He Sent Me Overseas to Marry Her, I'm Staying Overseas to Never See Him Again novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: The Night Before

I stood by the Christmas tree and read my own name three times.

Ms. Laura Kendrick. Plus one.

Oliver read it over my shoulder.

"Plus one," he said. "Is that me?"

"That's whoever I like."

"He wants you in that room."

"He wants me on page three, between an investor and a magazine," I said. "Somewhere he can see me and nobody else can."

The manager stood beside us with his hands behind his back.

"His office would like to know if you'll attend."

"Tell them yes."

"And the plus one?"

I looked across the lobby.

The old cutter was on his third glass of champagne.

Peggy was showing a woman in a fur hat the thimble on her right hand.

Zoe was selling a luggage tag to a man who had clearly come in for a coffee.

"Twelve," I said. "My plus one is twelve people."

The manager looked at the crew for a long moment.

"It's my ballroom, Ms. Kendrick," he said. "And my doors. I'll see what I can do."

That night Peggy handed out envelopes at the cutting table.

The hotel had paid in full at four o'clock.

She'd counted it out herself, with her glasses on the end of her nose, and she'd written every name by hand.

The boy apprentice opened his and sat down on the floor.

"That's not fair," the old cutter said, looking into his.

"Shut up," Peggy said. "I decide what's fair."

On Wednesday the arch felt wrong.

For the first time since October, the racks along the wall were empty.

Sixty trunks had stood there, and now there were only the bare wooden ribs and the pale patches on the brick.

The crew kept looking at them.

At four, Peggy rapped her thimble on the cutting table.

"Right. Tomorrow."

Everyone came and sat.

"No paper," Oliver said. "That's the rule. Nobody in that room reads paper."

"No paper," I agreed. "We bring a trunk. Your trunk, Peggy. The one from 1979."

"On the doorman's trolley," Zoe said. "Like the first time. It's iconic."

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