Chapter Twenty-six

“God, why haven’t they found a way to inject coffee directly into my veins?” I complained, sitting behind my desk. Between trying to figure things out with Sky and the recent onslaught of clients at my job, I’d felt like I was running on empty.

Although, handling clients was a lot easier than trying to navigate my relationship with Sky. Dealing with my clients was simple, because ultimately, they all wanted the same thing: a nice wedding.

But with Sky? I had no idea what he wanted at the end of the day. And I didn’t want to delude myself into thinking that he wanted me, even though that was what he claimed.

I wasn’t falling for that one again. I couldn’t put my heart in such peril.

As my thoughts filled with Sky, I heard someone knocking -- hard -- on my door. I got up to answer it, putting on my best customer service face, wanting to seem like I wasn’t as tired as I felt. “Good morning! Welcome to Raven’s Wedding Services... oh.”

My face fell when I realized that Edward was standing on the other side of my door. “Raven. There you are.”

“Here I am…” My words trailed off as I looked him up and down. “What did you want, Edward?”

“I just wanted to talk. May I come in?”

“Sure,” I said, even though I didn’t trust his intentions for even a second. I nodded toward the guest chair in my office before I turned back around and took a seat at my desk.

Edward closed the door behind him before he sank down into the seat across from me. “We need to talk about Sky.”

“What about him?”

“You’ve put some kind of spell on him.” Edward smiled. “You know that? I think he’d go to the ends of the earth for you.”

“Okay…”

“I think he’d throw his whole life away for you. I think he’d throw his entire legacy away for you.” He laughed. “Isn’t that insane? That boy has had a fortune coming to him for his entire life, but he’d rather not see a dime of it if it means not being with you.”

“Was there something you wanted to say to me, Edward?” I braced myself for his response.

“I just came here to apologize, Raven,” he continued. “Because you are not a gold digger.”

“Thank you--”

“No, you are something much worse,” he went on. “It’d be one thing if you just wanted to leech off my son, but no. You want to pull the plant out at the root. You want to cut him off at the knees. You want to ruin everything for my family.”

“What? I don’t want to ruin anything for your family,” I explained. “I just like Sky, okay?”

“And how much would it cost for you to stop liking him?”

“What do you mean?”

“How much would I have to pay you to make you go away?” Edward smiled again. “Come on. Every man has his price. What’s your price, Raven Williams?”

“You can’t buy me, Edward.” I kept my tone firm. “And if that’s what you came here to do, you might as well leave right now.”

“Oh, I just came here to talk.” He shrugged. “Although, successfully bribing you would’ve been a nice extra.”

“Is this because Sky likes guys?” I asked. “Is that why you keep trying to run me off? Because you’re embarrassed by your son being gay or something? Which is idiotic, by the way.”

“I have no problem with my son’s sexual orientation,” he answered. “This is about the plans I had for my family that you are currently ruining.”

“You can’t just make Sky marry someone that he doesn’t want to be with.”

“And you can’t just come into my son’s life and turn him into a person I do not recognize,” Edward replied. “Sky’s always been stubborn, but not when it comes to Irene. And now? It’s like he can’t even picture a life at her side.”

“Maybe he never could. Maybe you don’t know your son as well as you think you do,” I suggested.

And maybe you don’t know Irene, either, I thought to myself. I knew better than to bring up Irene’s girlfriend, not wanting to out her to Edward. Although, it was slightly amusing that he seemed so hellbent on putting two people together who couldn’t have been less interested in being married to each other.

His mouth turned into a hard line. “I’m being rather kind to you, Raven. Kinder than I have any need to be.”

“You consider coming into my office and trying to bribe me to stay away from your son as kind?”

“Yes.” He stared back at me. “It is kind that I’m giving you a chance to make the right decision. If I were a crueler man, I could’ve started these negotiations by targeting your business.”

“And now you’re threatening my business?” I scoffed in disbelief. “You’re right, Edward. You really are being too kind.”

“I can ruin you, Raven,” he murmured. “I can make your life a living hell. I can make this city hostile toward you, basically inhospitable. Anywhere you go, you’ll be turned away. Anywhere you try to work, your application won’t make it past the first round. Is that really what you want?”

I stood up from my chair as I nodded toward my office door. “All right. It looks like this meeting is over, Edward.”

“Raven--”

“No. We’re done talking. It’s time for you to leave.” I kept my tone steady. “If you need to talk to me about anything else, feel free to leave a message on my answering machine next time. Threats tend to play better over the phone, anyway.”

“This isn’t over, Raven,” Edward said as he moved toward the door.

“Yeah, but at least it’s over for now,” I replied, slamming the door in his face, ending our conversation, once and for all.

* * *

The blue-obsessed bride was the first to cancel her wedding.

I was confused at first, until she explained to me that some generous benefactor had offered to pay for everything, wedding planning included, as long as she didn’t work with me. Of course, she was sorry about taking money out of my pocket, but she also let me know that she was going to need her deposit back by next Monday.

And then, the same thing happened again. Another bride canceled at the behest of some ghost, some phantom with deep pockets who only wanted to give her the best for her wedding day.

When the third bride canceled on me, I felt like I was ready to break.

I couldn’t believe it. Edward was willing to use his own money and resources to push me off the board. It hurt even more knowing that he was basically funneling money right to my competition, too, ruining leads in a matter of days that I’d worked on for months.

And now, I was sitting on my living room couch, trying my best to pretend like everything was fine. I hadn’t told Sky about the meeting with his dad because I didn’t want him to freak out about it.

Although, another reason I hadn’t told him about it was because I didn’t know what Sky would do if he found out his father was trying to kill my business. I wanted to trust Sky, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he would give in to his father, all for the sake of keeping my office doors open for the foreseeable future.

“Are you okay?” Sky asked as he plopped down beside me. “You look like you’re thinking about something.”

“I’m fine,” I lied, shifting closer to him on the couch. “It’s just work stuff. Sometimes, the stress comes home with me.”

“Yeah. I get that.” He sighed. “But at least you’re doing what you love, right? That has to make it feel a little bit better.”

“A little bit.” I shrugged. “But right now, I kind of wish I wasn’t my own boss. If there was someone else who I could go to, just to hand over the reins for a minute--”

“Why would you need to hand over the reins?”

Because your father is trying to destroy my business.

“Because it just feels like a lot right now,” I answered. “I don’t know. Work can be a lot of pressure when it all comes down to me.”

“Good thing you’re not alone then.” Sky smiled, placing his hand over my own. “Just let me know if you need anything, okay? And I’ll make it happen.”

And as I looked over at him, it hit me with full force that this could be one of the last times we were ever together like this. For all I knew, Edward was getting ready to ring the death knell for my business, and then I would lose my apartment because I couldn’t pay rent, and then my car, and then my business license at the office--

“I love you,” I blurted out the phrase, unplanned and without grace.

“What?”

“I love you, Sky,” I repeated. “I wanted to say it a lot earlier, but I didn’t know how you would take it, and then I just wanted to wait for the right moment--”

Sky beamed as he leaned over to kiss me, successfully interrupting my word vomit. “I love you, too, Raven.”

And even though it felt like my world was on the verge of falling apart, kissing Sky made me feel like he was going to be the one to pull it back together.