Page 5 of Dreams Come True at the Fairytale Museum

My thought process must play out on my face because he finally closes the case of his tablet and looks at me.

‘I get that this place means a lot to you, but we’ve bought this building and we can’t keep housing a failing business for the sake of sentimentality.

As I said earlier – you’ve got a chance here.

I like unusual concepts and things that are a little bit different.

I would also like to avoid as much public backlash as possible.

I’ve been pushing for a while to change the direction my company is going in.

If Berrington Developments can do that by working with what’s already here rather than facing protests about pulling it down, then that might be the way forward, and this is my chance to prove it.

This is important to me too. Let us both show we’ve got what it takes to change, update, upgrade, and turn things around, and your museum stands a good chance.

Otherwise, this is built within eighteen months. ’

He taps the closed case of the tablet again, and I decide to be forthright too.

‘Okay, honestly, how can I compete with that? This is a small place. I’m a one-woman band.

I can’t afford much advertising. My visitors come from word-of-mouth and because people who come to Ever After Street want to see everything it has to offer.

I can’t imagine the revenue a place like that would turn over, but I would guess my annual takings are barely a fraction of it.

If I’m wasting my time, I’d rather you be honest about it now.

Give me time to… prepare for the inevitable.

’ My voice wobbles on those words and he looks a bit guilty.

‘Okay, honesty, I can work with that.’ His dark hair bounces as he nods like he approves of my forthrightness.

‘We streamline the budget and give people a reason to come here. We need an increase in visitors and an increase in reasons for them to visit. This is a good concept but it has many flaws that need ironing out. Consider me the iron.’

‘Have you done this before? Saved businesses that were scheduled to be turned into ultramodern futuristic compounds?’

He presses the rubber end of his stylus pen into his chin, and the hesitation before he answers makes a cold sliver of ice slide down my back. ‘Look, this isn’t our usual protocol, and I’m not going to get into specific statistics about it, but—’

‘That’s a no then?’ I interrupt his evasive answer.

‘If you don’t show me to your office space so we can make a start, it’s not going to be either, is it? Wasting time like this is the enemy of efficiency.’

I huff and beckon for him to follow me as I start walking towards the stairs.

‘I’d also like you to give me a full tour.’ He hurries after me. ‘Show me the museum through your eyes.’

‘And the workmen? Should I give them all a tour too?’

‘I’ve borrowed them from one of our building sites, they’re just on loan for the day. They’re mapping the place out so we can see what we’re working with and where we can make improvements or repairs. Just ignore them.’

‘Ignore several men wearing neon yellow, making the noise of a small army, and carrying ladders and power tools? Are my customers supposed to ignore them too?’

He rushes to catch up so he’s walking beside me instead of behind me. ‘If you ever get any, we’ll find out.’

I don’t give him the satisfaction of a response, as I sharply turn the corner onto the second floor and pass the closed doors to the now-defunct function rooms and his shiny shoes squeak on the flooring as he rushes to keep up.

We reach the stairs to the third floor and he catches up as I’m about to turn onto them.

‘You can call me Warren, by the way. Although I’ll also answer to a demonic gerbil with no soul, if you prefer.’

He’s thoroughly enjoying poking fun at my earlier reaction, and it makes me stomp even faster up the set of stairs to the third and final floor. ‘I could think of a few other names for you.’

‘And I for you, but I’m too much of a gentleman to say them out loud.’

‘Hah. Last I heard, gentlemen don’t waltz into buildings that aren’t theirs and try to take over thriving businesses.’

‘I’m trying to help.’

There’s something in his voice that makes me want to believe that, but this isn’t the sort of thing I can adjust to that easily.

‘You’ve made a problem and now you’re trying to sell yourself as the solution to the problem that didn’t exist before you arrived.

You may wear the suit of a gentleman, but that’s as far as it goes. ’

‘You really don’t like my suit, do you?’

‘There’s the office. Make yourself at home.

’ I stop beside the kitchen and point towards the table to one side of the small room without giving him the satisfaction of an answer.

It’s not his suit I dislike, the suit itself is really very nice, but how can there be anything likeable about a company that wants to tear down gorgeous old buildings and put up Rubik’s Cube eyesores in their place, or anyone who works for such a company?

The suit is fine and I can’t deny that he wears it well, but it’s everything else that makes him immensely dislikeable.

‘This isn’t a thriving business, Lissa.’ He stands in the doorway and surveys his new office space with a wary look. ‘As you said yourself, it’s more of a limping zombie, and the sooner you realise that we share the same goal in reviving it, the better.’

‘It doesn’t need your help.’

‘Well, it hasn’t got much of a choice, so I predict that the next couple of months are going to be interesting.’

‘At least we can agree on that.’ I turn around and stalk away, wondering what on earth I’ve let myself in for, and somewhat intrigued by why he’s so keen to help, if help is genuinely what he’s offering.

This museum means the world to me. It’s my little corner of the world.

It gives me a sense of purpose, and without it, will I lose that too?

It’s my way of bringing a little bit of magic into the world.

My mum made my childhood magical, and after she died, it fell to me to bring that same magic into my younger sisters’ lives, and now I try to do it for other children too, because believing in magic and wonder can set people up for life.

And no one is going to get in the way of that.

I can get this show back on the road by myself, can’t I?

The museum has had tough times before and we’ve always bounced back.

We can do that again, and I certainly don’t need the help of some corporate mouthpiece who thinks I’m doing everything wrong.

Ever After Street will never have a cinema complex, not on my watch.