‘I want to go and get the Christmas tree now,’ Angel announced, looking up from where she was brushing Randy.
‘Maybe when your Uncle Dean gets back, we can go and get it,’ Vernon suggested. He turned the page of the broadsheet he was reading and tapped the seat of the sofa next to him. Randy jumped up and sat down and Angel tracked his every move with a brush.
Hayley bit the pen in her mouth. Her mind wasn’t in this. It was still in a hospital room at St Patrick’s. What had happened there? How had things gone so wrong so quickly?
She turned her attention to the drawing in her ideas book. The Crystalline Hotel ballroom, a rough draft of how she envisaged it looking. She really had no idea how she was going to be able to coordinate this fundraiser in so short a time. So far, she had come up against every hurdle known to event managers. Things she wanted were out of stock, the chef was having issues no matterwhat she suggested and apparently balloons in New York didn’t come in platinum.
Her phone rang and she checked the display eagerly.Unknown number. Had she really been hoping for Oliver? After everything she’d told herself about him, she was still subconsciously hanging out for his call. She needed to wise up. She pressed to answer just as Randy let out an irritated yelp.
‘Hello.’
‘Hello, is that Miss Walker?’
She didn’t recognise the voice.
‘Yes, are you calling about the flowers?’
‘Er, no I?—’
‘You’re from the lighting company?’
‘No—’
‘The radio equipment company?’
‘I’m calling from the Fanway Gallery.’
‘Oh!’ Hayley’s eyes immediately went to Angel who was already scrutinising her. ‘Hello.’
‘I’m just responding to your call the other day. I’m afraid we’re not at all familiar with anyone by the name of Michel De Vos.’
Her heart sank for the second time that day but this time it went to basement level. Another dead end in the search. She was starting to think Michel had disappeared off the face of the planet.Daily Planet.Hypnotising hazel eyes. She needed fizzy wine.Bollinger. Why was her mind determined to crucify her?
‘Miss Walker?’ the caller asked.
‘Sorry, thank you for… for taking the time to call back,’ Hayley said. She ended the call, put the phone down and dropped her head with it. Why was everything so difficult?
‘Who was on the phone?’ Angel asked.
Hayley flipped her head up quickly, rubbing at her eyes. ‘Oh just some woman about the thingy for the fundraiser.’
‘What thingy?’ Angel said, her attention now firmly away from the dog.
‘The…’ She had a list of things right in front of her. Why couldn’t she think of one single thing to say? ‘The… the…’
‘Table displays?’ Vernon offered, putting down his newspaper.
Hayley pointed at him. ‘Yes! Exactly that!’
‘Maybe I can help.’ Angel got to her feet and Randy jumped down from the sofa, walking to heel.
‘You’ve already done so much, Genius Kid,’ Hayley said, slipping an arm around Angel’s shoulders and pulling her in for a hug.
Angel got up onto the stool next to her and looked at what Hayley had on the screens of her devices. She began to read aloud.
‘Oliver Richard Julian Drummond is the CEO of billion-dollar technology company, Drummond Global. He is the?—’
Hayley snapped down the lid of the laptop before Angel could say anything else.
