“If you can do that for me, I can do that for you,” she said. “Sometimes airing out the hard stuff makes it easier.”
“Look at my computer,” Eva said.
Taylor did as told. There were multiple tabs up, all on what seemed to be the same review on multiple websites. By the time she got to the last paragraph— the part about employing a felon— she was ready to put her fist through Eva’s screen. Not that doing so would help matters any.
She swiveled around on the computer chair so that she was facing Eva and scooted it closer to her so they were knee to knee.
“That night at the wedding, I was so caught up in my own feelings and my own shame that I never thought about what you resisting that putrid woman when she asked to search me would have done to your business, to your livelihood. If this is what she did when you complied, I can’t imagine what she would have done if you hadn’t.”
Eva nodded glumly. “I know you wouldn’t have believed it in the moment, but I swear half the reason that I didn’t push back that night was for you. Amanda had already told me how awful Joan can be. I wouldn’t have put making a scene past her.”
“You’re right. That would have been worse for me. Much worse.”
“And no good for Amanda.”
Taylor took Eva’s hands in her own and squeezed them.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t stick around to listen to what you had to say that night.”
“Do you forgive me?”
“Yes,” Taylor said, meaning it with every fiber of her being. She forgave Eva for what she did the night of the wedding, what she may or may have not done with the woman at the hotel, for anything else. Se also knew she wasn’t the only one deserving of an apology. “And do you forgive me? For shutting you out when I should have been letting you in?”
“Well…” Eva said, the hint of a smile curling up at the edges of her lips— raw and bitten instead of their usual perfectly polished shine—“you did sort of drive all the way to Asheville just to make it right. That’s like romantic comedy gold—the showing up without telling me you were coming.”
Taylor jostled Eva’s knee with her own. “Sooo…?” she said leaning in, her face close to Eva’s.
“Sooo, you were forgiven the minute I saw your gorgeous face. Which I would like to kiss very much right now.”
Taylor straddled Eva on the edge of the chaise lounge and kissed her with a force that felt like a hurricane coming in, each movement of her lips and tongue fueled with the urge to channel all of the healing energy and hope she kept inside herself to get through the bad times out of her mouth and into Eva’s. If only it worked that way.
When it was time for them to come up for air, she reminded Eva she’d brought dinner. Then she shut the laptop screen. “Enough of Joan’s face for tonight. Let’s head upstairs. You’re going to need sustenance if we’re going to strategize how to stop this troll from doing what she appears to do best.”
In the kitchen, Taylor retrieved plates and silverware from Eva’s cabinets as though they were her own. She loaded a dish up with food and passed it over to Eva before heaping a healthy helping onto her own.
“Can you ask Amanda if she’d consider requesting her aunt take the posts down? It’s not like the aunt was the one paying or getting married, so it shouldn’t be her place to be the one to leave the review in the first place.”
Eva pushed her food around with her fork and knife instead of making any attempt to eat it. “I don’t want to put Amanda in an uncomfortable situation.”
Taylor regarded Eva carefully, not wanting to overstep. Eva had built her business from the ground up so she clearly knew what she was doing. Taylor didn’t want Eva to interpret her unsolicited advice as skepticism about her ability to handle things with her company. Taylor knew a thing or two about trying to salvage your reputation but zilch about entrepreneurship.
“When’s your next wedding?”
“Not for another two weeks. Normally there’s not that big of a gap, but the school chapel is temporarily closed down for renovations.”
“That means that until then, Joan’s smear campaign is going to be the most visible of all the reviews on your page. I don’t know how far the average person scrolls down, but based off of the few comments that I read, you might not be able to afford for people to keep seeing that first.”
Eva took the top off her Styrofoam cup full of sweet tea, took a long gulp, and then walked over to her sparsely populated liquor cabinet. She got out some Firefly sweet tea vodka and poured it in, then stirred it with her straw.
“Want me to spike yours?”
“No thanks,” Taylor said, not wanting to do anything that would distract her from her mission to somehow make things right.
“Do you have any former clients that you could ask for reviews that haven’t posted them yet? You could send out an email asking them to take a minute or two to throw something up on Yelp or Google.”
“I thought about it, but I thought that might look a little desperate. I also thought about a spin-off of that—offering a discount to anyone they refer to me for a review regardless of content—but that seemed like bribery.”
Taylor wolfed down the rest of her plate and then stood.
“You done with yours?” she said, nodding to Eva’s meal, long grown cold.
“I’m sorry. It looks good and I’m grateful, but I’m afraid I don’t have much of an appetite.”
Taylor covered Eva’s food with Saran wrap and then placed it in the fridge. Then she went to Eva’s bathroom, put the stopper in the tub, and began to run a bath.
“What are you doing?” Eva asked, standing in the doorway watching.
“I’m taking care of you.”
Eva stripped down. This time, things were much different. There was no clunky cast in the way. No striptease or seduction. Just Eva, raw and bare and vulnerable, climbing into the piping hot water. She slipped down below the suds and propped her head back on the inflatable bath pillow, slipped the cucumber gel mask over her eyes that Taylor had retrieved from the refrigerator after spying it when she was clearing away dinner.
“Are you going to join me?” Eva asked.
Taylor shook her head and then leaned down to kiss Eva on the top of her head. “I’m going to give you some time to relax. When you’re done, I’ll be downstairs in your office,” Taylor said, slipping out and closing the door behind her to trap in the warmth and steam.
In order to make herself useful, she first had to make herself nosy. She poked and prodded in Eva’s supply closet until she found what she was looking for—an extra gift box with the items that had been given out at Amanda’s wedding. The vendor’s business card was taped to this one. Taylor peeled it off carefully and put it on the desk so that it would be there when she was ready for research.
Taylor was more reluctant to snoop around Eva’s desk, but that too seemed like a necessary evil. In true Eva fashion, everything was in meticulous order. It called to mind for Taylor one of her grandmother’s adages—everything has a place and every place has its things . She smiled, thinking about how well Eva and her grandmother were going to get along when they finally got to meet. A professional cleaning woman and a type-A neat freak—the two entrepreneurs were bound to be peas in a pod.
She pulled out the drawer that held hanging files, each one neatly labeled with the names of recent clients. Spying Amanda’s name, she rifled through, trying not to absorb any information except for the one thing she was after—the names of vendors used. Jotting them down on a spare Post-It note, she planned to do some quick research on them, too.
It only took her a few minutes to get the information that she needed. Then she set out to work.
Nearly an hour later, Eva still hadn’t come down. Taylor turned off the lights in the office and padded upstairs softly to find Eva softly snoring, still propped up in water that had lost all its warmth. She woke Eva gently and then helped her stand and towel off, sliding a cotton nightgown over her head before tucking her into
her bed.
“Not as comfortable as the hotel bed, but better because you’re with me,” Eva mumbled, smiling an exhausted smile before setting into her down pillows and shutting her eyes.
After washing her face and setting an alarm clock, Taylor shut off the light and climbed into bed. It had been a long day for both of them, but with Eva beside her, she knew it was going to be a good night.
Tomorrow, they’d both go back to work and life as usual, but they’d be going back together. Taylor hoped that would make the break of day a little less daunting for Eva to face.
35
Eva
When Eva’s alarm went off in the morning, Taylor was gone. If it weren’t for the you’re cute when you’re sleeping so I didn’t want to wake you note on the extra pillow and the leftovers in the fridge, she would have been afraid the night before was just a dream.
Eva heated up pulled pork and hush puppies for breakfast and decided to skip her run. The trip to Asheville had been like a trip to an alternate reality. She felt it best to ease back into being home. There was that, and the fact that she might need to run to relieve stress when the work day was done. Pounding the pavement could wait.
When she was ready to face her PR nightmare, she flipped her laptop open. Her web browser was exactly where it was the night before, but when she refreshed the page, she saw that Joan was no longer the review at the top. Instead, the thumbnail picture she saw was an image of Erica’s mom.
When my family was going through a difficult time, Eva assisted my teenage daughter in pulling off a surprise event to help my husband and I rekindle our romance. She set up a dinner with a private chef and arranged for a place for us to dance to music that would transport us to the memories we had of first falling in love. She volunteered her time, expertise, and professional decorations to make this happen for two complete strangers in desperate need of a night to reconnect. I don’t know of any other local event planner of Eva’s caliber that would do such a thing pro bono at the request of a young girl desperate to see her parents smile again. Eva’s kindness toward my husband and I and her willingness to take our daughter under her wing have made a huge difference in all of our lives. It’s refreshing to see a local business owner do so much for her community.
Touched, and more than a little caught off guard, Eva felt her chin begin to tremble with what she was afraid would be more tears. She was just grateful they were happy tears this time. When she clicked over to the tabs for the other review pages, she saw that the same review had been distributed everywhere else, pushing Joan’s down.
There was also a new comment under all of Joan’s posts.
When two people fall in love, each partner is taking a chance. When those partners choose someone to pull off their special day, they take a chance. Similarly, when Eva from Eva’s Events took me on to assist with the wedding in question, she took a chance on me. Before she did so, she checked with the bride and groom to ensure they’d feel comfortable having someone with a nonviolent felony lend a hand at their wedding, and they were. (I’ll add for my own sake here that I’ve already completed my probation and could easily produce happy testimonials about my work from numerous employers and volunteer coordinators. The same is true for many people in my situation, but society is not forgiving of those with criminal records.)
I’ll also add here that Eva only had to bring in last minute help because she was physically unable to manage everything on her own due to a broken arm. Everything she could do on her own, she did.
After spending plenty of time setting up for the wedding under Eva’s supervision, I can assure you that the vendors and items chosen were all painstakingly vetted. The items in the guest gift boxes were all handcrafted by Diana, a female entrepreneur from Durham that uses goat milk from her own farm to create personal toiletry items and candles. The only reason they aren’t covered in luxury branding is that Diana endeavors to design products with minimal packaging to be more sustainable—which is a value the happy couple indicated they shared on their wedding intake form. Eva makes a point of pairing couples with vendors that embody their beliefs. Want to shop local? Support minority-owned businesses? Be environmentally friendly? Only serve fair trade coffee? Regardless of what’s most important to you, Eva has you covered.
The beer was provided by a local craft brewery. The evidence of their quality is in the plethora of medals they’ve collected at both the Open Beer Championship and the American Beer Festival. Should you redirect your browser to the review pages for the caterer and DJ, you’ll see they’re both crowd favorites.
Eva strives to meet and exceed all client expectations. Should you choose to bring her under your employ, you’ll see that her first priority is sitting down with you to see what is of most importance to you when you think about how you want your happily ever after to begin.
When Taylor had said she was going to take care of Eva the night before, it had been the understatement of the year. She’d taken care of her body, her soul, and now her company, too. Eva wanted nothing more than to go back in time and tear up her frivolous pros and cons list she’d made only a few days before in an attempt to choose between Taylor and Candace. There wasn’t a piece of paper in the universe long enough to capture all of what made Taylor the ultimate catch—a woman she was beyond lucky to have no matter what anyone might have to say about Taylor’s background. Everyone had a past and a skeleton or two to go along with it.
Thinking about how some of her own skeletons had been laid bare on Instagram sent a new wave of panic coursing through Eva’s body. She hadn’t let herself look at that page at all after Candace had removed the pictures—all of which had been liked far too many times for her comfort. She didn’t want to do the math to figure out how many strangers’ eyes had made their way over her body.
She’d heard that plenty of women had intimate images they’d sent be leaked by an angry ex later on. She just hadn’t expected a woman would do something like that to another woman. Eva couldn’t tell if it was better or worse that they had been on Candace’s professional Instagram page for her photography and not any of the sketchier places they might have popped up where they would have at least been more anonymous.
Candace had made it personal on purpose. After being so generous with information that would help Eva grow her clientele, she’d done something she knew might have the opposite effect on Eva’s Events. While she might have boudoir photos on her photography Instagram, none of those types of pictures had been on display in her office beside the bridal portraits. Candace had known exactly what she was doing.
Growing up, Eva’s mother had always told her that hurt people hurt people. That it didn’t excuse their behavior and that it didn’t take the sting away, but that when you were hurt by someone else you should try to find the compassion in you to identify what might have driven them to that kind of behavior. In this instance, the reason was clear as day. She knew her actions didn’t justify what Candace had done, but the part of her that had suffered so deeply when she’d been rejected by Taylor made her understand why it happened.
Hell, if she hadn’t been so hurt by Taylor’s initial rejection after Amanda’s wedding, she might have not put herself in a position to have shown up in those photos in the first place. Regardless, that damage was done. She’d made her bed. Now she had to lie in.
She braced herself when she opened her Instagram account. She just wasn’t sure what it was that she was worried she’d find. An increase in followers that were hoping for more pictures of her scantily clad, or a decrease in followers who wanted the only lacy things they saw on her feed to be wedding gowns?
Eva’s father was a man that relied heavily upon his faith. Eva’s mother was a believer in the universe sending signals and signs. Taylor was obsessed with the idea of karma. Most of the time, Eva was focused on facts, logic, and what she could see in front of her with her own two eyes. Today, however, she was one of them—holding her breath and hoping for a miracle.
S
he took a deep breath and scrolled. Her follower count and her comments all looked like she would have expected pre-disaster.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said, not really sure where to direct it.
36
Taylor
Taylor was just barely out of the library’s front door at the end of the day when her cell phone rang. She flopped down on the bench beside the entrance to answer.
“Hello.”
“May I speak to Taylor Scott?”
“This is Taylor speaking.”
“My name is Joy Langston and I’m a reporter from The Observer . Do you have a moment to chat?”
Taylor’s first instinct was to hang up. She’d worked so hard to fly under the radar after having her mugshot posted online that a call from a reporter felt like a personal assault on her privacy, even if the woman on the other end was just doing her job and chasing some kind of lead. She paused a beat and chewed her lip before responding.
“Sure. Can you tell me what this is in regard to?”
“I’m a reporter, but I’m also a bride-to-be. I was researching wedding planners when I came across a string of messages about Eva’s Events. When I saw your response to the woman that complained about the owner hiring a felon, it moved me. My dad has a record and it caused him a lot of trouble getting work when I was growing up. I thought an interest piece might make for a good story and raise awareness about the hardships people go through when they’re trying to get their lives back together.”
“That sounds like a good cause.” The part she left out was that she wasn’t sure she wanted to be the poster child for that cause, no matter how big her desire was to help other people that might be struggling. She knew she was lucky. Not everyone else would have a supervisor like Marian that would offer full time employment when their community service hours were up. More than that, Marian never treated her differently than she did any of the other employees, never made her feel like she was less than or like someone that needed to be watched. Given that she had stolen from an employer, Taylor had been baffled that Marian had never blinked an eye at having Taylor handle the money for overdue fines or the other petty cash.
Forgetting Chuck Taylor Page 15
