Page 17 of Best Mistake Ever
She seems to notice my reticence because a flash of worry crosses her face. ‘But if you don’t think that’s a good idea?—’
I hold up a hand. ‘No, no. It’s a great idea.’
Confusion clouds her eyes, but I’m not about to go into my feelings about the lake with her right now. It’s not like I’ll need to go down there myself. She can take care of all of that.
‘Oh! Okay, well, great,’ she says, looking a little surprised at my inconsistency, but quickly putting on a professional face. ‘Well, they seemed very keen and asked me to send over a quote so I’ll go and get on with it then.’
‘Good You do that,’ I say, noting a flicker of disappointment on her face that I hadn’t been more effusive with my praise. But it’s not a done deal yet. If she brings this business in, then I’ll make sure she knows how pleased I am with her performance.
For the next couple of days, Dee makes an effort to not only to be on time each morning, but early. So early, in fact, I miss her coming into the building and have to search her out in the hotel or the grounds where she always seems to be on the phone to the festival organiser, Jay.
There are a tense couple of hours where we’re not sure we have all the right licences to hold a festival at the hotel, but Dee takes charge of this, calling a friend of hers from uni who’s now a qualified solicitor.
‘I pulled in a bit of a favour and she’s looked over all the documentation. It seems we’re fine and don’t need to apply for a temporary event notice in this instance, which is helpful because we’d be out of time to do it at this late notice,’ she tells me with a huge grin.
Her relief is palpable and I almost smile back at her.
But I can’t quite bring myself to trust she has everything in hand yet, so I just nod.
She seems a little disappointed at my lukewarm response, but I remind myself I’m her boss, not her friend.
I have to admit though, I’m a bit taken aback by how much more organised she appears to be now as she gets the place ready for this event. For the first time since she started, she actually seems excited about the job she’s doing and it’s given her a spring in her step.
Not that she was exactly morose before.
But it’s odd though.
The more I watch her work – whilst trying not to be too blatant about checking up on what she’s doing – the more I feel like I’ve actually got her completely wrong up till now.
Which is weird.
There’s definitely something different about her, but I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is. Physically, she looks the same, I think. Unless it’s something to do with her hair? She seems to touch it all the time now. Perhaps she’s paranoid it still looks bad after her disastrous haircut the other day. But I don’t think that’s it. At least, it looks okay to me.
No. It’s a feeling I get from her. A vibe that wasn’t there before.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve finally seen her take some initiative and show me she really can be as good at her job as she initially promised.
What do they call that?
Competency porn.
I’ve always found skills more attractive than looks.
Yeah, that must be it.
Because she’s definitely proved herself to be up to the job in the last day or two.
Perhaps it was my threats of not passing her probation that did it.
Well, whatever it was, I’m glad she’s getting stuck in now.
The plans for the festival actually sound great. She’s marked out a couple of the surrounding fields for the camping area and allocated the gardens nearest the house for where marquee tents are being erected to hold a variety of pretty out-there-sounding workshops.
They’re having wood-fired hot tubs too, which have already arrived and are currently being set up round the side of the house where we get the most light.
The crew and organisers will be staying in the hotels’ rooms and they’ll be using the ballroom-cum-conference room for a mixture of yoga studio space and a dancefloor in the evenings. They’ve even got their own caterers, who will be taking over the kitchens, to provide a totally vegan menu for the duration of the festival, and they’ll be using the dining room to seat people for meals. It’ll be a bit of a squash, but she reassures me that no-one will mind this. Apparently, it’s a very laid-back, friendly event.
The library will be doubling as an informal chill-out room where people can sit and read, or chat, as well as a space for musicians to perform. They’re also planning on hosting a cabaret in there on the Friday night. Evidently, festival-goers volunteer acts to perform at it. It sounds like most people aren’t professional artists or musicians, but it’s open for anyone to showcase their skills or party tricks.
