Page 11 of Party Favors

There was no way this was her actual dress, given that I was in New York and Kat’s dresses were probably in a museum somewhere, but it looked exactly the same. I wanted to see if it was an actual Monti dress,but there was no tag. It could be a replica. But none of those things mattered. I had to buy this. I didn’t even care how much it cost.

Or what size it was. If it was too small, I’d put on some Spanx or something to force it to fit. I checked the tag, sure it wouldn’t be my size, but to my sheer delight, it was.

I took it off the rack and held it in front of me, marching over to the cashier. I couldn’t believe this was about to be mine.

It felt like a sign from the universe that things were about to turn around for me.

I wore the dress to work the next day. It was a bit more casual than the sort of attire I usually wore, but it was giving me an incredible boost of confidence to wear something exactly like what Kat had worn. She was always so sure of herself, of her place in the world, and she went after the things she wanted.

As bizarre as it might have sounded, I felt like this dress was imbuing me with some of her strength.

Last night, after I’d hand-washed the dress and left it out to dry, I’d spent the rest of the evening working on my plans for today.

The potential client was a teenage girl named Hyacinth Albrecht. Her family was from the Washington, DC, area, where her father had some kind of business. I didn’t fully grasp what they did exactly, but whatever it was, it seemed to involve owning actual money trees.

Hyacinth was about to turn sixteen years old, and she wanted an extravagant, luxurious party here in New York City to celebrate. I’d spent a lot of time looking at her social media, trying to get a feel for what she’d enjoy, and I had tons of ideas running around in my head. I figured that after meeting her, I’d have a better sense of what she might gravitate toward.

I went into the meeting feeling like a million bucks. I wondered how much a tiara would cost and whether it would be too ridiculous if I wore that to the office, too.

Everybody filed into the conference room, and Adrian sat in his usual spot at the head of the table. He looked annoyed, while Claudia seemed very sure of herself and pleased with the situation.

Vella led Hyacinth and her mother, a woman named Marie, into the conference room. Claudia greeted them, shaking Marie’s hand.

Hyacinth didn’t look up from her cell phone, even when they sat down in their chairs. Claudia told them a bit about what we did, and how we would love it if they would choose us to plan their event. “We have some of the best event planners in the industry right here in this room. You will get personalized, concierge-level attention, and you won’t have to worry about a single thing. We will handle every single detail for you.”

Marie glanced at Hyacinth, maybe hoping for some engagement, but the teenager ignored all of us.

Claudia continued, “What kind of budget were you planning on? And how many guests were you planning on inviting?”

Marie mentioned a mid–six figures number that made me want to gasp. It was more than some rich people spent on their weddings! I’d never had a budget that high. Marie added that they were expecting about two hundred and fifty people, making it a bigger budget than most of our corporate clients would spend on a much larger audience. We were going to be able to do so much with that.

“We had an event planner prior to this, but we had to part ways when we realized that our visions didn’t align,” Marie said, and there was a slightly bitter tone to her voice. “As I mentioned in my email, we already have a venue secured and the invitations sent. We are planning on most of our guests flying in and staying at the hotel. We are short on time—Hyacinth’s birthday is only three weeks away.”

There was some fidgeting and mumbling around me, but no one expressed their surprise out loud. We usually had months and months to plan events. Less than thirty days? That was fast. It could easily be done with enough money, though, so long as the clients were decisiveand would trust our input. We would also need to have the vendors return phone calls and follow through with their promises.

Eighty percent of event planning was babysitting vendors.

But again, with the kind of cash Marie was willing to spend, I guessed that the vendors we contacted would be very happy to do as we asked.

“Do you have an idea of what you’d like, Hyacinth?” Claudia asked.

“Something not stupid,” she mumbled, again avoiding eye contact. At least she would speak when spoken to—that was good.

But it wasn’t a lot to go on.

She and her family weren’t from New York, which would take the party in a different direction. Had Hyacinth grown up here, the party probably would have been themed something likeExistential Crisisofthe Ongoing Ennui of Euphoria.

Claudia introduced a couple of the more senior event planners and two of the event designers. They began to share some of their ideas, complete with mood boards and suggestions for how they could potentially decorate the selected venue.

No response from Hyacinth.

The longer this went on, the more aggravated Marie became. I understood it—she was about to spend a lot of money to make sure her daughter had an unforgettable party, and Hyacinth didn’t seem like she cared at all.

Several people on the team exchanged looks, as we were all aware that nothing seemed to be getting through to her.

Kat could do this. She could speak out.

So could I.

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