Page 49 of Third Time is the Charm (Passion and Perseverance #3)
She had hoped that Darcy would be there when she got back to her apartment, but just as she walked in the door her phone buzzed with a text from him.
- Just boarding.
She’d wanted to talk to him about Caroline as soon as possible, but she had a feeling that he was purposefully getting in after she left for dinner because he was worried he wouldn’t be able to control himself enough to let her go if he was physically here.
She dumped her bag onto the kitchen stool and went into her bedroom to quickly change.
Her heartbeat picked up at the sight of her bed completely messed, remembering how it became that way.
Warmth spread through her body as she threw on a flowy, mid-thigh length skirt and a simple, white fitted t-shirt – both of which she’d grabbed from her old room, along with a few other things to add to her non-existent, non-work wardrobe.
With a pair of wedges, she looked cute but still semi-professional – in her opinion.
Turning to walk back out of the room had her glancing at the bed one more time, wondering what was in store for tonight; the thought stopped her in her tracks.
Biting her lip between her teeth only partially stopped the devious smile that spread over her face as she reached up underneath her skirt and pulled off her underwear.
Just a little something to welcome Darcy home with… or without.
With a satisfied smile, she tossed the thong into her hamper and walked back into the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of wine from what was left of the bottle that Darcy had brought.
She hadn’t touched it all week, but right now the imminent task of breaking up with Col, even though they weren’t technically together, was an anxiety that she didn’t need with the threat of Caroline coming to Boston.
She had one sip left when she heard a knock on the door. With a fear that she hadn’t felt in months, she looked through the peep-hole this time before opening it – confirming that it was in fact Col on the other side and not a Crazy Bitch.
“Hey there, beautiful,” he greeted her. His face lighting up with a smile on seeing her as his hand extended with a bouquet of white roses.
Shit, this was going to be hard.
Beth felt her stomach turn at the excitement on his face, knowing she was about to wipe it off.
“Hey,” she replied, her lips struggling to return his smile as she took the flowers from him. “You didn’t have to get me these.”
“Actually, I did,” he informed her. “Mostly because I’ve been remiss in my coffee duties practically all week without warning you, which in my book is akin to cruel-and-unusual punishment.”
Beth couldn’t help but laugh as she brought the flowers inside, putting them inside the same pitcher that she’d just cleaned out from the last set of flowers that he’d brought.
“Well, thank you. I did manage to survive… but just barely,” she teased back. “So, where have you been? I was starting to get worried. Hannah said something about the permits.” Beth saw his smile whither slightly when she asked.
“Yeah, something like that,” he sighed. “I’ll tell you about it at dinner. I think I need a glass of wine before that discussion.” He joked to lighten the mood, except it only reminded Beth of the discussion that she needed to have with him.
And that one was probably going to be just as upsetting as, if not more than, the stupid permits.
“How was your week?” Col asked as they walked out her door.
“Pretty good – busy. But I think everything is pretty well under control for next week,” Beth assured him, getting into the car that was waiting outside for them.
“Awesome. I’m probably going to be pretty MIA next week, too, with everyone kind of arriving throughout the week.”
“You’re going to greet them all?” she asked in astonishment. They had over five hundred participants signed up to participate in the Contest.
“Of course, I can’t greet all of them,” Col said with a laugh.
“But, I can try.” He winked. Beth just stared at him incredulously, unsure if he was really serious or not.
“You are really gullible today, Miss Bennet,” he continued, laughing even more.
“I try to make my rounds through the hotels throughout the week, greeting participants as they come. Mostly, I try to make it around to those who’ve participated in the past to make sure they know how much I value their continued support. ”
Beth sighed, letting out a soft laugh at herself. “Sorry – I guess this week has really drained my brain.” She’d have to tell him just how much soon.
Col grabbed her hand and squeezed, giving her a warm smile.
He continued to talk about what the next week had in store for him – meeting guests, dinner plans, small group speaking engagements with those who had family members currently in treatment at the Dempsey Center, tours of the center for high profile investors, etc.
Before she knew it, they were seated at their table and the first course was about to arrive any minute. She chewed her lip nervously, realizing that she’d already finished half of her glass of wine, mindlessly distracted and involved in their conversation about work.
“So, what happened with the permits?” she finally asked, taking a bite of her salad.
“Ugh, man,” he sighed. “Any way I can get a second glass of wine down before we talk about that?” He laughed. “No, I’m kidding. Just a very sore subject that’s been plaguing me all week.”
“Sorry,” Beth apologized quietly, waiting for him to continue.
“Alright, well you know that I told you last week that I got all of the permits for the road closures squared away?” he began, waiting for her to nod that she remembered that discussion before continuing.
“Well, I get a call Monday afternoon – and by afternoon, I mean at four-thirty just before they leave for the day – that two of the permits weren’t submitted properly and that one of the other ones wasn’t submitted altogether. ”
“What?” Beth gasped. She’d been there when they’d gone through all of the paperwork to make sure that every ‘t’ was crossed and every ‘i’ was dotted.
“Yeah,” he said, letting out a harsh laugh.
“So, first I just assumed that it must be an error. Which, fine, it happens, but it was the end of the day so there wasn’t much I could do at that point and the woman who called me was just a secretary, so she didn’t know very much.
” He paused as the waiter came to clear their plates, preparing the table for the main course.
“Are you liking everything so far?” Col asked her, briefly changing subjects to make sure the purpose of their meal wasn’t forgotten.
“Oh, yes! Excellent so far. I think everyone will really enjoy it,” she nodded enthusiastically.
“Good,” Col nodded. “So, Tuesday, I call the city again. Finally spoke to someone who had personally handled the permits, who insisted to me that the one was definitely missing and that the others were marked as not being completed properly.”
Beth shook her head in disbelief. “I saw Hannah fill them out exactly as they instructed and we both looked over them a thousand times before mailing them in!”
“I told her that, but insisting was pointless. So, I asked her what wasn’t filled out properly and if I could come down there and just correct it? It seemed like the logical fix to the problem, it’s not like I haven’t run this before and asked for these exact permits before.”
Again, he paused as their main course was placed in front of them. Filet with vegetables and a risotto.
“At which point she ‘sincerely apologized’ but said that she wasn’t sure where the errors had occurred since permits that were not completed or submitted properly were simply marked as such and then destroyed.”
Beth choked on the sip of wine that she’d just taken. Her eyes widening in horror; without the permits the whole event was off. And the permits needed to be submitted at least four weeks before an event, which meant it was far too late to just resubmit them.
“Yeah, that was pretty much my response,” he replied, the weight of his anxiety now very clear in his voice.
“What are you going to do? What can I do? Is there really no way they can expedite this for us?” The questions flew off her tongue in rapid fire, her brain firing a thousand times a minute trying to go through all of the possibilities, all of the options that they still had before simply cancelling the entire Contest a week before it was supposed to happen.
“Well, just hold on. There’s still more to the story. Something that I found out earlier today that you might be able to help me with, or at least help me understand,” he continued, cutting into his steak.
“Ok…” What does that mean? What could she possibly know about what had happened?
“So, I know I sound fine now and I’m sure that’s it’s very hard to imagine, but I can get upset, and I did.
I was very upset. I’m not proud of it, but boy, did I lay into the woman on the phone.
It’s just incredible that I’ve been doing this for how many years now and this year we suddenly have an issue – a week before the event.
At which point, she looked further into their computer trail and informed me that it looked like the documents had been approved initially over a week ago, but then were put back into a manual review, after which they were marked as ‘Denied.’” The way he was even saying it to her implied his drift – that there was something fishy going on.