As much as it pained me to admit it, she obviously knew these venues like the back of her perfectly manicured hand—and she had all the connections I lacked. I wouldn’t accomplish half the things we were planning to do without her help. But I might have been able to appreciate those things a little more if she didn’t take advantage of every possible opportunity to pretend I wasn’t even there.
“The room is seventy-seven hundred square feet, and can accommodate up to five-hundred-sixty banquet guests,” the hotel manager was telling us as he flung open the Grand Ballroom doors.
“You see what I was saying?” Claudia beamed, dragging Ford up the staircase with her. “Isn’t it terribly dramatic? And this is the coat check, the parlor suite…”
I followed along behind them, huffing to keep up.
As I lifted my camera to snap a few photos, I felt more like Claudia’s assistant than the person for whom she was planning the fundraiser. Even the hotel manager was ignoring me, directing his speech about the state room’s capacity at Claudia and Ford. It didn’t help that my husband, in one of his bespoke suits, looked like he belonged with her.
And Claudia was doing her best to take advantage of that assumption.
I was just taking a few more pictures of the stunning chandelier overhead when Claudia said my name. I didn’t immediately respond, so she snapped her fingers at me. Like I was a dog.
“Excuse you?” I said, my head whipping up. “Did you seriously just—”
“The ballroom is this way,” Claudia told me, faux-sweetly. “Come along.”
As she flounced ahead, I expected Ford to say something, but he was looking at his phone and didn’t even seem to notice the casual disrespect that his ex had just flung my way. Meanwhile I was fuming so hard there was practically steam coming out of my ears.
“Ford,” I hissed, but he was already halfway across the lobby, following the manager.
“I’ve put together dozens of incredibly successful events here,” Claudia was bragging when I caught up with them. “What do you think?”
I couldn’t help glaring daggers at her as she held out her arms and executed a twirl in the center of the polished parquet floor.
“Gorgeous,” Ford said, nodding.
I kept reminding myself that I was doing this for the girls, but with every passing moment it became harder and harder to resist tripping Claudia in her heels so she’d fall flat on her face.
“We’d go for something classy and elegant, not necessarily a theme,” Claudia was telling the hotel manager. Then she turned to Ford with a smirk. “Remember those tacky fundraisers we went to in college?”
Ford laughed. “How could I forget?”
Claudia continued, “Remember that horrible one at the marina our senior year? Half the guests got seasick and the other half got sick watching everyone else be seasick.”
My husband was in stitches now. I had no idea Claudia was such a gifted comedienne.
“Oh yeah, that was disgusting,” Ford said. Hardy har har.
“I don’t think the school raised any money at all!” Claudia giggled. “That was the last time they let anyone from Gamma Kappa Omega plan one of their events. They should have known better, though, those girls were always such a disaster.”
She gave me a pointed look. Even though I’d never been in a sorority, it was clear that she thought I would have fit right in with the “disaster girls.”
“Luckily, this is a ballroom and not a boat,” I pointed out dryly. Claudia ignored me. Then, inspiration struck. “Wait, what if we used part of the room as a gallery for some of my mentees’ photography? We could even do a silent auction for the photos, get them framed…”
“That’s an interesting idea,” Ford said, nodding.
“It’s very cute,” Claudia cut in. “But this is a banquet, not show and tell for all your little art projects. Ford, I was actually thinking we should do something more like what I did for the polo team fundraiser.”
Cute? Art projects? I stalked over, absolutely livid, but Claudia didn’t even seem to notice. She just talked over me. Literally. I was about a head shorter than both of them.
“Remember that night, Ford?” Claudia was asking. “With the polo team?”
She stepped closer to him, wrapping a hand around his bicep. I held back a growl and firmly grabbed his other arm, flashing my wedding rings in Claudia’s face.
“You know what nightIremember, Ford?” I said, impersonating Claudia to a T.
“Why don’t I show you and your husband the staging area,” the manager said, cutting in.
