Chapter 37
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Anathea asked, “Is something wrong?”
The question spurred her colleagues‘ anger and prompted them to rant. “For some reason, the potential customers we’ve been liaising with and were close to signing contracts with us suddenly had a change of mind!”
“Yeah, and even those who have already signed contracts with us chose to go back on those deals. They paid compensation, of
course, but what will we do with the flowers we’ve gotten for their arrangements?”
“One of the customers phoned us up and said they were only following orders. I wonder whose orders it could be and why that
person is butting into something as menial as floral arrangements!”
Upon hearing this, Anathea went still. She could only think of one person in Castenea who was powerful enough to go to such
lengths to pick on Eden Studio–Gregory.
She wasn’t surprised that he’d go after the Jacobsons‘ family business, but for him to target a floristry studio was unexpectedly
petty behavior.
Why was Gregory so intent on taking away Anathea’s agency outside of their marriage? He’d already agreed to a divorce, so why couldn’t he be the bigger person and let her live in peace?
Anathea’s fists clenched at her sides.
At that moment, another one of her colleagues added tentatively, “Actually… one of my customers let me in on a secret- someone in our studio pissed off a bigwig, who then pressured everyone in the industry to cut us off. Whoever it is, they’ll stop at
nothing to ruin us…”
Everyone burst into an uproar when they heard this.
“No way! We’ve been working here for ages, and this is the first time we’ve encountered something like this!”
“Yeah, it must be a mistake! We’ve been colleagues for years. Each of us here knows the other’s business, so how could we-”
The discussion broke off when everyone had the same realization and exchanged a pensive look. They then glanced at Anathea.
Anathea was new at their studio, and just days after she’d joined them, a crisis struck them. It was too coincidental for comfort, and they couldn’t help putting two and two together. Their expressions went from surprised to speculative as they looked at her.
“All right, stop the random guessing,” Evangeline said, stepping forward and subtly shielding Anathea. “Our priority is to make use of the flowers we have before they wilt. That would be a real loss!”
Only then did Anathea’s colleagues withdraw their gazes and agree with Evangeline. “But there are so many of them! What will
we do?”
“I have an idea,” Anathea interjected softly, voicing her idea. “Valentine’s Day is in two days. We could turn those flowers into bouquets and sell them. We wouldn’t make as much from the sales as we would from floral arrangements, but at least we’d cover
1/2
some of the costs.”
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“No harm trying.” Evangeline gave her approval with a nod. She glanced at the others in the bullpen and said, “We have no deals to work on anyway, so let’s put our strengths together and make bouquets out of those flowers.”
Now that they had a solution for the flowers, everyone nodded and started splitting the work
Anathea watched as her colleagues dived into making bouquet arrangements despite their exasperation. She couldn’t help but feel apologetic toward them. She knew perfectly well that none of this would have happened if she hadn’t shown up.
She was the reason why Eden Studio, which was on its way to becoming a top–tier floral arrangement business, was suffering such a crisis.
The next second, Evangeline clapped a hand on Anathea’s shoulder and comforted her. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. This isn’t your fault.”
Anathea met Evangeline’s eyes and pursed her lips. The studio’s crisis affected Evangeline too, yet instead of prying, she decided to console Anathea.
For a moment, Anathea was at a loss for words. She was determined to solve the problem she’d caused. If she wanted to save the studio from further damage, she would have to do everything she could to appease Gregory.
