Is this destiny?

~ Golden Ocean Resort ~

There is a knock on the door of JoAnna's office.

'Aiden, after this you owe me big time! Sarah also!' JoAnna exhaled. "Yes?"

Resort staffer peeked in and said: "Boss, Madison Turner is here to see you."

"Thank you, please show her in and you are free to go."

Madison strutted into the office while looking around. She was halfway in when her eyes landed on JoAnna and she stopped in her tracks. "You!" Her eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.

JoAnna smiled and sank deeper into her office chair. "Me."

"Why are you here?", Madison squeezed through her teeth.

"You wanted to talk to someone in charge. I am the owner of the resort. I hear that you have complains against my staff." JoAnna gestured toward the chair on the other side of her desk. "Please, have a seat and tell me what is on your mind. I assure you that customer's satisfaction is our top priority and I will take your every word very seriously."

…

Few minutes earlier, Bridgette was about to enter the elevator and go to JoAnna's office, when she got messages on her phone:

[JoAnna]: "Send to my office everyone who has anything to discuss with me. One by one. Regardless of how big or a small issue is."

[JoAnna]: "Find two restaurants with best privacy ratings downtown Los Angeles, fairly far away from each other."

Bridgette was not sure what to make out of it. It's after nine… brunch starts in less than an hour. Why would JoAnna want to meet with people now? And what's with these restaurants?  Shouldn't they get ready for brunch? No matter how confusing it sounded, Bridgette has no intention to question JoAnna. She started making phone calls.

Back to present… up in JoAnna's office…

JoAnna is facing Madison who is obviously confused with the situation she found herself in.

This is something Madison didn't anticipate. Owner of the resort? Doesn't that mean that she can get kicked out? Madison scoffed. This woman can't kick her out, no matter who she is. She received a wedding invitation from the White family! And regardless of this woman's background, her resort is hosting the wedding, which means that right now she is employed by the White family. So that is how she caught Aiden's eye…

While Madison was busy with her thoughts, JoAnna observed her with a faint smile on her face.

There was a knock on the door and Miriam, woman who handles events organized at the resort, entered.

"Boss, there are few urgent issues that require you to look at. Is this the right time?"

JoAnna glanced at Madison. "You don't mind, do you?", she didn't wait for a response before gesturing to Miriam to come over.

About ten minutes later, Miriam thanked JoAnna and headed out. The door didn't close behind her when the next person peeked in: "Boss, latest numbers are in. You need to approve it so that people get their paychecks on time."

JoAnna glanced at Madison before facing person at the door. "Oh, we can't have people be late with getting their salaries. Please come in. It's just a minute, after all…"

Madison was sitting in the chair while people entered and exited the office from a seemingly endless queue... ignoring her presence, like she is not there. Someone wanted to talk about a broken water pipe on the golf course, appetizer options for dinner's menu, getting new towels for the spa (and JoAnna took suspiciously long time while going through several samples to pick one)…

Bridgette would enter and exit occasionally while exchanging glances with JoAnna and observing that Madison is losing her temper.

Madison looked like she will explode any moment, when JoAnna spoke to her (finally): "I'm so sorry, Miss Turner. It seems I don't have much time for you at this point… With this wedding, my schedule is packed. There are so many decisions to make that I'm not sure how I'm going to finalize things for today's lunch event."

"Lunch event?", Madison perked up. Her bad mood was forgotten.

JoAnna looked troubled while explaining: "Yes, the wedding party will have lunch downtown Los Angeles and I'm still not done finalizing that."

Bridgette was standing next to JoAnna and she got the hint. She swiftly typed something on her tablet while talking to JoAnna: "Boss, now that you mentioned lunch… I narrowed down options to these two. You can just pick one. Both are great. One is Italian restaurant 'Mamma's cucina'. They have great options, not just authentic Italian, but from Europe as well. And other one is Asian fusion 'Moon hill garden' where food options revolve around Szechuan flavors, but others are represented as well…"

"Hmm…" JoAnna glanced at Bridgette's tablet. "Good choices indeed. Let's discuss between these on our way to check progress in the garden. We don't have much time, lunch is at noon, and people staying at the resort need to leave early due to traffic." JoAnna faced Madison. "Please, accept my apology for this… can we meet later? Maybe later in the afternoon? I really want to hear your feedback, it will help us improve our services at the resort. You can talk with people at the reception to schedule a meeting…"

Madison's eyes were sparkling. Who cares that she didn't talk with this woman? Her goal is Aiden, and now she knows that at noon he will be in one of those two restaurants! That will be outside resort, so she will not need to deal with those pesky security people. Coming to this office and sitting here for what seemed like forever definitely paid off!

"I will see myself out.", Madison dashed out of JoAnna's office not spending any time on pleasantries. She needs to get ready and go downtown Los Angeles!

Bridgette walked after Madison and closed the office door. She turned to JoAnna. "Who is this?"

JoAnna glanced at the time… ten thirty… And she has number of messages from Jeff who is asking why is she late.

JoAnna exhaled and rubbed her temples. This Madison-ignoring session took much more energy than she thought, maybe a good meal will fix it. But she wants to explain to Bridgette first: "Madison Turner. She is after Aiden. Last night he told her that he is not interested, and after that our security prevented her from sneaking in through the side entrance. She came here to… I don't know why she came here. But she is not giving up on him. You should have heard random crazy things she told me this morning in the reception hall. Oh, and she thinks that I'm Sarah."

Bridgette now understood the situation. "I'm confident that she is heading downtown Los Angeles, but she will be back. And as much as she looked happy when she left the office, when she realizes what happened… she will be furious that after more than one hour of wasting time in your office while being ignored, you sent her to a non-existent lunch party."

JoAnna smirked. "By the time she is back, everyone from here will be off for bachelor's or bachelorette's party. None of us will stay here tonight, so no matter how furious she is, the only thing she can do is scream at the ocean. The staff already knows to ignore her, and if she causes a scene, security will take over. And tomorrow… Aiden and Sarah need to deal with her anyway. I just granted them one day of peace."

Bridgette giggled. "Tomorrow she will be confused when she realizes that you are the bride."

"Yeah. That would be something worth recording if not for the fact that I don't want to see her ever again." JoAnna stood up. "Let's go, the brunch started. We can talk while I get ready. I want to change into something more comfortable… Madison is not very smart, is she? She was just sitting here for more than one hour and didn't say a word, and even after all that she rushed out at the hint where Aiden will be… It's a pity that I will not see her face when she realizes that she got tricked… Did you see her skin? She has some condition…"

"Condition? Aren't those just scratches?"

"That is a lot of scratches."

"Yes. Like she had a close encounter with a berry bush."

"Or… a rose bush.." JoAnna shook her head at the thought that Madison is probably one of the people who ruined her garden.