Page 6 of One Night With You

I couldn’t fix most things. Hell, even today it felt as if I couldn’t fix anything—not my job, not Claire, and not whatever I was feeling in that instant.

But maybe, just maybe, I could fix this.

2

CLAIRE

“Icannot tell you how much I love this, Claire. You literally took a simple idea that I had offhand and made it the best birthday party I have ever had in my life.”

I smiled at my client’s words, knowing they were only slightly slurred. It had been an amazing party after all, including a champagne bar with different sugar cubes and fruit to put in the champagne. And no matter how much water I also shoved down the throats of these guests, they’d indulged a little too much. But that was their prerogative. Because I had also planned rides for everyone. There would be no drunk driving on my watch.

“I’m just happy you’re happy. Now go enjoy yourself. We’ve got it from here.”

She hugged me tightly, having done it so quickly I hadn’t been able to brace myself. I stiffened for just a bare instant, as if bracing for the blow. I didn’t think Jasmine noticed though. Instead she just hugged me again, giggling in my ear, before skipping off with her friends to go enjoy her thirtieth birthday.

I swallowed hard, then ran my hands down my dove-gray slacks and told myself to get a reality check. Everything was fine. Nobody was out to get me. Nobody was going to hurt me.

“Claire?”

I turned to Trix and grinned, though I knew it probably didn’t reach my eyes. “What can I do for you, Trix?””

“You were just standing there for a second. Are you okay?”

I held back a wince at her words, because I knew she was just worried about me. Like everybody was worried about me. It had been six months since the attack.

It had been six months since the feeling of ice-cold steel burned through my flesh and dug around on my insides. I knew that it wasn’t ice-cold, and it wasn’t an actual fiery hot poker. But every memory I had was of the two.

I had tried to protect my friend, and tried to get us out of a terrible situation that so many people were doing their best to protect us from, and I had failed. ButI wasfine. I no longer had phantom pain. The scar would one day be a memory. And when enough time passed, my brother would tattoo over it, and I would never have to look at it again.

So why did I flinch when someone hugged me?

“Claire?”

I shook my head, knowing that it was probably scaring my team members. The fact that I even had people that I hired to help with events and parties was insane to me.

Trix was my right-hand woman, well, and my left-hand. She was the only person I hired with a regular paycheck, while everyone else was hired per-diem based on what I needed for any given event. It was all I could do for now, but one day it would be more. At least I hoped so.

“Sorry. Off in my own world. Long hours.” Not quite a lie.

“That’s why I was over here. You should go home. We’ll handle all the cleaning and everything. You’ve handled all the admin, and we’ll double-check that all the drivers know their positions and assignments, and we have it all. You should go home. Go see Phoebe. I know you said you would try to see her if you got out of here on time. So let’s make that happen.”

“You don’t have to do that. I like being here.”

Trix gave me that perfected look of hers. At themoment, she had bubblegum pink hair in a lovely coiffed to-do up top with the sides shaved. The gem on her nose ring matched the color of her hair, and she had on a white suit without a speck of dirt on it. I wasn’t quite sure how she had accomplished that considering the woman had been crawling on the ground looking for a diamond ring lost by one of the guests earlier. She had found it and hadn’t ended up with a single stain. It was like magic.

But right then though, she gave me the expression of someone who was sick of my bullshit. Frankly, I was sick of my bullshit too, but it wasn’t like I knew what I was supposed to say in this moment.I’m sorry for flaking out, and for worrying everyone. I’m sorry that you and my brother and all of my friends and even people I didn’t know were my friends were so worried about me that they seemed to have created a phone tree just to check on me.No, I didn’t think I was supposed to say any of that. But I wasn’t quite sure there were words.

“Go home. You’ve already worked a twelve-hour day, and the birthday girl has already thanked you, and has seen you around every single instant she has needed you. I can handle this, and so can the team you have trained. You’re doing great.”

“But what if someone needs something…”

“Then letushandle it. You trained us well, boss.”

“I know you guys can handle it. That’s not the problem.But what if they want to set up a meet for another event?”

That was the big thing with my business. Word of mouth literally kept my business afloat or killed it.

“You have given your information to six people so far, and I have it right here.” She tapped the little fanny pack on her side that blended in with her suit. It was still stain-free. Still not quite sure how she made that happen.

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