CHAPTER NINE
Several weeks later Greaser walked into the office at work and looked at Lincoln sitting behind the desk doing paperwork. “You okay?”
“The next person that asks me if I’m okay is going to get fucking shot!” Lincoln yelled angrily.
“Do you even own a gun?” Greaser grinned at his best friend.
“No, but I’m sure I can get one. What’s up?”
“We got that thing.” Greaser sighed as he settled into a chair across from the desk.
“Thing?” As soon as Abe heard that word, he whipped his head around to see if his wife was there.
“Remember? Burt’s daughter asked the officers of the club to meet her and her siblings at the Hastings Hotel?”
“Oh, yeah, that thing. What time?”
“Thirty minutes. Luckily she told us to come as we are.” They stood and made their way out to their trucks and drove to their destination. They met the other men and went inside to wait.
Addy hurried into the Hastings Hotel with her assistant, Beth, Brian was working a wedding and when Addy saw Heather standing there, she gushed, “Sorry, I’m running late.”
“Oh, you’re not late, but I don’t know if we can help your clients.”
“Why?”
“Hard to say, I don’t think they’d fit into what we do here.”
“Why don’t we see what they want before we judge?” Addy sighed. “We’ve worked together enough that you should know that I can handle any type of client by now. Let’s see what they want and then we can decide.”
“Okay, but it’s your funeral. They’re in the back room of the bar.”
Addy nodded and strode forward. It was three in the afternoon on a Saturday in early November. She was exhausted and still had at least twelve hours of work to do that day. She heard the two women behind her and strode into the room. Before she looked up, she started her opening statement.
“Forgive me for being late, I apologize. I’m Addy Murphy and this is my assistant Beth. And this is Heather, the coordinator for the hotel. So how can I help you today?” She finally looked up at the total silence and saw eight men and two women sitting there. “Um, I’m sorry, I thought I had an appointment with Mrs. Hall. I didn’t mean to barge in on your party.” She picked up her briefcase and started to turn.
“Wait!” a woman called out as she jumped to her feet to stop Addy from leaving. “I’m Mrs. Hall. You are to meet with me.”
“Then why them?” she asked, and couldn’t take her eyes off her husband as he sat there with some of his patch holder brothers. “If this is for the club, I’ve been told in the past that my services were not needed, nor were they wanted when it came to them.” She was glad her dig hit when Lincoln winced.
“It’s for our parents. I did some research and you’re the best in town. Can we sit down and talk? I invited the guys for input and secrecy.”
“I don’t understand,” Addy said, but she settled into a seat.
“I’m Ashley Hall, and this is my husband, Ben. This is my sister, Ainsley and her husband, Frank. Ainsley and I are Burt and Mary’s daughters. Mom told us that she visited your shop a few weeks ago, and my sister and I talked it over and decided to throw our parents a surprise anniversary party. I invited the officers of the club to give their input and to keep Mom and Dad occupied, and to act as spies.” She grinned at the six men wearing their colors.
Addy chuckled and looked at the woman in charge. “Okay, first tell me what you’re looking for and I’ll tell you if we can do it or not.” She looked at Heather and Beth and got their nods of approval.
“As I said, it’s Mom and Dad’s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. I hope we have time to plan for it.”
“What date are you looking for?” Addy said, and grabbed her planner and Heather opened hers.
“Luckily their actual wedding date is available this year and it’s on a Saturday. It’s February 29th.”
“They were married on a leap year?” Lincoln asked in shock. He looked at Addy, then mumbled, “Sorry.”
“Yes,” Ainsley said. “We brought some pictures and want to try to recreate their reception. But we’d like to have it on the 29th.”
Addy conferred with Heather. “It happens that day is free for both of us. Before we go any further, I have to ask, are you looking for a meal? Buffet? Sit down? Dress code? Invitations?”
“Damn, didn’t think it was going to be this complicated.” Ashley sighed and looked at her sister.
“But the biggest thing is money. How much are you willing to spend?”
“How does that work?” Ainsley asked. “I know when Ash and I got married, we had to have deposits for everything, then a balloon payment at the end. We’re not uber rich, but we can come up with fifteen thousand between the two of us.”
“Why don’t you let the club members chip in?” Greaser asked.
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You’re not asking. We, Abe and I can call the brothers to a meeting at our garage and throw it by them.” At their looks, he shook his head. “Your parents don’t have to know about it.”
“That’s something you guys can work out, but let me tell you how my company works. We’ll draw up a contract and in that contract you agree to the terms. What my company does is we pay the deposits up front, from our funds. On the night of the event, you give us a check for the deposits and the balance of the bill. Instead of nickeling and diming you, you have only one bill. We take care of all the little stuff that’s stated in the contract, and we pay for it along the way. If there’s anything you think of, or want after the contract is signed, you can reach out to us to ask, and if need be, then we can renegotiate, or add an addendum to the original contract.”
“Really?” Lincoln asked in shock.
“Yes. But we’ll have a lot of planning to do if you want this in a little over three months. Do you have any ideas?”
“What’s the difference between a buffet or a meal?”
“Heather?”
“About five thousand dollars. Or depending on the time you want to have it, we can have hors d oeuvres if you don’t want a full menu.”
“If we have it at say, seven at night, then we can have people walking around with trays of little finger foods to eat?” Frank asked.
“Yes,” Heather and Addy said as one.
“I like that idea. Now, I don’t want people to come dressed as they normally do.” She pointed to the bikers. “No offense, guys.”
“None taken.” Lincoln grinned at her.
“But I don’t want fancy, fancy tux and evening gowns either. What’s the word for in between?”
“Formal,” Addy said. “That would mean the men would wear suits and ties, the women in nice dresses. Casual is self-explanatory. The ballgown and tux wear is what we classify as black-tie.”
“Yes, formal,” Ainsley said. “So far we’ve come up with a guest list of three hundred people. Do you do the invitations or do we?”
“I can do them, again, you’ll pay me at the end. We’ll have to agree on a theme, a color, and the message. Then I would need a list of all the addresses of your guests. We can sit down later to discuss it all, I’m just giving you the basic bare bones of what I do and offer from Addy’s Events. Now, what are you thinking about for a color scheme? The twenty-fifth anniversary is silver.”
“Can we have silver and another color?” Ben asked. When the women looked at him he shrugged. “What about silver and black. Your parents always wear black.”
“We could do that,” the sisters agreed, then nodded.
“Yes, silver and black. But we don’t know what to do for decorations.”
“Leave that to me. So far we have silver and black, surprise anniversary party, three hundred people. If you get me the guest list, I can get started on that. We can have the invitations printed and ready to send out after the first of the year. I’ll just need you to come into my office to approve the invitation. But what you’ll have to decide on is whose number to put on it for the RSVPs. That is one service that we don’t do. We have too many other things to do to worry about that. But as the time gets closer, I’ll need a final count.”
Lincoln sat back and watched his wife in action. He never ever in a million years thought that when she met with a client there was so much information to go over. His love and admiration for her just went up a few more notches. He still wouldn’t sign the divorce papers. Now that Steph had been arrested and he had a clean bill of health, he could work on restoring his marriage. The last time he’d seen her was at the hospital when his parents were there. As soon as the tube had been taken out and he could talk to be understood, he told his parents to leave, and that if they ever treated his wife that way again, he would never speak to them again.
“Okay, now are you looking at maybe having dancing?”
“Does that matter?” Lincoln asked.
“It would help in considering what room we’ll book. Some have carpet, some hardwood floors. Dancing would be better on the hardwood floors.” Addy paused. “Why don’t we take a tour? Heather, how many rooms are available that day?”
“Actually all of them. If there’s three hundred people, I’d recommend the ballroom on the second or third floor. Why don’t we take that tour?”
Everyone stood and followed them. Lincoln was far enough behind Addy that he watched as her hips swayed as she walked. He frowned as she continued to walk ahead of him. Addy felt Lincoln’s eyes on her and looked over her shoulder with a frown. “What’s wrong with you, and eyes up.”
“How much weight have you lost?”
“None of your concern,” she whispered, and they ended up walking side by side. “Not that this is any of my concern, but how are you?”
“Good, got a clean bill of health. Mother hired some company that cleaned the house, they even fucking starched everything I fucking own.” The look on his face made her giggle.
She looked up and saw everyone staring at her. She gave herself a mental slap and hurried forward. “Okay, this room holds three hundred and fifty. There’s carpet on the floor. Ashley, Ainsley, before we walk in, I want you to do me a favor.”
“What’s that?” Ainsley asked.
“Stand here.” Addy positioned them. “Now close your eyes and picture that it’s the night of the event. You’re about to enter, and you hope all your wishes and visions had been met. Tell me what you see.”
They frowned, but did as told. Addy looked at Beth who was writing furiously to get down all the details. When they wound down, Addy smiled at them. “Now, do you think this room will fit your needs?” She swung open the doors and indicated for them to walk through. As Addy thought after listening to the girls they would be disappointed.
“No,” they said as one. They all went up to the third floor and she made them pause before she opened the doors, but not before telling them to again picture what they had on the lower floor. Addy had the doors opened and watched their reaction. “Yes, this is it. Exactly how I pictured it.” Ainsley hugged her sister’s arm.
“Me too. I love the windows and the arches. And at night with the black sky and the twinkling stars, it’s perfect, but isn’t it too big?”
“The windows make it seem that way,” Addy said. “It’s directly over the room we just looked at and the same size.”
“Can we book this one?” Ben asked.
“Sure, because of the secrecy, how about we refer this to the Hall event?”
“Sounds good,” Frank said, and turned to the club members. “Now remember, you guys are going to be Ash and Ainsley’s eyes and ears with her parents. You spend more time with them than we do. If Dad starts to make noise about a pig roast, we’re counting on you guys to talk him out of it.”
“Shut him down,” the girls implored them. “Don’t get us wrong, we love your pig roasts, but it’s time to take their anniversary to another level.”
“Thanks a lot.” Greaser snorted. “But we’ll try our best. Right guys?” They all agreed and the meeting quickly broke up after that. Addy was in the backroom of the original meeting place, gathering her notes when she felt a presence behind her. She slowly turned and saw Lincoln standing there. They looked at each other intently. He shifted his feet and the light glinted off the pins on his vest. She frowned and stepped forward and studied one. She slowly reached up and touched it lightly with her forefinger. Lincoln looked down and sucked in his breath when he saw which pin she was touching. It was a small key. They both had one on their vests. She had bought them and presented them to him on their first anniversary, saying that they held the key to the other’s heart.
“I believed that once,” Addy said, not realizing she’d spoken aloud until he answered her.
“You still do, Addison.” They had always called each other by their real names. It was what she loved about him. “Can we get together and talk?”
“About?” She stepped back and finished gathering her notes, giving herself time to pull herself together.
“Us.”
“There is no us, Lincoln.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You got drunk enough to put yourself in that situation. You have no one to blame but yourself. That I can’t forgive you for. Whatever possessed you to get that drunk and pass out, I’ll never know. I thought our relationship was strong on communications, love, compassion, commitment, happiness. Obviously I was wrong.” She grabbed her briefcase and hurried away from him.
“Shit,” Lincoln said, and hung his head.
“Damn, that is one smart and sexy piece. Wonder if she’s seeing anyone,” the new treasurer of the club said as he joined Greaser and Lincoln.
Lincoln saw red. He grabbed the guy around the throat and lifted him several inches off the floor. “You look at her again and you’ll find yourself six feet under. Hands and eyes off.”
Greaser broke them apart and shoved him into a chair. He looked at the other guys and sighed. “Sorry, you’re new to the club. Well, not new, but you’ve been gone for some time. That was Abe’s wife.”
“ Is .” Lincoln stressed. “She is my wife.” He jumped to his feet and stormed out of the hotel.