I trailed off as a man suddenly appeared in the aisle and unfolded a table next to mine. “Morning,” he said.
I blinked in confusion at him. “Excuse me, I think you have the wrong spot.”
He began unpacking a box onto the table. “This is where the coordinator told me to set up.”
“What about dogs?” the white-haired lady asked. “Can you make a diamond from my Yorkie’s hair?”
“I suppose you could…” I turned back to the man next to me. “I paid extra to be next to the aisle. You can’t put your table there!”
“Look, I’m just doing what I’m told, lady.” He began arranging homemade beer bottles on the table. The labels saidBacon-Flavored Beer.
This can’t be happening.
I felt all my hopes slipping away. This guy’s table was blocking a view of mine. Nobody walking down the main aisle would see my display.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll be right back,” I told the little old lady while handing her an information flier. “Lizzy, can you watch my table until I get back?”
“I’ll guard it with my life.” She glared at the new guy. “Bacon beer? Seriously?”
“What? People like beer, and they like bacon. Now they can have both…”
“I work at a brewery,” Lizzy replied, “and I can tell you right now people don’t want bacon beer.”
Their argument faded away as I wove my way through the growing crowd to look for the expo coordinator. Having been to several of these events before, I knew that the biggest rush happened right after the doors opened at noon. If I didn’t get my table situation fixed quickly, I would miss out on most of the potential investors.
The expo coordinator was a painfully-thin man in a bow tie, and I found him standing by the entrance. “Hi, excuse me?” I said. “There’s a problem with my table. I’m supposed to have a corner spot, but somebody selling bacon-flavored beer just set up a table next to mine, right on the aisle.”
The coordinator frowned down at me and squinted at his clipboard. “What is your table’s name?”
“Yours Forever Gemstones,” I said impatiently.
“Let’s see. Hmm. Right, here you are. I have you at table one-oh-six. Unfortunately, that’s not a corner spot.”
Oh no.
“There must be some kind of mistake! A normal table was five hundred dollars, and I was charged an extra hundred for a corner spot. I can show you the receipt…”
“I see your transaction information here,” he replied. “You purchased your boothafterApril first, which was when the price rose. That’s why you were charged an additional hundred dollars, not because you reserved a corner spot.”
A knot tightened in my stomach. This was my last chance, and I could feel it slipping away from me.
“You don’t understand,” I begged. “I’m broke, and I spent my last six hundred dollars on this table! If I don’t find an investor for this idea I’m going to have to sell my house…”
I trailed off as someone walked into the convention center. Someone I recognized.
From alongtime ago.
Hunter Cade was the kind of guy who looked dashing even in jeans and a muscle-gripping T-shirt. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and lean—just like I remembered him from high school. A tussle of caramel-brown hair fell across his dark eyes, and he brushed it back while gazing around the room with an intense, confident stare.
My heart fluttered at the sight of him. He was somehow even sexier in person than in his YouTube videos, and so much hotter than I remembered from high school.
What is he doing here?
Hunter paused in the aisle to look at his expo map, then his head swiveled as he scanned the convention.
Before he could see me, I quickly said goodbye to the coordinator and scurried away.
“What’d the coordinator say?” Lizzy asked when I returned.