chapter 3

Chapter 3

Rivers' debut was to be held in a hotel owned by Italians, right in the heart of the city and that exterior of the hotel screamed luxury, the interior was heaven.

But Rivers insisted we hold the event in my family hotel, also Located in the heart of the city.

Something that my parents commended me for.

We owned that luxury hotel.

But I wanted it to be held in the heavenly Italian hotel, not because there's was better than ours but because nobody has ever met the owner of the establishment.

I was curious because we were in the same line of business but I had never met them.

My family had always bemoaned the fact that I wasn't more sociable when all the children of their business associates went to the same school.

That was until I and Rivers became friends.

The Ruiz name has been around for two Centuries and that was enough to make them more than the blue bloods they were.

My parents stopped pushing me to attend social gatherings, instead they focused on grooming my friendship with Rivers and her family.

It was also a good thing that Ruiz liked me.

They thought I was a good influence on their rebellious daughter.

How I wish that was true.

And today, on my best friend's début, I was a guest.

But my mother insisted that I also oversee as an executive manager for Rivers' event.

It mainly consisted of making sure the event organizing team and the hotel staff communicated effectively and ran the event as smoothly as possible.

It was to show the Ruiz family that we see these as a personal favor between our families.

We already had a few minor problems but they were resolved pretty quickly.

One of the hotel's middle staff management even gave me a staff pass as per my mother's orders.

It was an all-access card for the hotel facilities given to managers during big events, because normally we had a line of authority to follow for every facility and getting permission from every person in charge should take hours.

It was a preventive measure.

"Miss porter" it was three hours before the event when a pale looking staff approached me.

He was fidgeting and I quickly realized there was a problem.

I quickly pulled the man aside, "yes?" I asked cautiously.

Fifteen out of a hundred and fifty bottles of our wine were gone.

One of the staff dropped a box that contained those bottles of wine and shattered it.

Four out of the five executives are busy with their own thing.

The head was in a last minute meeting with the event organizers.

They were going to throw a fit if they found out about these.

We immediately went down to the back entrance and the scene that greeted me wasn't a good one.

Three people stood at the back of the delivery truck.

And the driver was already screaming at our hotel staff, gesturing frantically at the mess of shattered glass and expensive wine on the floor.

" It's okay sir, I will handle it from here"

The truck driver jumped at my voice before he whipped around and looked me over.

Before he could speak again I was already facing the young girl about my age, who trembled at the sight of me.

"M-Miss Porter. I didn't —"

"What's your name?"

"E-Emily, ma'am"

I calmly looked at the wine shattered on the ground before gesturing to her.

"Okay Emily , clean these up quickly and keep these a secret from the other organizers, I will handle it from here. Same with you" looking at the guy who called me from upstairs.

Their eyes looked like it would fall out of their sockets, I understood that if there was any other authority figure these two would be fired without another word.

The delivery person started to speak again which made me face him

" Miss those are Dom Pérignon Brut—"

"I know" I pulled out my credit card from my purse.

" I'll pay for the damage. Can you confirm if there are still available stocks?*

The man looked at me as if I was crazy

So I moved the card closer to his face.

"Irene snow Porter,at your service"

Upon hearing my name it was no surprise that he scrambled to take my card.

He quickly swiped my card on the portable payment machine.

"Let me confirm, Miss," he called their store as I waited in silence.

"Miss Porter, there are ten available bottles in our local branch, and there are six in our branch an hour from here. I'm afraid the delivery schedule is full in the other branch….. but I can deliver only ten from our local branch"

" We will take all the bottles available, I will have the hotel staff pick it up in an hour. Thank you"

" alright ma'am"

I pulled out the staff pass and turned to the staff who called me his name tag read Louis

"Louis, take one of the hotel service vans and pick up the wine from their other branch. Ask the delivery person for the address".

He didn't have to be told twice and he immediately took the pass from me and Went to work.

"Emily, keep these a secret. Have Louis report to me immediately when he returns. I will be upstairs preparing for the event".

I had already turned to leave when she called my name.

"Miss Porter, thank you. Thank you very much"

She looked too young to be working full time in our hotel.

Did it make sense that it hurt my heart? I smiled softly. " Be more careful next time".

It was a whirlwind after that.

The makeup artist complained that we hadn't got much time as he ordered me to shower.

As one person did my hair, another person did my face and a third person came on to give me fake nails.

A grueling process that took almost two hours, shy one hour before the event.

" Miss Porter, Miss Rivers Ruiz has requested for you" I nodded at the staff before waving off my artists.

Rivers was staying in one of the most expensive family suites, when I entered she looked up at me with emotions i haven't seen her display.

Rivers was bedecked in a royal blue ball gown.

The sweetheart top was studded with real Swarovski crystals and the skirt was made out of shimmery material.

She had to travel to France twice for the fitting of these dresses. Her blond hair was pulled up into an elegant bun held in place by diamond tiara.

In her ear were two half-carat diamond studs and apart from that, her only adornment was a ring on her left hand.

My eyes widened when I realized that was her engagement ring,but she immediately covered it .

"Hi," she said weakly.

Rivers looked drawn and tired, even the makeup failing to hide her paleness.

I smiled at her encouragingly. "You look gorgeous Rivers!".

With that gigantic ball gown I didn't know how I was going to hug her.

Even with her obviously distraught state, this girl was gorgeous.

I could help but feel excited for her.

She just turned 18 and she was definitely the star of today's party.

Seeing my legitimate glee, she laughed

"I'm scared already! stop it!".

She gestured for me to sit with her on the lounge chair and held my hands.

" You look like a proper lady! Who would have thought that would happen?"

She laughed "you too! You don't look like a prude today. Which is as it should be considering you will be in most photographs and I positively abhor anything that ruins my pictures"

Someone knocked before I could answer her "yes?"

A staff member poked his head in. Louis ! Gestured him in.

Rivers was quick to raise an eyebrow.

Louis was already handing back the staff pass to me.

"We got it" I nodded in acknowledgment.

Rivers was quick to ask questions.

"Who was that?" suspicion laced get tone and I laughed

"It was one of the hotel staff, I told you that my mom put me as one of the executive managers for your event."

She pointed to the card " and that?"

"Staff pass" I showed her, and she took it from my hands, " in case of emergencies I added" but she was already engrossed in the card, before she looked at me again.

"Then why did that staff have the card"

So I ended up telling her about what happened telling her what happened between Emily and the delivery guy and how Louis ended up with the delivery van and staff card.

"Irene, Dom Pérignon —!!"

" Shhhh, that's Why it's a secret, it was just too sad. She looked our age".

Rivers' frown of disapproval greeted me

"I told you not to be too nice to everyone! It's their job, Irene!!. If they can't do it well it's a good call to fire them! That's how it's done for a reason"

Another knock sounded but this time Rivers' make-up artist came in.

When she saw me almost sitting on my best friend's gown, I was quickly ordered out and asked to return to my room to finish dressing up.

I returned to my dressing room to finish up and wear my heels. My makeup artist did a little touch up on my face.