everything is your fault

[guinevere--bach]

.

Guinevere lightly raised her eyebrows. "I was just about to simply ask you for a meeting. Either over lunch or in any sort of environment we can agree on." She knew of Mr Hopper and of his power and influence in Redwood Hollow, of course. It was a pity her own schedule hadn't allowed her to meet with him earlier, but now that she had a few days with a significantly lighter workload, she had decided to make having a chat with him a priority.

"I thought this might end up in some sort of agreement, if you're open to it. To lead to some mutual benefit," Guinevere continued, taking advantage of the brief time in which she had his attention. "But I suppose that if you're too busy to take just an hour or less to talk business, then..."

[kevinhxpper]

he supposed if he was going to entertain anyone with a meeting it might as well be guinevere bach. she was a woman who possessed similar work ethic and a drive to succeed, he could respect that. kevin was a busy man with a plan and he was determined to execute it perfectly, perhaps having her on side wouldn't be the worst idea.

"i can give you an hour to plead your case of how we will reach mutual benefit and then i'm required back to the office. take it or leave it"

[jane-pxrter]

"i was and i have, thank you." she was glad that he never offered his. she was happy that he didn't look at her like she was glass ready to shatter. she appreciated her friends rallying around her and caring, but it was nice to remove the emotion from the conversation for a change. the last thing she thought kevin hopper would do would be to console her, hell would freeze over before that would happen "i heard about tina and james. i sent over some flowers and a card as a minder and i was on my way to see them since they've woken up. i didn't want to crowd them, they'll be sick of seeing people"

[kevinhxpper]

while he wasn't exactly in tune with his emotions he could point out the clear and obvious facts of her situation "it seems more like his loss. you should remember that. anyone worth their weight in salt would and should go to the ends of the earth for someone they care about. you say it's mutual but i see only you here dealing with the fallout. you're kinder than most, ms porter" he wasn't an attendee of the wedding but he and the rest of the town had heard all about it "like i said, kinder than most..." he mentioned when jane said she was going to visit the newlyweds "no one would blame you if you wanted to steer clear of anything wedding related, including the newlyweds"

[honeymxren]

"And a rude one..." Honeymaren scoffed. "Why wouldn't you be interested in supporting the community and helping the local market thrive? Everyone benefits from that."

[kevinhxpper]

"i've been called worse" he shrugged, not giving an ounce of a care "and yet you've yet to provide an explanation to why this would benefit me specifically. local markets thrive off the products they provide, no amount of money will change that simple factor."

[ashley-armbruster]

"i expect you to entertain it because there are labour laws that ned to he abided, mr hopper" she spoke calmly while she walked along the street with him. "i'm offering an opportunity to sit down with your employees and discuss a way forward"

[kevinhxpper]

"i can assure you labour laws are being abided to, ms armbruster. just because people demand more, it doesn't mean they're entitled to it. we're a business, not a charity" he discussed, continuing their walk. he quite enjoyed the armbruster girl, she gave a good fight and he'd seen how ruthless she could be in court. "the only opportunity i'm willing to discuss a way forward with is you joining us and leading our legal department. anything other than that is a waste of both our breaths"

[xaspiringbeamoflightx]

Tina was embarrassed, to say the least. Not that she was going to show that now. No, she was going to let all the other emotions fight for dominance instead. Tina's brow quickly knit together, her head slowly turning like a haunted doll. If there was one thing she could not stand, it was men like Kevin Hopper.

"Well, you can fucking wait. I'm not done here."

[kevinhxpper]

there it was, that incessant yapping like a chihuahua barking to make sure others heard it was around, nothing of substance coming out but noise.

"i get it, you must be parched after that long nap of yours. but as you can see i'm not the only one waiting for you to speed it up and move it along, they're just too polite to say anything"

[zachzerocasper]

zach was always stressed talking to people but talking to scary people really had him on levels of stress like he had when tina would jump out on him with green glitter. every scare had him really for keeling over.

"i-i'm not here to offer anything other than the delivery jack asked me to drop off for you."

[kevinhxpper]

he was a pool noodle of a boy, taller than any human should be at his age. limbs that only bambi on ice could cater for "okay, well, do you fancy dropping it off for this conversation to be done already?"

[itsmarygibbs]

"i don't know, kevin. maybe the benefit would be that you get a sense of pride in the fact that you're donating to a school and it helps the kids being educated? is that not a good enough reason?"

[kevinhxpper]

kevin gave a overdramatic sigh, if anyone else had asked him, he would've told them to get lost. but mary wasn't just anyone, she was the little kid that he knew from the orphanage - a part of his life he would prefer to forget. "the pride thing i can deal with, it's the kids part i'm not so keen on. but i suppose it would be some good pr for the company, and it's you asking, so consider a donation made" he eventually relented "though consider this one of the favours i owe you cashed"

[cinematv]

THE BUBBLE (2022) dir. Judd Apatow

[kevinhxpper]

being a busy man with a busy plan was apparently not enough to deter people from wanting to speak to him about something ridiculous like union forming or invites for lunch.

"i'm a busy man and unless this is of any benefit to me, why would you expect me to entertain whatever it is you're offering?"

[xaspiringbeamoflightx]

Tina... hadn't been out much. Could anyone blame her? Life hadn't exactly been kind to her, and though she and James had been home from the hospital for some time now, things had not been smooth sailing.

Grabbing a carton of milk from the grocery store should have been an easy enough task. Tina stared at the cartons. It felt like every eye in the grocery store was on her, following, judging. No one came near her, but that didn't mean that Tina did not feel an ever encroaching presence over her shoulder.

An "excuse me" from someone by her ear, trying to get into the cartons, just about took her out. Tina jumped.

[kevinhxpper]

he was already annoyed that the store was more crowded than usual and here was the new married-newly awake tina bell in his way when all he was trying to was get a carton of milk and get out of this damn store.

kevin cleared his throat and gave an obligatory excuse me to keep up polite appearances. tina on the other hand looks like she was a cat on a hot tin roof judging by the jump. "i need milk. you're blocking milk. do you see the dilemma?"

[jane-pxrter]

jane looked up from the gift she was carrying and nodded her head on autopilot. as silly as it sounded, she was relived to know that she wasn't the only one not to attend, perhaps it was wishful thinking to hope that people wouldn't mention it much to her

"no, i had only returned to town and it wasn't much of an enironvement that i felt would be beneficial to have me around"

[kevinhxpper]

"ah yes, you were part of a duo when i last saw you. i heard about the split, i'm sure you've received enough condolences to last you a lifetime" by the sounds of it the two simply didn't work out. he wasn't sure why. she was intelligent, good looking, had a good heart and all that mush that came with it - it must've been a him problem. "a wedding is a wedding, it's all the same to everyone except those getting married. we didn't miss much. the aftermath has been more dramatic than the wedding"

[jane-pxrter]

jane porter, unlucky in love. the break-up of jane and ray had been sudden. a job opportunity arising for ray that had him based overseas. after the couple had talked about it jane knew it was too good for him to turn down and she didn’t want to be the reason he passed on it. it took talking, time and tears between them to come to the decision. jane read a saying one ‘if you love someone, you let them go’ but letting go was hard and it was painful.

returning home alone when a grand wedding was taking place was rubbing salt in the wounds and she couldn't face it. hoping to apologies to the couple, jane carried a wedding gift she intended to deliver to them.

@happieststarters

[kevinhxpper]

a man of business didn't have time to waste on silly things such as weddings. he was already annoyed that he had to give employees time off to attend and now he's seeing people still delivering gifts, he couldn't escape this wedding.

"i take it you didn't attend either, given your late delivery"

[shebzmiah]

THEO JAMES VMAN Magazine — Alvaro Beamud Cortes (2025)