Felix Dawkins (suburbiaphobic) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2020-06-08 18:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, caroline forbes, felix dawkins |
Who: Felix Dawkins & Caroline Forbes
When: Backdated: Mid May
Where: A Coffee Shop
What: A Random Meeting of Event Planners
Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly
Status: Complete
“So you can do either the lilies or the orchids,” Felix said, making a note in his iPad, “Either would work, but both would be just too overwhelming.” He was currently in a meeting, at a local coffee shop, with a bride whose wedding his company was currently working for and he had just spent the last twenty minutes with her trying to decide which flowers to use for the wedding. He had expected her to insist on both kinds of flowers, but she had actually ended up agreeing with him, “Personally, I think the lilies would go better with the roses you’ve already picked, but ultimately it’s up to you.” The wedding was still a few months away so the couple still had time before the final decisions needed to be made, but Felix liked to get as much done as early as possible on the off chance that something happened and needed to be rethought.
The meeting lasted a few more minutes, the bride-to-be assuring Felix that she would discuss it with her fiancé and get back to him within the next few days then she got up and left, leaving Felix to finish his tea as he made a few more notes to the couples’ file.
Business had really picked up for Caroline ever since the party she did for David Xanatos. She didn’t totally mind it. Except for the fact that it left little time for her to work with charities. But it was also helping her transition out of weddings. She used to love doing them but she had dealt with too many bridezilla’s that couldn’t make up their minds to seek them out anymore. But Caroline could still spot a bride planning her wedding a mile away. She couldn’t help but eavesdrop on some of the conversation while she waited for her coffee. The woman seemed like one of the more reasonable brides, listening to the man Caroline assumed was her planner. It was tough to get a bride to agree to recommendations sometimes when they had their heart set on being over the top.
By the time her coffee was ready the bride had left and Caroline couldn’t help but make her way over to the man. “Hey,” Caroline said warmly, large smile on her face. “Sounded like you have a good client there,” she had no problem making small talk with a stranger. In fact she did it often, just part of her personality. “I wish all my clients were like that.”
Felix glanced up at the sound of a voice in his direction and he returned the smile aimed at him, “Oh, I’ve had my share of bloody bridezillas. Trust me.” As he looked up at the blond woman he had the feeling that there was something familiar about her, but Felix got that feeling often these days as a result of the Network. “Had one who insisted on having a peacock. That was a disaster.” He really should have tried to talk her out of it the moment she’d suggested it, but for whatever reason Felix hadn’t, but honestly his only real regret had been not being able to get it on video when the bride’s drunk uncle harassed the peacock to the point that it hit him. “You’re an event planner too, I take it?”
A peacock. Caroline couldn’t even imagine that. Why would someone want a bird to literally shit all over their wedding. Not to mention the peacock couldn’t exactly be controlled. Just thinking about the logistics of trying to keep it contained made her head hurt. “I can only imagine,” Caroline said taking a sip of her coffee. “I might have quit right there.” There was a lightness to her tone. She was actually joking although that still sounded like too much to put up with. But Caroline Forbes wasn’t a quitter. “I am yeah. Trying to steer away from weddings these days. I get a few too many back in New York.”
There was something familiar about the guy. Caroline couldn’t quite place how she knew him. Maybe interviewing for the same job and they crossed paths? “This is going to sound super crazy, but have we met before?”
Felix could understand why anyone else might have quit after an incident like that, but that was only one of many crazy things that Felix’s past clients had requested for weddings and various parties, “Do a couple of celebrity parties and almost nothing will phase you.” He smirked and took a sip of his drink as he thought of some of the past parties he’d planned for some of his celebrity clients.
At her question Felix realized that she seemed familiar too and recalled a recent conversation over the Network with another party planner. “Are you on Valar?” More often than not, if someone seemed familiar these days it was because he had already talked to them on the Network.
It took a moment for Caroline to process his response before she realized that was how she knew him. Not a job in the past, it was that network. “I am, yeah,” Caroline replied, smile on her face. She didn’t even have to ask if he was too. By his question she already knew. “I’m Caroline.”
“Felix.” He smiled at her then gestured towards the now empty seat across from him, “Do you want to sit down?” Now that he’d realized that the blond was from the Network, Felix wasn’t in too much of a rush to leave. Not only was he not due back at the office for a while, but he was the boss so really, he could go back whenever he wanted to. “Or do you have somewhere you need to be?” Just because he had no time frame on when he needed to be back at work didn’t mean that Caroline was free to sit around and talk.
“Sure,” Caroline said sliding into the seat across from him. She glanced at her watch at his question. “I have some time before my next meeting.” She took a sip of her latte. “So what’s the craziest thing you’ve had to do for a party?” Since they were on the topic, sort of. And it was always fun to share stories.
Felix was tempted to ask if her meeting was with a client, but this was different than him and Eliot talking about their respective meetings and clients. He didn’t really know Caroline so he didn’t want it to seem like he was trying to poach her clients or anything like that, “Shit, I’ve had so many crazy requests. You work with celebrities enough though and you don’t even bat an eye at some of their bloody requests.” He thought for a moment about some of the crazier things he’d had to endure, “I had one client want live bats released at their Halloween party. Thought they would just flutter around above the party all night. I had to tell him that without a bloody net draped over the whole yard they would just fly away and introducing domestic bats into the wild was a very bad idea.” Honestly, he didn’t know how some people didn’t have more common sense.
“Okay I get the whole spooky vibe but that’s just going a bit too far,” Caroline said with a laugh before taking another sip of her coffee. “Sounds like you get a lot of animal requests.” What with the peacock and now the bats. “You have that printed on your business card somewhere?” she was teasing. But hey it was entirely possible.
Felix laughed and shook his head, “Celebrities always want to one up each other. It’s like a contest to see whose party can be the most outlandish.” The wedding with the peacock hadn’t been a celebrity wedding, but the Halloween party had been so Felix hadn’t exactly been surprised by that request, “Believe me, I try my best to talk people out of having bloody live animals at their events. It just never ends well.”
Caroline had worked a few celebrity parties back in New York. But it was definitely a whole other world out here. Definitely didn’t seem like her thing. “Seems like you know how to handle it well enough though,” Caroline commented with another sip of her latte. “I’m definitely going to leave the celebrity parties to you.”
Felix nodded and took a sip of his drink, “Yeah, I’ve been doing this for a couple of years now. If you ever need anything though, feel free to give me a call.” While Caroline was technically competition, Eliot was as well and they were dating, so Felix didn’t really see any reason not to help his fellow party planners if there was ever anything he could do, “Here’s my number.” He pulled out one of his business cards and held it out towards Caroline.
Back in high school Caroline had been all about competing, she wasn’t proud of it now, but she wanted to be the most popular back then. Of course her dreams seemed to remind her of that version of herself too, but she seemed to be even more shallow in the dreams than she was in high school. At least she hoped she was never that shallow in real life. Now though, competing wasn’t really her thing. Every event planner had a different style. There might be clients that came to her that Felix was better suited for and she had no problem making referrals. Orange County was a big place after all. Plenty events for everyone.
“Thanks,” Caroline said, taking the business card. She grabbed her purse putting it in the holder she kept for other people’s business cards. Then grabbed one of hers from a separate holder. “Same goes for you,” she added, handing hers over. “Maybe we can even work an event together sometime.” Like next time someone tried to make her plan an event in less than a week. It would have been nice to have some help on that one.
“I’d like that,” Felix smiled as he took Caroline’s car and put it in his wallet, “I’m sure something will come up that can’t be handled by only one person.” Orange County and the surrounding area was pretty big and there were a lot of people who liked throwing extra big extravagant parties so Felix was sure that there was going to be no shortage of parties that they could work together on in the future.
“Me too,” Caroline said with a smile. “Well I better get going. It was nice officially meeting you,” she stood up pausing for a moment. “Look forward to working with you,” she added before making her exit.