Chapter 10
Chapter ten
As Will escorted Naomi into the majestic Tiffany-ceilinged ballroom of the Chicago Cultural Center, he couldn't help but notice the way her eyes widened in awe.
As she took in the crowd of elegantly dressed guests, the opulent flower arrangements, and the soft strains of a string quartet playing in the background, her lips parted into a silent “wow.” After a few more seconds, she found her voice and said it aloud.
“Wow.” She grasped Will’s arm a little tighter.
Will guided her towards the table with the seating arrangements. “Table two,” he read the number on the back of the name card. “We’re right by the podium.”
They weaved their way through the crowd and reached their table at the same time Freya did. “Hey there! Glad you made it,” she said, hanging her purse on the back of a chair.
“Thank you for inviting us,” Naomi said. “I’ve never been to a black-tie fundraiser before. My experience with fundraisers is mostly limited to school bake sales.”
Freya pulled her chair out and sat down, her movements hinting at a tense undercurrent beneath the cheerful facade. “Thank you for coming. I’ll be happy to have some friendly faces to look at while I’m up there emceeing.”
Freya had made it no secret that her comfort with being front and center on camera did not translate to speaking in front of live audiences.
Will knew that if she was openly talking about something she was afraid of doing, then it had to be pretty bad.
Which is why he gathered that she must have really believed in the cause when she accepted the invitation to emcee at the Chicago for PAWS gala, the city’s premier animal rescue fundraiser.
Now, he watched as she squeezed her fingers together so tightly he could see her skin turning white.
“We’re going to get something from the bar. We’ll grab you a champagne,” he said.
The room was packed with the city’s upper echelon making their rounds, so they worked their way to the back of the room, skirting the wall as they headed towards the bar.
“Do you go to a lot of these?” Naomi asked him, putting her arm through his.
“Never,” he said with a laugh. “Freya does, but I’m not usually on her invite list. I think she’s nervous because she has to—”
He was cut off mid-sentence when Naomi stopped short, her arm slipping from his. He heard the unmistakable sound of fabric tearing, which was then immediately followed by a gasp.
He turned to see Naomi’s skirt, well, half of it, hanging on a doorknob of one of the large ornate doors leading out into the hallway and Naomi, eyes almost as wide as her mouth, looking down at her bare legs.
Quickly, he stepped in front of her to provide some cover while she tugged the remnants of her skirt from the doorknob.
“Oh my God,” she squeaked. “Oh no! I can’t believe this is happening.”
As Naomi's face began to turn red, Will’s mind raced as he tried to think of the best way to help her through her mortification. He could fumble through reassurances, pretend like this wasn’t happening, or … he could do what he did best.
Make her laugh.
It was a gamble — but he went with his gut, that flipping the script with some humor would let her reclaim the moment.
He leaned in closer and chuckled. "Babe, I know we were making out a little before we left, but you really couldn’t wait any longer?”
And just like that, the flush of embarrassment was met with relief and amusement. "Did it work? Did I seduce you?” She giggled back.
“Baby,” he said, lowering his voice slightly, “I am so turned on right now.”
This made Naomi laugh even harder. Between giggles, they managed to extricate the remains of her skirt from the doorknob, and then Will offered his jacket to wrap around her waist.
“What do you want to do?” he asked. “Do you want to go? Or maybe someone can bring you another dress?”
Naomi rubbed her hand along her forehead as she tried to collect her thoughts. “You think we can salvage this evening? You’re not too humiliated to be seen with me?”
Will planted a kiss on the spot she had been rubbing. “I always want to be with you. And besides, I’m confident everyone in this room is far too self-involved to have even noticed.”
Naomi let out a short breath. “Okay. Well, let me text Abby and see if she can bring me something else to wear. I can hide out in the bathroom until she comes.”
“I think I saw the bathroom right across the hall,” he said, turning the offending doorknob and opening the door.
He helped Naomi get to the bathroom and then posted himself outside the door. After a few minutes, she poked her head out. “Abby’s on her way. Can you meet her at the top of the stairs and point her in the right direction?”
He gave her a two-fingered salute and followed the long, curving hallway until he reached the marble staircase leading up from the lobby.
After about twenty minutes, he heard Riley’s voice carrying up the stairs. “I’ve never been so speechless.”
“I have a hard time imagining what could render you speechless,” Will said when Riley and Abby came into view dressed in sweats and winter coats, a stark contrast to the opulent setting behind him.
“How about Becca calling to say Peter left her for cheating, and all she wants is to have him back?” Riley said, as if Will had always been part of the conversation.
Will's eyebrows shot up. “Becca said that? The same woman who came to brunch last week with her cycle instructor after spending the night with her contractor?”
“The same.”
“That … would …”
“Exactly.”
Naomi must have heard them talking because now she was calling out from the bathroom door down the hall. “Um, excuse me?”
“Sorry, I’m so flabbergasted, I’m failing in my duty to direct you to Naomi,” he said to Abby. “The bathroom is right around the bend there, on the left.”
Abby, holding a navy-blue dress, looked in the direction he was pointing. “I’ll bring her the dress, and Riley can fill you in.”
Riley didn’t need the invitation as their fingers were already on his shoulder, inviting him closer.
“This one was not on my Bingo card, for sure. Literally on the way over here, Abby’s phone rings and it’s Becca, and she’s absolutely a wreck.
She said that Peter came home tonight and said he knew everything about her affairs, and he was leaving.
And then, she’s going on and on about how the only thing she wants is to get Peter back and—okay,” their voice dropped to a whisper.
“I can fill you in on all that later, but now that Abby is gone, we need to talk.”
He didn’t need any more clues to know what Riley wanted to talk about.
It had been a little over a month since Riley, using Naomi’s phone, had texted him about his idea that confirmed something that had been simmering in the back of his own mind.
Could all the fighting between Abby and Freya be covering up something else, something deep down that they didn’t want to admit to each other or even to themselves?
He hadn't heard any more about it and had begun to wonder if perhaps this was a wild hair that had come and gone like one of Riley's fleeting hairstyles. But apparently not.
“Abby. Freya. You’re still in, yes?”
“Still in,” Will confirmed in a hushed voice.
If Freya had unrealized feelings for Abby, which was the only explanation outside of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers situation that could make sense of her behavior, then helping her discover those feelings seemed like a win-win.
He’d help Freya find love and, as a lovely bonus, it would make it so he and Naomi didn’t have to worry about any more run-ins between his boss and her best friend.
“But Naomi isn’t convinced.” Naomi had texted back that she was “in,” but he had quickly come to learn that she was in like someone slowly inching their way into an icy pool.
“You are though, right?”
“I feel like I shouldn’t be. All evidence would suggest otherwise. But for some reason, what you said makes sense. Maybe this really is just two people in love.”
Riley nodded with vigor. “It is, and honestly, I’m furious at myself that it took me so long to see it.”
“You think there’s something we can do about it?”
“Will. You’ve been a part of our little cohort long enough to know that I am never wrong.”
“I’m not sure I’d go that far.”
“Of course you would. Now listen, I’ve been letting this percolate, and I think I finally know what to do. It’s ridiculously easy. See, what was tripping me up is that there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that either one of them was going to be receptive to anyone straight up telling them.”
“I agree,” Will said.
“Exactly. If these two are going to figure out their feelings, they need help figuring it out while also thinking that they have figured it out on their own,” Riley continued. “But they can’t know that we know that they know, so we have to let them believe they accidentally found out.”
“I think I’m still following.”
“I’m not,” a voice behind them said.
They whirled around to see Naomi standing behind them, looking as stunning in her new dress as she did wary.
“Where’s Abby?” Riley asked in an exaggerated whisper, encouraging her to talk softly.
“I didn’t see her when I left the bathroom, so maybe she went to look around a bit.”
“Good, then I have a little more time,” Riley said.
“Listen, this is what finally came to me, and it’s perfection.
If we’re going to get Abby and Freya to realize their own feelings, they have to think the other person has feelings for them before they will let their guard down.
Which sounds like an impossible problem, but I’ve come to realize the solution is actually simple.
We let each of them overhear us talking about how the other one is in love with them. ”
“That sounds anything but simple. That sounds complicated.”
“What’s complicated about making sure Abby and Freya are in the right place at the right time to listen to us say the magic words that will change their lives forever?”