We walk down to the marquee to find waiters circling the room with sses of champagne, and a
doorman with a seating schedule at the entry. We walk over to him.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
“Hello.” He smiles.
“James Williams and Emerson Mathews.”
He goes through his list and James nces at me. We are so not going to be on this list. This could be
embarrassing.
“Ah, yes, table twenty-one.”
“Thank you.” I smile gratefully and we make our way to the back.
“Oh, man. We are on the shit table,” James whispers, annoyed.
I smirk. “What did you expect? We don’t know a soul here. We are the losers, here by default.”
“Speak for yourself. One of these society girls will be my bitch tonight,” he murmurs as he takes two
champagnes from a passing tray.
I smirk as I take mine from him. “I kind of think you will be the bitch in the equation, to be honest.”
He raises his eyebrows and smiles cheekily as he looks around. “That will work, too.”
We sit at the table and people watch for a while as the sun continues to set. Large firenterns are
now being lit around the perimeter.
“This is ridiculous wealth, right?”
“I know,” James mutters. “Come on, let’s go check it out. We are being unsocial.”
We stand and make our way back out of the marquee and head up the stairs to level two. A cocktail
bar is situated front and center, and waitresses are walking around with trays of appetizers. I take a
lobster ball. “Even the snacks are sh.” I smile as I eat it in one go.
We stand for a few moments when two guys walk over. One is tall with dark hair. The other is blonde
and really short. “Hello.” They smile.
“Hi,” we reply.
“This is a great turn out, isn’t it?” The blonde man says.
“Yes, fantastic,” James replies, excited that someone wants to talk to us.
They start to talk while I nce around at our opulent surroundings. This really is something else. I’m
on my fourth champagne when the tinkering of the dinner bell sounds and everyone starts to make their
way back down to the bottom level to the marquee. James has been talking to these two men for about an
hour now. He is being so pathetically nice I may puke any moment. Instead, I have remained rtively
silent. Honestly, I just don’t have it in me to even make the effort to talk to men at the moment. We take our
seat in the packed dining area and introduce ourselves to everyone we are among. They all seem nice
enough, and we enjoy our beautiful meal.
Dessert is just being served and the table is in conversation when a good-looking older guy gets up on
stage. The crowd all p loudly. I nce over to see James is smiling broadly while pping.
I tap him on the leg and he frowns at me in question.
“Aren’t you supposed to be taking photos and stuff?” I whisper.
His eyes widen. “Shit, yes. I forgot I’m working.”
I giggle. “You’re an idiot. How could you forget?”
He shuffles around and retrieves his camera from his bag before he stands and walks closer to the
stage.
The elderly good-looking man holds his hands up and everyoneughs. I don’t know who he is, but
everyone else seems to. He’s clearly very popr. I smile into my champagne ss.
“Thank you everyone foring tonight. Wee to the annual sixth Art Coboration Fundraiser.
To date this team has raised thirteen million pounds” He smiles broadly and the crowd all cheer and
whistle.
Wow, that’s impressive. They must work hard. The waitress ces a piece of cheesecake in front of
me, and a huge slice of mud cake in front of James. I smile and immediately swap them over so I have the
chocte cake.
He holds his hand out to the side. “May I present ourmittee?”
Everyone ps loudly.
I shovel my first mouthful of chocte cake into my mouth as I look up to see the team of six walk
onto the stage.
The blood drains from my face.
“We have Magdeline Rushmore. Star O’Shea. Roberta Mumford. Amanda Marx. Andst, but by no
means least, Rachel Runner.” The crowd all cheer.
Are you fucking kidding me? I sit and stare at the stage in shock.
He’s here. star is here.
No!