What Goes Around Comes Around

by Leighann Dobbs

  Tanner sat at the table alone, waving off the approaching waiter. He fidgeted with the flatware, noting a few spots on the butter knife. Don’t they know they should be hand-drying the cutlery to avoid spots? He grabbed his phone and entered a reminder in his notes to reprimand the restaurant manager about it at the next meeting. He looked at the empty chair across from him where Gertie had sat and felt a pang of loneliness. He had enjoyed her company and their chat. Maybe she was right, maybe lashing out wasn’t the thing to do.

  He got up and walked to the rear of the restaurant, past the tables that Gertie had complained about being too close together. He stopped for a minute, then went to the hostess stand for the tape measure. He measured the space between the chairs. Just as he thought; it was fine. Hm. The old bat didn’t know what she was talking about.

  The closer he got to his office, the more he wondered what had come over him at the table. Sure, Gertie looked like Emily, but so what? She wasn’t Emily, and she had no business coming in here and talking about table distances and trying to make him feel guilty for seeking the revenge he deserved. Marly and Veronica had done him wrong, and he just wanted to even the score. Isn’t that what karma was all about?

  He entered his office and avoided looking at his wife’s photo. Instead, he looked at the text from Harper on his phone. Operation Cake Topper had gone off without a hitch. But for some reason the victory tasted sour.

  It was no coincidence that Gertie O’Rourke had shown up at his restaurant. Tanner decided to call around and do some checking, see what she was up to. But all he found out was that Gertie had sunk a lot of money into her new venue and had been buying up stock from venues that had gone out of business. Tanner had to admit that was a smart move. A new operation needed to cut costs, and some of the equipment at those places was almost new. Of course it did create a mess to sort through, but that’s how he’d been able to place Harper there from the agency he’d used.

  “You’re sure that’s who bought them?” Tanner was talking to an old buddy who used to run a large catering service.

  “Yep. O’Rourke Signature Events bought everything we had. Warming trays. Linens. Plates. She got a great deal too. Some of it was crap, though.”

  “Crap? What do you mean by that?” Tanner had heard O’Rourke Signature Events wanted to establish itself as a top-notch venue. Why would there be a bunch of junk there?

  “Well, it was sold in a lot, so she had to buy it all. I wasn’t gonna sell it piece by piece. A bunch of the chairs are bad. As soon as someone sits down, the chair will break on them. Oh, and the poles. The tent poles. A bunch of the wooden ones are rotted. Now those should be thrown away immediately. You tell your friend to get rid of the ones with the red tags. They could do some serious damage if they’re used!”

  Tanner thanked his friend and ended the call. Tent poles. Interesting.

  16

  They were still working on the ballroom that would host Marly’s wedding reception. A few patches of plaster here, some paint there. One man was fixing something on the wall. Gertie had ordered tables set up in the back room, and the linens and napkins were being ironed by hand. No fancy machines here. Gertie wanted everything perfect. She wheeled from room to room, inspecting the work and issuing words of encouragement to her crew.

  Even though the room wasn’t complete, it looked amazing. Veronica was happy with how it had come along, and even happier that TJ had a plan to figure out who the mole was—and that he trusted her enough to make her part of the plan. Okay, so Marly and Sarah were included too, but still, it felt good to be included. She had never been included in anything growing up or at any of her previous jobs. It was always just her, alone.

  She headed to the front desk to meet Marly. Part of TJ’s plan was to have a walk-through of the ballroom area and kitchen with Marly in front of the entire staff. They intended to lay a trap for the saboteur.

  They walked toward the reception room in awkward silence. Veronica didn’t really know what to say or how to say it. Telling Marly she wanted a truce or that she was sorry seemed too dramatic, so she opted for silence.

  “Well, here it is,” Veronica said as she opened the double doors that led to the giant room. “It’s not complete yet, of course. But this should give you a general idea. What do you think?”

  Marly stood in silence, and Veronica could tell that she approved. Why wouldn’t she? The room was gorgeous. The honey-colored aged oak floor gleamed, flecks of light from the crystal chandelier shimmered on the floor and walls. The walls had gorgeous sconces directing a warm pinkish hue from the top and bottom. Straight ahead was the glass wall, the soft water of the river in plain sight behind it. The wall fountain toward the end of the room bubbled softly, the mesmerizing sound of the trickling water soothing in the hubbub of the room.

  “These are the flowers I picked out. Not too fancy. I thought they were simple, but elegant.” Veronica pointed to a table that had been set with some of the flowers. There were soft lilac-colored roses and daises intertwined. The colors mixed together beautifully, and the lilac matched the bridesmaids’ dresses as well as the decorative bows on the backs of all of the chairs.

  “It’s all really beautiful, Veronica. I mean, gorgeous. The flowers are perfect.”

  Veronica’s heart swelled with pride. Marly actually sounded sincere, and Veronica realized how important Marly’s approval had been to her. Maybe it was the first step in trying to make things right. “I’m so happy you like it. I wasn’t sure if I should go with white roses or have them colored, but once I saw the color of your bridesmaids’ dresses, I figured color was the way to go. It adds just the right punch of color, and it mixes so well with the yellow in the daisies. Hopefully Edward agrees. I know he wanted a variety of flowers.”

  Marly rolled her eyes. “Well, you know Edward. He’s very critical.”

  “You can say that again.”

  Marly laughed, and Veronica felt a tug at her heart. Marly wasn’t making fun of her or angry. She was laughing with her. It was as if all the bad events of the past had disappeared, and Marly was treating Veronica like a real person for the first time. Of course that might be because Veronica was treating Marly like a real person. Funny, because they were so much alike and even might have been friends if things were different. Maybe there was still time.

  “I think even Edward will like these. And I love the room. It’s just all pulled together so nicely in such a short amount of time. I really can’t believe you pulled this off.” Marly leaned closer to Veronica and lowered her voice. “It’s even better than my original choice.”

  She didn’t know what had brought about the change in Marly, but Veronica suspected it might have something to do with what TJ had said in Gertie’s office the other day. Had Marly truly realized that Veronica had simply made mistakes just as Marly had? In any event, TJ had convinced Marly that Veronica wasn’t the one messing with the wedding, and for that, she was grateful. Maybe Marly’s newfound friendliness had something to do with feeling a bond at working together on the plan to catch whomever was messing with the plans.

  “If anyone told me six months ago I’d be planning your wedding, I’d have called them crazy,” Veronica confided, adjusting one of the tablecloths.

  “Me too.” Marly smiled, then looked out the window as if she wasn’t ready just yet to forgive all. Nor should she be. There was a lot of water under the bridge, and it would take time and effort to make up for what Veronica had done.

  “I truly want your wedding to be spectacular,” Veronica said.

  “Thanks.” Marly turned her gaze back to Veronica and glanced at her outfit. “You look good, by the way. I mean, you look better than you did at Draconia. More filled out. There’re some great outfits from my line that would look amazing on you.”

  Veronica was humbled. After all the crap she had given Marly about her weight, here was Marly telling her she looked good.

  “I love your line. And thanks for the compliment. To be honest, I
feel better at this weight. And I’m so much healthier than when you knew me before. Back then, all I ate were M&Ms.”

  They laughed together, and Veronica caught a glimpse of what it might be like to have a friend to laugh with. Had she ever had that? Not since she was a child. It felt good, though. Maybe she should work on that.

  “Hi, girls.” Gertie wheeled herself past them to the dance floor and pointed toward the outside area. “Sorry that the tent isn’t up yet, Marly, but you can see it’s going to be spectacular out there.”

  “It’s going up in a bit,” Veronica said. “I’ve been watching the weather forecast just to see if we needed to set up two tents or one.”

  Gertie wheeled around to face them. “Smart thinking. We want to be sure our guests don’t get wet if it rains. We’ve figured out how to set it up so they can flow in and out without getting rained on.”

  “But for Marly’s day, the weather is going to be gorgeous. No rain in sight. So we’ll open the wall and have the dance floor flow right into the tent.” Veronica pointed outside. “The sides of the tent will stay open, and we will have a bar at each end. That way there will be a view of the water from inside too. Here’s a picture.” Veronica whipped out her binder and flipped to the sketch she’d done, then turned it toward the two women.

  “Excellent. Thank you.” Gertie nodded her approval and turned to Marly. “So Marly, is Edward going to join us?”

  “He might come in a little bit. He and Jasper had a meeting that ran late.”

  Veronica couldn’t help but notice that Gertie seemed disappointed with Marly’s answer. Did she actually want to see Edward? Veronica couldn’t imagine that, he was so stuffy and formal, not anyone she’d picture Gertie wanting to hang around.

  “Shall we go look at some of the desserts? I’ve had a sampling set up in one of the small rooms within the kitchen.” Veronica directed Marly and Gertie out of the main ballroom and toward the kitchen.

  “Oh! Here you guys are!” Sarah’s voice rang out from behind them, and they turned to see her hurrying toward them with a giant box in her arms. On the outside was a bright sticker that read “Caution Live Animals.”

  “What in the hell is that?” Gertie asked, craning her neck.

  “Butterflies. Painted lady butterflies, to be exact.” Sarah answered nonchalantly as she tapped the box. “Marly wanted them released at the reception when the disc jockey introduces her and Jasper.”

  “Wait. You want us to keep them until the wedding? We can’t!” Veronica said.

  Marly fisted her hands on her hips. “You have to. We don’t have anywhere else to keep them.”

  “The wedding isn’t for four more days. Butterflies have to remain dormant. That means keeping this box below sixty degrees, but not freezing them. We don’t have any place to do that. The freezers and refrigerators are too cold,” Veronica said, raising her voice.

  “Can’t you just put them in the fridge?” Marly raised her voice to match Veronica’s.

  “No, they’ll die! The temperature cannot fluctuate by too much, so the box needs to be monitored.”

  “Well, then just make sure they are watched over. It’s your job as the wedding venue!” Marly practically shouted the last few words.

  Gertie frowned at Marly. “We don’t have anyone here to babysit butterflies.”

  “Look, I don’t care who babysits them, but it’s your problem, not mine. Just get it done!” Marly grabbed the box from Sarah, shoved it at Veronica and stormed off.

  Veronica stood with the box of butterflies and looked at Gertie.

  “Bridezilla has left the building,” Gertie muttered under her breath.

  Veronica looked around, satisfied that everyone within earshot and anyone lurking in the hall had just witnessed what had happened. Good. Now they all know. She was sure that anyone who wasn’t in the room would soon find out about the bridezilla butterfly spat. She knew how people loved to gossip about stuff like that. She walked over to the table and placed the box on top of it.

  “I read up on these butterflies,” Veronica explained to Gertie loud enough for everyone to hear. “It’s critical that this box stays at sixty degrees. No more, no less. If it gets too warm or too cold, they’ll die.”

  “Huh. Well, I guess we could assign someone to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Gertie said uncertainly.

  Veronica fiddled with the box. “There’s a built-in temperature gauge here. It’s already increasing!” She ran to the freezer and grabbed several ice packets and placed them strategically around the box, ensuring the ice wasn’t touching the sides and was just close enough to bring the temperature down.

  “Now what?” Gertie asked, poking at one of the ice blocks. “This thing will melt eventually, you know.”

  “I’ll take care of it, Gertie. Don’t worry.” Veronica herded Gertie toward the door, not wanting her to decide to hire yet another lost soul whose job would be to babysit the damn butterflies.

  Gertie took off toward her office. Veronica bumped into Harper as she turned toward hers.

  “Hi! How’s everything going?” Harper asked.

  “Good. Great, actually. A few bumps here and there, but so far so good.” Veronica didn’t want to chat right now. She wanted to get to her office. She still had a lot of work to do.

  “I passed the bride on her way out. I feel bad for you having to deal with her. She sounds miserable!”

  Veronica laughed. “Yeah, well, that’s part of my job I guess. Speaking of which, I need to get back to my office. I still have a ton to do before the wedding! It was good seeing you again.”

  She left Harper and went to her office. She sat down and let out a sigh of relief. They had pulled it off. Now they only needed to see who would mess with the box of butterflies, which was actually just an empty box. TJ had set up a GoPro camera behind a bunch of boxes across from the table the night before. If anyone tampered with the box, they’d know who was messing with the wedding.

  She picked up her phone and dialed TJ’s extension to tell him the plan was in motion.

  Harper watched Veronica walk away before entering the reception area, her eyes drifting to the butterfly box. She’d heard the argument between Marly and Veronica and immediately spied another opportunity to mess with the wedding. If Uncle Tanner knew about the butterflies, she knew exactly what his instructions would be. Make sure they don’t survive.

  She stepped closer to the box, looking around first to ensure no one was paying any attention to her. She reached out toward the top of the box, but she couldn’t remove it. No matter what Uncle Tanner might want, she just couldn’t bring herself to kill anything, even a bunch of butterflies. She had to draw the line somewhere. Best not to tell Uncle Tanner in the first place.

  She headed back down to the storage area, guilt over not doing what her uncle would have wanted washing over her. But there was no way she could kill butterflies. Ruining the cake topper had made her feel bad enough. Not to mention that she had had to hide in the storage room for more than an hour to do it. Luckily one only needed a key card to get in, not to get out. All she had had to do was slip out after everyone was gone and before the security cameras kicked in at seven. It paid to get friendly with the IT guys when it came to finding out what areas were under surveillance, as well as how to ruin a computer cable and make it look like an accident.

  Her phone chirped with an incoming text from Tanner.

  Swap out the tags on the tent poles in storage area. Put the red tags on the poles that have green ones and vice versa.

  Hm… he wanted her to switch some tags that are on some old poles in the storage area. An odd request, but it didn’t sound like it’s anything that will hurt someone. Or will it?

  Harper stared at the phone for a long time. The other things she’d done had been mean but not anything that would actually hurt anyone. It seemed Uncle Tanner was getting a little bit more dangerous in his requests.

  When he’d asked her to do this favor, she’d never ques
tioned it. She’d always done what he’d asked of her. But now she wasn’t so sure. What had she gotten herself into?

  17

  Veronica was up before the sun and was at work early, excited to review the GoPro results from the night before. She’d tried to track down TJ the day before to tell him how well the staged fight had gone over the butterflies, but he hadn’t answered his phone or been in his office. She was a bit disappointed about that, so she’d practically run to his office as soon as she got into the building this morning. He wasn’t in.

  “Sorry, buddy,” she said to her plant as she watered the roots. She’d forgotten to water it again, and it was hanging on by a thread. She heaved it up onto the printer table near the window so that it could catch some of the early morning sun streaming through her windows.

  She pulled up the wedding checklist on her computer. This morning a bunch of deliveries were due, so she headed down to the kitchen to make sure the chef knew about them. She knew he was still experimenting with some of the appetizers. He could become so engrossed in his creations that he might not put the deliveries away. He was an excellent chef, but he wasn’t very communicative and often left things until the last minute. Better to make sure someone would be there to tend to the deliveries.

  As she left the kitchen and headed back upstairs, she saw Gertie in the lobby speaking with Edward. She waved and kept walking, wondering what they were talking about. Edward sure did seem to like to hang out here.

  She settled into her office and started to make some phone calls to ensure that the photographer was all set. Then the band, followed by the guest disc jockey for later in the night. She ensured the headcount was updated and that everyone had RSVPed and was aware of the new location for the reception by sending one final reminder email to all the guests. Thank goodness for technology! This was not a small wedding. If she had had to call everyone, it would have taken a week just to do that!