Chapter Seven
‘How are you feeling?’ Melissa asked Barney the second they arrived at his cottage.
Barney didn’t answer at first, he was too busy looking behind her at Harvey coming in through the back door not long after she did. ‘I’m fine, but what are you two up to?’
‘We’ve come to see you, of course,’ Harvey replied.
‘Together?’ He looked doubtful.
‘We’ve been talking,’ Melissa explained.
‘About time.’
‘Talking about you, she means,’ Harvey clarified.
Barney grumbled, ‘It sounds like you’ve come to nag me some more and you think that if you both do it together, it might work. Well, I’ll tell you now –’
‘Just hear us out,’ Harvey interrupted.
‘It’s about the Wedding Dress Ball,’ Melissa began.
‘I’ve told you, not happening this year. What’s the point? It’s a lot of hard work, I can’t face people being everywhere, invading this place.’
Harvey sat on the chair to the side of him, leaning forwards, arms along his thighs. ‘How about we run the entire event?’
‘Now that’s ridiculous. You weren’t interested the other day when Ashley tried to suggest it to you,’ he directed at Harvey. ‘And you’re going back home before it’ll even take place,’ he said to Melissa.
‘I’ve already extended my stay and cleared it with work,’ she explained.
Barney couldn’t hide his surprise. ‘And you’re intending to work on this together?’
‘As crazy as it sounds, yes.’ Harvey sat on the arm of the sofa.
‘Ridiculous,’ Barney countered.
‘Hey, it’s not that bad an idea,’ said Melissa. ‘We’re both grown adults, we both know the event well enough.’
‘I don’t think it’s a good idea, you’d argue or not talk. It’s not easy to coordinate, you know. And it’s too late now, I left it too late.’
‘Since when did you give up?’ Melissa demanded.
Barney shrugged and shut his eyes as he listened to Harvey suggest they got a bit of paper and a pen to write down what needed doing. Melissa had already pulled out a chair at the table that had one end folded down and was only opened up when there were more guests.
Barney stayed where he was. ‘I’m comfortable right here,’ he said from the armchair.
‘Not to worry.’ Harvey’s rummaging in the bureau produced a notepad and a pen. ‘Melissa and I will sit here at the table and you listen in, we’ll need your input.’
‘Suppose I could do that.’
‘What’s the first thing we need to do?’ Harvey asked. ‘The date is set, but do people think it’s cancelled?’
‘I may have started spreading the word.’
Melissa wrote down at the top of the paper, ‘Re-publicise’. They’d need to make sure everyone knew the ball was in no way cancelled. ‘Have you issued any refunds yet, Barney?’
‘No, all the money is still safely stashed away. I just hadn’t got around to dealing with it.’
‘Good, one less thing to think about,’ said Harvey. ‘But we’ll need to quash any rumours, make sure we publicise enough that we sell even more tickets to people who were hesitating until now. Most of the village residents jump right in and get a ticket but people who pass through might grab one later on, a few extra sales won’t go amiss to cover costs and raise even more for the charity.’
