The Party Girl's Invitation

by Karen Elaine Campbell

  Looking at her now though, as they sat in the ‘Dog and Duck’ with a glass of chilled champagne each and lunch for Crystal, she had polished up well, Crystal decided. Several pounds lighter, with her teeth fixed and her hair coloured she had got herself a new man and a new life. She’d looked with horror at the selection of crisps, sandwiches and pickles that Crystal had ordered and insisted that Reginald liked her slim, so she’d pass on lunch, for now.

  Her Reginald worked in London, most of the time, she said. They had only been dating for a few weeks, he was a very busy man. He was taking her to a posh corporate ‘do’ in London tonight and then the opera at the weekend, he was a man of culture. She’d invited him to meet her family at the Hunt Ball, since she’d not had chance to show him off yet, everyone was so busy these days. At the mention of the ball, Crystal took a deep breath. That was what they were here for, really, to discuss the arrangements and see what could be done to salvage the mess.

  “So, how many tickets have we sold then, what kind of numbers am I up against?” she started as an opening gambit.

  Lolly wriggled awkwardly in her seat and began to make pleats out of the folds of material in her skirt. “We sent out a hundred and fifty invitations, but mummy has been collating the responses, so I’m not quite sure how many people have taken us up on the offer. We raised the ticket price this year because we wanted some of the money raised to go to other charities too. I hope it hasn’t put people off,” she worried.“Mummy put the replies in a shoe box along with the egg money, but I’m afraid it has all got a bit mixed up. She was trying to sort it out for you last night.”She grimaced, “I’m not at all sure how far she got, to be honest, there was a whole stack of cash as well as cheques, so it was difficult to know which money was for which, if you know what I mean?”She looked hopefully at Crystal, as if she thought she might have the answer. “There must be a couple of thousand pounds there, we really should have banked it all by now, shouldn’t we?”

  Crystal took a deep breath. “Hmm, yes, really we should. Right, so we don’t really know what our budget is, or how many numbers we are catering for then yet?”Crystal got out her notepad and began to write, in between nibbling crisps and picking at olives and tiny silverskin pickled onions in equal measures. She shoved the plate over towards Lolly, “Go on, help yourself, a few onions and some olives won’t do your diet any harm, you look half starved to me.”

  Lolly recoiled in horror, “That’s the last thing I need. Reginald won’t find me in the least bit attractive if I turn up stinking of onions and picking bits of olive out from between my teeth, very fastidious, he is. No, I’ll pass, if you don’t mind.”She smoothed down her pure silk skirt, admiring the way that the material pearled in the soft glow from the overhead light, it had cost a small fortune, but had been well worth the expense. She had a real ‘boyfriend’ for the first time in years, and he was loaded too, she wasn’t going to risk losing him now.

  Crystal watched the agitated gestures with cool detachment and wondered what her cousin was thinking. They had never been particularly close, but she’d learned to pick up on signs of nervousness or uncertainty whilst working in LA. There, she’d learned to be wary of neurotic people. Cities seemed to attract the paranoid, nervous and fretful souls, their behaviour often tragic, but you learned to cope and life was certainly diverse.

  In comparison, Lolly had lived her entire life on the outskirts of Bath and had never left the sheltered confines of her family home. Crystal felt somewhat world-weary and jaded, when she considered alternatives. The only time they’d really got together in the past had been in the summer holidays and then Jeremy and Mark had been around too, they’d invariably managed to get Lolly into trouble, over some mis-deed or other. Still, family loyalty and all, gran had asked her to help, so she supposed she would do her best to extract Lolly from the mire. On reflection, it would make a change, her bailing Lolly out of trouble, perhaps she owed her this much. Showing remarkable restraint, she refrained from asking how the champagne thieves were doing, and focussed on the positives.

  “So, we need to get the numbers from Aunt Vera then. How about the venue? At your place, dinner on the lawn and tent in the paddock?”

  “Yes, we’ve had a lot of rain these past few weeks and the grass is really rather long, it will need cutting before we can put a marquee up. Old Farmer Brown used to lend us his tractor to mow the pasture, but he passed away last winter and his son has sold up, farm equipment and everything. I don’t know who to ask now.”

  Crystal made more notes, ‘mow field’.

  “So, to recap then,” she added, as she reviewed the rapidly lengthening list. “We don’t have a marquee, the field is overgrown, there are no glasses ordered and we have mistakenly ordered twice as many flowers as we need. The caterers have not been informed of numbers and the printers haven’t typeset the menus yet. Have we actually got anything in place? What about the band? We do have a band, don’t we?”

  “I put the usual band on stand-by this year. The youngsters were asking for a disco last year, don’t you think that bands are a bit old and boring?”

  Crystal’s eyebrows hit her hairline. With effort she retained her composure. “That depends on your audience really, Lolly. The last ball I organised here had a guest list with an average age of sixty, our regulars like the traditional big band sound. We need to tailor the music to the audience, Lolly.”

  She sketched a hangman’s noose on the side of her writing pad, while she considered the options. “If we knew who had already bought tickets it might make it easier to decide what kind of entertainment to provide. One solution would be a disco later, when some of the ‘oldies’ have gone on to bed. It will increase costs though, and we’ve enough of those already.”She made a few more scribbles. “So it comes back to how many tickets have we sold and who is buying them really then, eh?”

  “Oh, I’m so glad gran called you in to help, we got into a right mess last year. You were out in America, so you wouldn’t have heard too much about it, but there were lots of complaints afterwards, it was most unpleasant. Mummy ended up writing letters about it for weeks. In the end we made our own donation to charity and picked up the bill. Daddy can’t afford to do that this year though, farming isn’t paying as well as it used to. I might even have to get a job, though heaven knows what I might do.”

  Or a rich husband, more likely, Crystal thought with uncharacteristic bluntness. Perhaps that was what was behind the sudden and dramatic change in appearance. “So, what do you do these days then, since you finished at Uni?” she asked.

  “I do charity work, mostly. I did white water rafting last year, and raised money for Ethiopia. It’s not paid work though.”

  Crystal thought hard for a moment. “You have a good knowledge of this area don’t you? Archaeological sites and stuff? Do you have any college contacts?”

  Lolly looked confused. “Ye-es, I suppose I do, those that haven’t moved on, that is. Everyone has such different lives these days. Most are married or out at work, someplace or other. Of course, I help out on the farm too, when it gets busy, but it’s not the same. I can think of a few names, why, what do you need?”

  “I’m not going back to London,” Crystal stated.“I’m thinking of setting up business here, aimed at the American tourist market, primarily. I have contacts back in the States, so it would be a new angle. I was thinking about it on my way down from London on the train. All those acres of countryside, small fields, pretty villages and the ubiquitous ‘cream tea’, it’s all very alluring to the American market. They are more used to miles of freeway and mass urban sprawls, depending on what part of the States you’re from, of course. Where I was in LA, they would find this all very ‘quaint’, especially our pubs and tea shops and heritage. I thought we could bring them in by train from London and then put them up in one of the nice hotels in Bath. If we offer a package, Stonehenge, Avebury, a few war memorials, ending up with the pump rooms and the Royal Crescent it would have univer
sal appeal. We could make a few days of it, and offer a West End show on the last night, as an optional extra, finish the whole thing off with a bit of pazzaz. I need to do some market research before I put some proposals together and thought you might know a few hard up students who would be prepared to help me. There won’t be much cash in it, but I could call in a few favours and pay them in concert tickets.”She rattled off a list of top artists and bands due in at the capital over the next few months, some sold out weeks ago.

  Lolly inspected her nails, looking downcast. “There are people around here who would do anything to get their hands on some of those tickets, we’re a bit out in the wilds here. It all sounds very glamorous. What I don’t understand is why you would give it all up, to return home here?”

  Too many questions, Crystal thought. She really must remember to keep her mouth shut. “Homesick,” she replied brightly, “I just miss my roots,” she lied.

  Jazz stared irritably at a blank computer screen. Did nothing work around here? He’d been given every excuse from ‘the water table’ to the ‘Cotswold Hills’ for his lack of reception, but he really wasn’t buying it. This was the twenty-first century, internet communication and telecoms links could connect via satellite to every remote corner of the world these days, they even had a fully functioning webcam on the South pole, surely London to Bath couldn’t be that complicated?

  He’d had so called ‘experts’ in here by the barrow load, and still they’d not fixed the problem. When he asked the staff, they all looked shifty and muttered in broad ‘West Country’ accents about the lead lined walls and historical ‘problems’ with the boss’s office. It was well known that things would switch themselves on and off at the most inopportune moments and papers often seemed to temporarily ‘disappear’ only to turn up again later in the day, once the current crisis was past.

  He’d never heard such rubbish, and he wasn’t impressed. If they thought they were going to disrupt his day with their prophetic ramblings, then they were sorely mistaken. The computer screen suddenly pinged into life, without him touching anything.

  He frowned and kicked at the junction box under his desk, must have a loose wire or something. He’d get a new power breaker installed tomorrow, fluctuating power supply could cause chaos with sensitive electrical equipment. He rummaged in his desk drawer for a screwdriver.

  What a mess. The whole lot looked like it had been dumped out onto the floor and then given a shuffle before being stuffed back in the drawer again ‘any old how’. Who had been going through his things? More importantly, how was he supposed to find anything in here?

  He didn’t have time for this. It would be easier to just call someone else in to do the job for him. The box of condoms, tucked in with his business cards caught his attention. He picked the package up, and smiled. Now there was a story. He wondered what else had been lurking there, in the back his drawer, forgotten.

  Maybe he’d just take five minutes to re-organise his life. He’d dated a yoga freak for a while, who’d been into macrobiotics and minimalism. She’d taught him to de-clutter and de-stress. Then she’d run off with his gardener, they felt an affinity with nature, or some such crap. He found the screwdriver in with the flash drives and pen lights, someone had made a right mess here. He frowned, there was only one other set of keys to this office, other than his own.

  Ten minutes later he picked up the phone and buzzed his secretary, “Verity, find Jeremy will you, and send him in here,” he barked.

  “Yes, sir.” Verity replied to a line that had already gone dead. She rushed out of the office in a panic and bumped into Jeremy outside in the corridor.

  “Jools, the boss wants you.”

  Jeremy consulted his watch.“I was on my way to see you actually, the sales meeting isn’t scheduled for at least another twenty minutes. I thought we could have a coffee before I get started, otherwise if the meeting over-runs I probably won’t see you tonight at all.”

  “Nice idea.”She shook her head, dark auburn curls bouncing, “I wouldn’t keep him waiting if I were you. He’s in a foul mood, has been all day. He should have been out of here hours ago. He has a swish reception to attend in London this evening but he just got me to ring the latest girlfriend and cancel it. She wasn’t very happy. Said she’s already bought a new dress to wear. Then when she rang back to speak to him a moment ago he wouldn’t even take her call. I reckon she’s on her way out, poor girl.”

  She smoothed down her black trousers, the motion causing the smooth material of her slim fitting cream shirt to pull tight across her breasts. She looked up at Jeremy under her lashes, secure in the response that the action provoked. His eyes were drawn to her best assets, pushed up on show in an outrageously expensive piece of Janet Raeger lingerie. She pretended not to notice.

  “I quite liked her, if I’m honest,” she offered. “She was always nice to me on the phone and didn’t talk down at me like most of them do. West Country girl, I think.”

  Jeremy watched the rise and fall of her chest. She was a lousy secretary, by all accounts, but she sure knew how to display her assets. Snapping his mind back to the task in hand, he trailed a finger down her cheek, “Into the lion’s den, then. Keep it warm. I promise we’ll have dinner tonight,” he whispered, totally refuting his earlier claims.

  “Took you long enough,” Jazz barked, the second that he stuck his head around the door. He pressed the intercom, “Verity, stop painting your nails and start typing, I need that document before the meeting at three o’clock.”

  He turned back to Jeremy. “Bloody internet is on the blink again. I’ve had people in here by the dozen. Verity said that you know a guy who does computers? New guy, straight out of college? Any chance he can fix this?”He didn’t wait for a reply, “I need a power breaker too, this one is on the fritz.”

  Jeremy let out a sigh of relief. So the sales figures stood up to scrutiny then, he wasn’t about to be fired, after all. Good old Crystal. “His name is Brad and he’s good with computers. I have to contact him for my sister later today, so I’ll ask him if he can fit in a visit here too, if you like. I know he’s quite busy these days, but he’ll probably be able to fit it in, as a favour.”

  Jazz proffered the handset, “Ring him now. I’m back up to town in the morning, once I get this work here finished. I’ve just cancelled my date for tonight because of this. The lady concerned is not too pleased with me.” He rustled a few papers on the desk. “So, what does Crystal need a computer guy for then,” he asked.

  Jeremy looked surprised, “You’ve met Crystal? She’s only been back a couple of days.”

  Jazz smirked. “Let’s just say that we ran into each other.”So, she hadn’t told her brother, interesting.

  Jeremy began to plug the numbers into the keypad on the phone. “She’s changed her mind about going back to the States, she’s going to be working here from now on,” he started to explain.

  “Not in the factory, she’s not,” Jazz expostulated, before he could help himself.

  Jeremy furrowed his brow. What had upset him now? “Why would she want to work in the factory?” he asked. Then before Jazz could reply, “Not that she’d have any trouble with any of the jobs they do in there, she’s not just pretty, she’s talented too.”Jeremy felt compelled to defend. “When mum and dad moved into the new factory we all did our shifts, it took back breaking work from all of us to expand the business and get the latest line off the ground. Of course, we still had the core business to support us, but don’t think it was easy, because it wasn’t. All of the children’s ranges were designed and marketed by Crystal and mum together, and they are some of our best sellers now.”

  Jazz grunted. “What did Crystal major in at uni then?” he wanted to know.

  Why the sudden interest in Crystal, Jeremy wondered. There was no way she would involve herself here, long term, so he had nothing to worry about on that score.“She didn’t do uni, she went to college in London,” he answered. “Marketing qualifications. S
he had the pick of the jobs in the capital a few years ago.”

  Jeremy switched his attention back to the telephone. The mobile number went on to answerphone, so he waited while the message played out and then added his own greetings, “Brad, hi, it’s Jez. Call me back, I’ve got work for you and my sister’s back in town. Wants to meet up, needs help. Cheers.”He turned back to Jazz, “That should do the trick, Brad can never resist a damsel in distress, he’ll ring me back for sure now.”

  “Don’t use you sister as bait,” Jazz snapped, before he could help himself. Then he tacked on, “It’s ungentlemanly.”

  Jeremy was distracted by the mobile going off in his pocket.

  “Brad? Hi, that was quick.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, mate, I only have the one sister, fortunately. Yes, Crystal is back, all grown up too. I thought that part of the message might get your attention.”

  There was a pause, then “Don’t worry, I’ll set up a date. No, actually I need some technical support in the office. Dad’s old office has been re-fitted with some high tech kit but no-one seems able to make the stuff work properly. They have had experts crawling all over the place since it was installed, but no luck. I wondered if you could give it the once over for me. It’s a bit of a rush job though.”

  He listened intently. “My girlfriend won’t be pleased, I’m supposed to be taking her out to dinner, but if it’s all you’ve got, we’ll take it.”

  There was a second’s delay, “Thanks mate, really appreciated. I’ll see you onsite. If I’m not here, you know where the office is?”

  He nodded his head. “Yup, security has been stepped up these days.”He looked across at Jazz who was tapping his foot aggressively, face like thunder.

  “There will be someone here, on site to let you in,” he offered.

  He laughed, “No, I will not send Crystal. Not with you around, you bum.”