Page 4 of Party Favors

This is your chance,an inner voice whispered.Ask him if you can pitch Claudia’s new client.

Without my brain’s permission, my mouth began speaking. “Adrian? There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

CHAPTER TWO

For the second time that evening, I was caught off guard by the way words had unintentionally spilled out of my mouth. It was entirely unlike me—I was the kind of person who was careful with what I said at work and who I said it to.

Immediately I began to consider the potential consequences and worst possible outcomes. What would Adrian think of my request to pitch? Would he be annoyed? Turned off by it? Angry? I couldn’t predict his reaction, and that made me uncomfortable.

I shouldn’t have said anything. I was ready to tell him “Never mind” and beat a hasty retreat from his office.

Despite what I’d promised Claudia, I wasn’t ready.

“Shoot,” he said.

My mouth went dry, and I couldn’t form the question. This was too big and scary. I could feel sweat beading up on my lower back, and I pulled my blouse away from my skin in an attempt to cool off.

He looked at me expectantly, and I couldn’t do it.

“Not ask you, tell you,” I amended. “I found a receptionist to replace Amy.”

Amy had quit suddenly earlier today, with no notice, and we needed someone to cover the front desk.

“Who?”

He was asking which temp agency I’d called. But I had forgotten. While I never let anything fall through the cracks when it came to anevent, the same wasn’t true for everything else. Event planners were notorious for running other people’s events extremely well while the rest of our lives were often out of control.

Needing an answer, I seized on the only one I could think of. “My friend Vella.”

“Which agency is she with?”

My brain went completely blank—she wasn’t currently with a temp agency, although she had been in the past. “She’s been with a few different ones. She’s done this before.”

“Sounds good. Have her here first thing tomorrow and get everything squared away with Human Resources.”

“You got it,” I said.

He nodded and his gaze returned to his computer screen. Recognizing that I had been dismissed, I headed back to my desk.

Why was I so afraid to ask Adrian for what I wanted? Of course I couldn’t tell him about my crush—that would be unprofessional and uncomfortable and someone would have to pry that particular secret from my cold, dead hands. If I were ever forced into a confession about it, well, that was what deathbeds were for.

But I should have been strong enough to tell him that I wanted the opportunity to pitch. That I was more than ready to have the title of event planner. I had put in my time, and even Claudia recognized that.

I needed to take the next step. Somehow I was going to have to get a lot braver where Adrian was concerned.

For right now, though, I needed to focus on the next impossible thing I needed to accomplish.

I had to convince Vella to take the job.

When I got back to the apartment, Vella wasn’t home yet. She’d been doing gig work lately, delivering takeout and groceries.

She’d had more jobs than anybody could reasonably count, as she changed her career aspirations approximately every three months. She had recently reenrolled in college since she’d decided she wanted to be a professor of Russian literature.

This was after she’d graduated from cosmetology school to be a hairstylist, and prior to that she was going to specialize in cybersecurity programming and had been interning at a tech company.

Before the internship she’d had plans to be a math teacher, a veterinarian, an acrobat in the circus, a professional wrestler, a neurologist, a bar owner, a writer ... The list was ever changing and apparently endless, and she moved around to different internships and schools depending on her whims.

We lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. I had found her listing for a roommate online while I still lived in Alabama and I’d initially assumed we would share the bedroom. When I arrived I discovered that she had a dining alcove that would be my space. It was relatively large, but I did not have any privacy. Just a room divider.

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