Page 23 of Royally Knocked Up
He grinned. “You got me.”
“I hope I’m not keeping you from anything,” she said.
“No, you’re not. You’re right. We should work on the assignment.” He took a sip of his soda. “So what do you think about Isla’s suggestion? Do you think we’re going to be able to come up with ideas that will get more people to want to come to the resort?”
“Oh, I’m sure we can,” she said. “Just think about what would getyouto want to spend time here.”
He laughed. “That doesn’t necessarily apply here, you know. It would be hard to convince me that spending time at this resort was any kind of novelty.”
“Well, that makes you the perfect test subject for any ideas we might have. If we can come up with something that would enticeyou, we can safely rely on the fact that it’ll work on guests.”
Enzo chuckled. “You have a point there.”
“Of course I do. I’m a genius at this stuff.”
“Is that right? What ideas do you have?”
“We could contract with a highly regarded chef to come in and do a few meals,” Hailey said.
Enzo cocked his head at her. “Our staff chef is one of the best in Europe.”
“I know. The food here is amazing. But I’m talking about rotating in some different people, for variety. If you’d always wanted to try some German chef’s cooking and then you found out he was going to be in your own country for a week, you’d jump on the opportunity.”
“Sure,” Enzo said. “That might work. Me, I’d probably just go to Germany.”
“Yeah, well, for some people it’s easier to book a resort stay than it is to fly to another country. I’m guessing you probably have the use of a private jet for things like that.”
“It does come in handy sometimes.”
“What else? Do you have any ideas off the bat?”
“Well…”
“Go on, spit it out.”
“I’ve been thinking about movies,” Enzo said.
“You do a lot of thinking about movies, don’t you?”
“I guess I do. But I’ve been thinking specifically about the award shows that are coming up in a few weeks. That’s right, isn’t it? The big American ones?”
“Yes, I think it’s the season for that.”
“What if we screened the films and got the actors to attend?”
Hailey let out a low whistle. “Don’t ever let me suggest that you don’t dream big.”
“And why shouldn’t I dream big? You asked me what would make me want to come to this resort — well, that would do it. If there was a screening of a really good film, one that was up for some awards, and if some of the cast or maybe the director was here to talk about it and answer questions, I would want to come. I’d go out of my way to be here for that, even though I’ve been to this resort dozens of times.”
Hailey frowned, thinking it over. “It’s not a bad idea,” she said. “I mean, presuming we could make it happen. But this is the pie-in-the-sky stage, I suppose.”
“It’s the what?”
“You’ve never heard that expression? It means the part of a plan when you just name all your dizziest daydreams, no matter how impractical they seem, because you don’t know what’s possible if you’re too afraid to admit you want it.”
“I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t make this happen,” Enzo said.
“Get actual movie stars to come to the resort and help put on events?”
