Never Yours Again novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: The Balcony Again

By October I had a hundred flower arrangements, four hundred place cards and a headset that pinched my left ear.

I stood at the top of the Lakeshore Hall stairs at six o'clock, with the doors about to open.

The gray jacket sat over my shoulders, because the hall was cold and I wanted it there.

For the first time, I was running the gala.

Shawna sat at the sound desk with her gum and a new pair of good scissors.

"Doors in two minutes," she said into my ear. "The dog is in the van, and I'm not discussing it."

"Why is the dog in the van?"

"Because he's the only one who understands the seating chart."

I laughed, and my voice cracked, and I realized my hands weren't steady.

Camille arrived first, in a long red gown that belonged to a designer I'd never heard of.

She had signed with a house in Milan that week.

She kissed my cheek and handed me a tiny paper bag.

"For luck," she said. "Don't open it until you're sad."

"Thank you."

"Go be brilliant."

The doors opened, and four hundred people came up the stairs.

I welcomed them one by one with a clipboard on my hip.

Constance Palgrave came in alone, in black, at six-twenty.

She had no assistant and no driver, and she stopped in front of me for a moment.

"Miss Tannen."

"Mrs. Palgrave."

"The flowers are very good."

"Thank you."

"I am sorry about the rest," she said, quietly. "I will go on being sorry. I thought you should hear it in a room where I have nothing to gain."

She did not wait for an answer, and I didn't give one.

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