Chapter 34
T wo weeks later, it was the end of April and Charlotte stood at the edge of what would become Dreamland Paris’s own version of Exploration Isle before the construction team started their day. She held a steaming cup of coffee close while she walked the perimeter of the land, with structures taking shape and the bones of the land’s main attraction becoming more noticeable.
Aside from the difference in scale, Charlotte could have been back on the Under the Waves site at Lands of Legend. How many times had she started the day with a cup of coffee and Gregory, walking around and noting the progress happening?
Some of Charlotte’s colleagues were around, but they were evaluating the areas they were responsible for, each land developing simultaneously. The scope that had appealed to Charlotte at first had now become overwhelming. She was so focused on this new version of Exploration Isle she’d lost sight of how the whole park was coming together.
Still, under her supervision, Exploration Isle and its big-ticket attraction had remained ahead of schedule and under budget, with almost no creative compromises. The night before, she’d had a meeting with an executive who called out her progress as the most notable in the park. In the past, triumph from that kind of accomplishment would fuel Charlotte for days and make her think she could take on anything in the world. And now, well, it made her think of how satisfying it had been to problem-solve with Gregory.
Instead, as her email dinged and she made a makeshift desk from a slab of unpainted faux rock to review a recent report and updated concept art to go with it, it hit her how hollow it all felt. It didn’t mean anything. She thought of how she’d start her day at Lands of Legend, in the office kitchen, exchanging hellos with coworkers and catching up on their lives. It was cozy. Warm. Not a construction site where she sat alone.
None of this was right.
None of it.
She closed her laptop and peeled her personalized hard hat from her head to set it aside, the safety wear suddenly stifling her. Charlotte pulled her phone from her back pocket and called the only person she knew who would understand and who would answer at such a late hour. Melanie answered on the first ring.
“Hey, there. Isn’t it some ungodly morning hour there?” Melanie asked.
“Hey. And kinda. Construction crews start early and I wanted to beat them to it today.”
Melanie chuckled. “Of course you did. But I’m guessing you didn’t call to tell me about construction crews and what they’re doing, especially since I know you signed a novel-sized NDA saying you would not talk about those things.”
“Yeah,” Charlotte said. “I think I maybe had an epiphany and you were the first person I wanted to tell.”
“Let me sit down for this; one second.”
She heard Melanie rustling around on the other line and could picture her friend getting cozy in her favorite daisy yellow chair.
“I’m all set,” Melanie confirmed. “Please epiphany away.”
“Okay, so you know how I came back to DreamUs.”
“Yes, I’m aware,” Melanie said, voice kind and supportive.
“I was wrong. I thought Lands didn’t want or need me and my opinions. And I thought coming back to DreamUs was the only way for me to make a difference.” Charlotte had believed it was how she could fulfill her goals of delivering the maximum amount of magic and escape to people who needed it. DreamUs had near endless resources in terms of money, workforce, and sway with local governments around the world. Her fellow Dream Mechanics were doing huge things, remarkable things. Magnificent attractions and experiences poured out of them, and their innovations would bring joy to the world, Charlotte had no doubt. She would always cheer them on.
She covered the highlights for Melanie and finished, “I’ve had the perfect place to have an impact, to make memorable moments and be on hand to see how that work affects people. Lands of Legend was right there. It’s been there all along.”
Charlotte paused to sniffle. “Do you think . . . I can fix this, right?”
“You absolutely can,” Melanie reassured her. “You’ll have some work to do to convince your family you’re for-real all in and will not, once again, run away to DreamUs if they dangle a fancy title and cool opportunity at you.”
“Yeah, I know,” Charlotte agreed.
“And to be fair, they did mess up. Gregory and Emily weren’t the only ones not being fully transparent with you; your aunt and uncle could have been upfront, too. You did overreact, kinda spectacularly, by leaving town for another continent on short notice, but I’m saying lots of factors were at play. You made the choice you made and you can’t undo it or cancel it out, but you can make another choice to make it right and see what happens.”
Charlotte stood from her seat on the ground and paced.
“You still there, Charlotte?”
“Yeah, Mel. I’m thinking about how to fix this.”
“Look, you have good intentions and you’re a smart human. You’ll figure out the next right thing and how to make it up to the people you need to make it up to.”
“Thank you, Melanie.”
“I’ve got your back, even if that means telling you when you’ve made a mistake, but I could maybe work on being a little gentler about that.”
“No, I need your bluntness,” Charlotte said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some things to take care of.”
She gathered her things and secured her hard hat on her head. As she tightened it, she muttered to herself, “Charlotte, you’ve been an idiot.”
Not quietly enough, based on the raised eyebrows she got from the foreman who had arrived and was giving her a concerned look. Charlotte shook her head. “All good, sorry about that.”
Except that was a lie; nothing was good. She’d looked past what she had to her flawed ambition not once, but twice. Charlotte had a lot to get in order so she could return to the life she now knew she’d always been meant for. She picked up her phone and made a list:
· Buy a one-way ticket home
· Call Mom she should give notice to Chad immediately, both to set things in motion and to get a sense of closure. She glanced at the shared office calendar and sent a meeting request for the soonest available time on his schedule.
As soon as she got to the office an hour later, fifteen minutes before her meeting with Chad, a shadow appeared over her temporary desk. Chad. “What’s with the last-minute meeting request?”
She looked up and willed the sass washing over her to stay on the inside.
“You’ll find out in approximately fourteen minutes,” she said sweetly. Keeping the sass contained around Chad was a futile effort.
“I’m free now.” Chad shrugged, the gesture sending a ruffle through his rigid posture. “What’s up?”
Fine. “Let’s go to your office.”
“Oh, that serious, huh?” Chad appeared taken aback. “Let’s go, then.”
Charlotte closed her laptop, stood, and followed—not so much followed as trailed behind. He was most of the way to his office already.
While they’d been civil and managed to work rather well together during Charlotte’s time in Paris, their relationship didn’t approach anything that resembled friendship. They stretched the textbook definition of “professional colleagues”; nothing said professional colleagues had to be more than polite to each other.
She stretched the brief walk to compose herself before entering Chad’s office, where he leaned against the window behind his desk and gestured at the chair. “So,” he prompted. “What’s on your mind?”
“It’s time for me to go home,” Charlotte said, voice direct and firm. She’d flipped into business mode, like she was giving a presentation to executives. And she sort of was. A presentation for quitting.
Chad crossed his arms and looked down. “I see. Is everything okay?”
That, Charlotte realized, was concern in his voice, and he wasn’t faking it.
“Thank you for asking,” she replied. “Everyone’s okay. Everything is okay. As far as I know, anyway. But as challenging and interesting as my time here has been—and I appreciate that I had the opportunity to come back and help make cool things—my place is at Lands of Legend with my family and the park. I can make as much magic there as I can here and get to see the results of that work every day.”
Chad moved to his chair and sat down. “I’d argue that you can’t make as much magic there based on attendance numbers alone, but I know what you mean. It’s not a numbers game. Charlotte, I know I’ve been a jerk in the past—”
“You think?” The words flew out before Charlotte could stop them.
“I know,” Chad said. “About many things, including Lands. But I get it. Your family built that place from the ground up and sure, it’s quaint in scale, but that doesn’t make it less special. I can see how it would be rewarding to help the park grow and to be present to watch it happen, react to feedback and observations immediately. I’m a little jealous of it.”
Charlotte furrowed her eyebrows. This didn’t sound like the Chad she knew. “You are?”
He laughed. “Sure. I mean, not enough to leave all of this and the Dream Mechanics and try to find work at a smaller park or anything.”
That was more like it, Charlotte thought. “No, I didn’t think so.”
Chad leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. Eyes toward the ceiling as if imagining a palace in the sky, he said, “I have a lot of work to accomplish here to make Dreamland Paris the best and brightest of all the parks, then I can keep moving up until I’m running the Dream Mechanic division.”
“So only some small plans, then.” Charlotte didn’t blame him. She’d once had grand ambitions of her own about rising through the Dream Mechanic ranks. And despite Chad’s many, many flaws, he was talented and generally knew when to tap others in when he wasn’t an expert.
Chad half-shrugged, a nonchalant look on his face—the kind that indicated he was so confident he didn’t second-guess himself. “I have it all laid out. I don’t suppose I can do anything to convince you to stay? Development has thrived under your management; you bridge the gap between creative and engineering unlike anyone else on the team.”
That kind of flattery, while it sounded honest, was part of what had led Charlotte to Paris and back to DreamUs in the first place. “No, Chad. This is it for me.”
“Okay then, let’s set another meeting for tomorrow about the best way to wrap up everything you have pending.” He pushed his chair away from his desk, stood up, and extended his hand. “It really has been good to work with you again. Just like old times, except without all the ‘in a relationship’ stuff.”
She shook her head at his verbal use of air quotes and then his hand. “You know, it hasn’t been the worst.” Charlotte found the statement to be true as she said it.
He rolled his eyes. “Talk to you tomorrow.”
Charlotte stopped by her desk to throw her laptop in a bag; nothing was stopping her from going home to start packing.