Party Favors

CHAPTER ONE

“Everly, can you come in here?”

I’d been getting a bottle of sparkling water from the fridge for my boss and happened to pass by the door of our events director Claudia Delgado. She was at her desk, working on her computer.

I glanced down at the bottle in my hand. It was important to bring it straight from the fridge to Adrian because he somehow could detect if the water had warmed even slightly. While I knew that he might be upset about the delay, I did as she requested. “Is there something I can help you with?” I asked.

“Sit down,” she said, gesturing toward one of the chairs opposite her. She finished typing and then gave me her full attention. “I know I’ve only been here for a few months, but I wanted to let you know how impressed I am by the work you’re doing.”

“You mean the work Adrian’s doing,” I said, suddenly feeling a little anxious. Getting recognition always made me feel nervous.

“No, the work you’re doing. I know that it’s you from start to finish. You’re the one making the budgets, contacting the vendors, finding sponsors and event partners, taking care of the scheduling, overseeing all of the staff for the event, making sure everything goes off without a hitch. And it’s not just your organization and communication skills, impressive as they may be. I’ve watched you running events. You are in your element—you inspire confidence, and the clients trust that you’ll take care of them.”

My heart started beating even faster. I didn’t know why she was saying this. I didn’t see myself the way she was describing me. I’d never wanted to be in the spotlight or get a lot of attention. I mean, yes, I did want to get promoted. I’d been Adrian’s administrative assistant for the last four years, and now that I’d graduated from college, I was ready to become an official event planner for Elevated Events. I’d been ready for three years, wondering when it would be my turn. Every other administrative assistant who had worked for an events director had been promoted within a year.

Not me.

But I was happy to labor on the sidelines. If no one ever heard my ideas, that was okay, right?

I loved being Adrian’s assistant and I liked doing a good job for him. I didn’t mind that he got the credit. His success was my success, and vice versa.

Which meant that I wasn’t sure what to say to Claudia right now. She and Adrian were one step below the CEO, a man I’d met only once, right after I started, as he didn’t seem all that concerned with the day-to-day operations of Elevated and had never come into the office.

Claudia and Adrian were in charge. Adrian hadn’t been happy about Claudia being hired—the last events director had retired and Adrian thought it was unnecessary to bring in someone new. He’d seen it as a slight against the work he was doing. He felt like she was his rival.

Which made it so that I wasn’t sure how to respond to her or what she was getting at. I was so fiercely loyal to Adrian—so protective of him. I wouldn’t ever say anything bad about him.

I sat there silently, not knowing what I should say.

Claudia studied me, and it felt like she could read my mind. As if I were broadcasting my innermost thoughts onto my forehead.

“Tell me one thing you’d change about Elevated,” she said.

What? She had gone from seeming like she wanted me to take credit for the work both Adrian and I were doing, to tear him down, to now seeming ... encouraging? “One thing?”

“Yes. I’m sure someone as talented and driven as you has a lot of ideas on how to move Elevated forward into the future, but I’d like to start with just one thing you’d change if you could.”

She was right about that—I had so many ideas on how I would improve things at the company and the way we did business. “I would take on new clients. I know that corporate clients have been very good to us, but I’ve never understood why we don’t take on individuals as clients. Why we don’t do luxury parties or showers or celebrity events.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “I’ve thought the same thing. I don’t understand the reluctance to broaden our market, either.”

I could almost hear Adrian’s voice in my head, going on about how it was better to focus our efforts on one type of clientele and that we didn’t need to go looking for new clients, especially not ones who would completely alter the kind of work we currently did.

There was a pang of guilt for my disloyalty that made me uneasy.

“Well, there are lots of reasons why—” I started, but she cut me off.

“If I bring in a potential client, an individual, would you be willing to ask Adrian if you could pitch?”

She was challenging me, and again I worried about her possible endgame here. It was true—I never participated in pitch sessions with clients. I was there, taking notes, but I always stayed quiet.

Even when I had good ideas of my own.

I glanced over at the bottle of water. Adrian was going to call me soon to ask what was taking so long. I had to get going, despite wanting to respond affirmatively and take that leap.

“Yes.”

And I didn’t know which one of us was more surprised by my answer. Me, because I had been intending to say no, or her, because I’d actually agreed to it.

Her face broke out in a huge smile. “Excellent. I think it’s long past time for you to be given the official title of event planner. I’ve scheduled this new client to come in two days from now, and I hope that you’ll be one of the people pitching an idea. I’ll forward you the email with all the relevant details.”

I nodded. “Thank you. I have to go. Adrian’s expecting me.”

At that, she pointedly glanced over at the large clock hanging on her wall. It was nearly nine o’clock at night and her own assistant had left hours ago.

But as long as Adrian was in the office, so was I. Just in case he needed something.

Like his favorite brand of water.

My roommate and best friend, Vella, kept trying to tell me that Adrian took advantage of me and that I should stand up to him and create professional boundaries, but she didn’t understand.

Neither did Claudia.

I wanted to be here with him.

There was a definite flash of pity in Claudia’s expression, and I ignored it as I headed back to my desk.

I rushed down the hallway, eager to escape to the comfort and familiarity of my own workspace. I was excited at the prospect of pitching while still feeling as if I’d betrayed Adrian somehow. I hadn’t corrected her about the work that I’d done, because she was right. It wasn’t Adrian who took care of all the major and minor details of the events—it was me. I was the woman behind the scenes who got everything done, and much as I hated being the center of attention, it felt good to be recognized for my hard work.

Would I be brave enough to ask Adrian to let me pitch? I’d hinted over the years about being promoted and becoming an event planner, but he always changed the subject.

And I hoped that it was because he couldn’t bear to lose me.

Not just because I was good at my job.

I sat down in my chair and wondered what Adrian would do if I marched into his office and asked for the opportunity to pitch the potential new client that Claudia had found. Would he be upset?

Supportive?

Change the subject without giving me an answer?

I didn’t know.

And that bothered me.

I took my cell phone out of my pocket, intending to open my email, and saw that I had a text from my mother.

DID YOU SEE THE PICTURE OF NICO AND KAT AND THEIR CHILDREN? SO, SO CUTE! MOM SEND

Nico and Kat were King Dominic and Queen Katerina of Monterra, but in my family we always referred to them as Nico and Kat. Like we knew them or something. I responded quickly.

Of course I did.

As if I didn’t have the same Google alerts set up as she did.

DO YOU THINK CHIARA IS GOING TO RELEASE AN EARLY SKETCH OF HER WEDDING DRESS? MOM SEND

I’d told her on numerous occasions that she didn’t have to sign her texts, that I knew they were from her, but she didn’t believe me. She also insisted on writing her texts in all caps, despite me explaining that it was the equivalent of yelling at someone, because she had decided it made it more likely that her texts would go through.

She also dismissed me when I told her that she didn’t have to write the word send and that just pushing the button made the text arrive on my phone.

She was a stubborn woman, and there was no point in arguing with her or trying to use reason.

My mother was texting me about Princess Chiara (Nico’s younger sister) because her wedding was set to take place in a couple of weeks, and because she loved fashion the most out of all of her royal siblings, we were expecting wedding-dress greatness.

I don’t know if Chiara will. She loves her privacy and I’m sure we’ll have to wait until the actual wedding to see.

I HOPE SHE WILL! MOM SEND

If there was one thing the women in my family loved, it was royal families. And we were especially obsessed with the royal family of Monterra. My grandma had started the whole thing, and while some families passed down silverware or noble titles, our love of royalty was what bonded us all together.

I remembered viewing Nico and Kat’s wedding on TV eight years ago. We’d all gotten up at four in the morning to watch. Kat McTaggart, an American girl, had met the crown prince of Monterra while on vacation in his country, a small kingdom situated between Switzerland and Italy. Nico was gorgeous and had the sexiest accent I’d ever heard, and I completely understood why Kat had fallen head over heels in love with him.

I was fourteen years old when they got married, and it was the most romantic thing I’d ever seen, a real-life fairy tale.

I’d been chasing that dream for myself ever since and had continually come up short. I wanted my own Nico but hadn’t been able to find anything even close.

ARE YOU STILL WORKING? MOM SEND

I made a disgruntled noise but didn’t respond. She’d be upset if I told her I was still at the office.

The intercom on my desk phone buzzed and I reached for the button. “Yes?”

“Everly?”

Adrian’s warm, rich voice came over the loudspeaker and I couldn’t help but smile. He had called me Beverly for the first three months after I started as his assistant, and there had been a period of time when I’d considered giving in and just letting that be my new name, but I’d resisted and gently corrected him each time.

And I was glad that I had, because I got a flutter of happiness each time he said my name.

“Everly? My water?” he said when I didn’t respond.

Oh, right. I’d totally forgotten. I rushed into his office and handed it to him. He was very handsome. I’d expected that at some point I’d become more accustomed to his appearance, that light blond hair and those deep, dark brown eyes.

He was my own personal Nico. Not that they looked anything alike—but Adrian Stone was the heir to one of the richest families in New York. Adrian was working at Elevated to learn the ropes so that someday he could take over all of his father’s businesses.

Adrian and his family were constantly showing up online, dressed to the nines, going from one fabulous event to another.

I imagined that being his girlfriend would be like an Americanized version of being a princess.

This was probably an HR crisis waiting to happen, but I’d had a crush on Adrian since I’d started at Elevated. Both Vella and my mom told me I’d eventually outgrow it, but it hadn’t happened yet.

I knew he didn’t think of me that way. That he probably couldn’t think of me romantically, given that he was my boss. He was seven years older than I was, and while that might have been a big deal when I was eighteen and had just started here, now I was twenty-two.

I’d grown up, and I’d been waiting a long time for him to notice.

Not that he would. While he’d initially been the kind of guy who dated a different woman every week, he had been in a serious relationship for the last two years.

I wanted him to be happy, but a tiny part of me was jealous.

I also recognized that I wasn’t his type. His girlfriend was petite and perfect-looking and blonde and unbelievably sweet. I wanted to be okay with his relationship. But a small piece of me thought that if he ever got to really know me, he might like me.

He didn’t say anything about the water, but I saw the grimace he made when he took the bottle and felt a pang at disappointing him. This was another reason I wanted my crush to be over. So that I’d stop being so emotionally tied up in him and his reactions.

Adrian preferred it as cold as it could be, and I’d let myself get distracted by Claudia and then my mom and I had let him down and I hated how this felt.

“Is everything ready to go for Origin Telecom next week?” he asked.

“Yes.” As if I’d ever let a client as important as Origin Telecom fall to the wayside. “Everything is set up and we have multiple contingency plans in place just in case anything goes wrong.”

And in my experience, something always went wrong. Part of being a good event planner was having a backup plan for your backup plan when the AV system blew up or the bathrooms flooded.

Some sliver of my brain noted how easy it was for me to talk to Adrian now. It had taken a long time to get to this point. I’d been so bowled over by his good looks the first few days on this job that every time I’d had to speak to him, it was like I was having a series of mini-strokes.

But now we could have actual conversations. Progress.

“Good.” He put the water down and leaned back in his chair, giving me a charming smile. “I always know things will go well as long as I have you by my side.”

I felt his words from the top of my head all the way down to my tingling toes. Adrian didn’t give compliments often, but when he did? It was like Christmas, my birthday, and a royal wedding all wrapped into one. I lived for that approval in his voice.

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.”