Page 83 of Party Favors

That sentiment obviously jinxed me. There was an issue with the quality of some of the flowers that we solved after calling a wholesaler, who delivered fresh blooms within the hour. One of the ice sculptures hadn’t been stored properly and was halfway melted. I slightly rearranged the decorations so that it wouldn’t even be missed. The napkins were the wrong shade of blue, but I was going to have to roll with it.

I had planned on going home and getting ready. I had picked out a special dress for tonight—it was red and looked just like the one Kat had worn to a special state dinner in England for one of her best friends, Princess Caitlin. It was the most princessy dress ever and I was going to have to work until I was eighty-five to pay back the amount of debt I’d accumulated to buy it, but I loved it.

I didn’t have time to go all the way home, get ready, and return before the guests started arriving.

While I was doing final spot checks, I called Vella. When she answered, I said, “Can you bring me my dress? It’s on my bed. I don’t have time to get it and now Max is coming tonight and I have to look nice.”

“I was going to wax various body parts, but I can do that later. Send me the address.”

With a sigh of relief, I hung up and texted her.

Things were going to be okay.

Vella arrived very quickly, like she’d grabbed my dress and immediately flown over, which was very unlike her. “Thank you so much! You’re an actual lifesaver,” I said. I took the dress from her and held it up so that it didn’t brush against the ground. I noticed that she had several cases with her. “What’s all that?”

“Remember when I went to cosmetology school? I’m going to do your hair and makeup.”

She had never done anything like that for me before. “Why?”

“Because tonight I am your fairy goth-mother and you are going to enjoy your ball, Cinderella. Where can we get you ready?”

I could feel actual tears coming on. “I’m going to hug you.”

Vella gave me an imperious look. “I will allow it this one time because I deserve it.”

I hugged her quickly. “There’s a bathroom over here that has a makeup counter,” I said. She followed behind me into the bathroom.

“Sit down,” she said as she began setting up her equipment. “Find me a picture on your phone of how you want everything to look.”

Easy enough. I pulled up a photo of Kat in the red dress and showed it to Vella. She leaned in close to the screen. “I can’t do plastic surgery.”

“I meant her hair and makeup!” I said with a laugh, and she gave me an evil grin that let me know she’d said it intentionally to give me a hard time.

Vella was fast and efficient. I was actually in awe of how quickly everything got done. I got changed and put on some petticoats so that my dress would be fluffy. She helped me slide the dress on over my hair so that I didn’t mess it up. She had created long curls that I wore half-up, half-down. She had put enough hairspray on to make us personally responsible for a hole in the ozone layer. My makeup was dewy and soft-looking.

I hardly even recognized myself. “You do good work.”

She agreed with me as she started to pack everything back up. “I do. But didn’t anyone ever tell you not to wear a red dress to a bullfight?”

“I don’t think that’s a saying.”

“It is because I just said it. If you only want to be friends with a guy, you shouldn’t go out there dressed like that.”

I bit my bottom lip before admitting, “Maybe I’m trying to be more than friends with him.”

She stopped what she was doing. “Oh, my shriveled black heart just grew three sizes!”

“Which is still smaller than the average heart,” I said, and she laughed. Then I added, “Thank you so much for doing this.”

“I owed you. I ate the last of the gelato.” She closed her cases. “Now go have fun and please do something worthy of reporting back tomorrow.”

My phone beeped as I was telling her goodbye. It was Hillary from work letting me know that she’d arrived and asking where I wanted her. I told her to head into the kitchen and make sure that everything was on schedule. I trusted Bartolomeo, but Hillary was excellent at gently reminding and encouraging vendors without seeming pushy. She was one of the people I had recruited from the office to help out tonight because I wanted the extra hands standing by. I would do the same thing in two weeks, when I attended the ambassador’s anniversary party—I probably wouldn’t be needed, but it never hurt to have backup.

Plus, I wanted to impress Claudia by volunteering for her event.

I checked in with Marie Albrecht, who was helping Hyacinth get ready to make a grand entrance. They had rented a suite in the hotel and were getting their hair and makeup done professionally. Hyacinth was still on her phone, making silly faces and taking pictures. I hoped this evening was everything she wanted it to be.

I headed back into the ballroom, standing in the middle of the room while the band set up. I turned in a slow circle. It was part Wonder Woman, part taking in what I’d accomplished in a very, very short amount of time, feeling unbelievably proud of it.

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