He follows me as I walk toward the door.
“I’ll call you later.”
I nod.
He leans in and kisses me on the cheek before walking out the door.
Tears threaten, and I force them back. I need to get out and get some fresh air.
I decide retail therapy is the best idea and head to the mall to search for an engagement gift for Madie and Cole. It’s a beautiful, sunny, cool afternoon in Southern California, so I open the car windows as I drive.
I replay everything that has happened in the last twenty-four hours. Do I really believe Luke? His explanation should make sense, but for some reason, it doesn’t. I still feel like he’s leaving something out. Maybe the signs have been there all along. Maybe I’ve been ignoring them. I think about our anniversary date and Ace. Is someone trying to tell me something? I’m driving in a daze until I hear my phone ringing.
“What took you so long?” I ask.
Craig chuckles. “Ha ha. It’s Saturday, and I’ve been sleeping. I need to gear up for the drama of the week ahead. The question is, are you okay? Did you take a cap full of Xanax last night?”
I roll my eyes. “Thank you for your concern, Craig. Actually, I’m going shopping. Since you’ve slept the whole day away, a lot has happened. Luke came over and told me what’s been going on, which by the way, you were right about the alias at the hotel. He’s talking to some investors, and he may be leaving Summer Advertising. That’s why he’s been going down there.” I tell him about the rest of our conversation. “So, that’s the whole story . . . or at least, I think it is.” I hesitate. I know I can always count on Craig to give me his opinion.
“What do you mean you think it is? It totally makes sense.”
“I’m not sure. It all sounds legit, but something’s off. You know how I am when I get those feelings.”
“Hell yeah, I do. That’s why I’ve been begging you to take me to Vegas to make it rain,” he says with a laugh.
“Anyway, I told him we needed to take some time to think about things, and I basically uninvited him to Madison’s engagement party. So, you’ll have to be my date for the party,” I say, smiling.
“You can count on me. I wouldn’t miss dinner at June Cleaver’s house.” He giggles. “How are you really feeling?”
“Surprisingly, I’m okay. I think we need this time to figure out what’s next for us. I really want him to make more of an effort in our relationship. If we move forward.”
“Hmmm . . . sounds like the beginning of the end to me,” he says sarcastically.
I scowl. “Thanks for your encouragement. You’re so cynical. I just spent almost a year of my life with this man. Anyway, try to do something productive today. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say before I hang up.
The next morning, I wake to the smell of Madison baking cookies. She’s probably making several batches for her soon-to-be mother-in-law. Cole’s mother belongs to several women’s clubs, and of course, she brings Madison’s cookies to every event. I get up and brush my teeth, which is probably pointless because I’m sure I’ll end up having cookies for breakfast.
“Morning. Thanks for making breakfast,” I say cheerfully.
“Hi. What do you think?” she asks, holding out a plate of cookies. She has created little Bingo cards and flowers. “Let me guess, Bingo night and Gardening Club? How very Stepford Wives,” I say sarcastically.
“Be nice. You know she treats me like a daughter,” Madison says, trying not to laugh.
“I know, I’m sorry. Craig calls her ‘June Cleaver.’”
Madison cracks a smile, but I can tell that she’s trying not to make a joke about her soon-to-be mother-in-law.
I stop teasing and sit down to my breakfast of cookies and milk.
“Yep, this is the breakfast of champions right here.” I sit down and reach for a cookie. “So, are you excited for tonight?”
“Yes. Susan always does a great job hosting. Of course, the majority of the guests will be their family and friends other than my grandmother and a few of my friends. I wish my parents could be there, but my dad can’t take the extra time off,” she says sadly. “Susan keeps talking about some slideshow that she put together.”
I groan. “Yes, I know. She was on me for a few days to send some pictures to her last week. She was pretty relentless, but I did it for you,” I say, smiling. “You’re welcome.”
“I know she can be a bit much. Thanks for doing that,” she says as she puts the last batch into the oven.
“Anything for the bride.” I take a bite of my breakfast.
A few hours later, Craig and I are on our way, and I have him make a list of everything we still have to do for the charity event. We’re six days out, and every day, I get a little more nervous. I can tell he doesn’t want to think about work now because he keeps reminding me that it’s ‘still the weekend.’
“It doesn’t matter. We work on weekends all the time.”
“I know,” he whines. “I just wanted one more day to relax before the crazy begins.”
I snort. “Talk about crazy. Just wait until Carrie comes in this week and lectures us on not interrupting her weekend trips ever again. Prepare yourself for a verbal beat down.”
“I’m kind of looking forward to her verbal beatdown. And I can’t wait to see her face when we resign.” Craig gives an evil laugh.
“The good news is the countdown is on.” I smile to myself. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s glorious.
When we arrive at the party, I can tell right away that this night is going to be interesting. Susan is perfectly put together from head to toe and looks like she belongs in a Martha Stewart catalog. In the backyard, there are two long tables set up side by side. I can see Susan’s conservative friends from all of her women’s clubs at one table along with Madison’s grandmother, and at the second table, I see some of Madison’s trendy friends from the salon. I hear a few of the club ladies whispering about the half-shaved, pink hair, and full-sleeve tattoos. I glance at Craig, and he gives me a mischievous smile. He really does live for this stuff. We find seats next to Abby and Matt and wait for the show to begin.
Madison and Cole make their way through the crowd, beaming. I watch as they hug their family and friends. Susan ushers them to sit down, and a few minutes later, we’re being served a full-course dinner. The food is fantastic, which was to be expected.
As everyone is finishing up, Susan asks the guests to share a memory or message about Cole and Madison.
“Showtime,” Craig whispers.
Most of the guests share sweet words of advice like, don’t go to bed angry, always communicate, and bring home surprises. The funny parts begin with stories from Cole’s friends about trips to Cabo and Tijuana. Susan looks like she’s about to have an anxiety attack. At one point, I think she considers choking herself with her own pearls. The slideshow, though, brings many laughs and tears.
After the slideshow, Madison sits down with us for a few minutes. “Are you guys having fun?” she asks.
“Do you have to ask?” Craig says, smiling. “This is one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen.”
“I know. It’s definitely an interesting mix of people,” Madison agrees.
Then Susan announces that it’s time to open gifts. I actually hate this part of any party or shower. Let’s be honest, most of the guests have no desire to watch people open fifty-plus gifts. Although, I make an exception this time, especially when Madison opens a huge box of lingerie and massage oils. The cheers and chants from the salon crowd have the Gardening Club blushing and whispering.
While the gift opening continues, Abby nudges me and motions for us to take a walk.
“So, are you doing okay?” she whispers.
“Surprisingly, yes,” I reply. “I know I need this time to figure out my feelings. Even though Luke says he was in Palm Springs for work, he still lied to me. How can I trust him completely?”
“I understand,” she says. “Can I a
sk you something? Promise you won’t be mad at me?”
I laugh. “It’s never good when someone asks that question but go ahead.”
“Does any of this have to do with Ace?” She leans away from me.
“Why would this have anything to do with your baby?” I wink.
“Very funny,” she says sarcastically. “You know what I’m talking about.” We’re suddenly both distracted by the gasps and screams of a gift that includes handcuffs. Craig is having the time of his life watching the gift opening from the front row.”
“Poor Susan. Her friends will be talking about this for weeks.” I pause, making Abby wait a bit longer. “Honestly, it doesn’t have anything to do with Ace. It has to do with the fact that I’m not sure if Luke and I are meant to be. I mean, he can’t even talk to me about something as simple as trying to go out on his own with his career. Hello . . . I’m doing the same exact thing.”
“That’s a good point. I don’t really understand why he wouldn’t have told you either,” she says thoughtfully. “Is that why you think there’s more to the story?”
I remain quiet for a few seconds. “Yes,” I finally say. “Anyway, we both need this time to think and decide if this is what we want or if we should go our separate ways.”
She rubs my arm.
“Enough about that though. Let’s talk baby showers.” I’m willing to talk about anything other than my relationship issues.
Abby and I discuss a few options for her baby shower, and we come up with some really great ideas. Abby’s shower will not be the typical baby shower—I’ll be sure of that.
The gift opening for Madison and Cole drags on, and most of the items are boring except for the package of whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Even Craig gets up and spends the remainder of the party hanging around the dessert table.
The last bit of entertainment comes at my expense when Susan asks where Luke is and tells me that I should ‘try to hang on to this one.’ That’s pretty much my green light to get the hell out of here.
Craig and I have a few laughs on the way home. I remind him to get plenty of sleep and be on his game first thing tomorrow. The big week has arrived, and I’m ready to knock it out of the park.
Chapter Twelve
In my commitment to have a good and productive week, I start Monday morning off with a hard-core spinning class. I really need it considering my meals on Sunday included Madison’s cookies for breakfast, nothing for lunch, and several trips to Susan’s all-you-can-eat dessert buffet.
I’m the first to arrive at the office, so I make separate to-do lists for Craig, Nicole, the catering team, the pastry team, and the volunteers. I’m greeted with an email from the printers telling me that the files for the programs and the pledge cards still had not been sent. This is stress I don’t need. I send a 911 text to Craig.
I double-check my schedule for the rest of the week. We have Friday marked off for set-up and décor, so I need those printed items in hand by Friday morning. Ugh, I can feel my blood pressure rising. If anything goes wrong, I won’t be able to face the Cantons, and I’m pretty sure my launch party at their place will be out of the question as well.
I also receive an email from Mrs. Canton’s assistant requesting a meeting another last-minute meeting for Mrs. Canton and the catering team tomorrow afternoon. She wants to confirm the menu one more time. This makes me nervous because she’s already changed it more times than I can count, I doubt she even remembers what she’s chosen.
Craig finally comes waltzing in with Krispy Kreme Donuts.
“I’m here with treats,” he calls out.
I groan. “Keep those evil things away from me. I ate my weight in garbage yesterday. If I keep it up, I won’t fit into my dress on Saturday.” All of this stress eating is going to do me in for sure. I did try on my dress last night, and it fits fine, but there are still five days to go, so you never know.
“I need you to go the editors, get those files, and take them to the printers. They’ve had enough time. They need to send it as is.” I stop talking and look at Craig. He’s giving me the strangest look.
“What? Do you have a smart-ass comment for me? It’s your job, do it.” I turn and walk back to my office. I hear him say “Okay, Carrie” under his breath. I turn back and give him a dirty look, but we both start laughing. I did kind of sound like her.
“Oh, and take those donuts with you,” I yell.
That old saying is true. When you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Or send someone you trust to do it.
I hear the door open, and someone calls out, “Ms. Harris?”
“Be right there,” I call back. Who could that be? When I go into the lobby, I see a beautiful bouquet of roses. Wow. Are those for me?
“Hi, I’m Sienna Harris.”
“Can you please sign for these?” he says, handing me a clipboard.
“Sure. Thank you.” I set them down and open the card.
Good luck this week.
Love, Luke
Wow. I can’t remember ever getting flowers from Luke. He must really feel guilty. Maybe I was too hard on him?
I send a text to thank him.
I need to decide if I should still bring him to Faith, Fashion, and Hope. I made him promise for months that he would be available, and I really don’t want to show up without a date. Even though I’ll working, there will be some very important people there. At one time, he mentioned wanting to network for Summer Advertising. I’m not sure if he still wants to, considering he may be leaving them for this other endeavor. Now thinking back over our conversation, he was pretty vague about that whole thing. He kept mentioning investors, but nothing about who they are.
“Whoa. Who are those roses for? They’re absolutely gorgeous,” Nicole says when she arrives. I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn’t even hear her come in.
“Oh, they’re for me. Thanks.”
“Any word from Carrie today? I’m in big trouble for giving you guys that resort info. She called me and went on a tirade for a good ten minutes. Then she said we’re having a meeting in person to discuss it further. I have no idea when she’s coming in. She’ll probably wait a few days just to torture me.”
“That’s so typical. She wants to waste time discussing this nonsense even though one of our biggest events ever is only a few days away.” I roll my eyes. I remind myself to hang in there. I just have to make it through Saturday.
“That’s what I thought too,” she replies. “Oh, that reminds me, do we have any extra seats? Carrie overfilled her table, but we need to find two more seats close by.”
“Of course, she did. When Craig gets here, have him check over the seating floor plan. I don’t know if there are any empty seats other than at our table. And I’m not sure how Carrie’s guests will feel about being seated at a table with ‘the help,’” I say, giggling.
She nods. “Good point.”
Several hours later, Craig returns, and he looks exasperated.
“Please tell me they have the files.” I can tell by his face that I’m not going to be happy with his answer.
He takes a deep breath. “Apparently, Mrs. Canton is waiting for one more ad spot from one of the designers. And if we don’t get it by this afternoon, the printers said there will be no way to complete them in time with their full workload this week,” he says as he dramatically falls back on the couch. “What are we going to do? We need a backup plan.”
I feel like I’m going to cry. We need programs for this event. All of the sponsors are expecting their names in print.
“Call every printer in town. I’ll call Mrs. Canton and see if I can get that ad. We have to figure something out ASAP.” I hurry to my office and get on the phone.
After my call with Mrs. Canton, I feel even more defeated. She made it very clear that the programs cannot be printed without this ad because this designer’s work is a very large part of the auction.
“Any luck?” I ask the others.
&n
bsp; “Not yet,” Nicole says.
Craig is still on the couch with his arm draped over his eyes.
My next idea is to call the printers and beg them to do the job. They remind me that we did promise them that all the files would be sent last week. I explain the situation and tell them it’s been out of my hands, but my whining and complaining don’t get me anywhere. I even call Luke and ask him, but they use the same printers we do.
Nicole knocks on my door. “Sorry to bother you, Sienna. Can I come in?”
“Yeah,” I reply, picking up my head from banging it on the desk.
“We found a few empty seats at Mr. Eckelund’s table. Would you be able to contact him to ask if we can use them for Carrie’s guests? He only submitted five names for the table.”
I groan. “Yes, I’ll call him now. We need to do something productive today.” She leaves, and I look through my contacts to find his name. Five people? I wonder if he’s bringing a date. There I go thinking crazy thoughts again. It’ll be a miracle if I make it through this weekend without medication.
“Hello.”
“Hello, Ace, it’s Sienna Harris.” I try to sound as formal as possible just in case the little ears in my office are listening.
“Sienna. How are things coming for the charity event? I’m really looking forward to it.”
I let out an exasperated sigh.
“Today hasn’t been great. We’ve had a pretty big issue arise that I’m trying to fix. Anyway, I have a big favor to ask you.” I explain about Carrie’s guests, and he says it will be no problem for them to sit at his table.
“I’m not sure who they are so I apologize in advance. I’m sure you saw some of the people that are in her crowd at Venice a few weeks back.”
“No worries,” he says kindly. “So, what is this big issue you’re having?”
I tell him all about what happened with the programs and the printers. Before I know it, I actually start crying, and not just a little bit of crying, but the big ugly cry. I’m so glad that he isn’t here in person to see this.
[Event to Remember 01.0] An Event to Remember...or Forget Page 14
