Page 17 of Heartless

Angry steps thudded in my direction, and I tried to hide my smile.

“What the fuck?” was his greeting.

So easy to rattle.

“I don’t understand your question. You’ll have to rephrase it.”

“You’re not here on vacation, Madison. So what the fuck are you doing?”

I rested my head back and glanced at him. “Debating on how to break it to you.”

“Break what to me?” There was a tick in his jaw that signaled me I was doing a good job of pissing him off.

“That contract you gave me? Quite boring.”

“That’s a legal document. It’s not supposed to be entertaining. It’s supposed to keep you in line.”

“True. But I would still have to ask you to make it a bit more…alluring.”

“Alluring how?”

I stood up from the lounge chair and walked over to him.

“You need me more than I need you. I could plan Annie’s wedding anywhere. She has the funds and the popularity.”

“Sold,” Parker said, a feline grin stretched across his face. “I’ve been waiting for you to come to your senses.”

“What?” I panicked. “You didn’t let me finish.” As much as I hated to admit it, I needed Parker and his clients. It was pure luck that Annie reached out to me when I needed it the most, but I wouldn’t let that luck run out. Not even if I had to hold on to it with bloodied fingernails.

“When are you leaving?” He pressed.

“I’m not leaving. Annie wants to get married here.” I maintained the façade of a cold-blooded bitch, because allowing Parker to see my desperation wasn’t an option. “Think of me as the fairy godmother of brides. I work my magic and make all their wishes come true.”

“Your modesty is admirable,” he grumbled. “Why don’t you make my wish come true? I only have one.”

“Why offer me a job if you want me gone?”

Parker hated my guts and wouldn’t trust me with a spoon. But his good manners didn’t allow him to say it to my face, so I continued. “We both want Annie pleased. Except I could please her in a lot of ways and locations, while you are quite limited.”

“Are we still talking about weddings, or you’re writing a porn script?” He shot me a stern look. “If you’re not leaving, move on to discussing the contract. I don’t want this conversation dragging a minute longer than it needs to.”

Desperation wouldn’t lead me anywhere good, so I had to resort to the thing that made people bend over backwards to get me what I wanted. Aggressiveness. And what was the most important rule of negotiating a price? Always start with a ridiculous number.

“I don’t want to be on your payroll. I want a percentage of the profits.”

He laughed in my face, just like I expected. So far, so good.

“You’re insane, Madison. You’re getting a salary like everyone else around here.”

“I’m the one who will do all the work. You don’t know the first thing about weddings. I’ll also have to deal with your stoner staff.”

“My staff is fine.”

“They’re a bunch of crybabies.” I deliberately used that word, referring to an incident we had an hour before my sister’s wedding reception last year.

“You almost stabbed the man,” Parker said through gritted teeth. “Over a misplaced water glass.”

“I was using a steak knife to point at the table I had arranged as an example. He made a big deal out of nothing.”

---