Part 12



I find everyone in the party room. It is less than an hour before our guests will arrive and my family just stand in the middle of the room gently chatting with each other. I almost loose my breath when I see Matt brush his hand through his sexy hair. I walk up to them with a smile.

”Hi Molly, you look fantastic!” Anne says excitedly.

She is wearing the clothes she will dance in, they will perform as soon as all guests have arrived and then change into something else. Her friends is sitting on the lounge sofa that goes along the whole panorama glass wall. They are two boys and two girls in Anne’s age and they look excited. The girls are wearing deep pink tunics and black tights and the boys have white t-shirts and black jeans.

”Thank you, are you ready for the show?” I ask her politely.

”More than ready. We rehearsed while you were getting ready.”

”Okay good. Your friends will stay the whole evening right?”

”Well they brought clothes so they can dress up, but we didn’t know if they were allowed to stay.” my sister admits with a blush.

”Of course they must stay, it is a party and we need all fun people we can find.

They are especially invited here by me I am so thankful that they will perform for us tonight.”

”We are thankful for the opportunity.”

She has no idea how thankful she will be.

”Excuse me Miss Williams,” a manly voice interrupts us and I turn around to find my head chief of security waiting to leave a status report. My family watches him curiously beside me. They didn’t know, well I didn’t tell them about the safety guards that will be here tonight. They were slightly surprised when the vans arrived four hours ago. I didn’t care to leave them an explanation either.

”Hi Connor. How are you progressing?”

”We have secured the area, we will not let anyone pass without a proper invitation and no journalists will be allowed into the area. Walker will be close to your side all evening and rapport back to us. Talk with him if needed.”
”Thank you Connor,” I say satisfied. He is so used to my expectations by now that he never does anything for me to complain about. He leaves the room and I face my family smiling. The only thing stopping me from checking the security myself is the freezing cold winter outside. No I am not scared of the cold, I obviously don’t want to risk slipping and hurt my baby in any way.

”Did you check up on the servants? Are they preparing the welcome drinks?” I ask Matt.

”Yes, everything is ready. We are only waiting for the guests,” Matt answers me with a grin.

”Molly, I understand that you want security guards for the guests safety,” my father starts. ”Why on earth has it to be this secure? They put video surveillances over the whole house and yard. I just don’t understand it, it must cost a lot more than the whole food menu.”

”Well dad,” I start explaining. ”The guards are actually only for my own safety. Why don’t we discuss it later, I just want to have a perfect evening.”

I walk off to inspect everything again. The catering people have arrived and are preparing the food and I force them to let me test eat everything. I have to admit that they are living up to my expectations. They have clean clothes and hats over their hair, oh and good tasting low diet food.

Mr and Mrs Gregory arrives when I enter the party room again. Matt’s mother looks angry and her husband must help her take off her coat. They are both dressed up to the teeth, Mrs Gregory in a silver grey long cocktail dress and Mr Gregory in a costume with the same colour.

”Why was there a guard stopping us to drive in here? We had to show our identifications before they let us in! This is outrageous, I am Matt’s mother, I shouldn’t have to stand to go through this on my own son’s engagement party!”

”Hi, mom,” Matt tells her sweetly. ”We are just being careful and they have never seen you before so they are only doing their job.”

”And they said photographing will not be allowed during the whole evening!” she keeps complaining. ”What kind of ridiculous idea is that. I invited Jules Hatter from The Times, how is she supposed to document this evening?”

”Mom, we don’t allow any journalists here today.” Matt tells her. ”Since you invited her she can come but she can’t put anything in the news magazine. Good or bad news. I am sure she is mostly interested in Ilvy’s affairs too which isn’t good for you right now.”

”See it from the bright side,” I can’t help to put in. ”Everyone will be very impressed by the guards and it will be something you can take pride in as Matt’s mother.”

”I… I didn’t think about that,” Mrs Gregory stutters. ”Maybe it isn’t a bad idea at all.”

”She’s a real suck up for everything that puts her into a better view,” Anne whispers in my ear so only I can hear. That makes me giggle, but not loud enough to be disruptive.

”Now let me see the how you set up this room,” Mrs Gregory quickly inspects the whole room. ”Is the Christmas tree the only decoration?”

”No, we have glitter and candles too,” I tell her with false friendliness.

”Why didn’t you order any Christmas plants? This room looks a bit plain now.”

”I don’t want to over decorate it.”

”The room looks fine, mom.” Matt tells her annoyed. ”Everything is fine. Our guests will arrive any minute and you should enjoy the evening instead of finding faults. This is mine and Molly’s night, we planned it to be fun and not uptight. I think everyone will appreciate it for once, it is Christmas after all.”

”What do you mean complain? I never complain! Al, find me a drink, god knows I will need it if I am going to survive this evening.”

Her husband leads her to the welcome drinks table where two servants are waiting to serve everyone.

”She’s a real bitch,” Anne snorts so Matt hears but he doesn’t react.

”Anne!” I yell quietly. ”Don’t talk like that, she is my mother in law after all.”

”Not yet she isn’t.”

She hops away to her friends with a loud laughter and Matt hugs my arm and I lean into him. It feels good to just rest against him. I turn up my head towards his and he reward me with a warm kiss on the lips.

”It will not be that bad,” Matt says calmingly to me.

”I love you. Did I ever tell you that?” I moan.

”Plenty of times sweetheart.”

I give Walker a sign and he immediately walks up to me.

”Find Jules Hatter on the invitation list. She is allowed to come but not to bring any equipment with her.” I order him.

”Understood” He walks back to his position to contact the gate.

”Are you not going overboard with this Molly?” my father asks me concerned.

”Dad please, I said we’ll talk later ok?”

”You better keep that promise because this isn’t making any sense to me.”

”Molly!” I hear Matt’s mother yell loudly. ”What are nurses doing here?”
Finally! Five nurses are, as she said, arriving and leaving their jackets in the wardrobe. I start walking to welcome them, out of all guests these are the most important ones.

Matt and I shake hands all smiling to our guests when they arrive. I regret letting Mrs Gregory invite anyone she wanted, almost the whole society are dropping in. There is a few people I am happy to meet, like Anna, Ned and Anne Nelson from the record company and my friend Eric who arrives with his sister Penny.

”Glad you could come,” I tell him and give him a real hug. ”Matt this is Eric, Eric this is Matt, the man I will spend the rest of my life with.”

”Nice to meet you Eric,” Matt shakes hands with him and they exchange a few words before moving on.

I almost faint when I find myself looking into grey magnetic eyes. They belong to Shawn Steel of course. I don’t know how Mrs Gregory managed to keep quiet about inviting him but I know for sure that he will give me a hard time tonight seeing as I keep ignoring his tries to contact me for the duet.

”Oh well, isn’t it the unreachable MD?” he says with a smirk. ”Do you like my dates for tonight?”

I break my staring session to look around him and find two uncomfortably well dressed young boys to my surprise.

”Welcome Steel,” I greet him fast and bend my knees to greet the two angels. ”You must be Preston!” I say happily to the blonde three year old and almost give him a hug.

”Hi,” he says and hides behind his father’s leg.

I turn to the five year old who is a copy of Shawn.

”You must be Albin,” I greet him with a smile. ”It is very nice to meet you.”

”It is very nice to meet you too, miss Williams,” he answer me politely and it sounds rehearsed.

”Call me Molly, dear.”

Matt helps me up to my feet again and we smile lovingly to each other.

”Aren’t they adorable?” I ask him with a sigh.

”We have a play room for all children Mr Steel.” Matt tells him. ”Molly brought nurses from the children’s hospital so they will be in good care over there.”

”Thank you, and I’ll talk with you later MD.”

The three of them walks off and I can’t help to shout after him.

”I am still considering about it!”

Guests turns around to watch but they don’t get any more details about our conversation as Shawn walks away ignoring my comment and I go back to welcoming my guests. Soon enough an irritated Jules Hatter storms into the house and causes another scene.

”I have never been so humiliated in my whole life! I was not allowed to bring my camera in here and they made a full body visitation to make sure I didn’t hide anything similar. Whose idea was it to bring in these security guards and who can afford paying them?”

”Miss Hatter, I’m sorry that you feel offended,” I tell her. ”I don’t want any reporters here tonight and you have to enjoy the evening as a regular guest. If you can’t live up to my request then I’m afraid that you must leave.”

”So you had to bring in the best security guard in the whole country?” she spits out.

”Yes, I am just trying to be difficult,” I say smugly.

”Well suits me, this should be an interesting evening,” she ends our conversation and walks away half smiling.

”She’s a real drama queen that Hatter,” the next guest in line tells me kindly. She is an older woman who probably has seen everything in her whole life to get affected by an outburst. ”I am sure she loved the whole thing, she loves surprises and always try to sound like she doesn’t.”

”Welcome ma’am,” I greet her with a bright smile.

”Call me Dana, dear,” she asks me and keep walking slowly into the room.

”So what do you think about Eric?” I must ask Matt when we are waiting for Anne and her dancers to give us a signal when they are ready.

”Not what I expected him to be, he doesn’t look sick at all.”

”I am happy he doesn’t.”

Anne waves to me and Matt and I reach for the microphone to hold it together. Matt stands behind me with his other hand on my belly. I tap on it a few times so all guests stop talking.

”Welcome everyone, I am happy to see so many of you being able to come to this special occasion for me and Matt. We are also very proud to soon become parents. I hope you all will have a pleasant evening. Now I would like you all to focus on the stage where my sister and her friends are. On my request they are going to dance for all of us. Afterwards you are all welcome to dig in on the buffet. Thank you all.”

The light in the room dims down to focus on the stage instead. I nod to Anna to stand next to me and the music starts playing. They are on the stage for ten minutes. I don’t know what kind of hopes I had for them, but I do know that I didn’t think all five would be this good. They totally bewitched their whole audience and when the song tunes out the applauds never seems to end. The dancers disappears to change and the guests starts chatting about the performance and a few make their way to pick food from the buffet.

I look at Anna and I can see her brain cells working.

”They are good.” she tells me.

”Yeah better than I thought,” I agree.

”I want all of them.”

”You can have them.” I promise her. ”I’ll pay for all five.”

”How will you break the news for your sister?”

”Later tonight when all guests left. Will that be alright?”

”Of course, you are more than kind for letting me sleep here tonight.”

”Thank my father, it is his house,” I tell her with a laugh.

”I see you didn’t invite Rick.” she blames me.

”That… that…” I say angrily. ”He would definetly ruin my evening. Everything is fine when he isn’t around.”

”But he is a damn good agent.”

”That is the only reason I didn’t fire him yet.”

I see my brother walk up to me with a determined look on his face.

”Hi Martin, is there something you want to tell me?”

”Yes there are some guys outside asking for you.”