Page 45 of My (Not So) Perfect Plan

His eyes flit up to mine over the orange he’s peeling. “Sure. No problem. But… speaking of the gala. We had a minor glitch with the venue.”

My heart just about stops and my eyes bug out.

“What glitch?” I’m hardly able to get the words out I’m so terrified to hear the answer. We have a ton of money riding on this and the tickets are already sold.

“The venue we were going to use was double booked. The other clients were willing to pay more than we were. And every other place is already booked.”

I groan and toss my sandwich on the table so I can bury my head in my hands.

“No, no, no,” Raven drops his hands holding the orange. “It’s being managed. We have another venue lined up.”

“I thought you just said all the other venues were booked out.”

“Well,” he shrugs his shoulders, “an anonymous donor put in a good word for us with a donor who happened to have some connections and it turns out we have access to one of the best, most exclusive ballrooms in the city.”

I clutch the edge of the table with both hands. “Raven. You are killing me. Where?”

“The Sansa Club downtown.”

I gasp and clap a hand over my mouth. “No. Way. They never rent that place out. It’s private parties only. How did you swing that?”

He waves an orange slice in the air. “I didn’t have anything to do with it. Like I said, anonymous donor managed everything.”

I slouch back in my seat, still not comprehending how this worked out, my mind spinning. “We can let all the seniors who haven’t sold out yet to inform interested parties that the venue has been changed, but what about all of the ticket holders?”

“We have their phone numbers. We can text them a change of venue information and an address.”

That would work. I rub my eyes with my fingers, grateful that I’m not the make-up wearing type.

“You really scared me, Raven.”

Raven gives me one of his rare grins. “Sorry not sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Would you rather Ihadn’ttold you?”

“Of course you had to tell me.”

We finish eating our food in silence. It’s not awkward but my brain is still going back to whatever the heck went down between Tamara and Evan before first period.

“So who was the donor?” I ask as we discard our trash.

“Can’t tell you that. That’s why it’s called ‘anonymous.”

“Fine then, smartie pants.”

Raven chuckles. “Fifth grade insults? Come on, Claire, you can do better than that.”

“Just tell me! You know who it is, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“So…?”

“Nope. I promised I wouldn’t say anything to anyone about it.” I scowl. Raven always keeps his promises.

I shake my head. “Weird. The gala has a secret admirer.”

He gives me an odd glance. “Yeah, something like that.”

The bell is about to ring so we part ways and head for our classrooms.

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