2X The Heat (2X The Pleasure 1)

“That’s amazing, you know. That you found something that makes you happy. I don’t think you would have been fully satisfied with Botany.” She said with a smirk. I nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, but you have that too.” She shrugged.

“Some days, it just pays the bills.”

Chapter Five: Tristan

I spent the next few days getting things together for the gala. I had put a rush on a new suit to be tailored. It got there Saturday morning. Mom called to coordinate a limo, I said I would just meet her at the house. When I arrived, Natalie was already there in the foyer.

“Hey sis, you look beautiful.” I went in for a hug, but she backed away.

“Don’t wrinkle my dress!” does silk wrinkle? I mad

e a face and she high fived me instead.

“You look handsome.” She adjusted my tie. She was a perfectionist. Her hair was perfectly slicked up into a bun, her dress a deep gold color that wrapped around her and made a small train at the end. She wore diamond drop earrings, and that was it for jewelry.

“Where are mom and dad?” I asked her. She pointed to the access door.

My parent’s estate was something out of a movie. Seven different entrances, if I’m even counting right. Only three bedrooms since we were all gone. But there were three living rooms, two kitchens, a theatre room, and a bonus room. They both had offices in the house as well, equipped with a library. It was the house we grew up in too, they had upgraded things here and there throughout the years.

“Let’s go then. I want to get this night over with.”

Chapter Six: Emilia

“No, no! That goes here!”

Man, were some people hard of hearing or what? I was at the venue, supervising the set up. Everything was going fairly well, but sometimes things would end up where they don’t belong. Maybe the plan I had created was too hard to follow.

“Sorry.”

The man apologized. He was fairly young, and he made no secret of staring at my ass in my shorts. I know I have extra curves everywhere, but it isn’t for everyone’s viewing entertainment.

“And this one should be a little slanted, so it meets in the center like an archway.” I changed the location of the Daffodils.

I was so excited already, everything looked beautiful so far. The load in crew were hard at work, and once I got some kinks worked out, I could relax and help when needed. I wanted the main floral arrangement at the entrance to be perfect, so I created that all myself. I was a little scared to be up on a ladder, so far from the ground that if I fell I would definitely die, but the arrangement looked perfect when I was finished, so it was worth it.

The inside of the ball room was a dark cream color with gold trim. The seating arrangements matched that color, so I didn’t want the flowers to pop too much. I chose a white lilies arrangement. It may seem like the simplest flower out there, but it matched. And the archway was a lot more intricate, so I didn’t want the entire place to be too flowered up.

Especially the entrance leading up to the main door. There was a cream-colored train that flowed all the way up, lined by five stone pillars on each side. In each of those, I put white rose bouquets, specked with daffodils. As I did a final walk through, I was perfectly content, and a little surprised that I could even pull this all off to begin with.

But I did. And as I left to go home and change, I couldn’t help but think of my mother. She would have been proud of me, I know it. I just wished she could actually see it. And I was even more grateful that Sasha had given me this chance. I could feel that this party would open doors up for me, and my pay for doing this event alone was enough to cover rent for the flower shop and my apartment for the next two months.

I had four hours before I had to be back at the venue because I had to be back early, which seemed like a long time but it really wasn’t.

I rushed through my shower so I could wash my hair. Once out of the shower, I started rummaging through my drawers for a bra and panties. I silently cursed myself for not having the right lingerie to wear under this dress. Ivy was already on her way, so I couldn’t ask her to stop and get something. I probably wouldn’t have anyway. In the midst of me freaking out over the smallest thing, Ivy had arrived and had been knocking on the door.

“Sorry, sorry!” I tightened my robe and skipped over to the door.

She had her tote bag full of hair products and makeup. When we lived together, we used to share them, and I never wore it much or used it so I let her keep it when we moved out.

“That’s okay, what’s up with you? How did set up go?”

She dropped everything on the bed and looked me over. I was a little flustered from all the running around.

“It was good, the arrangement looks great—well, I think it does.” I didn’t want to give myself too much credit before anyone even saw it.

“I’m sure it was.”