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Chapter 16
“We’ll make do. If theysent roses instead of carnations, we’ll use roses,” Franklin said, thinking that it was common sense but understanding why Lynette, head of the PR firm he hired to oversee the charity gala, wanted to know. After all, he gave her parameters, and part of the parameters was having carnations.
“All right. I’ll make it work. Did you get my message about the door prizes?”
“I did, and it’s okay,” he said, referring to the prizes that she had texted him. All were as he had wanted except for one, where she couldn’t find the exact type of plant he suggested, and substituted.
It was fine. The important thing was that they had door prizes and that they were the kind of prizes that would be acceptable to the type of people who would be there.
“I’ll call you if I need anything else.”
“That’s fine. I’m in Chicago. I hadn’t planned to be, but after I meet with a few associates, I’ll be stopping in.”
“All right. I have a few things I want to run by you. I was going to wait until tomorrow morning, but we can get them settled now.” Her voice changed as she called out, “No! Don’t put the tree there. It goes over on the other side. It’s going to balance the one on that side. See?” She lowered her voice again and said into her phone, “I need to go.”
“All right.”
They hung up, and Franklin stood in the street, just a block or so down from the office he had in downtown Chicago.
There was a cute little coffee shop as well as other various shops along the sidewalk. It was a place he often saw tourists, but office workers from downtown were close enough to walk to it as well.
It’s where Maisie had wanted to meet.
His phone call with her hadn’t gone the way he wanted it to, and he couldn’t find it in his heart to tell her that everything she had assumed was wrong.
Plus, she had been so happy that her sister was well and so excited that she didn’t have to go to Africa. And she was brimming with ideas for the silent auction, had asked to meet so they could run over some of those things.
She also wanted to show him the dress she bought, which he didn’t care about, but he hadn’t told her no.
When she said that she bought a dress, and that she had a bunch of ideas, and that she wanted to meet, he decided he wasn’t going to let her down and that he would call Eleanor instead.
How ironic was it that Eleanor had been buying a dress as he’d been talking to Maisie about it? She had to have been, if she had just purchased it right before he called as she said.
He thought it was ironic that they had apparently been heading to Chicago at about the same time. She hadn’t known he was going, because he had planned to stay in Strawberry Sands. He hadn’t known that she was going because she hadn’t told him, although she had mentioned she needed a dress. Maybe she was waiting to see what time would suit her sister to go with her.
Regardless, it was just the way the timing had worked out.
Almost as though God was trying to show that he made the wrong decision.
