Balloon Animals (Girl Power Series)

Chapter 4 - Rentals

As I park in front of my building, I lay my head on the steering wheel to rest for a minute. I'm exhausted. I worked for four hours with Tania Martin and I feel worse than a full shift at the coffee shop.

She's a hurricane. In the past hours, she answered calls, made plans in huge sheets of paper, cleaned up the living room and made it messy again while cutting large pieces of checkered fabric.

"What are you making?" I asked after bursting what must have been the tenth balloon of the day. She didn't even flinch at the noise.

"Tablecloths," she replied without stopping. The scissors made a buzz sound as she glided them on the fabric.

"Why don't you rent them instead? Isn't that easier?"

Tania stopped her task to look at me. Tiny messy curls framed her face and her lips broke into a smile.

"Aaw, so innocent. You are a modern-day children's party virgin. Most rental companies don't have what I need,"

I was glad to learn that I'm still a virgin at something, but felt puzzled about the reason a rental company doesn't have the tablecloths she needs.

"Come with me," Tania stretched her back, making an unhealthy cracking sound, and motioned for me to follow her.

We left the house through a sliding door at the side. A storage room takes a large area of her backyard. She opened the secured door and turned on the lights. My mind was blown away at the sight. Shelves, racks and tables were covered in party supplies. They were color or theme coordinated. My hand caressed a light purple tablecloth with butterflies on them. My Roxy loves butterflies.

"I don't rent stuff from other vendors, because they only carry the basics. I earn a lot more from my party designs because clients rent from me. Birthday parties aren't the simple affair of our childhood anymore. We were sweaty and dirty kids who played outside and came in to surround a cake while singing the birthday song. That, Devin, is a thing of the past,"

I've never had a birthday party and wasn't invited to Roxy's parties so this is new knowledge.

"Moms and some dads want their parties to be bigger and better than anyone else's. And the key word in what we do at Animal Balloons is customization. No party is the same even if they have the same theme. Therefore I need new tablecloths for the farm party on Saturday. In the future, they will be used for something else,"

"So you have used all the things in here already more than once?" I looked around.

"The trick is how you display them," she winked at me. "My contract specifies that my party designs are non-exclusive. I have the right to reuse my inventory, but at the same time I want the space to look unique. It is good marketing,"

"I understand that, but do you really need contracts? For a birthday party?"

"More to protect myself than whoever uses my services. I've had a few clients play dirty tricks to avoid paying me. My roommate Peyton used to date a lawyer, and he drafted me a good contract. The thing is so well done clients have hired a lawyer to check it for them," she laughed.

I felt shocked. This whole business is more complicated than I thought.

"So what's next? How many parties you have in the pipeline?"

"I have every weekend booked until December," she said proudly. "Soon enough people will call to book for next year,"

"But we are in the middle of July!"

"And now you see why I need an assistant. It has gotten out of hand and I can't stretch my days. I barely have time to sleep,"

"Do you ever take vacation?"