Reset

Perfect gold name cards were being placed out. Hundreds of them. Nora was certain one of those people wouldn’t up. She just hoped it wasn’t Wallace Hinstrom, one of the names on the cards. Not that she couldn’t pull it off, but it would be tough.

“Are you attending?” A male voice asked.

Busted.

“Yes,” Nora smiled. “I am. I was curious though, what time do they close the doors. I have meeting and I am going to be cutting it close.”

“Doors close at eight PM. That’s when cocktail hours begins.”

“Thank you, I should be here long before that.” In actuality, Nora wouldn’t be there too long before that. To successfully sneak in, she’d have to cut it close.

Her plan was to be some sort of writer, telling a different tale of who she was, to each person she met. See how far she could take it and their reactions to what she said. If it didn’t work or it failed she still had the library prostitute dare she could do.

She got dressed, and planned to arrive their fifteen minutes before the doors closed. She would do a quick scan of the place cards, claim one and go in. However the elevator was taking far too long. When it finally arrived, the doors opened and she was greeted with the loudest yawn she ever heard.

“Oh my Goodness, I’m sorry.” The woman said, stepping off.

Nora giggled.  “That was funny. Get some sleep.”

“I will.”

The woman was… an African American woman, still wearing a ‘Hello my name is Amy’ name tag.

No sooner did Nora make it to the first floor, she stepped off and was stopped before she could even get across the lobby.

“Ma’am, just stand here. Please. Thank you.” The man wore a black suit and held out his arm.

“But I need to…”

“One moment,” he said.

Nora looked around. There were many men in suits securing the lobby. Just as she wondered who the ‘big wig’ was, an entourage of people made their way to the exit.

The entourage surrounded the president.

She registered that it was the president, made a mental note of how cool that was and nearly ran across the lobby to the ballroom.

When she arrived they were cleaning up the check in table.

“Miss Rosewood?” The gentleman from early approached her. “Thought you weren’t gonna make it. Talk about cutting it close. You weren’t kidding.”

Nora smiled and accepted the nameplate. “Thank you. I got held up in the lobby.”

He motioned toward the door, “They’ll seat you inside.”

“Thank you again.” Nora stepped into the grand ballroom and was immediately greeted and escorted to a table.