My Boyfriend and Brother Left Me in the Escape Room novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Offer

Orin's POV

The Harbor Ballroom had a glass front and a loading dock, and I went in through the dock.

I carried a clipboard and a tool bag, and nobody stopped a man fixing something.

The ballroom floor was already set. Sixty round tables, six hundred gold chairs, and a stage with a screen as tall as a house.

Pink light washed the walls. Glowkin banners hung from every beam.

On the screen a loop played: two little girls on stone steps, one flashlight between them.

I looked at the girl in the yellow raincoat for a long time.

"Can I help you?"

The night manager of the hall stood behind me in a black suit, tight around the mouth.

"I own an escape room downtown," I said. "I know a little about fire code in dark spaces."

"Good, because I need one." He lowered his voice. "Ms. Ashworth's people want a full blackout at nine. Six hundred people, no exit lights, for a reveal."

"Is that legal?"

"It is not. I told them no. They said they'd sign a waiver. A waiver does not make a dark exit legal."

"What would be legal?"

He spread his hands. "Battery lanterns at every table. A blackout is fine if the room can see itself."

I looked at him.

"Sixty tables," I said. "Ten each. I know a hardware store."

His eyebrows went up. "Whose store?"

"A man who owes the woman he's about to help a very large favor."

He thought about it for a moment.

"Compliance," he said, and he almost smiled. "I'll sign the delivery."

At five, Toby's truck backed up to the dock with sixty crates.

Toby set them down one at a time, without a word, his flannel soaked through at the back.

Mom followed in her good coat and carried the smallest crate herself.

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