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Her smile is small when she replies, “Thank you. It was unexpected, but Theo has always been there for me.”
I nod. She continues.
“He’s the CEO of Eli Co. It’s family owned, so he has funds set aside for my wedding. He didn’t give me a budget, but said that he would cover everything I wanted, within reason.” She chuckles like she’s remembering an inside joke.
“All right.” I draw out the word. This won’t be easy. I’m guessing her brother is quite a bit older and probably doesn't really know what weddings cost these days. “If you hire me to plan your wedding, we will all need to meet in order to create a plan and unfortunately, I will have to have a budget.”
Nora bites her lip nervously as she glances at Mateo. He’s been relatively quiet the whole time, but that’s typical.
“Theo is very busy…” he trails off as Nora places her hand on his arm.
“He hates weddings. But he loves me, so that’s our agreement. He pays for it all but isn’t involved.”
Well, leapin' lizards! This man sounds absolutely delightful.
I clear my throat but make sure my award-winning smile is still in place. For real, I’ve won awards.
“I understand, but I will need a set budget. I will need him to sign a payment contract and I will need to have a clear agreement on how vendor payments will be made. I don’t have to meet him in person. Over the phone works too, but I do need those things handled before I can get started.” I’ve been around long enough that you set policies and rules for a reason, and you stick to them, no matter who you want to work with. If you don’t, it will bite you in the ass for sure. Payment and contracts, always the most important.
“Okay, not a problem. I really want to work with you. Theo can deal with it. If you can give me all the info he needs to look over, I can get it to him. Then we can plan a time to meet, though a phone call would be easier. Or an email. Email would actually be perfect,” she says hopefully.
I sigh inwardly. “Sure. I’m sure we can make this work via email.” Not my first choice, but if this man is going to be that big of a pain in the ass, maybe it’s for the best. I grab the HEA, Inc. branded folder off the coffee table in front of me. “My card is inside this folder along with the budget sheet, payment agreement, and vendor payment plan. Please review those with your brother and then email at your earliest convince. If you’d like, we can go ahead and run through the client contract, which you will both need to sign.”
They nod and I pull out the contract. We spend the next few minutes going through general expectations and they both happily sign.
Nora hugs me as I walk them out into the lobby and even though I have some reservations about working with her brother, I’m excited to plan their wedding.
Though Nora offered up a lot of information about the grump, I refuse to Google him. I have this gut feeling that he is going to be a pain in my side, and I want to delay my involvement and knowledge of the man for as long as possible.
Oh, the fun part of planning weddings.
Chapter 4
BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE
THEO
“Mr. Abbot,your next appointment starts in twenty minutes. You should probably get going,” Meredith tells me from the doorway. I glance down at the time on my computer.
Shit.
I clear my throat. “I know you said I have a two o'clock, but I can’t remember what it’s for.”
“Your sister requested a meeting. She needs you to look at venues with her,” Meredith chimes as she walks in and picks up the leftover wrappers from my lunch she had delivered an hour ago.
“Meredith, stop cleaning up my trash. Not your job,” I grumble. She’s been my assistant for five years now. She knows cleaning up after me isn’t in her job description.
“Oh, it’s fine. Plus, you really need to leave.” She wads up the sandwich wrapper and tosses it into the wastebasket next to my desk.
I sign out of my email with a sigh. “I don’t want to.”
She chuckles. “You have no choice. I promised Ms. Abbot that I would not let you cancel, again.”
I look at the ceiling and roll my eyes as I huff out a breath. “Yeah, well, she made me a promise that I wouldn’t have to be involved. I’ve already had to have way more involvement than planned.”
“Oh, stop, what did you expect? You’re paying for the whole thing. Did you think the planner wouldn’t need assurances? All you did was read through the agreement and sign. I handled everything else.” She sniffs as she walks around and picks up a wadded up ball of paper I tossed against the wall earlier.
“Yeah, well, she was pushy.” I flip my phone awake and see that I have several messages, two from Nora and one from my friend Charlie.
