Like, the gift table where the orange luxury boxes had been laid out in some sort of geometric design; no one wraps a Hermes box apparently, and wouldn’t you know, it was the first thing my guests saw when they walked in, which upped their spirits significantly and made me less nervous. I’d forgotten the guys, but mom hadn’t, so I have no idea what’s in their boxes.
Even the music had been chosen by mom because I admit I don’t know the first thing about ambient sounds, but the slightly classical music was a great fit in the background. As expected, the female guests had gone all out in their finery, and the room looked like a Hollywood after-party. The photographer and videographer were hard at work from the time we walked in, and some of the sisters were already updating their social media pages with snapshots. Free advertising is the best.
Thankfully mom had given me some pointers on what to talk about, but wouldn’t you know; everyone wanted to talk about football or the stupid car, which was an added bonus because my Cody got to be the center of attention, something he doesn’t usually enjoy but seemed cool with in the room of twenty people. Mom had had a lot to say about the number of guests since, as she says, a soiree is more suited for a party of eight, small and intimate.
But I couldn’t leave out Cody’s guys and whomever they invited along. I heard through the grapevine that the invitations were a hot ticket, that everyone wanted to come to the soiree, something I hadn’t expected since my scope had only been on my little environment, aka those who could get word back to Susie. Now I guess I’ll have to plan a more casual party for the others who’d been left out.
“Your party’s a hit, baby, and we haven’t even sat down to dinner yet.” Cody came over to hand me a glass of ginger lemonade during his break from the frat boys who were the dates of some of the sisters and were the ones leading the conversation to all things sports, while I mingled with the sisters who gushed about everything from the tablecloth to the centerpieces.
The staff walked around with silver trays of H’ordeuvres and glasses of ginger lemonade and mocktails while the guests hung out in little groups around the room, talking excitedly about the evening. I hadn’t planned any games because I couldn’t think of any that would be suitable, and mom agreed that games were more suited for a house party and not one thrown in a luxury hotel. I didn’t have to toot my own horn here, didn’t have to point out things that I wanted to get back to Susie, who uses her wealth like a bailiwick; someone else did it splendidly for me without even being asked.
Melissa is fast becoming Blaire Davenport in the making. By that, I mean she has a lot of the same attributes I’ve seen in mom. She was the first to recognize the breed of rose and shared the history with the others, who almost fainted at the price but squealed with delight when they learned that they were allowed to take the centerpieces home, including the Orrefors crystal vases. I didn’t pay for that either. Go, mom!
Now, as Cody put his arm around me, beaming with pride, I let myself relax for the first time in days. The last week had been hectic as all get out. First, I had to find a way to have all of the invitees at the house at the same time without Susie knowing. That hadn’t been as hard as I expected. It seems just dropping a hint that Cody was doing something somewhere without me was enough to get her out of the way.
The next part wasn’t as easy, keeping word from getting back to her too soon.
As to how I pulled it off without inviting Susie, well, the whole point of having her there to see the car being delivered was to set off a chain of events. I made sure that those girls who I’d learned didn’t like her kept talking about the car every chance they got, and I didn’t even have to do much.
They were more than happy to rub it in once they realized how it got under her skin. That shouldn’t have lasted long, a few days tops, but
lucky for me, she seemed totally preoccupied with all the talk about my license plate, which I had yet to place on the car because I was waiting for the right time, meaning, now that it was here, I was afraid to let Cody see it.
But I had given Jess and Alexis, who had seen it, of course, carte blanche to talk about it without spilling exactly what it said, so of course, everyone was dying to know, and it became a kind of guessing game around the sorority house