21 Bianca
Friday afternoon, Bianca sat on the back deck snacking on taffy from the local candy shop and drawing up plans for their upcoming
events. Ever since the proposal video had gone viral and she’d started sharing pictures of all the events on Luke’s property
management page, the bookings had risen steadily. Now with the Padua Resorts deal in the works, the business had the potential
of really taking off. Keeping everything organized was starting to become a problem. It was a good problem to have, but a
problem nonetheless. And since she’d be leaving in a little more than a week, she needed to leave Luke with a workable system
for planning each event.
What made the private beach dinner experience so special was the amount of personalization that went into each one. A wedding
bouquet–inspired centerpiece at an anniversary dinner, or an entire decorating scheme created around the birthday girl’s favorite
colors and patterns. Anyone could use the normal staples they used to create their scenes, and it would look fine. Maybe even
great. But what made their settings and tablescapes resonate with their clients was the amount of themselves they saw in the
displays. Bianca needed to figure out a system to help the next person have the same kind of attention to detail.
Although, she didn’t really like thinking about not being part of this business. It was weird to consider handing over her
binder full of ideas and sketches and letting someone else take it from here.
The back door slid open, and Savannah stepped out on the deck carrying a laundry basket full of supplies.
“Oh, hey. I didn’t know you were out here.” Savannah was out of breath, which was weird. How heavy was that basket?
“Do you need help with that?” Bianca asked.
“No, I got it.” Her sister plopped the basket on the table and snagged a piece of taffy from the bag. “I was just about to
set up for movie night on the deck. Want to help?”
Bianca motioned at the papers on the table in front of her. “Can’t. Sorry. I have to finish these plans before Luke picks
me up. I want to make sure to get these orders to the florist before they close tonight.”
Savannah’s forehead wrinkled with confusion. “Wait. When is Luke picking you up?”
“Four thirty. I hope that gives us enough time. Our two setups aren’t close together this time. It’s turning out to be a logistical
challenge.” Which was another thing she needed to help him figure out for after she left. She scribbled a note on the top
of her papers to think about later.
“When will you be back?”
Bianca shrugged, still focused on her plans. “I don’t know. Probably around ten.”
“But what about movie night?”
“I guess I’ll have to miss it. My schedule has gotten pretty packed.”
“You can’t miss it. It’s been on our schedule since we got here.” In true Savannah form, her mom-voice came out as if she
were lecturing one of her kids instead of talking to her fully grown sister.
Which is what Bianca often felt like around her. A child. And frankly, she was a little sick of it.
“I’m sorry if my plans are getting in the way of your plans.”
Cora chose that exact moment to come around the corner of the house carrying two beach umbrellas. “Got ’em, Van. But I don’t
know if they’ll be tall enough to use as poles to hang a movie screen. Maybe taping the sheet to the house will be a better
idea.”
Savannah turned and glared at Cora. “Tell Bianca she has to stay.”
Cora froze mid-step, and her gaze bounced between the two sisters. “Um... sorry?”
“Savannah is mad because I have a job and can’t make her little movie night.” Bianca pushed her chair back from the table and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “In fact, aren’t you the one always telling me I need to get a job?”
Cora seemed to consider that. “She does have a point.”
“But not now!” Savannah’s voice started to rise. “Not when we’re on vacation. Not when we’re supposed to be bonding.”
“Then maybe we need to pick a different time to do ‘sister bonding.’” Bianca put air quotes around the last two words.
“This has been on the schedule all week. And I can’t help that movie night on the beach is a nighttime activity we have to
squeeze in between the sunset and the noise ordinance. But doing it is important. It’s tradition.”
Bianca had had enough. She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Why, Savannah? Why is this tradition so important? I barely
even remember coming to the beach all those years ago, and I certainly don’t remember all the stupid things we did. That was
an entirely different life. It’s not like watching some movie is going to make everything go back to the way it used to be.
Times are different now. We are different.”
“You know what, I’ll come back with the umbrellas later.” Cora slowly crept backward toward the corner of the house.
And maybe Bianca should’ve let her go, but anger boiled inside her to the point of overflowing. Things needed to be said,
and now that she was on a roll, she was going to say all of them.
She spun around and jabbed a finger in Cora’s direction. “No. You’re part of this, too. You don’t get to run away from whatever
problem comes up because you’re Cora and do your own thing.”
Cora’s eyebrows shot up. “That got personal fast.”
Savannah’s face was starting to turn lobster red. “You’re no better than she is, Bee. You’re about to move across the country
to a place you’ve never seen, to do a job you know nothing about, with a man you haven’t met just because you can’t seem to
figure out your life in Atlanta.”
“Is that what this is about? Me moving?” Seriously, why did her sisters not get this? “In case you missed the memo, I’m getting married .”
Savannah rolled her eyes. “Yeah, don’t even get me started on that.”
Bianca jammed her finger in Cora’s direction. “If you’re so mad about me moving, why aren’t you mad at her? She left for college
and never came back.”
“Again, not sure why I’m part of this fight,” Cora said.
“Of course she’s part of the problem,” Savannah shot back. “She’s the one who can’t figure out how to get along with Dad,
so I have to do this choreographed dance over the holidays to keep everyone happy. She’s like a sullen toddler, but at least
she stays for movie night.”
“I gotta admit, that’s starting to look less and less likely,” Cora muttered.
Bianca shook her head at Savannah’s ridiculousness. “You are hopeless.” She gathered up her papers and stomped over to the
door. “Enjoy your stupid tradition.”
She threw the sliding glass door open with more force than necessary, and it slammed into the stopper at the other end. She
stomped into the house, not even bothering to close the door. She headed straight for the entryway, fuming the entire way.
Did she have any idea where she was going? Of course not. Luke wasn’t supposed to pick her up for another thirty minutes,
she had no car, and it was highly unlikely that Savannah was going to hand over the keys to her, given the current circumstances.
And even if she would, Bianca was absolutely not turning around to ask for them.
But this felt like the kind of conversation that needed to be punctuated with a grand exit, so that was what she was doing.
Even if that grand exit meant pedaling her bike down the street to... Well, she wasn’t quite sure yet. She’d figure it
out along the way, which absolutely did not prove Savannah’s point of her never having a plan.
She yanked open the front door, prepared to storm out, when she almost stormed into someone.
A man. On the front porch. Holding a fancy leather duffel bag.
Startled, she jumped back and gasped. Instinctively, her hand flew over her mouth. Who was this stranger on their front porch?
“Surprise, babers!” the man said.
Babers ? The only person she knew who used that word was...
“Zander?”
“Yeah, baby. It’s me.” His proud smile widened, and he held out his hands as if putting himself on display, the large Louis
Vuitton duffel bag still dangling from one hand.
“Wow.” She probably should’ve made some sort of move, but her brain was too stunned to focus.
This was Zander. Her Zander. And he was here. In Florida.
“I wasn’t expecting you.” Her feet stood glued to the ground as her brain tried to make sense of what was happening.
“I know. That’s why it’s a surprise.” His voice had the kind of know-it-all tone that felt belittling, but it was possible
she was interpreting it wrong. After all, she wasn’t quite processing things at normal speed.
“Well... wow.” She plastered something on her face she hoped resembled a smile while she tried to reconcile what she was
looking at with what she knew. Or at least, what she thought she knew.
The man standing on her front porch sounded like Zander, but he didn’t look like him. At least not the him Bianca was expecting.
For starters he was not almost six feet, like he’d claimed on his bio. She was five foot three, and he was shorter than she
was. Probably by a couple of inches. Plus, he was pretty much bald. What little hair he did have on the front of his head
looked like fairly recent implants. Which, one, he’d never mentioned and, two, she’d never noticed before.
Of course, it was then she realized she’d never seen him without a hat on. He always wore one of his trucker caps to the gym
and his fedora to the office. It was part of his look. Except now she realized it might have actually been an attempt to hide
his true look.
It was also worth noting that whoever had done his implants hadn’t done a particularly great job. The tiny tufts of hair sticking
up sort of resembled an old hairbrush that had lost half its bristles. She was having a hard time not staring.