I don’t mention what he said because I feel like I owe him some confidence.
“Well, still. You’ll back me up, right?”
“Right.”
“All right. Then we’re partners.” She holds her hand out, and I take it.
“Partners.” I grin.