Chapter 31
C harlotte thought about Chad’s email all day, through meetings and a dozen other competing priorities for Lands. While it loomed large in her mind, Charlotte was and wasn’t ready to open it, so she told herself she was waiting for a distraction-free moment. That finally came toward the end of the day when she was waiting for Gregory to finish a call in his office.
From: [email protected]
Re: Dreamland Paris
Charlotte,
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to follow up with you. It’s been crazy busy with the move and elopement and getting things going here. Early construction is underway already! Your application finally got through all the right channels and back to me for next steps—you know how long things can take here.
I think you’d make a great addition to the team. I’d love to offer you the Creative Executive position here for Dreamland Paris. That is, if you’re not too busy with Lands of Legend.
Let me know when you want to talk more about the job.
-C
There it was. Exactly the opportunity she’d been waiting for.
When she’d run into Chad at the opening of Cosmic Catastrophe at Wonder World, she’d been beyond irritated when he said he would be heading up the Dreamland Paris portfolio. She could admit some of that had been jealousy. And now he’d offered her exactly what she’d been wanting. If it was still what she wanted.
All the emotions she had when she chased her job at DreamUs the first time years ago crashed to the front of her mind. It felt like she was at the same crossroads. Once again choosing between her family park with its beautiful but small footprint or DreamUs, where she could collaborate with the most respected and talented minds in the world of immersive entertainment and reach millions with her work, every bell and whistle at her disposal.
Not every part of the equation was the same. DreamUs had laid her off once. She did, on some level, understand it was an unfortunate business decision, but it had still felt like a betrayal. Plus how would her family react this time around? What would happen here after Under the Waves if her aunt and uncle retired and Emily was in charge?
“I’m shutting down my laptop now, I promise,” Gregory’s voice called out.
And then there was Gregory.
Gregory, who’d come into her life not knowing what a theme park was, never having been on a roller coaster but who, despite being far out of his element, kept his mind open, who took notes whenever Charlotte or her family answered his many questions, who was slowly rediscovering and reclaiming himself.
Gregory, who she was pretty sure she was falling for. Had fallen for?
“I’m ready! Sorry about the wait.” Gregory closed his office door and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. “What is that smile about?”
She took his hand in hers. “Come closer and I’ll tell you.”
Gregory’s eyes sparkled as brought his ear closer to her lips, and Charlotte changed her mind about saying anything and turned to kiss him. She didn’t want to ruin their picnic when she hadn’t made a decision about anything yet.
“Let’s go. I’m going to grab a bag from the fridge, and I’ll follow you home—but in a less creepy way than that sounded.”
“You can follow me home anytime, Charlotte.”
* * *
Charlotte parked beside Gregory outside his place and then transferred picnic supplies to his car while he went to change. With snacks and wine nestled into their proper places in the picnic basket she’d borrowed from her parents, she went to place it in the backseat. A green file folder that must have escaped Gregory’s briefcase—the honest-to-God briefcase he carried every day, the adorable nerd—was in the way. She picked it up, intending to take it inside to him, but a gust of wind caught the papers.
“Shit!” she exclaimed, and chased them around the driveway to collect them.
Charlotte wasn’t trying to read anything but then the words “Heroic Patrol” jumped at her from a label on the folder. It was an unresolved topic despite pressure from Peak Fusion to let them know what was going on, but Charlotte didn’t know why Gregory would have a whole folder on it. Unless things had progressed. And the label was in Emily’s handwriting. Her chest grew tight; her gut dropped to her toenails. She glanced at the door to Gregory’s place, then back at the folder, and decided to ask him about it before she flipped through its contents.
“Gregory,” she called as she poked her head in the door.
“Sorry, two more minutes and I’m ready.”
She followed the sound of his voice to his kitchen, where he was digging through his pantry. “I have the perfect bottle of wine in here somewhere.”
“Gregory,” she repeated in a quiet voice. “I need to ask you something.”
“Here it is!” He held out the bottle. “Do you need to ask me if I have a wine opener because obviously—”
He stopped in his tracks when he saw the green folder she was holding.
“You left this in the car,” she said. “I moved it to put the picnic basket down and was going to bring it in, then wind happened, and it has Emily’s handwriting on it. Can you just tell me you haven’t been having separate conversations about Peak Fusion?”
Gregory set the bottle of wine on the kitchen counter and closed his eyes.
“Gregory?” Charlotte didn’t like how her voice had gotten small.
“I can’t. I mean, we have,” Gregory said as he looked down at his feet.
Charlotte paced to the other side of the island, needing to put distance between them and flexed her fists. His reaction spurred her to open the folder. The top piece of paper was concept art putting Heroic Patrol ’s superpowered mermaid, Scylla, right into the Atlantis dark ride in Under the Waves, sticking out like a sore thumb. This was different from shoving Heroic Patrol off into its own corner, and she hadn’t been the biggest fan of that option. Were they selling Lands to Peak Fusion? What was this about? Outrage rose in her like the temperature increasing in a thermometer; she tracked its progress and grounded herself by pressing her fingertips on the kitchen island’s surface, the granite a cool balm. But this was a sticky anger, the kind she knew from after Chad cheated on her. It settled under your skin in a way you could feel and added an edge to your voice, ready to jump out at any moment and attack whoever set off the slightest trigger. Right now that was Gregory, who, like Chad, had also betrayed her.
She held up the art to Gregory, only to uncover another piece that had the superhero team’s talking dog sitting in Forgotten Beasts. “What. The. Fuck, Gregory? I thought you were on my side.”
Gregory folded his arms and sighed. “I am on your side, Charlotte, but you’re not the only stakeholder here. I have to think about the park’s owners and the person who will be staying around to run things. You’re not even planning to stay! And I’m the one responsible for the return on my family’s investment. Me, as Ian recently reminded me.”
His grumpy and firm tone took Charlotte back to their early disagreements. “So that’s it? Ian pushes you around and you give in? When did you even have time to talk about this?!”
“That’s not fair, Charlotte. He and Emily were moving forward without everyone again because they thought we were taking too long. I inserted myself so there was a voice of reason. I would never let them put whatever this talking dog is named in Forgotten Beasts.”
“But you’d let them throw Heroic Patrol into Under the Waves?”
“If it’s what Frank and Marianne agree to, then yes.”
Charlotte pushed away from the counter and rolled a scrunchie off her wrist into her hair; she was overheating from fury and felt like she was on the edge of a panic attack.
“You didn’t answer my question, Gregory. When did you have time to discuss this?”
He looked at the ceiling and closed his eyes. “The other day.”
“After Dreamland? After this?” She gestured her hand back and forth between them.
“Yes, after Dreamland.” His voice became a whisper. “After us.”
Gregory shook his head. “I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark, but give me some credit, Charlotte. After all this time together, do you think I don’t care about Lands of Legend’s success—your family’s success? Especially when I know how much you care about this place? We all want this park to stay open for years to come.”
“Business decisions aside, this is a discussion I’ve been excluded from despite how upset you were about Emily leaving us out of Peak Fusion conversations before.”
“I-I know,” Gregory sputtered, “but we all thought you might have this sort of reaction, and I wanted to jump in and mitigate what I could before telling you what Emily and Ian had been up to.”
The words hit Charlotte like a slap and while a tiny rational part of her understood their hesitation given how she had reacted, this was not a moment to be rational. Her voice got louder. “ ‘We’ all thought? As in, all of you just assumed I’d melt down instead of acting like an adult. I care, too. Yes, the idea of a Heroic Patrol logo near Lands of Legend breaks my heart, but this is worse. You all wrote me off.”
Charlotte thought back to the end of last July and Chad telling her that she was too emotional about DreamUs laying her off. Back to over a decade ago and Emily telling her she was too obsessed with theme parks and too good for Lands, too ambitious when it came to pursuing a career at DreamUs. Now once again, people close to her thought she was too much.
“Charlotte, you’re leaving, remember? And I thought I was being helpful, protecting you.”
No, his betrayal wasn’t exactly like Chad cheating on her, but it pierced her heart all the same considering the steps she and Gregory had taken toward a new path together.
A tear slid down her cheek. “I see.”
Gregory crossed to her side of the island in a heartbeat and wiped away her tears with his thumb, catching one after another. “We wanted to see what the next steps looked like, what Marianne and Frank wanted to proceed with, before we brought it up again to you—and that was wrong. I’m so sorry we haven’t been honest about this with you, Charlotte.”
“Me too,” she answered. She covered his hand on her cheek with her own for a moment, dropped it, and stepped back. Tears done and voice hard she said, “It sounds like maybe I’m holding you all back from some lucrative opportunities.”
“It’s not like that.”
“No? It sure seems that way from where I stand, but I’ll get out of the way.” Charlotte took a breath. “I think my work at Lands is done.” She turned away and walked toward the front door, ignoring the sounds of Gregory following her.
“Charlotte,” he said as she was opening the door to leave. She looked over her shoulder. “Can we talk about this?”
“I need some time,” she said and closed the door. She got in her car, glanced at the picnic basket she’d put in Gregory’s car, and thought about fetching it. Nah, she thought, it would make its way back to her parents and if, in the meantime, it resulted in Gregory’s car smelling like moldering cheese, she wasn’t mad about it.
She sat back in the driver’s seat and closed her eyes. It wasn’t how she expected the evening to go, but instead, she could pick up a pizza from The Dragon’s Breath and go home to snuggle Mads. She plucked out her phone to order dinner and her email inbox greeted her; before she could exit, Chad’s message from earlier jumped out. It turned out that his offer couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. She didn’t have to vacillate over what she would do anymore. She opened a draft to reply.
From: [email protected]
Re: Dreamland Paris
Chad,
I’m glad to hear the plans are moving along even if it’s chaotic. I appreciate you all reviewing my application and offering me such an exciting position. I have been very busy with Lands, but as it turns out, I’m open to other opportunities. Let me know when you can talk tomorrow.
Charlotte