At eight sharp, Eva entered the Westbridge ballroom and stopped dead.
‘No,’ she said.
Earnest, a junior coordinator who still had the youthful glow of hope in addition to an apt name, turned quickly. ‘What?’
‘I would hope you’d have some idea what I’m about to say,’ Eva said calmly.
Earnest looked blank.
‘The chairs.’
Earnest blinked. ‘They’re Chiavari. The client asked for Chiavari.’
‘The client asked forchampagneChiavari,’ Eva said. ‘These are gold.Vegasgold.’
Earnest flushed. ‘They looked right in the picture.’
Eva inhaled slowly, resisting the urge to flip one of the foul chairs.
‘Earnest,’ she said, voice even. ‘If the bride walks in and sees these, she will cry. Thebadkind of crying. And half my job is protecting the eyeliner of brides. Call the rental company. I’ll buy you time.’
Earnest nodded with gratitude and walked out, phone in hand.
Eva surveyed the room, adjusting timelines in her head like a military strategist planning a really fancy invasion.
Then she saw the napkins. They were folded incorrectly. A new staff member, Lila, still in her teens, was folding them.
Eva approached. ‘These need to be folded in thirds, not halves.’
‘I’m sorry, I thought—’ Lila’s hands trembled.
‘Thinking isn’t necessary. There’s a diagram. It’ll do the thinking for you.’
Lila nodded rapidly.
‘Unfold and start again.’
Lila looked around her at the fifty she’d already done. Her eyes filled. She took off running.
Eva took her seventh deep breath of the day.
‘Jen,’ she said.
Her assistant appeared instantly. She was older than Eva, in her fifties, which Eva found useful. She was not easy to intimidate, and she didn’t take much personally. If Eva had been interested in having friends, Jen would have easily made the cut.
‘Lila’s crying in the hallway,’ Eva said. ‘I was probably a bit sharp.’
Jen winced. ‘You want me to go talk to her?’
‘I can’t be nice to her right now. Aside from the fact that I don’t have the time, it makes me unpredictable. People need to know where they stand. I should be consistently scary.’
Jen nodded with an understanding that Eva appreciated. ‘On it.’
‘And feel free to talk shit about me. But keep it just this side of disrespectful if possible.’
Jen blinked. ‘You’re asking me to slander you?’
‘If you would.’
