Stay Tuned

Chapter 35

Rick attracted attention. All kinds of attention, from grandmothers to debutantes, businessmen to boyhood friends. He air-kissed and hugged a few hundred people, stopping each time to introduce me. After five minutes, my head whirled with snippets of conversation:

“Lovely to meet you…”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance…”

“So good to see a fresh face on WSGA…”

“You and Rick make a good team.”

“I hope to see more of you both…”

I shook a million hands and smiled until my jaw ached. My nose tickled from the mixture of men’s cologne, heavy perfume, and the scent of fresh cut flowers adorning every table.

Graceful lilies and delicate freesia dripped from thin glass vases. The tips of tapered candles glowed. Soft jazz music mingled with the gentle gurgling of the silver fountain placed in the center of the room.
A waiter breezed by, handing out champagne. On the giant tray he balanced, I watched the bubbles in each glass float to the top and disappear. Gone in an instant.

“Excuse me, Rick,” I whispered and nudged his sleeve. “I’ll be right back.”

Light-headed, I wove my way around ladies’ elbows, suit jackets, and between small tables piled high with plump shrimp and golden crab cakes. I paused to take a plate, but suddenly, I wasn’t hungry. In fact, the very thought of eating made my insides churn like a ship on rough ocean waters.
Is it nerves? Am I sick?

When I turned away from the table to glance back at Rick, the crowd had closed in. I lost sight of where I’d been standing.

Disoriented, I moved to the edge of the room, where the noise level lessened considerably. The center was a veritable beehive of activity. It was never still—people buzzed in tight circles, going from one group to another.

I watched and waited. When are they going to get started? And how am I going to find Rick again?
We had been assigned seats, I remembered Rick saying. The WSGA corporate table was somewhere near the podium on the stage, if I remembered right.

A flash of a familiar figure near the doorway caught my eye. Chris? I stood on my toes and tried to get a better look. A moment later, he turned around.
 
Ah, yes! There he was, smashing, as usual, in a tuxedo. He smiled broadly and shook hands with a portly man, then nodded to the person on his right. I followed his gaze and stopped.

I blinked to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.

A striking brunette with shiny, long hair and a tan flashed a smile at Chris and touched his arm. She spoke, giggled, and poked at Chris. Her flame-red dress clung to her body in all the right places.
Immediate jealousy tore through me. How dare she? Who does she think she is?

A couple, arm in arm, strolled near me. The woman wrinkled her forehead at what must have been the awful look on my face. I wiped off the frown and flashed an apologetic smile.

“Shoes are killing me.” I sighed as they walked past.

The woman returned a warm look of understanding and murmured something to the man.

Okay, calm down. No sense being upset if I didn’t know for sure what was going on. She was probably a co-worker, my conscience argued. Of course. Didn’t all financial planners look like that?
I peeked again, just in time to see the woman whisper in Chris’s ear. She might as well have jumped in his lap she was so close.

Enough was enough.

Chris was late, with a gorgeous woman clinging to him, hanging on every word. Like it or not, he had some explaining to do.