Page 38 of Saltwater Memories
Chapter 14
He yelled goodbye to Mrs. Holland on his way out, then took Amanda out back where his car was parked under the crumbling carport. Hopefully she wouldn’t judge him too harshly for that.
“Please excuse this dilapidated structure,” he said, opening the passenger door for her. “I was going to fix this, but then I realized that she shouldn’t be driving anyway. So now, I just park my car under here and pray that it doesn’t collapse.”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be good.”
“Especially because this is a company car. Pretty sure my boss would murder me.”
He got into the driver’s seat and started the car. “Traffic can get tricky around this time of day. I was thinking that we could take the bus in? There’s a station not too far from here. Unless you’re opposed to wearing your ball gown on the bus.”
“Ha, it’s not a ball gown.” She shook her head. “And no, I don’t mind at all. That sounds smart.”
They got to the station quickly and had to rush to catch the next bus, which arrived at almost the same time they did.
They made it on and despite the bus being nearly full, they managed to get two seats together. Will felt a bit absurd being so dressed up, but as per usual with public transportation, no one seemed to notice or even look at them.
He shot a look at Amanda. She was being unusually quiet – maybe she’d preferred driving but didn’t want to say anything to him?
No, that wasn’t like her. Amanda wasn’t afraid to speak her mind.
Maybe she was just dreading this party?
“Look,” he said, “I know that big gatherings and parties can be hard for introverts. So you really don’t have to go in. I’ll say hello to a couple of clients, and we can go to dinner or something.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not that. Really.”
“Are you sure? Because the look on your face says that you’re going to a funeral.”
She smiled. “I’m sorry – I’m sure it’ll be really nice. I’m excited about it I just…I don’t know.”
“I was told that there will be all-you-can-eat gourmet food. And twenty-eight thousand dollars worth of flowers.”
“Twenty-eightthousand!” Her mouth hung open. “How many flowers is that?”
He shrugged. “You’ll have to wait and see for yourself.”
They got off at their stop and had to walk two blocks to get to the party. Amanda assured him that she had no problem walking the distance in her heels. “I got used to wearing heels when I was in London. I guess it makes me feel fancy.”
“Well, you look very fancy.”
She smiled, looking down. “Thank you.”
Just outside was a red carpet. They paused before stepping onto it to put their masks on. He then offered her his arm.
“Shall we?”
She smiled. “Yes, I’m ready.”
They walked in following a group of ten slowly moving people. Will didn’t mind; it gave him a chance to admire what had been set up inside. Fresh flowers covered nearly every surface; he wasn’t a flower person, but the smell was captivating.
They checked their coats and entered the ballroom. The ballroom itself was beautiful; DGG didn’t skimp on the venue. There were tall marble columns topped in gold surrounding the room. He guessed that there were at least two hundred people inside, though it didn’t look crowded. Strings of flowers cascaded down from the ceiling, giving the feeling that they were under some sort of enchanted forest.
“You were right,” Amanda said, leaning into him. “This is…perfect.”
The soft lighting caught a thousand times on Amanda’s mask, sparkling and making her shine like a diamond. Will couldn’t stop staring at her. If only she wasn’t so morose about the whole evening – though now, she seemed stunned into silence as she looked around the room.
Maybe she’d been upset because she was confused about what this party meant? He wanted to tell her how he felt about her – that he didn’t care about her house. All he really cared about was her.
