Snarky Teenager snorted and raised her eyebrow at Elly. “Why, are you worried we’ll get too much business?”
Elly gave her a look. “Oh, I forgot, you’re eighteen. You must know everything about business.” It had been a week since she had met Dennis, a week since she found out she would be on BlissBride, and one day since she had woken up with a headache and a half-empty bottle of wine. Since then, things had moved rather quickly. Elly would be meeting with her celebrity client on Monday. She received her virtually limitless account for the wedding flowers and, after feeling both elated and faint, Elly took Snarky Teenager out to dinner and told her the good news: They could try opening another shop, but they would have to move quickly. The publicity they would get from BlissBride would be enough to sustain the new shop for its first year. Which meant the store had to be open by the time the BlissBride wedding aired. The idea was equal parts brilliant and insanity. They would officially open a few days after the BlissBride wedding and ride out the publicity wave. Together, they had framed a concept and a business plan. “Store B,” as they were calling it now, would be a contemporary shop in the Clayton business district, but it would be on a one-year trial. If it didn’t make money, she wouldn’t be able to keep it open. Snarky Teenager was pushing to be co-manager, alongside Elly, who she thought could rotate in to manage the store, occasionally. Elly laughed at this idea. There was no way that would work. Elly would manage both. Somehow. It was a lot to take in, and just talking about it had left Elly feeling nervous.
Today, they were out looking for a building that would work for them, and so far were having no luck. Rent in downtown Clayton wasn’t cheap, and each place they looked at was more expensive than the last. The first building reeked of cat pee and was little more than a glorified apartment. Elly had walked in and walked right out, knocking over a bag of beer cans with her shin. As she bent over to rub her leg, Snarky Teenager had bent over behind her and whispered against Elly’s ear, “I think I saw a sleeping bag in the corner. This building has squatters.” Without warning, a huge raccoon waddled out from the bathroom and rose up on its hind legs to hiss at them. It began moving toward them, and they both screamed and ran for the door. Once outside, Elly told the real estate agent that they weren’t interested and upped their budget significantly. They looked at three more buildings—all too small or too large or too next door to a Chinese restaurant, which Snarky Teenager pointed out would be stinky but also really bad for Elly. She wasn’t wrong. Finally, she had kindly dismissed the real estate agent, frustrated with her lack of options. Snarky Teenager then made some calls and implored Elly to look at “just one more.”
Elly’s fuchsia and lace shirt blew in the spring wind and she curled her lip as she took in the tall buildings around her. She felt slightly intimidated, standing here in the middle of the business district, bewildered by the millions of dollars changing hands on the street every day. She focused back on her worker, who was soaking up the spring sun in bright-coral cigarette jeans and a thin black tank top. “You need to listen to me. I’m just saying that a side street might be cheaper. We do not have to be on actual Main Street to make a profit.”
Snarky Teenager unfolded her long legs and jumped down from the low planter she had been straddling as she sipped her chai tea. “Yeah, but this place is going to be all about our status and the idea of it. The store won’t just be a store. It’s the attitude that we have to present, a sort of commercial prestige. The store itself has to be a place that is so hip that when someone gets a bouquet from us, they say it all snotty, like, ‘I only buy flowers from Red Zen.’”
“‘Red Zen’?” Elly wrinkled her nose. “I hate that. With a passion.”
“Yeah, that’s going to be the name of our store.”
“I don’t think so.” She looked down at her paper and then back up at the polished skyscraper. “Okay, well, the last one on the list is just inside the building.”
Snarky Teenager’s voice rose happily. “It’s inside the office building?”
“Yeah. That’s weird. Don’t we want a store front that looks onto the street?”
“Are you kidding me? Elly, that’s supercool. That is a guaranteed market! Who else are all these workers going to call when they need flowers? Probably Red Zen, just down the elevator.”
“The store is one hundred percent not going to be called Red Zen.”
Snarky Teenager gave a huff as she winged her tea into the nearest trash can. “Whatever.”