Chapter 5: Table Nineteen

The seating chart for the board dinner went up on the hall table on Saturday morning.

It was laminated. Rosalind laminates things she wants nobody to argue with.

I read it twice. Then I read it from the bottom.

The head table was number one. Tobias, Pearl, Rosalind, Noelle and four board members sat there.

I was at table nineteen.

Table nineteen was a folding table behind the swinging door to the kitchen.

"It's by relationship to the founder," Rosalind said, appearing at my elbow with her tea.

"Blood first, dear. Then business. Then marriage."

"I'm a wife."

"Of course. That's why you're so close to the kitchen."

She smiled at me very warmly and went to check on the flowers.

The comments had opinions.

"tea_and_spoilers: She put you by the BATHROOM. (1,780 likes)"

"bookbabe_91: Fight it. Three times. Win on the third. (2,940 likes)"

So I fought it three times.

The first time, I swapped my place card with the one at table eight.

That card belonged to a retired board member, so he was now at table nineteen and I was at table eight.

Rosalind found it in four minutes and moved us back.

She brought the old man a glass of wine to apologize.

The second time, I carried a chair across the ballroom to table one and sat in it.

A waiter came and said, very gently, that the chair was needed at table eleven.

I sat in it until he went to get a second waiter.

Then Rosalind appeared.

"Hallie, darling, let's not make a scene before the board."

"I'm not making a scene. I'm sitting."

"You're in the middle of the aisle," she said.

I looked down. I was.

The third time, I did not have a plan.

Keep reading free with an account. Start After Seeing the Comments, I Forced the Male Lead to Love Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.