Chapter 7
C harlotte regretted her decision to accompany Gregory around the park almost as soon as they sat down with their cinnamon rolls. Gregory started right in with throwing operational questions at her: How many employees worked at Sir Cinna-Swirls at any given time? When did they last increase the price for the cinnamon rolls? Was it necessary to stock so many optional toppings and did they charge for those, too?
She looked longingly at the cream cheese icing slowly melting down the side of the indulgent breakfast and held her hand up. “No. This is not having fun. This is not experiencing a theme park. I’ve done a lot of work to understand the difference, and trust me, this is treating magic like a balance sheet, and it is not the time for it. Not yet. Besides, shouldn’t you ask Emily those questions? I’m just the ‘consultant.’ ”
Charlotte glared to communicate that she would not tolerate another question. It shut him up.
Charlotte posed her plated cinnamon roll just so in the morning light filtering through Sir Cinna-Swirls’s stained-glass windows to take a photo she’d later use for the park’s Instagram feed.
“Is this experiencing a theme park?” Gregory asked as he gestured at her acting like a cinnamon-roll paparazzi.
A lock of wayward hair fell across his forehead, brushing the top of his left eyebrow. Even as Charlotte had an urge to touch it and put it back into place, she felt her mouth tighten as her glare returned. Charlotte ignored the question. She couldn’t resist eating her cinnamon roll any longer. Leveraging the fork between the layers, she started peeling away the outermost circle of dough. It separated from the bun, revealing delicate pockets in between the pastry’s layers, all of them dotted with brown spots of cinnamon and heavenly cinnamon sugar goo.
“Do you need a minute to be alone with your cinnamon roll?” Gregory asked.
How dare he take her away from her cinnamon roll reverie. “Yes, I would like a moment of peace while I eat the first few bites. Respect the cinnamon roll, Gregory.”
He surprised her by saluting with his fork. “Note to self: do not interrupt Charlotte’s cinnamon-roll time.”
Charlotte savored the dessert (sure it was called breakfast, but) as she swept her gaze over the interior of Sir Cinna-Swirls. The stained-glass windows depicted idyllic forest scenes, one for each of the four seasons. Light sparkled against the red and orange leaves of the fall scene, and Charlotte knew the afternoon light would warm the glass purple blossoms of the spring scene later.
Gregory followed her gaze. He looked like he wanted to ask a question, but she could see him holding back to honor her request. Since she’d had a few quiet minutes to honor the cinnamon roll, she told him, “Go ahead.”
“I noticed you looking at the stained-glass windows with such admiration and I know you’ve probably seen them a million times before. What makes them special?”
She didn’t detect any sarcasm or hostility in his voice, but Charlotte still proceeded with caution. “My mother made these. She’s been a stained-glass artist since high school, practically, and these windows are some of her earliest work.” Charlotte didn’t try to keep the pride from her voice.
“It’s something she’s always done on the side, but over the years, she’s made time for her art, learning new techniques. I think she’s looking forward to finally focusing on her art full-time after she retires from her job at the local college.”
Charlotte smiled. “Anytime she’s here she finds a million flaws in these pieces. Just picks every square inch apart. But I think they’re gorgeous. Are there some imperfections? Sure, but they make the windows all the more special.”
She looked from the windows back to Gregory and was shocked to see he was smiling. A sweet, indulgent kind of smile, matched by warmth in his green eyes. The best crinkles appeared around the corners of his mouth and made him more attractive. No sooner had Charlotte noted the smile, it faded.
“That is special. And I don’t notice any flaws with them,” he said. “Does she have any other work in the park?”
“A few smaller pieces, right now. But she’s been working on a massive triptych to go in the Under the Waves area. It has mermaids, underwater castles, all kinds of sea creatures. She’s created at least a dozen elements for it over the last five years.”
Charlotte couldn’t help but get animated while speaking about the triptych. She’d seen pieces of it in Mom’s studio; Alice had chosen the perfect hues of glass to emulate the ocean. Charlotte only hoped Under the Waves would indeed open one day so everyone could enjoy Mom’s design, which she guessed Gregory was here to help with.
“I’ve heard a lot about Under the Waves from Frank and Marianne.” Gregory looked like he wanted to get into more nitty-gritty about Lands, but he stopped himself. Instead, he asked, “You’re really supportive of your mom’s work, aren’t you?”
“I am. She’s an incredible artist!”
“And?” Gregory asked, apparently sensing Charlotte’s overenthusiastic tone.
“Well, I feel guilty.” Charlotte admitted.
“Why?”
Charlotte considered for a minute. She wasn’t sure why she felt comfortable telling this stranger her deepest thoughts. It surely wasn’t because of that soft smile a few moments ago. She sighed. “I don’t think she ever got to fully explore her art career because she felt like she needed to maintain a full-time job for me—she’s worked at Grove Technical my whole life. Then I’ve done nothing but pursue my passion career. I know she’s proud of me for chasing my dreams. She’s come to the grand opening of every ride I helped work on at DreamUs, but I wish she would have been able to be only an artist all these years.”
“Right, but you didn’t make those choices. She did.” Gregory’s tone of voice said he thought this was a ridiculous way to feel.
And Charlotte was already well aware that she did not control her mother’s decisions. She wished she hadn’t said anything. It was time to change the subject. She didn’t imagine Gregory to be the type to share personal details with a person he met minutes ago, but she found herself saying, “So, you said your mother sent you here and that Ever Fund is a family business?”
Gregory looked down and picked at the sugary remains of his cinnamon roll, a wrinkle forming between his eyebrows as he stared at his fork. “You know, I appreciate these bamboo utensils. Probably worth the extra expense to be able to compost these.”
Definitely not a personal details type, despite Charlotte’s question being pretty soft. His clumsy deferral was a bit endearing, though she was surprised to hear compostable forks were an expense he would support. Still looking at the fork, Gregory finally answered. “It is a family business. My grandmother, Sally, started Ever Fund ages ago with a goal of being different from other venture capital firms by investing in small companies on their merits and not just for what they were offering. She had to run a business, of course, but she was in it to help others realize their goals, not make stacks of money. Then my mother, Evelyn, worked with the firm right out of school, and continued to build it side by side with my grandmother. She took over when Grandma stepped down. My father was involved in the business until he split, but now my stepmother, Abigail, is into it, too.”
That was a lot of family to be involved in the family business. “Not your grandfather? I noticed you didn’t mention him.”
Gregory turned his head away. “Nah, it was never his thing; he supported Grandma but he couldn’t stand, as he put it, ‘office jobs.’ He passed away eight years ago.”
Shit. It was obvious from Gregory’s longing, mournful expression that he cared for his grandpa. “I’m sorry, Gregory.”
He met her eyes and the grief behind those gray flecks in his pupils pierced her. “Thank you.”
“And your brother’s involved, too?”
“Yeah.” She heard tension in Gregory’s voice. Particularly when he kept going. “Ian took an interest in the company from high school and has been second-in-command for a few years now.”
Charlotte processed the idea of a high schooler being interested in investing and it painted a picture of Ian.
“In fact, Ian’s why I’m here. He’s how Ever Fund heard about Lands of Legend in the first place.”
Charlotte tilted her head. “How so?”
“He went to the same business school as Emily, and Emily reached out to him after seeing some report about him and Ever Fund in an alumni newsletter. A place like this isn’t flashy enough for Ian’s tastes, but he’s a sucker for helping fellow alumni and he knew this kind of business is exactly what Grandma would have wanted to support. So, here I am.”
Of course Emily leveraged a college connection; Charlotte had to admit it was a smart move. “So, why are you here and not Ian?”
Gregory bit his lip and looked like he was holding in a laugh. “Here? Ian here. That’s a funny picture. Uh, this is too rural for Ian. He prefers the indoors. Ian wouldn’t know what to do with this much fresh air. He sticks with investment opportunities in large cities.”
“But this isn’t too ‘rural’ for you?” Gregory’s hair was the only part of him that didn’t look out of place in Lands.
“No. It’s not. I like being outdoors, though I don’t get a chance with as much as I travel for work. The most I’ve been outside a stuffy office lately is when we helped this fleet of burger trucks open a restaurant. I spent days riding around in their trucks to learn more about the business. Thought I’d never get the smell of fryer grease out of my Armani suit—”
“Wait. Stop. You wore an Armani suit while riding around in a burger truck.” That image was going to live in Charlotte’s head forever.
“Only for the first couple days. It’s important to my family that I project professionalism when representing Ever Fund.”
Charlotte held in a smile. “I see. So, Ian brought Lands of Legend to Ever Fund, and then . . . ?”
“Right. Then my mom sent me here after your family’s presentation during what was supposed to be our holiday break. She said it would be ‘good for me’ to get away from L.A., which doesn’t make sense because I’m almost always away from L.A. for work, but here I am.” Gregory shrugged.
“Here you are.” And he didn’t seem overjoyed about being here. Most people Charlotte knew would be elated to go to a theme park for work, but her data sample was skewed. “Whereabouts in L.A. do you live?”
“Los Feliz.”
“Ah, cute neighborhood. Lots of places to get brunch, or so I’ve heard.”
Gregory examined the ends of his hair. “I’ve heard that, too.”
“How long have you lived there?”
“About seven years now. I’m on the road an average of forty-five weeks of the year. I haven’t spent a lot of time exploring the neighborhood. I’m not even sure why I keep an apartment.”
Charlotte recognized a fellow workaholic when she saw one. “Ah, I relate to that. Glendale for me.”
“Right, DreamUs has a big campus over there.”
“Mm-hmm, and that campus or the parks down in Anaheim pretty much encompass my knowledge of L.A.”
The conversation fizzled like fire in a downpour as they both, presumably, dwelled on their respective life decisions. Charlotte pointed her chin at Gregory’s plate. “Sooo, you all done?”
“Yes. You were right. It’s one of the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever had.”
“I don’t mess around when it comes to sugar, Gregory.” Her voice was playful, but she hoped it implied she didn’t mess around when it came to anything involving Lands. Screw it, she decided to be less subtle. This had been a perfectly fine conversation with Gregory sharing more than she thought he would, but she wanted to reset the tone between them. She locked onto his green eyes, ignoring the soft gray flecks, and kept her voice even. “And I also don’t mess around when it comes to Lands of Legend or its values. Just so you know.”
He waved a hand, as if to brush away her concerns. “Message received. But it’s an amusement park. How serious can they be?”
Charlotte felt her jaw drop. The nerve. This was her aunt and uncle’s dream realized. They’d literally built pieces of this theme park, not an amusement park, with their own hands. She could show him how important Lands’s values were while she took him around the park. Charlotte speared the final bites of her cinnamon roll, shoved them in her mouth, and chugged the remainder of her coffee to wash it down. She pushed away from the table and took a deep breath. She looked at Gregory. The list she made earlier ran through her mind and she would still try to tick off every item. She’d even add one: teach Gregory that there was a difference between amusement parks and theme parks. Charlotte loved amusement parks too, but they weren’t the same.
She’d focus on the tour ahead. But getting to know Gregory beyond the conversation they’d just had? Trying to make any kind of personal connection? Forget it. She reminded herself he was the money guy, and that’s what Lands needed from him with as little of his interference as possible. Charlotte forced a small smile. “Shall we continue the tour?”