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Of course, she couldn’t. The questions kept coming. So she decided to play the Diversion Card. They were all on their third (or was it fourth?) round of margaritas. Maybe it would work. “The Spring Into Summer festival is practically in bankruptcy,” she blurted.
“What?” Pilar’s voice carried the loudest over a chorus of shocked exclamations.
“Yep. Bruce basically spent most of the discretionary budget last year advertising Billy Brenton as the main headliner for the festival, and we all know what happened there.”
“And now he expects you to clean up his mess?” Shea said. “Does the rest of the city council know about this?”
“Doug Wentworth does. He’s the one who brought it to my attention.”
“He’s the new city manager, right?” Lauren asked.
“Yep,” Pilar answered. “Nice guy. Kind of cute, too. He has a crush on Mimi.”
Mimi felt her face go hot. “He does not!” Her voice sounded like Donald Duck. Maybe she shouldn’t have had that last margarita.
“Does he know you’re married?” Frida demanded.
“He knows we’re separated,” Mimi admitted carefully, trying not to slur her words. What in God’s name did Shea put in her margaritas that made them so potent?
“He knows it because Zeke spilled the beans in front of everyone,” Pilar reminded them.
“Speaking of which, why would he do that?” Kitty asked. “Zeke is always so…hush-hush about everything.”
“Yep, he sure does like his secrets,” Mimi muttered.
Lauren frowned. “What secrets?”
“Nothing,” Mimi rushed to say. “So, what can I do to turn this year’s festival around? Because I need to do something. Otherwise, the Spring Into Summer festival is in jeopardy of being disbanded.”
The entire room went still.
“But…Whispering Bay has held a Spring Into Summer festival since forever,” Kitty said.
“Almost fifty years to be exact,” Pilar added.
Shea passed around another round of margaritas. “The festival can’t be in that much trouble, is it?”
Mimi started to decline the drink, but what the hell. She was already going to have a monster hangover tomorrow. She might as well earn it. “Unfortunately, thanks to nearly a decade of mismanagement by Bruce, the answer to that is yes. Without a big turnaround the festival could be toast.”
“Then you’ll just to have to do something big,?
? Kitty said. She went to take a sip of her drink, then froze as if something had just occurred to her. “Hey! Why can’t you get Billy Brenton to play at this year’s festival?”
“Me? I wouldn’t even know how to approach him! Plus, we’re talking about four months from now. It’s impossible to get a big name act like Billy Brenton in just four months.”
Pilar whipped out her smart phone and began typing. “According to his website, he’s going on tour this summer. And,” she added in an excited voice, “He’ll be doing a concert in Tallahassee the first Thursday in June, then he’s on to Pensacola.”
“That’s perfect!” Frida squealed. “We’re smack dab in the middle of two of his concert venues.”
“Oh, so he can just mosey on by and give us a little performance in between gigs?” Mimi said. She hiccupped. Then she hiccupped again. “Sure, why not? It’ll be a piece of cake.” She tried to snap her fingers, but for some reason they wouldn’t come together. Huh. That was weird.
“Why not?” Shea demanded.
“Number one, because I don’t think that’s how it works. And number three, can you imagine how expensive someone like Billy Brenton would be to book? The festival is broke. As in, we have no money kind of broke.”
Kitty narrowed her eyes at Mimi. “What happened to reason number two?”
“What reason number two?” Mimi asked, beginning to feel confused. All this talk of the festival and Billy Brenton was giving her an even bigger headache than she’d had yesterday.
