Chapter 4 - THE CANCELED SHUTTLE
The family transportation package cost:
$2,850.
It included:
airport pickup,
hotel-to-ballroom shuttle,
and a late-night return van
for ten older family members.
Hazel chose it because her sister Patricia no longer liked driving after dark.
Three weeks before the wedding, Amber canceled the package.
Why?
Only six guests confirmed.
Amber calculated:
rideshares would be cheaper.
Reasonable.
Then why not return the savings?
Because the vendor credit was:
nonrefundable,
transferable to another wedding service.
Amber transferred it to:
after-party transportation for the bridal party.
Luxury sprinter van.
Champagne stocked.
Hazel stared.
“You moved my sister’s shuttle to your after-party.”
Amber answered:
“I found cheaper rides for your family.”
“Did you tell them?”
“Garnet was supposed to.”
Garnet looked down.
He had not.
Patricia paid her own rideshare from the airport.
Walter found out only after she mentioned:
“Nice of Amber to downgrade us.”
Hazel had thought Patricia was joking.
Then the hotel rooms.
Amber moved older relatives to:
Rosewood Suites.
Clean.
Comfortable.
Cheaper.
Not abusive.
But six relatives had already paid incidentals at the original hotel and had to reorganize travel.
Again:
optimization without asking.
Then Walter saw the pattern.
Every time Amber found:
a credit,
a discount,
a cancellation,
a cheaper substitute,
she treated the difference as a new resource for the wedding.
Not as money belonging to the person who originally paid.
She called it:
budget efficiency.
Then Walter asked:
“If I give you two thousand for a sofa and you buy one for fifteen hundred, whose five hundred is left?”
Amber answered:
“If the money was given to the project, the project.”
Hazel said:
“If I gave it for a sofa, mine.”
There.
Different financial philosophy.
Then Garnet said:
“We were going to settle it after.”
Walter laughed once.
Everything ended with:
after.
Then the ballroom chair incident took on a new meaning.
Why had Amber targeted Hazel?
Because that afternoon Hazel confronted Amber about Patricia’s transportation.
Not loudly.
Hazel said:
“I don’t appreciate finding out my sister had to arrange her own ride.”
Amber answered:
“Your family got there, didn’t they?”
Hazel called the change:
rude.
Amber felt insulted after months of planning.
Then she saw the adhesive used by the décor team for temporary signage.
The chair “joke” was revenge.
Not financial.
Personal.
Garnet joined because he wanted Amber to laugh again.
Cowardly.
Then Walter asked:
“Was I supposed to laugh too?”
Garnet said nothing.
Then Lila gave Walter a new vendor statement.
The largest referral commission was not florist or lighting.
$6,800.
Company:
Maribel Tableworks.
Service:
custom linens, chargers, chairs, table styling.
Amber’s commission rate:
14%.
Why so high?
Because Amber was not merely referring the vendor.
She had a side agreement.
If the wedding generated enough photographs for Maribel’s advertising campaign, Amber’s company received a launch bonus.
May you like
The wedding itself had become a commercial demonstration.
And Hazel had never consented to appear in it.
