WEEKS OF PREPARATION HAD LEAD US to this day. I can't recall how many extra hours I spent with my father and the rest of Adrian's staff in our restaurant's kitchen cooking the food and making sure it looked presentable on trays. To get each other through this stressful time, Lester and I would find a way to make a competition out of everything.

We tried seeing who could balance the most trays (I lost that one, but I blame it on Lester's freakishly large arms), who was the best at food presentation (I'm very good at making anything look good on a plate, so I always won), and how quickly one of us could get to the grand ballroom and serve people (sometimes we tied, and other times I lost).

At Mrs. Twist's request, everyone arrived at her estate an hour and a half earlier to help with the set-up. I had brought my outfit for the night with me in a duffel bag to change into later, but I stuck out like a sore thumb since everyone else was already dressed professionally.

When Mrs. Twist entered the space to watch us set-up, I felt my stomach drop. Her blue eyes were glaring at me from across the room as I tried to hang up the fake snowflakes, adding high pressure to a low-stake task. Please don't come over here. Please don't come over here. I kept chanting inside my head, feeling my palms begin to sweat. After I finished hanging up the last snowflake, I looked over my shoulder to see she was gone and exhaled in relief. However, the second I turned my head to look straight ahead I saw Mrs. Twist was standing in front of me.

My legs wobbled on the ladder out of shock, and I took that as a sign to get back down to the ground as fast as possible. Mrs. Twist crossed her arms over her chest and trailed her eyes down my body before gazing back up at me. I swallowed the ball in my throat and stared back at her expectantly.

"Care to explain why you aren't wearing the appropriate dress?" She asked me in a clipped tone.

I opened my mouth to respond but didn't realize how hoarse my voice had gotten. At my first attempt of speaking, I sounded like a dying chain smoker. I cleared my throat with a cough before trying again.

"Uh, I have it with me. I just didn't want to get it dirty while doing the set up."

Mrs. Twist seemed taken aback by my answer, but I didn't know whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing. She slowly began to nod her head and uncrossed her arms.

"Very well. Make sure you change soon. The event is starting in a little under an hour," Mrs. Twist reminded me before walking off.

Once she left, my heart rate slowed back down to its normal pace, and I could relax again. I checked to see if I was needed anywhere else and assisted the staff with small tasks before grabbing my stuff and heading to the bathroom on the upper level to change. I was already wearing the lingerie I purchased from Victoria's Secret underneath my regular clothes, so all I had to do was switch dresses.

I traded in my gray sweater dress for the black and white dress Mrs. Twist required all of the female staff to wear. I absolutely hated buttons on dresses, and the white collar on my dress made my neck itch. I just hoped I wouldn't have to be wearing it all night. With little to no difficulty, I zipped up my dress and removed my boots to put on my black heels. If I didn't purchase Dr. Scholl's gel padding for shoes, there would be no way I'd be able to wear these heels for hours on end without collapsing.

Before I left the bathroom, I double checked my surroundings to make sure I didn't leave anything behind. I peaked inside of my duffel bag again and was comforted by the sight of all my regular clothes inside. When I reached the top of the spiral staircase, I took my time going down each step, trying to develop a comfortable stride while wearing my heels. Once I made it to the bottom, I dropped off my duffel bag in the room where the rest of the staff left their belongings in and walked past the kitchen door to join the cooks and waiters gathered around the countertop.

"Alright everyone. We've been preparing for this day for weeks now," My father began his speech by saying, "This winter formal is our biggest catering event of the year. We cannot screw this up," Dad stressed with a serious look in his eyes. "Lester, Florence, Tucker, Giovanni, and Mariel, you all will be serving on the floor during the first half of the event and then will swap places with the cooks during the second half. Understood?"

I nodded my head and looked around to see everyone doing the same. "We won't let you down, Dad," I reassured my father with a smile. It seemed to release some of the tension he had inside of him because he relaxed his shoulders and returned my smile.

"Okay, then let's begin prep! Everyone take their positions now," Dad ordered while clapping his hands, the sound echoing throughout the kitchen.

I wiggled my eyebrows at Lester as we waited for the first few trays to be filled with food against the kitchen counter, thinking of all the mini competitions we held in this very space. He flicked his chin in my direction tauntingly before looking away with a smirk. When I began to hear people chatting on the other side of the kitchen door, that was the moment everything became real for me. None of us could afford to make any mistakes tonight. We needed to be damn near perfect.

§

My job for the first half of the evening was very simple. I'd approach a group of people with a fake smile plastered over my face and offer them whatever I was carrying on my tray. Currently, I was serving crab cakes, but they seemed to be the most difficult to get rid of among the crowd.

"Hello ma'am, would you like a crab cake?" I inquired while approaching an elderly woman with a gray fur coat draped over her shoulders.

She looked at me with her nose scrunched in disgust before turning on her heel and walking in the opposite direction. I was left standing there feeling a little flustered as the people around me began to murmur about our interaction. Gee, lady. A simple "no thank you" would have sufficed.

I took a deep breath and regained my fake cheerful composure before finding another group of people to serve. I decided to go by the bar and presented the crab cakes on my tray to the people who were socializing there and having a drink.

"Crab cake anyone?" I offered as I went down the line.

Most of them declined my offer with the shake of their head or a polite no, but there was one person who said that they would like to try one and stretched out their hand to grab a crab cake from the tray, causing me to halt my movements. As soon as I spotted the cross tattoo on their hand and ring clad fingers, my eyes widened, and I turned my head to see Harry leaning against the bar countertop with a smirk painted across his lips. He was wearing a floral white suit that looked like it was pulled straight out of a furniture catalogue (but he looked handsome nonetheless) and a black button-up shirt with complimentary black dress shoes.

His curly brown hair was shoulder length and styled to the sides in loose waves. A light stubble was underneath his chin and around his mouth. I must've stood there admiring him for a good sixty seconds before I blinked and snapped out of my trance. At this point, Harry had already taken a few bites out of his crab cake and was humming as he chewed.

"Mmm. This is good," Harry told me with a look of approval while wiping the crumbs from the corner of his mouth.

"I'm glad that you're a fan of it at least. Other people keep avoiding it like the plague," I admitted with a chuckle.

"Huh, guess that leaves more crab cakes for me then," He declared with a smile before taking another one off my tray. "By the way, you look beautiful tonight," Harry added charmingly.

His compliment made me blush and glance down at my outfit one last time. I wasn't a fan of how the dress looked on me, but what I was wearing underneath still gave me a boost of confidence.

"Thank you," I replied, biting down on my lip before letting it bounce back in place. "You don't look to shabby yourself."

Harry laughed and dusted off the crumbs that had fallen onto his black shirt. He finished eating the rest of the second crab cake before motioning for me to come closer with his hand. I set my tray on an unoccupied part of the counter at the bar and leaned in close so I could hear him over the music better.

"I have a present for you waiting in my room," Harry whispered in my ear, his lips coming into contact with my skin with each word he spoke. "Follow me upstairs if you want to see it."

Before Harry pulled away, he managed to discreetly kiss the spot below my ear. I gasped at the sensation of his soft lips on my skin as a warm feeling flooded my body. That same lopsided smirk I've grown to adore was covering his face, and I wanted nothing more than to connect our mouths in a kiss right then and there. I watched Harry walk away from me and move through the sea of bodies in amusement. When he reached the spiral staircase, he looked over his shoulder and flashed me a smirk before ascending the stairs.

I was tempted to just drop everything and join him, but I had a job to do first and was determined to complete it. I moved through the crowd of people in a similar manner Harry did just seconds ago but occasionally stopped to offer crab cakes to people. My smile was more authentic this time around, and I couldn't help but think it was because of the effect Harry had on me. More and more people started to request the crab cakes off my tray, and they were gone in a matter of no time. I carried the empty tray back into the kitchen to drop it off and lied to my father, saying that I had a bathroom emergency, so I could take a break. He advised me to try and come back downstairs in time for Mr. and Mrs. Twist's speech which was scheduled to happen at a quarter to ten. I pushed that information to the back of my mind for the time being and concentrated on meeting Harry upstairs.

As soon as I reached the top of the spiral staircase, I felt a large hand grab my wrist and tug me into one of the bedrooms. I hardly had anytime to react but relaxed the muscles in my body upon seeing Harry's brown curls and green eyes in the dim lighting. Neither of us could contain the smiles on our faces as he lead me across the room to sit on his bed.

A few months ago, I would have never guessed the sequence of events that would have lead me to this very moment--with Harry--behind closed doors in what would become one of the best nights of my teenaged life.

Author's Note:

Hey everyone. I hope your weekend is off to a good start. I had my final for AP Calc and AP exam for World History. I got a 5 on my AP Calc final which was a mock AP exam, so I'm really happy. I won't know how I did on AP World until July, but I'm confident I did well. The only downside to my week is that I caught a cold. Hopefully, I get well in time for my talent show performance on May 18th. I'm covering Sign of the Times by Harry Styles.

Speaking of Harry Styles, his album dropped yesterday!!! AHH. I'm waiting until I get my personal copy of his CD in the mail before listening to the whole thing, but I've heard great reviews so far. Be sure to tell me all of your favorite tracks in the comment section.

Question for my readers: Do you have any tips as to how to get rid of a chest cold and miminize the impact of it on a person's throat?

My vocals need to be flawless for my performance since it's my last show as a high school senior.

--
Kaylandia