Chapter 16
E mily poked her head into Charlotte’s office the next morning right as Charlotte was carefully reviewing Chad’s email for the fifth time. It was indeed a link to a job opening for a creative executive at Dreamland Paris, and a note that said yes, she would have to fill out the application to go through the rehiring process and the position would report to him and he’d like to have her on his team opening the park. He encouraged her to get her application in as soon as possible and that they’d make a decision in early March. Charlotte was more than qualified and, with Chad’s support, it seemed like the position was a sure thing. She’d have to make sure DreamUs could wait for her until after Memorial Day when Under the Waves opened—she wanted to honor her commitment to Lands—but that hadn’t stopped her from daydreaming about moving to Paris and opening the park. Warring feelings came with that daydream as she thought about how much she liked Gregory’s company, but also how much his carnival suggestion had annoyed her. If she left Lands, would Gregory and Emily make terrible choices without her oversight?
Would she miss Gregory? She was considering all the possibilities when Emily interrupted.
“Good morning. Can we talk?”
Charlotte hadn’t slept well—not even Mads’s purr was enough to comfort her anxieties about Lands, and her attraction to Gregory and the beard he didn’t even have anymore, and pondering over the link Chad sent, so she’d snoozed her alarm three times and ended up rushing out of the house without coffee. She wasn’t ready for other humans yet. Especially not Emily.
She told herself she should give Emily the courtesy of the benefit of the doubt since her cousin had been putting in as many hours as Charlotte and Gregory to help Lands succeed and make the most of the investment. She had been more supportive of Charlotte lately. Only last week she sided with Charlotte when Gregory asked about the possibility of changing the admission structure to be a flat fee with extra charges for ride tickets instead of all-inclusive.
“Morning,” Charlotte said. “And of course. Coffee first?”
“Ah, I see that you’re not at the talking-in-complete-sentences part of the morning yet,” Emily said. “I could use some coffee, too. See you in the kitchen.”
“I’ll just be a few.”
Charlotte pulled out her laptop and slung her bag strap over her chair, wanting to get set up for the day before she heard Emily out. While her laptop booted she texted Melanie. Her brain needed a break, and she needed to share updates.
Charlotte: I keep forgetting to ask you something important.
Charlotte: What the hell is espuma?
Melanie: Lol
Melanie: It’s . . . Vegetable foam is the best way I can describe it.
Charlotte wrinkled her nose. She’d try any kind of food but the phrase “vegetable foam” wasn’t doing it for her.
Charlotte: Hmm.
Melanie: Exactly. It’s on a lot of fancy pants menus these days.
Melanie: One of Riley’s favorite’s if that tells you anything.
Charlotte: Thank you for saving me from googling it. I was scared.
Melanie:
Melanie: Jk anytime.
Charlotte: Speaking of, have you talked to Riley lately?
Melanie’s on-and-off relationship with Riley was what the phrase “it’s complicated” had been invented for. When they were together, they made one hell of a team. Melanie a grounded, cheery tornado to Riley’s kind but serious demeanor. Melanie had met him years ago while they were both attending Le Cordon Bleu; she’d burned out on the world of fine culinary experiences for reasons she refused to discuss with anyone, including Charlotte, while Riley couldn’t let go and poured his all into his focus into food and not relationships.
Melanie’s history was one reason why she didn’t hesitate to call out Charlotte for focusing too much on work.
Melanie: No . . .
Charlotte: I sense a but.
Melanie: Not a but. Just a
Charlotte: Let me know if you want to talk about it.
Melanie: I will, I promise.
Charlotte: Also I have two updates for you. 1. Chad emailed me a link to an application for a DreamUs job in Paris. 2. I might have a date with Gregory.
Melanie: !!!!!!!!! CHARLOTTE!
Melanie: Why is the date second! Have I taught you nothing?
Melanie: Seriously though, those things are both messy. MESSY. Let’s talk later.
Charlotte: Messy is right. But maybe exciting too.
Melanie: But also,
Charlotte : Talk soon.
Thoughts about her best friend, vegetable foam, and eggplants in the front of her mind, Charlotte headed toward the office kitchen with a grin. Emily had Charlotte’s favorite mug waiting, a vintage Lands of Legend mug with the park’s logo and information toadstool faded on the crackled glaze. It was one of the park’s earliest souvenirs. They had a few unused ones in the archives but Charlotte loved that this little mug had survived the office kitchen and the constant reminders to never put it in the dishwasher over the decades.
“Thank you. You know, we should work on a retro line of merchandise with this design.” Charlotte lifted the full mug from the counter with grateful hands and took a sip. “Ahh, you made the coffee this morning.” Marianne had learned to make a killer latte, but both her aunt and uncle were hopeless at making coffee that wasn’t bitter, so Emily tried to beat them to it.
“You know it.” She leaned on the counter, soft cashmere sweater at odds against the worn laminate countertop. Charlotte noted dark circles under eyes.
“How are you hanging in, Emily? I see you in meetings with Gregory and around the construction site, but it’s been so chaotic I haven’t had an actual conversation with you in a while.”
“Chaotic sure is the word,” Emily said. She took a drink of coffee from her own mug and then pulled it against her chest and wrapped both hands around it like it was the only source of warmth in the room. “I am exhausted, like we all are, but it’s worth it to see Under the Waves make so much progress—Dad’s been chipping away at it for so long and I didn’t think it was ever going to happen.”
Charlotte nodded. “All that work he and your mom put in made it easy for the crew to jump in and execute all of it.”
“I know Dad knows that, but I can tell part of him, well, he’s upset with himself for not being able to finish it on his own after all this time. He’s happier that it means Under the Waves will finally open and that Lands has a better chance of being around a decade from now, but taking Ever Fund’s money is making him feel a little like a failure, like he hasn’t made the right decisions over the years to keep Lands of Legend viable —that’s Dad’s word of choice lately, by the way. I think he learned it from Gregory; Mom’s this close to banning it from conversations.”
“I haven’t heard Uncle Frank say it yet but it is quite the image,” Charlotte said. “It’s good of you to look out for your parents—”
“It’s what family does,” Emily said with a half shrug. The icy undertone in her voice meant the comment was likely a reference to Charlotte leaving Lands for DreamUs despite knowing Emily didn’t have the same obsession Charlotte did for theme parks. Chad’s text pounded in the back of her head, reminding her that she was at Lands to open the new area and would hopefully be back at DreamUs soon.
“Well, it’s still a lot to carry. Remember to take care of yourself too, maybe take a day to chill,” Charlotte said.
“We should all take that advice,” Emily said.
She was right. Charlotte had brought up the idea of the Dreamland research trip to Gregory again and she needed to find time for it on each of their calendars.
“So, what is it you wanted to talk about?” Charlotte asked, bracing for a repeat of Gregory’s pitch from last night since he and Emily were the most likely of anyone to align on ideas to make the park money.
“I was talking to Gregory about—” Emily started.
Yep. “Let me guess, you think it would be a great idea to set up carnival rides in the meadow,” Charlotte finished.
Emily furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head. “No, but I’d like to hear more about that when I’m done, if you’ll let me continue.”
“Yes, sorry,” Charlotte said. She’d misread the situation; she told herself for the hundredth time to stop jumping to the worst possible conclusion.
“It’s about Peak Fusion and Heroic Patrol .”
Nope, Charlotte thought, this validated her tendency to jump to the worst conclusion. She put her coffee mug down and leaned into the counter. Clenching her stomach muscles as if bracing her body would make the conversation easier, she nodded at Emily to continue.
“Truth is, I’ve also felt like a failure, just like Dad. Like I haven’t pushed hard enough for changes around here. I haven’t pushed back enough. I know we’ve never wanted to include rides or anything from a movie or TV franchise in the park, but I also know it can mean a huge jump in attendance and money and help make Lands of Legend more of a destination than it currently is.”
Charlotte blinked at Emily. “Yes, this is all true.” Her tone was intentionally harsh.
Emily arched an eyebrow. In a voice just as hard as Charlotte’s, she said, “Well, Peak Fusion read about Ever Fund’s investment and sent an intriguing pitch over for putting Heroic Patrol into the park. Ian, who you know went to business school like me—”
“Yes, I know that, Emily. We all know that. Anyone who talks to you for longer than five minutes knows that.”
Emily stood taller. “Well, Ian in particular was very interested in hearing more from Peak Fusion. We are going to take a meeting with them and see what happens, and I wanted to let you know ahead of time.”
Heroic Patrol was one of many franchises, intellectual properties, Peak Fusion owned; it started as a cartoon about a group of various superpowered creatures and beings who worked together to protect humans from all manner of threats. Charlotte didn’t know it super well, but she knew the heroic group had a vampire, a mermaid, a Sasquatch, and others she couldn’t remember. The cartoon had blown up, and the toys had their own aisle at department stores and a live-action movie was in the works.
But from what she understood, nothing about Heroic Patrol made sense for the theming in Lands. And that was on top of what she’d read about Peak Fusion trying and failing to make deals with other amusement parks.
“I see,” she answered. “When is this meeting happening?”
“Tomorrow,” Emily said.
“And your dad and mom are on board?”
Emily stared into her coffee mug as though she’d discovered something interesting. “They are skeptical. But they’re willing to take the meeting.”
“Because you and Gregory convinced them?” Charlotte asked.
Her cousin lifted her chin and met Charlotte’s narrowed eyes. “Because I did. Gregory knows how they—and you—feel about adding IP to Lands. But I am obligated to point out the advantages for the business in the long term.”
“What about the disadvantages, Emily?”
“How it could break the precious ‘theme’? First of all, kids excited to meet Heroic Patrol characters wouldn’t care about a theme.” Emily was exasperated. “And Charlotte, you know I respect what Mom and Dad have built here, but if they want it to last, Under the Waves might not be enough. Even with that opening, Ever Fund’s projections are a slow upward line. If anything doesn’t go as planned or goes wrong, we’re toast—as in, Lands might not make it for five more years toast. If that.”
Charlotte knew Emily had a reasonable point, especially about kids not caring about characters not fitting the park’s theme, but her cousin’s casual dismissal of what made Lands extraordinary made a muscle under Charlotte’s left eye twitch. “It isn’t only about theming, Emily. Some gnarly news has come up over recent months about Peak Fusion’s business practices, particularly regarding Heroic Patrol toy manufacturing and the latest Heroic Patrol movie. Beyond me not seeing how their stories could even make sense in Lands, I don’t think we should be associated with them, despite the financial possibilities. Other parks, amusement parks, have turned them down.”
“I have read about some of that, but I don’t know how picky we can afford to be,” Emily responded.
Charlotte took a calming breath. If things were desperate enough, apparently desperate beyond what Charlotte was aware of. “Look, take the meeting. Ask them a lot of questions. I’ll think on some other ideas for repeat revenue to compete with whatever they say they will bring to the table. Hell, I’d rather do something with Gregory’s idea for putting carnival rides in Fairytale—OH! A faery carnival!”
“What now?” Emily asked.
“You’ve given me an idea. Shit. I need to talk to Gregory,” Charlotte said.
“Care to fill me in?”
“Not until I’ve fleshed it out more.” Charlotte refilled her coffee mug, the Peak Fusion bullshit from Emily making her hand shake. She grabbed a towel to mop up the splash she’d made. She might not plan on being at Lands long term, but she wanted to protect her aunt and uncle’s park for the future. A future Charlotte couldn’t envision Peak Fusion being part of, even as a last resort. “Let me know how the meeting with Peak Fusion goes.”
She walked away from Emily and the sour expression on her cousin’s face.