Chapter 3
Three
Showtime was in fifty-six minutes, and Valerie, in her gray suit, had decided to stop worrying if she was in fact looking dowdy. Her goal was not to win the best-dressed award at her client’s celebration of life, and her outfit was perfectly suitable, if dull.
Was it dull? Too late now.
She turned her attention to more pertinent topics, like whether the room was in complete readiness, which it was.
The string quartet was tuning up in the corner, preparing to play an inoffensive selection of Mozart’s greatest hits.
The catering staff had finished knotting their ties.
She checked the signing pen for the register, then the backup pen, and the backup backup pen to make sure all three worked.
They did. Her stomach was starting to get the flutters that normally preceded a big event.
She’d had enough of these feelings over the years to know they would fade once people started arriving and her anticipation shifted to participation.
Valerie looked around for Nico. She’d been doing that all day, searching for him and feeling an intense satisfaction to find that often he’d been doing the same to her. This time, though, he was standing in the corner frowning at his phone, which cause a small beat of disappointment.
She glanced up at the ceiling fans as sweat beaded on her forehead.
“It’s getting hot in here,” she said to Ricky, waiting for him to finish humming the expected follow-up song line before she continued. “Can we turn those fans on?”
“Good idea. I’m overheating.”
“Are you kidding?” demanded Alexis. “It’s freezing.”
Ricky studied Valerie as he wiped his face. “You don’t look so good.”
“She’s always that color,” Alexis said.
The honor table caught Valerie’s attention. “Alexis, did you secure that portrait like I asked you?”
“I’m not sure how. You’d do it so much better.” Alexis left to busy herself organizing the Bread Company booklets.
There were fifty minutes left, but Valerie knew from experience that the first guests would start to arrive in twenty, and the Badgertons even earlier.
She turned on the slideshow of Malcolm’s triumphs to play in the background and was about to fix the portrait when the door opened to reveal Roger Badgerton in a navy suit and crisp white shirt.
He paused and looked around as Valerie watched, stomach getting tighter, until he finally nodded, his gaze lingering on the painting of his father.
Behind him was an older blond woman, Roger’s sister, Penny Badgerton-Willis.
Valerie hung back, not wanting to disturb the family as they prepared themselves for the celebration of life.
She’d learned it was best to give people some space before greeting them.
Nico joined Valerie and looked at her closely. “Are you okay?” he asked.
She wasn’t, now that he mentioned it. The room was still too warm, and the butterflies in her stomach had spread, along with a faint nausea when she caught a whiff of the food. Nico didn’t need to hear that, though. “All good,” she said. “Feeling one hundred percent.”
“Nico, come,” called Penny.
He crossed the room to where Penny was waiting.
Valerie’s wellness percentage might be closer to fifty than a hundred, but she could muscle through for the next few hours.
She had to. Planning only went so far in determining an event’s success, and managing all of the last-minute issues that inevitably popped up could make or break the experience.
At one of Ruth’s weddings, a guest had inadvertently stepped on a wasps’ nest, which could have been a disaster had Ruth not trotted across the lawn in her stilettos with a huge plastic tub to cover the nest without batting an eye.
Luckily, due to the advanced age of many guests, Ruth also had a St. John Ambulance crew stationed discreetly in one of the upper bedrooms who could take care of any stings.
Valerie wasn’t worried about wasps, but she suddenly had grave doubts about the freshness of the sushi Alexis had fetched for lunch. Her stomach lurched thinking about it.
Oh no.
No. No, no, no.
“Valerie?” asked Ricky, coming up. His face was sweaty. “It’s like a sauna here.”
She didn’t have time to answer. She clamped her hand over her mouth and ran to the staff washroom. This couldn’t be happening. Not today.
A few minutes later, the door swung open behind her. “Eww,” said Alexis. “Gross. At least pull your hair back. People are arriving. What should I do?”
“Can you deal with it?” Valerie managed to gasp.
Alexis disappeared, then came back. “I can’t find Ricky.”
“Please,” begged Valerie, now on her knees. “You have the plan. Figure it out.”
This time it was five minutes. “This is revolting,” Alexis observed. “I can hear you in the hall.”
Valerie struggled to her feet. “You can do it,” she whispered to her red-faced and wild-eyed reflection in the mirror. “You have an event to run. You have clients to impress. Presentations to queue up.”
“Are you coming or what?”
She had… Valerie slumped against the sink as waves of nausea and realization hit her.
She had to get home.
She couldn’t run an event feeling like this, let alone deal with the ick factor of being ill around a crowd of people.
At least it was obviously food poisoning and nothing contagious.
Ricky and Alexis would have to keep the event on track.
Although she hated the idea of it, she could ask Nico to help out as well.
She suspected he’d rather step in to make the event a success than stay in his lane.
The door flew open. It was Ricky, looking green and clutching his stomach. “Fuck,” he said before she heard him run toward the stairs.
Excellent. Just fantastic. Ricky had eaten the same thing as her. She listened to a door slam and it felt like the shutting down of her career.
No. She was being ridiculous and melodramatic.
Nico and Alexis remained functional. She could work with that.
Valerie did a body scan and decided she had about ninety seconds to safely get to Nico before she escaped home.
After scrubbing her hands, mouth and face, and then her mouth again, she straightened her clothes and went out to the main room, doing her best to walk normally.
A quick chat with Nico, another with Alexis, and she would be out in the fresh air. She could do it.
The room was filling up, and while the planner in her was pleased at the turnout, that meant it was harder to find Nico.
Finally, she caught sight of him but had to take a break to sit down and get herself under control.
She cringed back as Penny strode by, looking at her phone.
There was no way she could deal with one of the Badgertons in her current state. Penny looked right past her to Nico.
“Nico, whatever you’re doing can wait. The dog sitter just called. She can’t bring Julius and Augustus to the vet, so you have to take them. I had to wait a week for this appointment, if you can believe it.”
“I’m needed here,” said Nico. Valerie leaned forward and tried to think about anything besides food.
“What did we pay the event planner for if not to run the event?” Penny examined the room with grudging respect. “I must say though, this is better than I expected.”
Valerie had done adequately well. High praise, indeed.
Roger joined them and Penny turned, her hair swinging in an elegant arc.
None of them noticed Valerie and she was pitifully grateful because she didn’t trust what would happen if she had to open her mouth.
“Roger, I need Nico to take the dogs to the vet. This is important to me, and it’s not like I can send John. ”
“Pen, seriously?”
“Nico’s not part of the family. He doesn’t need to be here.”
“I’d be happy to go,” said Nico. Go? He couldn’t leave. Valerie needed him. She looked around, frantic, as her stomach tensed again. If Nico left and Ricky was out…she’d have to stay here to support Alexis.
Penny gave a brisk nod as if this resolution was never in doubt. “Lina will text you the information. Oh, there’s Tracey Jefferies. I’m surprised she bothered to come.”
Then she was gone. Roger sighed. “I’m sorry, Nico, but I need her off my case about the damn dogs so I can pay attention to Dad’s friends.”
“It’s not a problem.”
Valerie sat bolt upright, hand on her stomach. She’d run out of time and dashed up to Ricky’s private office, where Ricky himself was grabbing his bag.
“I’m sick,” he said, face pale. “Like, bad. I gotta go.”
“Me too,” said Valerie, trying not to sound pathetic.
“Hot take, but maybe you should also leave. I called Josette. She’s my assistant manager and she’ll be here in less than an hour.”
“I can’t. I have to run this event.”
“Let your assistant take care of it,” he advised. Then he closed his eyes and held onto the desk, swaying. “Sorry.”
He was gone before she could speak, but that was fine.
She needed a moment of privacy and was happy to not fight Ricky for the use of his washroom.
After rinsing out her mouth again, she checked her phone to see a text from Nico, apologizing for having to leave “due to an urgent matter.” I have no concerns about how well Malcolm’s event will run without me, he’d added.
She relaxed slightly. He was right. She’d done a lot of work to make sure this would go smoothly. She would stay here in Ricky’s office and run interference. It would basically be like being downstairs in the heart of the event herself. Everything was going to be fine.
She leaned over again. Or not. At least this time, she managed to pull back her hair.