You Say It First
Page 28

She walked across the strip mall parking lot toward Wynn’s graphic-printing business. Bright banners showed different styles available to customers and a giant multicolored banner offered discounted prices.
Retail was tough, Pallas thought as she went inside. Having to deal with the public all the time, getting it right or losing the business. She supposed she kind of did the same thing, but it didn’t feel as intense. She had more of a relationship with her customers. Wynn had to produce a great soccer party banner, and then move on.
“I’m so excited,” Wynn called when she spotted her. She wove between huge printers and met Pallas at the main counter. “I’m hoping you love this as much as I do. I’ll totally admit the technical aspect was beyond me but I had the brilliant idea to go to the community college computer science department. The nice professor there gave me the name of a couple of local programming geniuses and they whipped this up in like three hours. Oh, to be that skilled.”
Wynn held out a small thumb drive.
Pallas did her best to hide her disappointment. “It’s um...lovely?”
“You’re not good at faking it, are you?”
The question came from behind her at the exact moment a warm hand settled on the small of her back. She didn’t have to turn to know who was there. Not with every cell in her body sighing in perfect synchronization.
“What do you mean?” she asked as she glanced at Nick, hoping he couldn’t tell how she could feel the warmth of his hand. No, that wasn’t it. The problem was how much she liked the warmth of his hand.
“He means you’re not impressed,” Wynn said with a grin. “But you will be.”
She put a small laptop on the counter, then plugged in the flash drive. At first all Pallas saw was the home screen. Seconds later it went dark and familiar music from the video game began to play.
“Nova sent over a bunch of files,” Wynn told them. “Separate music and graphics and all kinds of things I didn’t know what to do with. I scripted what I wanted and let the geniuses do their thing.”
Pallas watched a pale sun in a purple sky. As it rose, light drifted across the screen, illuminating the silhouette of a bride and groom. The wedding date and location appeared as the pan continued. Elements of the world appeared and disappeared. At the end, a hot link to RSVP filled the screen.
“I take it back.” She smiled at Wynn. “That’s incredible.”
“I know, right? And that’s only with a couple of hours. Imagine what we could do with more time. I’m thinking of taking a basic computer graphics class, just to understand what is possible. I would never want to do the formatting or whatever, but knowing a little more than I do would open up a lot of possibilities. Plus the computer guys were very excited.” She wrinkled her nose. “I suspect more about being paid so promptly than because they love designing wedding invitations, but still.”
Wynn pulled the thumb drive from the computer. “I’ll have these ready by the end of the day. Nova’s sending me her guest list so I can ship them out tomorrow. Oh, and wait until you see these.”
She put a stack of slim, square books on the counter. Nick picked up one and opened it. The colors of the pages were an exact match for the game’s world, but instead of a flat picture, a nearly 3-D paper image of a bride and groom rose toward them.
“A pop-up book,” Pallas breathed. “You talked about it but I never thought it was possible.”
“I know a guy,” Wynn said. “He let me use his computerized paper cutter thingie.”
Nick raised his eyebrows. “That would be the technical term?”
Wynn laughed. “Of course. Anyway, I did the design freehand. He scanned it and this is what happened. I think this is something we should think about for your weddings, Pallas. I know the brides usually have their own ideas for invitations, but these are too incredible. Pricey, but still. I made twenty for Nova, then asked her if I could run a few extras for samples. At my cost, of course.”
“It’s amazing. I love the idea of offering this kind of personalized invitation to my brides.”
Nick turned the pages of the pop-up book. “You could precolor the pages. Shade them such that when they were cut, they had more dimension.”
Pallas tried to imagine that. How would anyone know what went where? But Wynn was nodding.
“You’re right. Instead of plain purple or teal, we could use gradations. Or even work with the computer program in advance and preprint the various colors so that the image was fully formed. I wonder how hard that would be.”
Wynn pressed her lips together, then shook her head. “Okay—I’ll play with that idea later. For now, what do you think?”
“That you’re brilliant,” Pallas told her. “Has Nova seen these?”
“I’m going to do a video conference with her later. The computer guys already sent her the thumb drive file and she approved that.” Wynn leaned on the counter. “Don’t take this wrong, but this is way more fun than new happy hour menus at the hotel bar. I hope we can do more of this kind of thing.”
Pallas thought about all the possibilities. “I’m thinking we might have to.”
Pallas signed the paperwork for the designs, then took a pop-up book and thumb drive for herself. She and Nick walked out to the parking lot.
“What’s next for the wedding?” he asked. “Have you talked to Alan? He’s got to have some ideas for costumes for the servers. He should get with Violet. She has some interesting ideas. Want me to call him?”
Pallas looked at him. “For a guy who’s just biding his time until he gets the go-ahead on his commission in Dubai, you seem invested in Nova and Joel’s wedding.”
He put his arm around her. “It’s fun. You have a great job.”
She thought about how, until now, all the weddings had been so similar. They were all variations on a theme. She had to admit this was a lot more interesting. Even the challenges were turning out to be a good thing.
Before she could say that, her phone beeped. She pulled it out of her back pocket and glanced at the screen. Her good mood evaporated when she saw the text from her mother.
“What?” Nick asked. “You’re not smiling anymore.”
She shook her head. “Just family stuff. My brother’s back in town, which is great, but Mom wants to have a family dinner to celebrate his return. The last time I saw her, it didn’t go very well. I’m not excited about sitting down to more lectures about how I’m a failure.”
She shoved the phone back in her pocket and faked a smile. “Family. What can anyone do about them? I’ll be fine. Anyway, I think we’re on schedule for everything that needs to get done. I’m going to follow up with the vendors later today. The invitations are perfect. Hopefully everything else will be, too.”
Nick studied her. “I want to tell you not to let her get to you, but I’m in no position to offer advice about families. Who all will be at the dinner?”
“I have no idea. It could be all the cousins or just a few. Grandpa Frank. It’s his house. Cade, of course. I’m not sure. It could be the four of us or it could be twenty.”
“You need a distraction. Something for your mother to focus on.”
If only, Pallas thought wistfully. “Not following the rules never goes well for me. Not where she’s concerned.” She bit her bottom lip. “We always did a big family portrait every fall. All seven daughters, husbands, grandkids and grandparents. Every year the colors were coordinated. Drew and his family wore green shirts, we wore blue, and so on. It was a thing. The year my dad died, I rebelled. I was willing to wear a blue shirt, but not the one my mom picked out. We had a huge fight. She said I would wear what she told me or I wouldn’t be in the picture.”