It is my pleasure to invite you all to our yearly reunion in California! As usual, I’ll be covering the travel expenses for each of you. (It pays to be CFO of Disney doesn’t it? And YES I’m rubbing that in your faces. Again.) Since we did Anaheim last year and L.A. for most of the years before, I figured we’d do San Francisco for a change!
Now, as usual, if you choose to be a planning assistant, I’ll fly you out a couple weeks before the reunion to help me with certain aspects of coordination, but you must help for at least five hours a day. (You know how HUGE this event is to all of us and we have to make sure each year is better than the last.) If you are an assistant, you’ll help finalize the final itinerary and be responsible for setting up the gift bags for our class of 500 awesome people.
If you’re busy and have a life (Yes, James Klein, we all know you’re a huge golf star now and your schedule is hectic), just send me your travel/lodging preferences (up to two tickets per person) and the assistants will mail you your official tickets a week before the reunion.
Looking forward to seeing you in a few months!
Harrison Woods
I clicked through the attendees that had signed up and noticed that next to Claire’s name was a “no response” checkmark.
I called Corey again. “Corey, I need something else...I need you to intercept any emails regarding a Schenley High School class reunion from a Harrison Woods. He’s the CFO of Disney.”
“Disney? Are you serious?”
“Can you do it?”
He sighed. “Their firewall might be a bit challenging to get through...Give me a few seconds...”
“If you can bypass any emails about insignificant party details that’d be great. I just want the finalized RSVP list.”
“Got you something even better...Do you see it?”
I looked at my screen and saw a spreadsheet detailing each member of her high school class and every California reunion they’d attended throughout the years.
Claire hadn’t attended any. Ever.
“Were all of these reunions in California, Corey?”
“It looks that way, which is crazy because the high school is in Pittsburgh. Looks like it all started with their ten year reunion and then it became an annual one. That Harrison guy literally pays for each and every one of these things. It must be a pretty good tax write off.”
“Hmmm...Okay, thanks.” I hung up and called Ashley.
“Hey, Jonathan.” She picked up on the first ring.
“Hello. Are you busy right now?”
“Not at all. I actually just opened the care package you sent me. Are you calling because you meant to send five hundred dollars and not three hundred? Don’t worry. I knew that was a mistake. You can wire me the rest.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s more than enough to get you through the week. I’m calling to ask you something: When’s the last time you talked to your dad?”
“Um, two days ago. Why?”
“Just wondering...Has he mentioned moving out of Pittsburgh?”
“No. He did mention taking me and Caroline to a hockey game this winter since his firm gave him free season tickets—which is odd because we both hate hockey.”
“So, he still lives in Pittsburgh?”
“To my knowledge, yeah. I’m sure he would’ve told me and Caroline if he was planning on moving. He tells us everything.”
“Right. Well, thank you for letting me know.”
“You were serious about only giving me three hundred dollars? Don’t you think that’s an odd amount to give someone every week? The first few times were okay, but it’s getting out of hand now.”
“Goodbye, Ashley.” I hung up.
I was about to call Claire, but I heard my doorknob twisting and—there she was.
She was dressed in a short white dress and high heeled grey pumps, with a one of a kind triple pearl strand necklace I’d bought for her last weekend.
“Are you familiar with the phrase ‘knock first’?” I raised my eyebrow.
“Am I interrupting a private session? Is there a woman sucking you off under your desk?”
“Not today.” I stood up and walked over to her. “She only does that when she’s really happy with me.”
“She is really happy with you.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. “I know our meeting isn’t scheduled until later, but can we cancel it? I want a different wedding planner.”
“You came here just to tell me that?”
“I came here because I’m on my lunch break. Speaking of which, if you’re going to continue sending my staff a catered lunch every day, they prefer sweet tea and lemonade over Coke.”
I smiled and kissed her neck. “I’ll have it changed by tomorrow. How many minutes do you have left on your break?”
“Ten.” She rolled her eyes and stepped back. “Is that a no to changing wedding planners?”
“It’s a maybe because this is your third wedding planner...Are you trying to stall marrying me?”
“What? Of course not... I just want our wedding to be perfect. And actually, I’ve been reading a few in-depth articles about huge weddings and most of them agree that the ideal planning period is six months to a year.”