Page 27 of Forbidden Dreams
She squeezed my hand. "Of course it is. You're going to be an amazing event coordinator."
Then why did I feel like I was drowning? Everyone around me knew more about my job than I did. Why did I think I could go into the busiest season of the year, and everything would go off without a hitch?
Eve was going to discover I was a fraud. I couldn't let that happen. I listened to Reina talk about the upcoming events, wondering if I was going to be able to pull this off.
"Eve spent a lot of time coordinating parking. Some of the shop owners are concerned that if there is no parking or it's too busy, people will stop coming."
"She gave me her plan for that." Was that enough though? What if visitors increased exponentially this year, and I wasn't prepared to handle it? What did I know about crowd control or parking?
I was in way over my head.
I came into work early and worked late nights. If I worked longer hours, there was no way anything could fall through the cracks.
Decorations were up year-round, and holiday music played perpetually through the speakers placed strategically throughout the town. The events were what brought more visitors to town. I had to schedule the Santas and post the schedule. There were various festivals, the post–Thanksgiving parade, and the winter ball. There was so much to do.
It was late on a Saturday when my door opened. Cooper stepped inside, looking around my mess of an office. "What are you still doing here?"
"Working."
He frowned. "You never responded to my email about the estimate."
I was so focused on the town events, dealing with the shop owner's concerns, and the logistics, I hadn't had time to read through every email. "Oh? Did you just send it?"
He stood in front of my desk in a blue henley that was pushed up his strong forearms, worn jeans, and scuffed work boots. His hair was on the longer side, falling over his forehead. "I sent it days ago."
I put my reading glasses on my nose and turned my attention to the screen. "I must have missed it."
He crossed his arms over his chest, drawing my attention to those forearms. He mainly supervised projects now, but he looked like a man who still did manual labor. "I thought the bathroom renovation was the town's top priority."
I pushed the glasses up my nose even though I didn't need them to see the sight before me. Instead, he was blurry. The distortion would prevent me from being distracted by how hot he was. "It is."
His forehead wrinkled. "Then why haven't you reviewed it yet?"
"I didn't see the email." I scanned my email for his name, then opened the email and downloaded the estimate. "I'll review it and send it to Eve."
"That should already have been done." He started to pace the room.
I hit Print on the estimate, knowing it would be easier to focus on it if it was on paper. I tended to get distracted when I had a lot of tabs open on my computer. Setting my glasses on the desk, I said, "I've been planning the upcoming holiday events."
He paused and looked at me. "The bathrooms have to be done before the winter ball, which is when?" He waved his hand in the air. "Early December? That doesn't give us much time."
"How long will it take to complete the renovation?"
"I put several estimates in the paperwork if you'd bothered to read them."
I sighed. "I'm sorry."
"If this is too much, tell Eve that you can't handle it." His tone had a bite to it that I didn't appreciate.
"It's not too much."
He rapped his knuckles on the desk. "You're already missing stuff."
I thought we were getting along just fine, but that was before we were put to the test. I was already failing at this, meeting everyone's low expectations. "Maybe I'm not the right person for this job."
It wasn't too late to back out now. I could tell Eve that it was too much, that she should find someone else. I could go back to my easy part-time jobs, where there was little expectation and no stress. The idea was looking more attractive.
Why did I need to work all these hours? Sure, the money was great, but I'd vowed never to let work run my life, and that was exactly what was happening now.
