Lucas raises an eyebrow. “Ashlynn?” he asks.
“I don’t want to think so, but who else can it be?” I shake my head, my thoughts spinning. Why? Why would someone I’vebeen so good to try and destroy me and my business? I don’t understand.
“What do you want to do?” Lucas asks.
I pull my phone from my jeans pocket and text Kaylee, giving her a brief rundown and asking her where Ashlynn is.
“Ashlynn is blowing up balloons. I’ll talk to her in a few minutes, but what am I going to do about the food? I can’t feed a bunch of men the rabbit food in the kitchen!”
“Breathe,” he says, brushing my ponytail to one side and massaging the muscles in my neck. “I’m going to make a few phone calls and see what I can do for catering. Meanwhile, get Kaylee so you can both confront Ashlynn.”
“But—”
“Teamwork, remember?” He kisses the back of my neck. “Now, go.”
I’m nervous, but I trust Lucas. If nothing else, I know he’ll try his best to fix things. After texting Kaylee again, I step out of the office and meet her at the end of the hallway.
“You’re kidding me, right?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Not about the food and not about Ashlynn,” I say, lowering my voice. “Unless you can think of anyone else with that kind of private access?”
She lowers her shoulders in disappointment. “No.”
I’m feeling the same sadness as my partner. “I know,” I say softly. “I trusted her, too.”
“She’s worked for us for over a year. Why would she undermine us?” Kaylee asks.
“Why don’t we find out?”
Kaylee nods and together, we walk over to where our assistant is sitting by a helium machine, blowing up black and gold balloons. Head tipped down, she doesn’t notice us.
Ashlynn is young, twenty-two, and she’d been looking for a job for a while when she’d sent us her résumé. During theinterview, her exuberance and diligence impressed us. We gave her a shot when she had no experience in party planning and until today, we haven’t been disappointed. True, the past few months she’d been more tired and distracted, but everyone goes through rough patches. Now, I have to wonder exactly what is going on with her.
“Ashlynn?” I ask.
She looks up, holding one uninflated balloon. “Hi, guys!”
“Kaylee and I need to talk to you,” I say.
She puts the balloon down and rises to her feet. “Sure. Do you need me to work on something else?”
I glance at my partner. “No. But I do need to ask, did you call the caterer and ask her to change the menu for tonight to all vegetarian?” I watch her carefully, wanting to catch any indication she’s lying when she replies, except I don’t have to.
Ashlynn bursts into tears. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to do it. Any of it. But she offered me money and with my grandfather so sick, and him not having insurance, I needed the cash for his medication.”
My eyes open wide. “Ash, who paid you to sabotage this party?” I ask, my voice hoarse. Even knowing it couldn’t be anyone else, I didn’t want to believe it was her.
She swipes beneath her eyes, smudging her mascara. “Blaire. She said the more events you took on, the worse she’d look. You succeed at everything you do, and she has to struggle with your leftovers. To be honest, it didn’t matter why. It was the money I needed. I hated doing this to you both.” She sniffs and finds a tissue in her purse beside her. She’s a mess, but I have bigger problems.
“You’re telling me she paid you to ruin this party because she’s jealous?” Kaylee asks. Her voice is loud and shrill, and I don’t blame her.
“She wanted to make Rainey look incompetent. It’s more about you than Kaylee,” Ashlynn says, looking at me with regret in her eyes.
I don’t understand why she’d hate me this much, but that is a question for another day. “Ashlynn, you could have come to us instead of doing as she asked.” I’m hurt that she didn’t feel she could.
“She gave me a lot of money.” The young woman hangs her head, her embarrassment clear.
I shake my head and sigh. A glance at Kaylee and I know she’ll agree with what I’m about to do. Do I feel bad for her because her grandfather is sick? That she needs money? Of course. But that doesn’t justify her actions.
