Planned to Perfection

by Roxanne Tully

  Claudia drew back. Then a slow smile spread across her face. “That’s comforting,” she hesitated then ran a finger along his tie. “So I guess we’ll be seeing each other there. I’m sure I could arrange for us to sit at the same table.”

  He almost laughed, but even he wasn’t so heartless. He looked at her with empty eyes. “There’s no need for that. I already have a date.”

  Her hand dropped. “Oh. Can’t wait to meet her,” she shrugged a single shoulder and turned, walking over to Donovan and offering him a kiss on the cheek before joining her friend in the hall.

  Scott walked over to the bar and poured himself a glass of scotch, dropping a single cube of ice into it.

  “You know you’ll need her last name to be on the guest list,” Donovan teased.

  “She’ll be my plus one.”

  Donovan shook his head and walked to sit behind his desk. “Having doubts about your investment with SLE?”

  Scott shot him a questioning look.

  “You oversold it,” Donovan scrutinized.

  Scott rubbed his jaw. The man knew him too well. “Dean told me they handed the Ballard event to the newbie again.” He swallowed down the liquor.”

  “So?”

  “It’s risky and reckless.”

  “Maybe she’s pretty.”

  Scott shot a cold glare at his old friend.

  “Okay, okay, I agree…it’s a little optimistic and perhaps daring, but maybe she’ll surprise you again.”

  “Because that’s something I could afford.”

  “So why not insist on someone you all know and trust?”

  Scott let out a breath and stared absently at the tall building across the street. “Because that would be too…demanding.”

  “You’re losing me here,” Donovan said.

  His recent efforts would never make any sense to his old boss so he decided to move on. “You know I went to see Harrison yesterday. For kicks I threw out the idea to buy out the business that he tells me is a family legacy, and he nearly jumped out of his chair with eagerness. Suddenly, he was on overload with an offer and a timeline to close the deal.”

  “I don’t get it. You say he was never interested in your investment?”

  “Nope. He was hoping for a buyout. Wanted to make it look like he tried for the family, but that my offer was too good to turn down. He wants no part of the business. He just wants out.”

  Donovan chuckled. “He’s barking up the wrong tree.” He swirled his glass. “Pretty brilliant—you testing out his intentions.”

  “It was Isabel’s idea.”

  Donovan pointed a finger at him. “I told you I don’t work with idiots. Why don’t you bring her by one of these days, I’m sure if I see her again, I’ll remember.”

  Scott swallowed down the last of his drink. Doubt tugged at his chest. And it was starting to become painful.

  “Listen, I need to finish up some calls in the other room. Thanks for your help today.”

  Donovan held up his empty glass waving Scott out and turned back to his desk.

  “Kat,” Scott called as he crossed to her desk in the bright, empty hall.

  Kat looked up instantly.

  “Could you pull up the guest list for the Hayes’ anniversary party from last month?”

  Kat clicked away on her computer, and turned the screen towards him.

  He scanned it quickly, recognizing most names. But not the one that he was looking for.

  She’s not on it.

  She wasn’t on the guest list? How was that possible?

  “Thanks Kat,”

  Back in his office, he leaned back in his chair and rubbed a hand over his face.

  How did you get there?

  I crashed. He remembered her teasing, before he implied how unlikely that was.

  Chapter 29

  Elle

  “What are we going to do about these fourteen additional guests?” Mimi paced in Elle’s living room on Friday afternoon. With only nine days until the event, they didn’t have a moment to waste. Details needed to be finalized and their list still had too many unchecked boxes for Elle’s comfort. As usual, her coffee table was covered in plans, samples, checklists and chocolate bits.

  Fitting in last minute RSVP’s was typically something Elle enjoyed. But now, it only frustrated her. She picked up the eleven by seventeen chart and examined it. “Move those side tables with gift bags and banners to the back wall and add a round table of ten on either side.”

  “But we only need—”

  “Oh, there will be others,” Elle assured.

  Mimi scribbled away on her staging notes. Her hands shook. “What’s our game plan for the floor? I know we got clearance from Starr to be on it when necessary…”

  “I’ll be in and out of the floor. We’ll both do a pre-check, mic the vendor leads and hopefully, when the doors open, we’ll just watch the perfect evening play itself out.”

  Mimi rolled her eyes. “As if that’s a thing.”

  Elle feigned a shocked expression. “Miriam! Are you not a buyer of my planned to perfection history?”

  “Not for a second.”

  Elle drew a slow smile. “I knew I liked you.”

  Mimi grabbed her wine off the table and sat on the sofa. “So, I take it things have been pretty smooth in romance-land?”

  “What makes you say that?” Elle pushed aside the project materials and pulled up the bowl of chocolate.

  “There’s been no muttering or hair pulling. You also have a goofy smile when replying to text messages.”

  Elle laughed nearly spitting out her wine. “Really, I feel like my privacy has been violated here.”

  “Okay, swallow— then spill,” Mimi instructed.

  Elle shrugged. “I took your advice. Things could have been absolutely dreadful for me the last few weeks if I hadn’t.” Elle breathed out a steady breath. “I feel like we’ve done really well. I honestly don’t think we’ve missed a beat and we won’t next week either.”

  “Oh Lord, the pressure,” Mimi stood, setting her wine down. “Let’s save the drinks for after the runway for the devils.”

  “Agreed.” Elle stood to walk Mimi out.

  “I’ll see you Monday,” her colleague said as she left, leaving Elle to her thoughts.

  Nearly an hour later, Elle cleaned up the mess they’d made of her coffee table and fixed herself a small dinner plate. “Finally, the weekend.” Elle breathed—not that the weekend before a huge event would mean a day off, but now that she had help, it wasn’t so overwhelming.

  She had been spending most nights for the past few weeks at Scott’s; it was enough to make her feel as though they were in a real relationship.

  And soon enough, she’d be giving him that choice—to have something real. Screw the job. Screw his connections and ability to quite possibly sabotage her professional existence.

  Elle poured out the remains of her wine glass. Like she had anything to feel guilty about. She was honest about everything. One might argue even her name. And ninety percent of the time she was just Elle with him. She’d given him her thoughts and ideas anytime she heard him on a business call. She’d call him out when he was being too rash.

  And it was all welcome. Scott had seen more in her than anyone else ever had. She was sure he’d understand. She needed him to understand.

  Her phone rang just as she reached for the remote. She checked the screen hoping it was Char. She desperately needed some reassurance right now.

  But instead, it was the last person on earth she’d want to share anything with. “Mother,” she answered.

  “Why do you insist on calling me that?” her mother whined.

  Do you prefer shrew?

  “What is it? I’m working,” she lied.

  Her mother paused. “Are you coming for Christmas?”

  “I can’t,” Elle said flatly. “I’m working.”

  “I thought you lost your job. Don’t tell me you went and got one just like it, Isa.” />
  “Mom, would you stop. It’s a perfectly fine job. I’m paying my Manhattan rent, I buy decent wine, and you know what else,” her voice rose to an angry level it typically did when speaking to this woman, “I happen to be one of the best in the city.”

  “Well, you know the saying; when you’re the smartest person in the room…”

  “Why do you do this?”

  “What?”

  “For years you criticize everything I say or do. I can’t sit at a family table or provide my opinion without you laughing at how silly I sound,” Elle shouted into the other end. “Now you’re telling me I’m the smartest person in the room?”

  “It was just an expression, stop being so sensitive.” Her mother insisted, back in her usual cutting tone.

  “Tell dad I miss him, I don’t think I’ll make it this year.”

  “Elle, you can’t keep avoiding us.”

  “I’m not. Tell dad I’ll call him later this week.” She hung up before her mother could get in her last words. The woman always had a way of making Elle feel guilty. And she’d grown tired of it in their last few calls.

  Chapter 30

  Elle

  “How about a movie tonight?” Elle called from the couch after dinner on Sunday night at Scott’s apartment.

  “Do I have to promise to sit through the entire thing?” He raised an eyebrow from behind the kitchen counter.

  She loved him in his suits, but tonight, he looked incredibly irresistible in his faded olive green long sleeved shirt and worn blue jeans. And his hair just screamed for her fingers to rake through.

  A movie would be ideal to avoid much talking. She had made it through without any outright lies in the last two weeks and they were only one more week away from her running back here and telling him what she prayed he’d take as a hilarious story of how they met.

  “I won’t blame you for falling asleep in the middle of it.” She flicked through the selection of channels that were overpopulated with Christmas romantic comedies. “Looks like our genres are limited.”

  Scott strode over with a bowl of popcorn just as Elle paused at a selection she was considering.

  “A Chance Meeting?” Scott drew back as he read the title of a movie she happened to watch many years in a row.

  “Sure, why not? Cute couple,” she waved a hand in the air as he sat next to her, “snowflakes falling around them, they’re at the skating rink.”

  “The only skating I’m interested in is hockey, a bunch of people roaming around each other in cold weather is odd and not a sport,” he commented.

  “Okay.” Elle flicked past it, and pressed play at the next holiday romance.

  She reached for the bowl of popcorn, resisting the musky smell beside her. No. She had to behave today. Claiming more of what wasn’t quite hers seemed wrong and would only hurt that much more if things didn’t turn out the way she hoped.

  As if sensing her doubts and fears, he cupped the side of her face and kissed the top of her head. “You okay?”

  She just nodded. Elle wasn’t sure when it happened, but she had undoubtedly fallen in love with Scott Weston. The man sitting beside her was going to break her heart. She knew it and wasn’t running for the door. Instead she would be selfishly soaking up every minute with him until it’d be time to let go.

  Stop being so negative.

  This had her mother written all over it. Like she said; weeks to get past even the smallest conversations with her.

  Scott set the bowl aside and turned to her. “Listen, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. That…story for another day.”

  “You mean your distant relation to Ron Brightman?”

  He blinked. “Yeah, that.” He rubbed his forehead. Ron... is my father.”

  Elle froze and chills coursed through her. How was this possible? Life certainly was having a ball with her these days.

  Wait a minute. Ron didn’t have children.

  She did her best to appear unaffected. “Ron—Ron Brightman? The man we had brunch with a few weeks ago?”

  “I’m sorry, I know I should have told you before, I just didn’t want you thinking I was introducing you to a parent. Ron hasn’t been that for me...in a very long time.” His voice didn’t have a hint of regret or sadness.

  Elle fought to swallow. “I don’t understand, your parents aren’t in London?”

  “My mother is—with Philip. Who she met some time after Ron left us,” his voice was cold and completely devoid of any emotion.

  Her heart pounded and she couldn’t breathe.

  “Between ages nine and eighteen, I saw him twice and received four birthday cards.”

  “Why did he leave?” She realized the question must have sounded more like a demand rather than concern.

  He took a deep breath. “On business initially. He insisted he didn’t want to uproot the family and left us behind.” He swirled his wine glass and paused. “He never came back.” He took a sip and then shrugged. “My mother met Philip when I was eleven and he’s been more of a father to me since.”

  Elle shook her head in disbelief. Ron—the same man who urged her to find happiness and start a family rather than focus on work—abandoned his own? “How did you...reconnect?”

  Scott stared at her, a hint of amusement in his eyes. He opened his mouth but she cut him off.

  “Sorry, I’m asking too many questions.”

  “No, it’s completely fine. Once I was old enough, I moved to the city myself and kind of kept tabs on him. One glorious day Donovan tossed a new deal onto my desk. A developer was very interested in Ron’s building and asked us to pursue.”

  “When was this?” Elle jumped. “Sorry—not the point, please go on.”

  “Nearly three years ago, before I’d ventured off on my own. Anyway, that’s when I finally paid the man a visit at his office. He recognized me the second I walked in. I assured him Hayes Enterprises was going to advise the client against the location but warned him that if there was one, there’d be others,” he shrugged. “I gave him my contact in case he needed it. You know, for advice.”

  Elle nodded. Her heart broke for the two men she’d gotten closest to in years. “So now you two get together to talk about...business?” she guessed.

  He laughed. “That’s what Ron likes to call it. At least once a month. It was his idea. Especially after folding. I had the means to save it, Isabel. I did. But he refused. Said he didn’t deserve the company if he couldn’t keep it up himself. But I could tell he was done trying. So I didn’t push.”

  She was so grateful for his story and loved how much more she knew and understood about the man she’d fallen for. But now a new and admittedly selfish feeling took over. She now listened to him open up about his father and neglected to tell him that she had worked for the man for nearly eight years. Trusted and looked up to him. He was the only person other than her best friend who believed in her.

  She must have still been in a daze because he seemed to have asked her something and was waiting for a response.

  “Hmm?”

  “Next Sunday,” he repeated. “I’m attending the Winter Ballard event and I was hoping you’d be my date.”

  Elle could feel the color draining from her face. Thinking quickly, she did her best to smile at him. “I would love to; unfortunately, I’m otherwise engaged that day.” Not a lie or an omission, because in all honesty, she would have loved to go with him, but was otherwise engaged that day—because she was running the damn event.

  “Why don’t you meet me over there if you get free?”

  “Why don’t I meet you here after it’s over?” she countered.

  He grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Chapter 31

  Elle

  T minus thirty-seven minutes until the doors opened to the city’s biggest fashion event of the year. In her black pant suit, Elle stood atop the grand staircase of the second level in the atrium-styled venue. She admired the impeccable staging of the main hall. The
theme was Winter with a Splash of Gold. White columns stretching to the third level were draped with chained green wreaths spotted with white roses. Each rose lightly sprayed with gold. The railing of the grand staircase was fully lined with evergreen twigs with over a thousand gold beaded snowflake ornaments. Sponsor banners hung from the ceiling of the third level; exactly where Elle had instructed them to be.

  Elle turned behind her to once again admire the display of the place card table. She picked up Scott’s card, thumbing the black lettering on the velvety card. A fresh pang of nerves hit her all over again. Last week had changed all her expectations for how tonight was going to go. Now, her close relationship with his estranged father, which would surely complicate things.

  Elle walked down the grand staircase, double checking her list.

  “All clear down here,” Mimi called from the main floor, waiting for Elle. “The vendors are all mic’d up.”

  “And they know—?” Elle began to ask.

  “Keep on mute unless checking in,” Mimi finished.

  “Good. I hate it when the chef’s go off the rails and forget the mic.”

  There was some commotion from the stage crew and Elle and Mimi rushed over. “Gentlemen, what is going on?”

  “We’re short one crew member. We’re trying to decide who will cue each set.” Ryan, the event’s main lighting designer, jumped off the stage and held his hands up as if to reassure the women that this was not a huge issue…

  “Um...that’s kind of important,” Mimi pointed out.

  Elle glared at the guy. “Figure it out in less than twenty-two minutes. I need an update before the doors open.”

  She marched off to double check that no one else had been keeping any possible disasters from her.

  The doors opened promptly for the procession of the elite.

  “Showtime,” Mimi announced on the mic.

  Elle caught up with Ryan backstage, where the models would be lining up once the cocktail hour was over.

  “What’s the story?” she demanded.