Loving Him Was My Punishment novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Seat Plan
Celia's shop opened at nine on Saturdays, and by ten she had closed it again with a sign on the door that said Private Meeting, Sorry, Buy a Book Online.
The cat sat on the counter and glared at all of us.
We sat at the long table in the back, among the poetry shelves, with the gala card in the middle of it.
Finbar had brought a laptop, and Edwin had brought a thermos of tea and a folder from the lawyer.
Padraig sat at the end of the table, where I could see him, with the whole length of it between us.
"The seat plan," Celia said, and pulled the pencil from behind her ear. "Marguerite has put Hazel at table one, beside Dad, right under the stage."
"Beside me," Edwin said. "She wants us to look like a family for the cameras."
"So we give her one," Finbar said. "Hazel sits where she's put. Hazel takes the microphone when Marguerite finishes her toast, and she says what the binders say."
"And I put the invoices on the big screen," he added. "A man at the AV company owes me a favour, and he's running the slides tonight."
I nodded.
I looked down the table at Padraig.
"Where do you want to sit?" I asked him.
"Wherever you say."
"I'm asking where you want to."
He thought about it, which I liked.
"At the back, by the door," he said. "Where she can see me, and where I can leave if my face is the thing that makes the room look at the wrong person."
"That's a good answer," Celia said. "I hate it, but it's good."
"I want him at the back," I said. "I want to be able to find him when I look up."
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