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We entered the living room, and after introductions, Bria got straight to the point. “You understand that there will be a lot of work and my father will not brook or accept any delays?” She warned the coordinators at the opening of the conversation. “Can you deal with any type of issues that may come up? Also, I hope that you’re aware of the type of family you’re dealing with.” Bria opened with honesty, and I could only approve.
Both wedding planners nodded.
“We’ve heard the rumors,” Natalie, the first coordinator, answered.
“Good, because they’re all true. So make sure you don’t screw this up.” Bria put on her serious face. “I know that there will be some overlapping with our guest lists, but we’re going to need to be able to seat five hundred guests.” She rattled off the name of a possible venue that had previously been discussed. For one who didn’t want to deal with the wedding planners, she took over instantly. I sat back and watched her work.
“That venue has been booked for months. There’s no way that we can get them to accommodate us this late in the season.” Carol, the second coordinator, shook her head at the idea.
“Normally that would be true, but we’ve pulled a few strings and there is an opening next week. You’ll just need to get in touch with Josh and he’ll take care of any issues,” I spoke up, using my deep authoritative voice, letting her know I would always be in charge. “We still need a venue for the reception. I’m looking for something that will have a few safety features as well as handle the five hundred guests.”
The actual wedding details weren’t going to be as difficult as making sure that all of the people who arrived for the event wouldn’t be inclined to kill each other—or us —during the ceremony.
The large cathedral where we would be married would require a black tie type of event and many would bow out due to that. Others would simply come to the reception and wait to congratulate us. A hotel large enough to accommodate our reception with a ballroom on the rooftop for the cocktails and the extras of the private family portion of the evening was a big ask. But we always got what we wanted. This was my wedding day, and I was going to make sure I had it. Bria deserved to have the wedding of a queen, especially since this was an arrangement.
Once the larger details were ironed out, Bria mentioned that she would like to have sage and white for their colors.
“I’m not sure that’s going to work, honey. We should do the Romano colors.”
Bria’s jaw dropped. “Absolutely not. They look like somebody died. I don’t want to think of death at my wedding. I want to think of something festive and pretty,” she protested. “We have enough dying in our world already and shouldn’t have to add to it if we don’t have to.”
“Well, at least with the Romano family colors, if any blood is spilled, it’ll just blend into the decorations,” I joked, but both of the wedding coordinators looked a little freaked out. They laughed, assuming that it was all a joke, which in part it was.
“Luciano,” Bria said, exasperated.
“It’s fine, you can use her colors. I believe a white and green or sage as she asked for it will suit her coloring much better than a red.” I kissed Bria’s temple and was feeling gracious. After all, it was the bride’s choice to do most of the wedding. Although a good red and black would hide most of the offending problems if things got out of hand.
We spent the next hour fine tuning our requests and expectations. The wedding coordinators left a little shakily because I could only hope the previous warning was enough to keep them on track. I decided that I would have a couple of soldiers follow them and make sure they kept their mouths shut.
“Why don’t we go to Elana’s room and let you talk to her while I take care of a few things in my office?” I questioned, hoping that she wouldn’t protest too much.
She gave me an appraising look. “I’m very interested to see your office.”
“Well, text me when you’re done with Elana, and then we can have dinner and I’ll give you a personal tour.”
“Oh, how kind of you to let me walk myself somewhere,” she tossed out sarcastically.
I followed her out through the halls and watched her enter Elana’s room without any issues before heading to my office. I had barely taken a seat when my father stormed into the room.
“Luciano,” he began. “I want to retire. It’s time to fucking be done with this kind of shit. These foot soldiers are getting dumber every fucking year.” Then my father actually plopped himself down into a chair. My father had never acted in such a manner before.
“Dad, you can step down anytime,” I cautioned. “No need to hurry things along.”
“Well, if this wedding and the merger of these families goes well, I’ll hand over the reins to you after the wedding,” he shifted on the seat.
“I’m ready whenever you are, Dad. Just let me know and I will take over running things.” I had been ready for years.
“Ah, you’re way too accommodating. You need to be tougher. I thought I’d taught you better. Never mind, it’s not like I can change things now.” Angelo stood with a huff as he left the room to go work on financial matters for the merger.
I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my chair. Stefano walked in and shut the door behind my father.
“So, we could work on rerouting the distribution and things through the city. It has to be done from time to time and I’d say the time is up. But now with the addition of the Montrelli family business, we’re going to need to add their entire operation to our people. This is moving too quickly, everything done in a too short of time,” I said to Stefano as he sat down in the chair my father recently vacated.
“There’s nothing else for us to work on right now. I’ll have to go with Bria tomorrow and observe how they run their side of things. It’s the only way we can merge our families in a civilized manner that won’t disrupt the financial business aspects.”
I also needed to see Marco’s books before he goes wherever it is that someone who retires goes. I know he won’t turn them over to me completely, but I at least need to take a glance at them so I know which businesses are running profitably and which ones aren’t.”
“Oh, that reminds me, we have that family dinner on Sunday, I could ask Angelo and Marco about any of the merges then.”
