Chapter 6 #2
She nodded and busied herself filling the carafes while I studied the pastries. When she stood at the ready with an open white box and a pair of tongs raised in the air, I pointed. “How about six maple tarts, six of those oatmeal cookies, and six almond scones?”
She hesitated. “Are you sure about the scones? Caspian, the owner makes them, and?—”
I held up a hand. “Sold. They look delicious.” Maybe there’d be leftovers. I’d be ready for some dessert by then. Or I could take them to Charles and Finn’s house.
She shrugged and put the scones in the box with the tarts and the cookies.
My little errand hadn’t taken too long, so I’d have plenty of time to get set up before the committee members arrived.
Aside from me and Zeke, there were six people on the committee for the Maplewood Music Festival.
Roy Griffin, Charles’ guitar teacher and the owner of the Harmonic Circus music store, was a longtime friend of Zeke’s.
He was also the emcee for the amateur music competition on the last day of the festival.
Bo Boyd was the representative from the city of Maplewood, and Adrian Gates, who was one of the owners of The Striped Maple pub, was in charge of recruiting vendors.
Graham MacDougall, owner of an advertising agency, was responsible for marketing.
The remaining two committee members, Jonah Washington and Frances Kaminski, together headed up logistics and ticketing.
Everyone’s responsibilities were clearly laid out in Zeke’s binder, but his notes—not to mention his instructions to me this week—made it clear Zeke took quite a bit of responsibility on himself instead of delegating.
I’d found photos of all the committee members online, so I hoped to recognize them when they arrived.
When I got to the library, I followed the signs to the community room.
It was a big open room with several tables and chairs scattered around.
Even better, it had a projection screen you could pull down from the ceiling and a projector that, despite its apparent age, had a USB port. And I had a USB adapter for my MacBook.
I pulled two tables together so we could all sit in a square with one end facing the projection screen.
I’d just gotten my spreadsheet to display when the first attendee arrived.
He walked into the room but pulled up short. “Oh, am I in the wrong meeting?”
I grinned. “You’re not. This is the music festival committee meeting. Zeke couldn’t make it. I’m Drake Derry. You’re Roy, right?” He was probably sixty or so years old, with mostly gray hair pulled back in a ponytail. He was wearing a faded blue cardigan over a Nirvana concert tee.
He blinked at me. “Yes? Wait, Drake Derry? You’re performing on Thursday and one of the judges for the amateur competition.”
“That’s me. I also got roped into running this meeting. It’s a long story.”
“Um, wow. Okay. It’s nice to meet you.”
Next up was Bo Boyd. He looked to be about Finn and Alex’s age. I wondered if they’d gone to school together. He blinked in wonder at the screen, and after he introduced himself he practically leapt on the coffee.
The others trickled in, most expressing confusion either at Zeke’s absence—apparently this was the first committee meeting he’d missed since the festival was founded—or at the spreadsheet projected on the screen.
I wasn’t surprised to find out Zeke usually just paged through his binder as he led the meeting.
They were all also very excited about the coffee and treats, but there were lots of whispers over the scones. They ended up breaking one apart and sharing it, and then only Bo took a second one. Whatever. I was sure Finn and Charles would eat the rest.
Once everyone adapted to me and the snacks, the meeting went smoothly. I’d expected at least one objector or complainer, but everyone was very supportive and seemed willing to compromise to make things happen. What kind of bureaucratic utopia had I landed in?
We finished the last tab on my spreadsheet with plenty of time for me to get to Finn and Charlie’s house. I looked around the room. “Anything I missed?”
Shaking heads all around. Graham toasted me with his coffee cup. “This was great. Thanks for putting it all together on the spreadsheet. It makes it really easy to be sure everything’s checked off the list.”
“Yeah, can you come back next year?” Adrian joked. “We love Zeke, but he’s not very organized. We cross our fingers that he remembers to put updates in his binder. No way he’d make a spreadsheet for us.”
“ Oooh , what if the spreadsheet was online, and it was updated in real time?” Frances said dreamily as they all stared at the screen.
There was a chorus of more Ooohs around the table.
Roy raised a hand. “Let’s take a vote. All in favor of Drake running the music festival committee next year, say aye.”
Everyone loudly said aye and raised their coffee cups.
I smiled and shook my head at them as I unplugged my laptop from the projector. “Y’all are terrible. I’ll see you at the festival opening on Wednesday.”
“Will you be playing ‘Santa’s Secret Stocking’ during your set on Thursday?”
I glared at Jonah. “No. And the next person who asks is banned from the festival.”
Everyone laughed. As much as I appreciated the royalties that song brought in—and let’s face it, “Santa’s Secret Stocking” was the major source of income for me and my siblings who’d been members of Melodious Moon—if I never had to hear it or sing it again, I’d die happy.
Everyone cleaned up their trash and helped me put the tables back where I found them. When I got to my car, I texted Charles I was on my way. I received a thumbs up in reply.
I parked at the vet clinic and spent three whole minutes giving myself a pep talk about acting cool and collected around Finn. “It was only a hookup. You’ve run into your hookups before. Okay, not really. But still. It was casual, and there’s no need to be weird.”
Right. I could do this.
The stone path behind the vet clinic was only about a hundred feet long.
There were trees on either side, but they weren’t overgrown and there were lights.
The house itself was painted brick red with white trim.
The front porch ran the width of the house with benches on either side of the front door.
Finn answered my knock. I’d thought I’d been prepared to see him, but I hadn’t counted on him being fucking shirtless.
“Oh!” I took a tiny step back as I drank in the sight of his bare skin. “Um, hi.” I dragged my eyes up to his, and he laughed.
“Sorry, I spilled some of my dinner on myself. I was about to get a clean shirt.” His face turned a little ruddy, which gave me a significant amount of my confidence back.
I shrugged and winked. “Don’t do it on my account.”
“Oh, my god ! Are you two flirting ?” Charles materialized behind Finn. I couldn’t decide if his expression was horrified or just shocked.
“Charles!” Finn glared at him.
I chuckled to break the tension. “Sorry, Charles. We’ll try to keep that away from your vulnerable ears in the future.”
His eyes bulged. “There’ll be a future ? Future flirting? Wait. Are you guys dating ?”
Oops. I shot a desperate look at Finn.
He heaved a huge sigh and gestured for me to enter the house.
“Nobody’s dating, Charles. Drake was making a joke.
” He didn’t glance my way, but he called over his shoulder.
“Drake, I had Charles bring his guitar out to the living room so you’ll be more comfortable.
There’s only one chair in his bedroom. I’ll be in my study so I don’t accidentally hear anything .
” I could feel his eye roll in my soul. “Do you need some water or iced tea?”
“No, thanks. Uh, I brought some leftover scones from my meeting.”
He waved a hand. “I just ate. Charles, they’re all yours.”
“Score!” Charles shouted.
Still without looking at me again, Finn vanished around a corner.