Page 65 of The Dreidl Disaster

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Artur began theWednesday morning after the party with an update call from Emily Gould-Smythe. “Good morning,” Emily began. “Is everything else going well on site?”

“Actually, it is,” he said, grinning. He launched into the story of how things had progressed since the two meetings, as well as the contributions from the residents, the sisterhood, and the chamber of commerce.

Not the members of the chamber who were interested in acting as the mayor’s personal watchdogs. Of course.

“That’s wonderful,” she said, pushing his brain and his train of thought back to the subject at hand. “I really like hearing about the way that this event has progressed since you took the reins.”

“It’s been great,” he said, sitting back against the chair. “I think what they needed was a sympathetic ear, someone who wants to listen to them.”

“You seem to know what they need, which is important.”

“Speaking of interesting,” he continued, not wanting to keep the conversation on him for too long. “The JHPA head is not only a local but also an Empires alum.”

“Why wasn’t he…?” Emily began before stopping.

He didn’t know why Flaire hadn’t involved him previously; he didn’t want to even guess.

“You know what?” she said, probably tapping into something he’d been thinking of. “Never mind. If you don’t get it; I definitely am not going to understand why he wasn’t involved.”

He laughed. He couldn’t help himself.

“That aside,” Emily continued. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how it goes on the ground.”

For a second, in the guest room he’d spent a lot of his life in, he let himself dream. “I’m really excited,” he managed.

“And the mayor?”

Nothing to bring himself back to earth faster than a personnel evaluation request disguised as a casual question.

But how much did he want to reveal? He clearly knew a great deal, more than he wanted to tell. So, he hedged his bets.

Professional, he reminded himself. Professional. “She’s smart. Has a good head on her shoulders and a good pulse on her community. I like working with her.”

“Mmmmhm.”

The noise was non-committal, which was good. He didn’t know what she was looking for. What kind of judgment did she want from him?

“I wondered how it would be for you, working for a woman in a position of power.”

And that’s what it was. Some people still had issues working for women in positions of power, to the point where they made things difficult. Emily was making sure that he wasn’t one of them.

That concern was answered quite easily. “She’s good at what she does,” Artur replied before deciding to add a little bit. “And then she’s twice as good because she’s being watched by pretty much everybody nearby. As I said, she’s easy to work with.”

“Glad to hear that. You and I are definitely going to sit down and keep this conversation going. Think about involving female athletes in what you do for the ceremony, hm?”

Female athletes.

Interesting. As his brain started to run through the possibilities, there was a break in the silence. “Absolutely. I can talk to the JHPA head about any of the NAWHL players joining in.”

“Oh,” Emily said.

“What?”

“If there are any more problems that arise, with the sculpture or anything that we are responsible for providing to the Village, including the sculpture, don’t tell the mayor. You presumably have a plan in place to fix any problems that may arise, so just leave her out of the loop. We’ve already had enough trouble with this event. We want the rest to go smoothly and want the Village residents to enjoy this and themselves without worrying about anything else.”

Which was normal, usual in his line of work. NDA’s between his employer and someone in the situation always could spring up to protect the employer fromsomething. Usually he understood.

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