Chapter Twenty-Eight

The next morning the three travelers amidst others, were up and ready for a good breakfast.  Keisha wondered why Laureen was still alone attending to all the guests. 

“Hey, need help? I do this from back home.” She offered in a rather nonchalant manner.

“Oh don’t bother. I can handle it.” Laureen wore a wide smile while loading a hot tray with pastries for the sieve and carefully arranging some cupcakes and pies in orderly fashion. 

“Your new recruit is still ill?”

“Mmhmm. I think it’s a flu or something. I’ll check on him after I’m done here,” she replied, not sounding the least bit disturbed about it. 

“You might call it what you will but he sounds like a lazy ass to me,” clearly miffed at the thought that her friend was still making excuses for whoever. She rejoined Todd and Mitch at the back corner with some of the pastries for them to treat themselves with.

“Thanks prissy,” Mitch twitted, knowing how that grated on her nerves. 

“One more word and you’d wish you never spoke,” she threatened with a fork from the table.

“Hey, hey, calm calm please. We all need our voices especially tonight for all them’ scream’n and yell’n at the show, c’mon…” Todd intervened. She shot Mitch a dirty look and looked away. 

“Dave is still not out?” Todd changed the subject. 

“He must be one lazybones to stay cooped up in his room at a time so late in the morning,” Keisha sipped her tea. It looked like seeing Laureen work alone disturbed her that much. 

“Easy on the poor guy, Keisha. I’m sure he’s not used to this kind of pressure. One night with him and I’d bet he’s never touched a knife in his life.” Todd continued. 

“Well, at least he can write. That’s good for something,” Mitch jerked his chin towards the waiter who wore a protective mask and cap on his head. 

“He looks like a specimen to be used for a flu vaccination experiment- how many germs is he shooing away from him with all that overprotective gear?” Todd commented. 

****

Hours passed swiftly as the entry doors closed and opened pouring in and out people from all kinds of places. Laureen took in a new dosage of shock everyday whenever she remembered how deserted their place once was. Their little motel has a lot to be grateful for to the Purple Place and more so the production crew organizing this event. She wished she could sneak away to earn herself a great time at the production too  but just imagining Jefferson’s face while talking to him about it discouraged her. It wasn’t long before a few folks in black tees approached her at the bench. She could tell who they were at just a glance.

“You must be our fairy godparents!” She gasped in delight. They had The Mirror embroidered at the upper left side of their shirts. One of them who looked like a director grinned at her reaction. 

“And you must be…. Laureen,” he read her name on her tag. 

“Yes please,” she said, smiling from ear to ear. She couldn’t believe she was standing in front of such impressive people who could pull a national ranking kind of event like this. Everyone knew that any activity hosted at the Purple Place was noteworthy and deserving of praise. 

“I understand you’re the only motel around here and as your “fairy godparents” we were thinking you could cater for our crew tonight at The Purple Place during the show and afterwards,” he added. Laureen stood expressionless. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing and had to be snapped to reality.

“Laureen?” 

“Uh yes yes yes. Um, ideally err I have to ask my boss first but I think this is a good opportunity for the business so I’ll accept the offer on his behalf,” she replied, trying to not sound overly enthusiastic about the deal. 

“That’s admirable of you to say. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my secretary would handle all the necessary paperwork with you so we would look forward to your services tonight. You can set up with the other vendors at the foyer without any rate but you must attend to us at the Grey Room so you might need a lot more hands if you want to make some money both ways,”

“Yes please”

“And one more thing , it’d look good on you if you can have the personnels attending to us wear our crew uniform. Three would be enough to cover us. It’s a brand we’re building- which is the reason for the uniformity,” he winked at her and left with the others leaving behind their secretary. It looked like they had other urgent businesses to attend to seeing how he kept referring to his phone.

“Hi. I’m Amanda, pleased to work with you,” Amanda greeted her flatly as she held a notepad and a ballpoint ready to make some scribbles. 

“Um hi,” Laureen replied still lost in what had just taken place. 

“Forgive me for being intrusive but you planned such a huge production like this and you want one unnoticed motel to cater for you?” She had to ask her. The question was swallowing her alive and just had to ask. Amanda chuckled softly at her.

“Well, I don’t think you’re unnoticeable anymore,” she looked up and down at the place to prove her point.

“If you must know, we had an in-house department for catering but their truck broke down a few hours ago. Director doesn’t want to take some chances on when they’d arrive so we had to think of a Plan B,” Amanda retorted. 

“Oh, so we are the plan B. I guess that makes sense” Laureen intoned seeing how the secretary spoke in that condescending tone. It was hard to mask the disappointment that came with it. 

“So… Can we get down to business? Or you’d rather take a moment to be involved in what’s not your business.”

Laureen looked at her wide-eyed. Surprised to have to relate with such a swelled up personality. 

“Did you go to school for that?” She asked. 

“Of course, you need some good education if you want to be an outstanding secretary,” Amanda replied matter-of-factly.

“No… I didn’t mean your job. I meant your attitude. You’re so full of yourself that I’m afraid I’m getting drowned in it.” Laureen berated. 

Shocked at her outburst she put down her notepad and darted her pen at her ready to give Laureen a piece of her mind. 

“Listen, young lady-“

“No you listen, sweetheart. I know we may not have the trophies and badges of honor to show for our achievements but I’ll not have you walk in here to talk down on us like we’re some doormat. If you really need our help on this then I think you should adjust your tone,” Laureen warned. She wasn’t the nice, cute Laureen now. Dave who saw the tension rising from afar hurried to calm things before he saw two women fistfighting.

“Laureen, are you alright?” He whispered in her ear. She exhaled softly and plastered a wan smile on her face. Amanda saw Dave and got caught in his charm too but wasn’t going to give herself out. She cleared her throat and turned back to Laureen. 

“Whatever. Are you ready to get something done or I can work things out with your colleague over here,” she eyed him.

“Looks to me like we might not get anything done if it’s up to the two of us,” she added. 

“Um…” Dave wasn’t sure what was going on before he arrived on the scene. 

“Gentleman, do you mind?” Amanda waited for an answer from him and he was clueless. 

“Dave, you take care of Ms. Bighead while I take care of a few things at the kitchen,” she brushed her apron and left the two alone. 

“So how can we help you, miss?”

“Actually, the director for the grand production happening at the Purple place considered having your little crew cater for our dramatis personae tomorrow but unfortunately your little hussy friend just had to take offense,” she rejoined.

Dave could hardly hear what she said behind the stuck-up air around her. 

“Erm… first, can we cut down on the name calling so we can actually have a conversation concerning the plan? I am only interested in how we can help you, not how much you’re worth…” he replied with a witty smile. Surprisingly she wasn’t offended by that. She looked rather enamored with his eloquence. She never expected a waiter to speak with such fluency. 

“You speak well,” she complimented, setting her notepad on the counter and watching him. 

“Thank you but I still think we have business to discuss. Otherwise, we could handle that when you’re ready,” he added.

“No time to waste. How about we do this over a table? I could use a chair for this,” she said but what she really wanted was to have a prolonged time with him. And as smart as he was, he could read in between the lines but chose to give her an audience for a time and afterwards, excuse himself. It was a tedious task to have to sit in front of a woman who sat or gave suggestive gestures just to get his other attention, away from the subject in discussion. Laureen, watching them through the kitchen doors channeled her jealousy and rage on the poor slice of beef she needed to dice for some sauce for the evening dinner menu. 

After barely an hour, Dave got up to leave but this lady wouldn’t let him. He had to forcefully but politely slip her hand off his and leave. 

“Thank you for your time. I’ll make sure to have the rest of the team know of these arrangements and get to work asap,” he said as he left. Amanda recomposed herself and replied accordingly, anticipating the next chance she’d have with him. 

****

“So what did she say apart from being all around you?” The jealousy in her tone was palpable. Dave curled his lips into a slight smile and knew better not to laugh at the angry lady lest she jabs him with the knife she was holding. 

“She… mentioned that we’d have to cater for whatever with our own resources since they’re giving us a spot to set up for free at the production,” he reported. 

Dave swore he could see smoke oozing out of her ears and nostrils. 

“And what else…” She tried to calm herself until she heard everything there was to be heard.

“We’d have to wear their branded uniform… with a cap…” he hesitated and stepped back a bit, terrified to see her hair flying all over her head.

“And … what else?”

“We need a branded van….” And her eyes shot back at him.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she smirked.

“So what did you say?”

“Actually … I was kidding” he teased and quickly dove behind one of the pillars. 

Laureen grabbed her butcher knife to threaten him but paused and just laughed it off. 

“You just saved your life,” she dropped it back and continued dicing her beef.

“She only told us to put on their working gear and to bring a befitting van to the place. She sighed at the thought of the latter part. Did they even have a normal car to their name let alone a van and branded too? She thought of engaging Keisha sooner and hoped they’d sign up too  but if she didn’t, they might have to decline the offer no matter how huge it is.

****

After a long time of talking her friend into the whole deal, the onus was on Keisha to talk to her other friends about it too. She didn’t see how she was going to go about it without her pride getting in the way. The last thing she wanted was to be at someone’s mercy, Mitch to be precise. She thought it’d be best to get Todd and have him handle Mitch and it worked.

“Are you sure about this?” He asked, knowing how important the show was to his friend.

“Mmhmm. Sacrificing is part of my job description as a pastor so yes,” Todd replied. 

“So you’re going to miss the whole show, selling at a stand when you have a ticket?”

“Well… not the whole show. Only till when it starts. Laureen should be back in time before it does. She just needs our help with setting up the space while she handles the handouts for the cast members, basically.”

“So both of us will stand guard at the spot. She would handle the preps with Keisha and Dave, then  later you would join both of them to serve the cast after the show. Laureen and I would be holding the fort here then.”

“Interesting. Why do I have a feeling that you’re the one supposed to join the two of them there?” He squinted at him for a minute.

“Well…” and his phone rang.

“Ooooh… Mrs. Todd is calling. I must be in trouble for not letting her know when I arrived,” he dove to a corner to pick up his call and Mitch could tell how grateful he was to escape his question. He now had to pray and hope that his next episode with their lady friend would not be disastrous but rather pull them closer and he knew that could only be a dream.