Rose had messed up. Phenomenally.

There was a reason she had kept mostly away from alcohol the last couple of years. Or at least, had ensured she didn't drink as indulgently as she had yesterday. But she had given in to temptation, and now had a large rodent playing bass guitar inside her head.

But, more alarmingly, she couldn't fully remember the second half of yesterday.

With a loud groan, she swung her legs off the bed, only to sit there for multiple more minutes, her face buried in her hands. It was all horrible. Why on earth did she have to drink? But she had. Now, she had to deal with the consequences. Summoning up much courage, she got off the bed. Rubbing her eyes, and clad in the same clothes as yesterday, now wrinkled and grass-stained, she emerged from her room.

"Sebastian?" she called out, walking towards the kitchen.

As anticipated, he was there, back in his little apron.

"Morning, lightweight," he grinned, walking towards her. "How bad is it?"

"Not too bad," she muttered, pressing her head against the cool, cool wall. "Just haven't done this in a while."

Sebastian chuckled. "I made you some plain toast. Figured that would be the safest way to go about it."

"Thanks," she said, before looking up at him. "Did I... did I say anything too embarrassing?"

"Hmm... let me think," Sebastian theatrically scratched his chin, making quite the show of recollecting.

"Sebastian!"

"Okay, okay," he grinned. "Let's see. You ran after a bunny, failed at catching it. You tried to con me into buying you a blue bunny, not that I'd know where to acquire one. You talked about butterflies for, like, most of the car ride... oh, and you snored wonderously loudly when you eventually tuckered out in the car."

Rose was ready to drown.

"So I'm guessing you've lost all respect for me," she stated.

"Au contrair," Seb started, "I am intrigued. I didn't know you could talk that much. Maybe I should buy more fruit wine for you."

"No, thank you," Rose grumbled. "Do you have any medicine? The headache is flattening me."

"Yeah, hold on. I'll fetch that and your toast? You go rest."

Rose pursed her lips, contemplating, and then nodded. "Thanks," she said, before heading back. Back inside, with not much else to do, she busied herself with freshening up, finally changing out of the crumpled old clothes and into a comfy, oversized sweatshirt and yoga pants. Hair up in a bun, and all cozied up under her blanket, Rose was all ready to waste the day away, nursing her headache.

But the day had other plans.

Sebastian's knocks were louder than usual, and on entering, he seemed much more frazzled than Rose had ever seen him before. Immediately, she sat up.

"What's wrong?

Sebastian stood frowning for a while, before setting down her tray of food and medicine. "I just got a call from dad."

Rose's alarm grew. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. I mean, healthwise, yes. But also no, because these idiot people are announcing a new hotel chain! In five days! Five days, Rose!"

Sebastian plopped down on the bed, looking all kinds of angry and frustrated.

"By 'idiot people', do you mean..." she trailed off.

"Yes, yes. My parents. And yours, as well. The four of them figured our reception would have so many people coming already, they might as well launch their new hotel line."

"Ah," Rose said, trying not to smile.

"It's not funny, Rose!"

"I mean, they had been talking about the joint hotel chain for a while, right? This was bound to happen sometime soon. Heck, our wedding was probably act one of the launch."

"No, but," Sebastian raked his hands through his hair. "You don't get it, we aren't ready! The plans aren't finalised, the venue is all set for a wedding reception, not a hotel launch! There's no time–"

"Okay, firstly," Rose cut in, placing the tips of her fingers on his knee. "I do get it. And I also get that we have five whole days. We'll plan. We'll call in favours. We have enough time to do this thing."

Sebastian looked up at her, doubtful.

"I've done more, in less," Rose said, jumping off the bed, hangover seemingly forgotten. "Now, can I get access to your workroom? I have an idea."

-🥀-

Rose didn't take much time to soak in the artfully curated workroom. She made a beeline for the large mahogany desk, and plopped down on the cushy chair.

"Okay. So. The hotels don't need to be ready in five days. We just need to capture the essence. Sell the experience. Give them a hint of what's to come," Rose had a glimmer in her eyes as she grabbed a notepad and a pen off the desk. Sebastian, much less enthused, sat down on a chair facing her across the table.

"You're talking in taglines," he noted glumly.

"Shush. So, do our parents have any specific ideas for the hotel?"

"Nope. Dad just called me and told me to handle it. I don't even know where 'it' begins."

"Okay. Okay. Seb, this is easy," Rose said, tapping her uncapped pen away on the notepad, leaving a trail of little blue dots across the cream paper. "The current theme for the reception is, what, winter wonderland or something?"

"Yes," Seb nodded. "Because winter."

"Extremely creative, I must say," she said, before excitedly dragging the pen across the paper. "So we change that! Just a little. Make it more... red. Fill it with roses. Make it as overtly romantic as possible. The hotel chain is essentially symbolizing both our families merging, right? Instead of making it seem all business, we make it about... well, love!" Rose looked at him expectantly. Sebastian's frown seemed to melt a little, which Rose took as sign enough to continue. "We – the Beaumonts, that is – already have a corporate hotel chain. You have your family restaurants and beach resorts. I think this venture should be about romance."

"Catered specifically to couples," Sebastian said slowly, the anxiety fading ever so slightly from his face.

"Exactly! And romance sells."

"Romance does sell," Seb concurred.

"But nothing too in-your-face. If we start straight up advertising the hotel at what's supposed to be a reception, it'll look tacky. Desperate, even. We need to find a way to incorporate it more... subtly." Rose paused, brows furrowed in thought.

"A gift," Seb piped up, sitting up straight.

"Thanks, Seb, but I haven't saved our collective asses yet. Maybe after the launch."

"No, no. I meant, I could give you the hotel as a gift. Present it as our first project together, something I'm giving to you as a surprise."

Rose's eyes were two well polished emeralds, glistening with excitement. "That's perfect! We can tip off paps and journalists, maybe give them an entire timeslot to interview us, which is when you can 'surprise' me."

"This might actually work."

"No shit," she grinned. "It will. Now, we should start detailing the layout. We may not need a full blueprint, but we need to have a decent idea about what the hotels might entail. Sprinkle it in conversation, hint at it on social media... get people talking."

"Yes, ma'am," Sebastian stood up, going across the room to fetch some papers. "I have some of the preliminary budget plans and acquired land."

"This will be so much fun," Rose sighed dreamily, before ripping off the doodled on piece of paper. She was about to toss it into the paperbin, when Sebastian's hand shot forward.

"Oh no," he said, rescuing the paper from her fingers. "You're not throwing this. This is getting framed."

—🥀—

A/N: 2K reads??? You guys????? This is insane. Genuinely, truly insane.

I am so so grateful to each and every one of you. Thank you SO much for following my story, for showing such support. All of the votes, all of your comments, and even the silent reads that pour in after each update — they all mean everything to me. I hope you're liking the story so far :')))

I'd love to give something back to you, so if any of you have any demands, feel free to drop a comment, and I'll try to get working! If not, here's a virtual cupcake for you that we can pretend Rose baked 🧁

Much MUCH love,
Mimia <3