I watched her as she buried her head in her hands. For some reason, as I watched her acting so distressed, something Cal had said popped into my head. Hotel Royale always goes the extra mile. Here was our most important guest and she was having a meltdown that was going to ruin all her memories of being in London. I had to do something.
‘It’s not a disaster,’ I whispered. ‘I know what to do.’
She blinked up at me. ‘Huh?’
I stood up on the sofa and at the top my lungs, I yelled, ‘EVERYONE, STOP TALKING!’
They all whipped their heads round to look at me and, after glancing at Sky who gave them a firm nod, they told whoever they were speaking to they would call them back and lowered their phones.
‘Right,’ I said confidently, now that I had their attention, ‘you can stop panicking. The party will be here. At Hotel Royale.’
Sky gasped. ‘But . . . are there any rooms? At this late notice? On a Saturday?’
‘You don’t need to worry about anything. That’s my job. Here’s the plan of action,’ I instructed, feeling all important standing up there on the sofa looking down at everyone. No wonder world leaders always speak from podiums. ‘Sky, you are to relax today and get ready for your party this evening. I need someone to make sure that happens. Who can do that?’
Her assistant’s hand shot up.
‘Excellent. Thank you. Now, I just need to make a quick phone call.’
I jumped down from the sofa, grabbed the phone and dialled Audrey’s office. She picked up straight away and gave me the information I asked for. I hung up and turned back to my silent audience, who were all watching in tense anticipation.
‘I need all of you to go to the conference room on the second floor. Someone will be here in a minute to show you the way. The most important thing is that everyone calms down.’ I gave them my biggest smile. ‘We’ve got this.’
And then, with a salute at Sky, who was looking completely baffled, I left the room and raced down to Audrey. As per my phone instructions, she was waiting for me in her office with Matthew, Chef and Ellie. Cal waved at me from where he was comfortably sitting in Audrey’s chair.
‘Why aren’t you sleeping like a normal teenager?’ I asked him. ‘Am I the only person in the world who has heard of lie-ins?’
‘Next door neighbours arguing,’ he explained, ‘woke us up at 4 a.m. I was bored at home.’
‘Flick, what’s going on?’ Audrey’s expression was full of concern.
I launched into an explanation of what had happened to Sky. ‘So, I’ve told her we’ll have the party here,’ I concluded.
‘What do you mean?’ Audrey asked.
‘Here. At Hotel Royale.’
They stared in silence.
‘But,’ Audrey continued, ‘how on earth can we do that, at such late notice? It’s impossible.’
‘Not at the Royale,’ I corrected her. ‘Nothing is impossible here. Right, Matthew?’
Matthew puffed his chest out like a peacock. ‘That’s right.’
‘But we don’t have any rooms available,’ Ellie said, scrolling through her iPad to check.
‘Nothing?’ I asked, biting my lip. ‘What about the conference rooms?’
‘That won’t work. They’re too near the bedrooms, we’d disturb our guests.’
‘There’s got to be somewhere,’ I insisted desperately. I couldn’t let Sky down. She was counting on me. And no one ever counts on me.
She shook her head. ‘We don’t have any space available.’
I leaned back on Audrey’s desk, totally deflated.
‘Yes, we do,’ Cal said softly.
