A Fresh Start

“Hello. I’m Grace Hickory, here for Thom Daniels. Something was left at the front desk for him, and I need to pick it up.”

The girl at the front desk frowned. Grace’s heart started beating faster.

Before she could say now, Grace peeked at the name tag and plastered a harried smile on her face.

“Donna, right? Well, Donna, Thom is from my publishing house, Keys. The envelope will have been left for Thom Daniels, of Keys Publishing. It’s for the event that’s happening in the ballroom – you know, the top secret one. Unfortunately, Thom ate some really bad prawns last night and can’t make it for the event. So now I’m stuck with the details, at the very last minute. Between you and me, he’s mucked up the entire thing. I’ve been putting out fires all day. Your chef, Pierre? Good Lord, he is temperamental, isn’t he! He gave me such a yelling about the caterers taking over his kitchen! But he’s going to make his black forest cake, and apparently, letting him bake it is a good way of getting him to forgive you. Is he as good as he’s temperamental?”

She saw Donna thaw as she talked.

“If he’s baking his black forest, you’re in for a treat.”

Grace leaned in and grinned.

“I’ll save you a piece. But I need Thom’s invite for that. In all the rush, that little change in plans didn’t get documented, so…”

Donna hesitated, and then relaxed.

“Can I see your id?”

“Of course,” said Grace, and gave her the id that proclaimed her a subeditor at Keys Publishing House.

“Well, I guess you’re definitely from the publishing house. And he hasn’t picked it up, he was supposed to in the morning.”

Grace rolled her eyes.

“He was supposed to do a lot of things,” she told the girl.

“All right, here it is. Don’t forget the cake.”

“I won’t,” promised Grace triumphantly.

She’d gotten the invite! She might not have a fairy godmother, but she was going to the ballroom and meeting Alan Barden.

Things were definitely looking up.

She didn’t even have lunch, she was that excited. At two, as expected, Katie called.

“Grace, are you done at the event? I could do with you back at the office now. Thom should be there before three.”

Grace scowled. Thom could turn up now and she wouldn’t care, not at all. He would just have to fu*k off.

“Thom is coming?”

“I haven’t managed to get in touch with him. I left him a voicemail, I think he’ll be there.”

Grace shrugged it off.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can. I didn’t have a chance to have lunch, there was a lot to do here. I’m not done yet, actually. Everything was pretty messed up, and Rachel needs more stuff done.”

Rachel hadn’t said a word. Grace hadn’t even seen Rachel since the morning. But it seemed like a good excuse.

“Fine, I need you back before the event starts, Grace.”

Grace shrugged.

“I’ll try my best to be back as soon as possible. But I need to eat and take a break first, after I get done with everything. Time’s running short, so I’ve got to go!”

Grace cut the call firmly, refusing to let Katie speak any more.

It was so unfair, thought Grace, fuming. She had done all the work. Thom had left everything in an absolutely dreadful mess. And yet, Katie expected her to come back to work while Thom stayed and gloated over how wonderful everything was!

Why, she had taken care of almost every detail personally by now. Would Thom have been able to deal with an irate, temperamental chef, or an all-business, practical agent and publicist? Of course not. Thom couldn’t find his own ass if it had ‘Thom’s Ass’ printed on it, he was that incompetent.

Life was so unfair. Grace was competent, skilled, intelligent and good with people. She had everything that should let her get ahead in life. But there she was, still stuck dealing with absolutely, incomprehensibly bad manuscripts, all thanks to nepotism.

Lazy, laidback people like Katie got ahead in life. Charismatic, no-good, unreliable jackasses like Thom managed to score the good stuff. But Grace was stuck in the background, giving far too much attention to things that deserved absolutely no attention.

Feeling sulky, Grace took a break and sat down. She had managed to get her hands on an invite, of course, but now, she couldn’t help worrying if Thom would show up. If he did, the game would be up. She would have to own up to what she did.

But was an employer who didn’t even think that she deserved to attend an event she had basically pulled together at the last minute worth her time and effort?

She hadn’t gotten into publishing for the money. There was hardly any to be made. She lived in an extremely tiny one-bedroom studio that ate up most of her paycheck, leaving her with very little. Her mama, bless her, understood and made sure that she had food to eat. But she was sacrificing so much in the hopes of finally getting her manuscript read by somebody who mattered.

Grace was forced to wonder if it would even happen, ever. The publishing house for which she worked her fingers to the bone – she knew she was exaggerating now, but hell, she was feeling tired and bitter, and she was entitled – didn’t even consider it fair that she attend the book signing.

Quite apart from the work and effort she had put in, Katie knew how much she loved Alan Barden. She knew now that she had met Rachel Smith. Obviously, Rachel would assume that she would be attending the event, if only to be in the background and make sure that everything went smoothly.

Well, the event was being held jointly by Keys Publishing House and Alan Barden, who was a reclusive, elusive brand of his own. She knew that there would be bigwigs from Keys attending.

She was also certain that not a single one of them would even recognize her. What hope did she have of ever getting them to pay attention to her or her book?

Grace lovingly took the first edition book she’d brought along out of her bag and stroked it gently. She might lose her job for this. But this job wasn’t worth keeping, not at the cost of missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Alan Barden. If she was risking it all, so be it. It would be worth it.