“Are we sure this is the right choice?”

Markus, one of the younger men on the custodial staff, tapped a pencil thoughtfully against his mouth as he looked over the emptied conference room with me and Angie. The only remaining furniture in the room was my desk, which was pushed as close to Angie’s office door as possible, with plans to put it all the way in the office once we made a little room. Now that everything was gone, it left a wide, flexible space, with plenty of room for people to move around. But it was still very much a conference room, not a wedding venue.

“People transform event halls all the time, right?” I asked. “Like weddings at the Knights of Columbus Hall or a birthday party at the Elks?”

“But it’s not just the reception, it’s also the ceremony,” Angie said, chewing thoughtfully on her lip as she surveyed the area.

“Look, we managed to pull some strings with the plumbers,” Markus said. “The event space is being treated for mold today. Patrick says it might be ready for tomorrow if we can get the carpets dry by then.”

“That’s a big if,” Angie said.

She sighed. “Well, Cherise and her fiancé are coming by in a little while to look at the space, so let’s make it as festive as possible,” Angie pointed toward the far end of the room. “Cover up the presentation screens and let’s get the furniture in here. If we give them a foundation to work off of, maybe her decorating crew will be able to work miracles tonight.”

With that, she went into her office, which was about to be draped in festive curtains to hide it from view. I looked at Markus, who was looking around the room skeptically.

“Can’t hurt to try,” he said.

He and I spent the next hour or so moving tables into the conference room while Angie managed the other clients from her office. While we could use a cart to get them from storage, he and I had to move them physically around the room. My arms ached after a little while, but the physical work was distracting in exactly the way I needed it to be. I was so occupied with picking things up and putting them back down that, for once, I wasn’t worried about what awaited me when I got home tonight.

An hour later I was sweating through my work clothes, but the room looked a little more like an event space than it previously had. The long conference tables had been replaced with circular tables that we’d arranged in a horseshoe pattern around what could reasonably be called a dance floor. It looked similar to the approach we took for high school dances when we hosted them, which wasn’t often. But with a sweetheart table at the front and whichever decorations they were bringing today, this might actually work.

“They’ll need an arch over there,” Markus said, pointing to the far end of the room, away from the door. “And an aisle of some kind. We don’t want the bride having to push through the tables.”

I nodded, trying to visualize a solution. This room was about two-thirds the size of the previous room, but based on the guest list Cherise had sent, everyone would fit. “Let’s set that up now,” I said.

By the end of our set-up, I was even sweatier and probably not smelling my best. So of course it was almost time to meet with Cherise and her mysterious fiancé. Before I went out to wait for them by the front desk, I ducked into Angie’s office.

“Just applying deodorant,” I said, grabbing a stick out of my bag and quickly applying it underneath my blouse. “I didn’t want to put on a show at my desk and the bathroom is too far away.”

Angie laughed, typing something on her computer. “One of these days, we’ll get you a real office,” she said.

“Conference room works fine,” I said with a shrug, replacing my deodorant in my purse.

Angie stopped typing for a moment and looked over at me. “Listen,” she started, that look of concern back on her face. “Is everything okay with you?”

The illusion of relief that the physical work had created dissolved instantly. “Yeah,” I said, squeezing my hands together uselessly. “I just had a fight with my girlfriend and needed to get out of the house for a little while.”

She looked sympathetic. I’d never met Angie’s ex-husband, but she told occasional stories about him that showed me she’d made the right choice tossing him out of her life. He’d gotten physical. Which, for all of his flaws, Joel had never done. In fact, I think he’d sooner die than hit me.

“As long as you’re alright,” Angie said. “And grab a coupon code if you need another night. We might be able to swing it even cheaper. If it were up to me it’d be free, but you know Stephen.”

I couldn’t help smiling at her ever-practical suggestion. “Thanks,” I said. “I’m going home tonight. I think if we just sit down and talk, we can work it out.”

“Miscommunication?”

“You could call it that,” I said. “Magic.”

Angie winced, and I felt my cheeks heat up again. “It’s a long story,” I said, glancing at the clock and grateful for the escape it provided. “But speaking of magic, I need to go meet Cherise and…”

“Nicholas,” Angie supplied, glancing at her notes.

“Yes. Thank you. Nicholas. The bridal party is coming in later to start decorating the place, so they’re checking to make sure it’s approved. Wait, what do I do if they don’t like it?”

Despite everything, that possibility hadn’t occurred to me until right now. Angie thought for a second. “Honestly,” she said. “The wedding is tomorrow and a burst pipe is covered by a clause in our contract. So if they decide not to do it, we’ll let them out, but keep the deposit. But hopefully it won’t come to that.”

I nodded, knowing full well it was going to come to that now that we’d thought about it. But they were going to be here any second, so instead of saying more to curse us any further, I slipped out of the office, through the transformed conference room, and out to the main desk.

Cherise was walking through the front doors as I came out. As she stepped inside, she was quickly joined by a tall man with a long face and a serious expression. Nicholas was a little older than Cherise, probably in his late twenties. As he looked around the front entrance to the hotel, I could see the disapproval emanating from him. Cherise didn’t look much happier than he did, though she gave me a polite smile as she walked in.

“Cherise,” I greeted her in my best customer service voice. “It’s nice to see you again. Nicholas, nice to meet you. I’m so sorry about the pipe, but I think we’ve figured out a solution.”

“Let’s hope,” Nicholas grumbled. “We’re paying a lot of money for this wedding.”

Not as much as some weddings we held here, but I wasn’t about to say that. Not when there was still a chance of pulling this thing off.

“So, there is a slim chance the original room will be ready by tomorrow morning,” I said. “But only if the rugs are dry after the burst pipe treatment and, according to our maintenance staff, that’s very unlikely. Otherwise, we have another space set up, right over here.”

I started leading them toward the conference room. Cherise’s expression was hard to read, but Nicholas looked doubtful and unhappy. He narrowed his eyes as he looked from the elegant reception area to the windows of the conference room. Still, I tried to slap that cheerful smile on and keep it on.

“Here’s how it looks,” I said, opening the conference room door and stepping inside.

As they walked over and took in the space, I watched both of their faces for a reaction. Cherise was still blank, though I saw her eyes move around the room. Nicholas looked unimpressed as he started walking through the space. His back to me and Cherise, he strolled toward the front of the room, where the projectors had been hidden under a lace curtain Markus had pulled out of some ancient storage space. It was a beautiful curtain, clearly made with love for a special occasion a hundred years ago. But Nicholas looked at it like we’d draped the projector in McDonald’s napkins.

“I was told it was going to be an event space,” he said as he circled one of the tables.

“The original room is where the pipe burst,” I explained again.

“That isn’t my problem.”

It kind of was, since it was his fiancee’s magic that caused it. But instead of poking the bear, I just grimaced with as much sympathy as I could dredge up. “I know,” I said. “And I’m sorry about it. It was, as the contract states, an act of God. Which we’re covered against.”

It was certainly an act of something, but God probably had nothing to do with it. Nicholas glanced at me, as though trying to suss out the flaw in what I’d said. I kept my face politely neutral, and he finally looked away.

“We could do plenty in here,” Cherise said as she also walked around the space, leaving my side for the first time since they’d arrived. “My mom has all the decorations at her house. And this curtain’s beautiful, it matches the flowers in my bouquet perfectly, look.”

This was the most enthused I’d seen her yet, and it wasn’t even that intense. It was like the more frustrated Nicholas got, the kinder Cherise was. Why was she marrying this man? Not that it was my business, not every wedding I helped set up was going to lead to a lifelong marriage. But he was so cold and unpleasant.

“We have shades we can put up around the windows for privacy,” I said, gesturing toward the large windows overlooking the reception area and into Angie’s office. “Our staff will have those up this afternoon by the time the bridal party gets here. They actually look similar to the curtain. Not quite the same design, but they were woven by a local team and they’re perfect for letting in the light without leaving the room exposed.”

I looked around the room again, seeking out the little imperfections to see what else I could do to improve the situation. None of this was my fault, and technically it was Cherise’s. But I got the feeling that if she was aware of these powers, they were very, very new to her. And after all, there was technically no way to prove it had been her that did it.

Cherise nodded and looked at Nicholas. He looked around the room once more, then sighed.

“Fine,” he said. “I’m not happy about the change, but it’s as good as it’s going to get on such short notice.”

“Thank you for understanding,” I said smoothly. “I’ll be here all afternoon, so if you have any questions before the setup, just give me a call.”

Cherise forced a smile, but it was so fake that I had to pause. This woman was miserable. It radiated off of her in waves so strong that I wondered again how this wedding could possibly go on. How did Nicholas not notice? Was there something going on that I was missing?

“I’ll be here,” Cherise said. “Nicholas will not, but my mom and sisters will be too.”

I turned to Nicholas, who suddenly looked defensive. “I have other things to do,” he snapped.

I think my polite mask slipped a little, but I just turned back to Cherise. “Excellent,” I said, smiling so widely that my jaw hurt.

Her return smile was just as fake. Meanwhile, Nicholas was already walking out the door.

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Continue to Chapter 13