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Winterberry Glen CFO
From: [email protected]
Date: April 2, 4:05 p.m.
Subject: Re: Re: April Fools?
Dear Mr. Thomas,
You have found my weakness: a fridge full of Diet Coke. You have yourself a deal, but can you also put in a good word for me with the Winterberry Glen librarian? I want to see how your records differ from ours, and she won’t take my calls.
See you tomorrow.
Best wishes,
Blaire Green
Holly Ridge Festival Planner
Chapter 4
May
Blaire
Well, it finally arrived. The first of three town halls I had to host with Cole about the festival. We were holding two—this one and the final one right before Thanksgiving—here in Holly Ridge, and the second one was going to be held in Winterberry Glen. I guess because they had financial oversight the state thought they should host a town hall as well. We were gathered in the Holly Ridge community center, which would serve as the home for the gingerbread house decorating contest display and emergency center for the festival. The recessed lighting bore down harshly on the room, the same lighting had illuminated my dad during the many town hall meetings he oversaw when I was growing up. I took a deep breath, organized the papers in front of me one more time and prepared myself for the meeting to begin.
As I looked out at the audience. Seats were filling faster than I had anticipated. I saw that people were naturally dividing themselves—Holly Ridge on the left and Winterberry Glen on the right.
Oh boy, I thought to myself, this has the potential to get way out of control.
This was the closest I had ever been to Cole. Usually separated by that monstrosity of a desk he used in his office when we met once a week for the past two months, and I couldn’t help but notice he smelled good. Clean laundry, a pinch of cinnamon, and something else I couldn’t quite place without leaning closer and taking a big whiff, and nope, I was not letting that happen. I was still fuming over his latest dig at my spreadsheets: “At least I’ll be able to line my mom’s litter box for the next several months with old versions of this schedule.” Urgh. Our organizational/planning styles did not mesh up at all. After all of our meetings, I did know that much, but I also felt that I was growing on him, like his grumpiness was starting to grow on me. Collegially, that is.
Cole glanced my way.
“It’s 6:59, we should start right on time.”
I honestly agreed with him, but just to be a bit contrary, I said, “We’ll give people a few minutes to file in. I saw a long line inside Jitters when I was walking through the square to get to the community center.”
Cole’s jaw tensed at my dissent from his plan, but as we were on my turf, he didn’t push any further. I bit my lip to keep from smiling at the win, no matter how small, and reviewed the detailed agenda I had made myself one more time, even though I could probably recite it from memory. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cole bend to retrieve something from his tan messenger bag. Ah, cinnamon gum, that explained part of his alluring scent.
At 7:05 on the dot, nodding at Cole, I raised my voice to quiet the crowd.
“Hi everyone, and welcome to the first of three meetings about the Holly Ridge Christmas Festival! For anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m Blaire Greene, the festival planner for this year. I grew up in Holly Ridge and the festival holds some of my favorite memories and I really think this year’s festival has the potential to be the best one yet, even with the massive stakes involved. Cole, do you want to take a minute to introduce yourself?”
“Good evening, I’m Cole Thomas, Winterberry Glen, CFO.”
I waited for a beat. Then I realized that was indeed all Cole was going to offer as his introduction, so I stuck a smile on my face and carried on.
“All right, then...let’s get started! I thought we could start tonight by—”
“How much money exactly does this festival have to bring in for the state audit office to allow Holly Ridge to remain its own entity?” a tall, bald man on the Winterberry Glen side asked, while scraping his chair across the tile.
“Those numbers aren’t public information at this point in time, and it’s a bit in flux based on a number of factors, including the results from the last census. We’ll have a question-and-answer portion at—”
“Yeah, buddy, save your questions for the question-and-answer portion!” Earl, from the Holly Ridge repair shop, growled angrily across the aisle.
