Page 44

Had a Series of Problems A ll at Once

“I just need to confirm that the food has been delivered this morning,” Helena insisted to the kitchen contact over at the Wrightwood Ballroom. Talking through a hands-free headset, Helena’s hands kept busy as she flipped through the table setting cards, checking against an official list where every name had been spell checked and honorificked correctly. “Alright, that’s fine. I’ll hold. Ju st hurry.”

Half the day was already gone, and she was already wearing her gown for the night, not trusting that there would be time to change between final arrangements and the ball’s start. The dress she wore was an inspiration of what Scarlet wore in the picture she had shown her all those months ago, a bright rose red that layered around her like petals. Scarlet had insisted on the dress herself as a show of continuity and a public show of her company exchanging hands. Yosef had already dressed as well, his matching cummerbund wrapped around his waist over his tuxedo pants and shirt. His jacket hung off the back of his chair, but in its lapel was a holiday rose, bright and festive. For Scarlet’s part, she was going to wear a gown of pure white to match her whitened hair as the winter ro se itself.

She could see it. They were so close to the finish line. Helena had never worked so hard in her life. Dedicating herself with a fervor she had never known previously, she had discovered an endurance she hadn’t known she had.

Finishing the stack of cards and checking off the last name on the list, she slid them into a manila envelope and sealed it with the metal clip in the middle. “The guest list is checked,” she called across the room to Yosef.

“Good, we need to go over soon,” he said as he dialed his own phone and pressed it to his ear. “Yes, this is Yosef over at Scarlet Promotions returning y our call…”

Helena shot a glance at Scarlet sitting at her own desk. There had been an unspoken tension between them now. Yosef kept assuring her that this was just Scarlet’s focused demeanor, that she was like this every year before the Winter Rose Ball, but Helena had done two Winter Rose Balls under Scarlet since she started working for her, and it hadn’t felt like this then. But she hadn’t been a part of the leadership staff either, so she swallowed her apprehensions back and focused on what was next in fron t of her.

She would not let Scar let down.

Finally, the ballroom contact came back to the phone. “Yes, the food was delivered,” the woman reported.

“Alright good. The last thing I need is for the chef over at the Tower Top to call screaming at me again.” She meant it as a joke, but she got awkward silence instead of chuckles on the other end.

“Um, I don’t know about that, ma’am,” the voice said politely.

Helena took a breath and held back her sigh. “I’ll give him a call next. Thank you for confirming deliv ery. Bye.”

She hung up.

Shaking her head, Helena tried to stack all her materials together. “I think I need to get over there. Nobody seems to know what they’r e doing.”

“That’s fine, child,” Scarlet said as she pressed her fingers into her temples.

Helena paused as she noted it. “Scarlet, are you alright?” s he asked.

Scarlet looked up at her blearily. She seemed for a moment like she didn’t know where she was or who she was talking to, then she said. “Yes, yes. I’m just more tired than I wa nt to be…”

Yosef looked up from his phone call and exchanged a worried glance wi th Helena.

Then Scarlet collapsed back into her w heelchair.

“Scarlet!” Helena shouted as she rushed from her desk to her boss’s side. Yosef was there a sec ond later.

“Pull the chair back!” he ordered while trying to dive for something under the desk.

“Scarlet, are you alright? Can you hear me?” Helena called to the older woman, whose lead lolled as her breathing became strained.

Yosef yanked out an oxygen tank from under the desk, his fingers desperately working through the tangle of tubes to get to the mask.

“Hold this to her face.” He handed the mask off as he made adjustments to the tank’s meter and turned on the air.

Almost instantly, Scarlet opened her eyes as she breathed.

“Slowly, slowly,” Yosef said as she jerked. After a moment, Scarlet’s eyes cleared of confusion, then she reached up and slipped the strap to hold the mask on over her head.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit,” she cursed. “We don’t have time for this.”

“No,” Yosef said in no uncertain terms as Scarlet reached for the brake on her wheelchair, as if she intended to roll away from her problems. “You’re not going anywhere. I’m going to call Dr . Phelps.”

“No, don’t do that!” she insisted, reaching again for the oxygen tank in order to put it in its bag on her chair, but Yosef pulled it out of her way and handed it t o Helena.

“Put your foot in front of the wheel and don’t let her leave,” he said, turning angrily to go back to his desk where he had tossed his phone in h is panic.

“You can’t hold me here!” she growled after him. “You’re fired. You hear me!”

“Fine,” he shouted back, unphased by her empty threat as he unlocked his phone and tapped quickly until it rang.

“Helena, we can’t… It’s tonight! There is still so much to do,” Scarlet said, pleading with her other subordinate where shouting had failed with the first. Yosef’s voice carried low and urgent as he talked to th e doctor.

Scarlet’s head lolled again for a second before she snapped it back up. “Dammit. This isn’t how it’s going to end. I won’t allow it!”

“I’ll take care of it,” Helena assured her. “We’re almost done. I can handle the last of the details. I’ll go over right now and double check everything while you talk to the doctor and get checked out. It’ll be fine. Then you can meet me over at the ballroom.” Helena hoped she wasn’t lying, but it seemed to placate Scarlet as she turned to watch Yosef, who was dragging out the massage table while he still spoke to th e doctor.

“They’ll take me away and put me in a bed, and I’ll never get out again,” Scarlet said fearfully. “I don’t want to die on my back.”

“You won’t die on your back,” Helena said. “They’ll have to drag you off kicking and s creaming.”

Scarlet looked up at her. “Damn right they will.” The thought seemed to calm her down, and she reached up to Helena’s hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Get going. I’ll stay here and comply. Just don’t let me down, my girl.”

The pain in Helena’s chest finally eased and she nodded. “I won’t.”

Yosef returned and took over guarding Scarlet as Helena moved back to her desk.

Finding her elegant kitten-heeled shoes, Helena bundled herself into her coat and adjusted her hair before gathering up everything she needed to take with her. She had someone in the office call her a cab to take her over to the venue and gave instructions to the rest of the office, three of whom were joining her on the crossing over. Before they left, Scarlet’s doctor and nursing assistant arrived, beelining to her office with grave looks that spread tension to the rest of the room.

“Hey, everybody. Everything is fine,” Helena said, commanding all eyes to her and hoping she was doing it the way Scarlet wo uld have.

“Is Ms. Scarlet alright?” one of the office workers asked, glancing nervously toward h er office.

“It’s a big night tonight, and the doctor is insisting on checking her vitals before giving his approval for her to go over. It’s just for insurance reasons,” Helena lied. But her lie worked and the room all nodded, shoulders dropping as they accepted that reason. “Believe me, Scarlet is furious.” That got her a few chuckles, everyone’s belief at their boss’s feistiness holding true. “Alright, so we got our jobs to do. We can’t let Scarlet down. I’m heading over now, and Yosef is helping with the checkup so any further questions or emergencies, forward to me for now. Let’s give Scarlet a chance to get her game face on and show her what w e can do.”

That rallied the troops nicely, and Helena actually felt confident as they headed on down the elevator and out to the wai ting cab.

She could do this. It was all going to be alright.

The other three in the cab with her were chattering away when the first rush of calls came to her phone. To her surprise, it was an unknow n number.

“Hello, is this Madame Helena?” a familiar voice asked on the o ther end.

“Yes, it is. Who is this?”

“It is éliott from Tower Top Restaurant. I served you when you w ere here.”

“Oh, yes, I remember you. éliott, how are you?”

“Honestly, not good, madame. There is a problem that I need to discuss with you. About the dinner for tonight.”

Fuck, Helena thought but didn’t express. “Whatever it is, we can fix it. What is the problem?”

“The chef. He is gone.”