Page 131 of Crazy In Love
“Yes. I’m looking for Emilia Taylor,” she said.
“Oh. That’s me. How can I help you?”
“Hello, I’m Sylvia Carson, the president of West Coast Rentals, and we have fourteen properties here in town that we rent out through Airbnb and Vrbo.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize one company owned so many of the homes here,” I said honestly. I rented out my guest cottage through those sites, which had a ton of properties, but I hadn’t realized a lot of them were owned by one corporation.
“Yes. We’ve been slowly building our portfolio in Rosewood River, which has become our most popular town for rentals.”
“That’s amazing. Were you looking for a florist to deliver to the homes when they’re rented out?” I asked, pulling the order form out from beneath the counter.
“Oh no, I’m not here about flowers. I was just told that this is where I could find you.” She chuckled. “And my apologies for showing up at such a busy time of year for you.”
“No worries. What can I help you with?”
“We’ve been doing some market research, and we feel strongly that renovating these older homes is the key to renting them for higher costs. It’ll be an initial investment, and then hopefully the payout will be worth it in the long run. So we’d like to start with four or five homes and test out the theory.”
I glanced over at Beatrice, who was designing an order that was going out this afternoon, but she had a big smile on her face, so she was clearly listening.
“That’s a great plan. I renovated my guest cabin, and I’m getting double the price from what I’d originally expected before I fixed it up.”
“That’s amazing. I stumbled upon your website recently, and I saw your latest project and was truly blown away by the photos. Obviously that home had a hearty budget, and ours would be much leaner, but I’m assuming you have an eye no matter what the budget.”
“I believe I can work with any budget.” I smiled.
“I’d love to get your phone number and email address, and I’m going to send over some of the photos of the current homes we have. We’re looking at two other designers, but I’d love to give a local person a shot as well. You can send me your ideas about what you’d do to each home, and we plan to make a decision in the next couple of weeks. We’re looking to get started pretty quickly.” She handed me her phone and asked me to type in my information.
“Here you go,” I said, handing it back to her before extending my arm and shaking her hand. “Thank you so much for considering me. Truly, I’d be honored for the opportunity.”
“I’ll send everything over today, and I look forward to speaking to you soon, Emilia.” And she turned and walked out the door.
Once she left, Beatrice squealed, and we grabbed one another’s hands and jumped up and down.
“Oh my gosh, this is happening, Em!” she shouted.
I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one was listening. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You heard her—she’s got two other designers submitting as well. They probably have a lot more experience than I do.”
“Pffftt… don’t sell yourself short. You’ve got this.”
The idea thrilled me, but I got back to work because we had a big week ahead of us.
A few hours later, I’d received the photos of the properties they were interested in fixing up, the budget I had to work with, and a request to send a presentation to them by next week with inspiration photos, detailed descriptions of what I would do with each one, and potential budgets for each property.
I was already pretty exhausted from a long day at the flower shop, and I’d need to put in long hours to get my presentation together over the next week.
As we were locking up the shop, Beatrice hugged me. “I’m so proud of you. What did Bridger say about it?”
“I’m not going to tell him unless I get it. Knowing him, he’ll call them and try to bully them into giving the job to me. I want to prove that I can do this on my own.” I shrugged.
“He does have a bit of a brutish disposition,” she said with a chuckle. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
And I made my way home, knowing I had some long nights ahead of me.
A few days later, I felt lighter when I arrived at the flower shop. Bridger was on a flight home now, and I was surprised by how much I’d missed him. We’d both been busy these last few days while he was gone, yet we’d talked several times a day.
And today was my favorite day of the year. It was Valentine’s Day, and Beatrice and I were ready for the crowd of last-minute shoppers.
The bell chimed when the door opened, and Oscar walked in.
