Authors: V.S. Tice
The week before Dr. Bishop’s award dinner, Grace appeared with the dresses. She handed me an adorable light blue dress for Victoria and then a dark gray dress she’d chosen for me. I had to force a thankful smile. The dress was hideous – clearly her intent when she picked it out. It definitely resembled something that would have been worn by a maid in the eighteen hundreds. It only needed to be made out of wool to be an exact replica. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to make her dislike me, but I could only assume it was my relationship with her daughter.
The day of the dinner, Grace rushed Victoria and herself to the spa and salon to prepare for the night. I did what I needed from my room. With a homemade oatmeal mask on my face and a mayonnaise mask in my hair, I worked on my book. Thankfully, I was rinsed off and washed when they got back.
Victoria’s hair was perfectly curled and piled on her head while Grace’s hair was smoothed and sculpted around her face in a very retro style, like a 1950 starlet.
I dressed Victoria and sent her for Grace’s approval. After she left, I took my curlers and finger combed my hair into place. For the amount of time I had the curlers in, I should’ve looked like little orphan Annie, but my poker straight hair didn’t take well to curling so I ended up with waves instead. Before slipping into my dress, I secured the top half of my hair and allowed the waves to fall loosely down my back.
“That’s not the dress that Grace bought you.” Victoria pointed out the obvious as she entered my room.
“Nope.” I pressed my lips together tightly to hold back my smirk.
“I like this one better.” She ran her hands down the pleated skirt.
“Me too.” I looked over my reflection in the floor length mirror.
In place of the hideous granny dress Grace purchased, I went with my own last minute choice. It hadn’t been as cheap as I was hoping, but Miranda convinced me it was too gorgeous to put it back. I put down three-hundred dollars for a dark blue satin dress with two pleated straps wrapping up over my left shoulder and separating across my back. The skirt was a flattering pleated A-line and made me feel good. I slipped on my silver strap heels, grabbed my silver clutch purse, and then took Victoria’s hand before we left the room.
Dr. Bishop and his parents were standing in the foyer, their eyes on Grace as she descended the stairs in front of us. She was wearing a long shimmering metallic gold dress that fit her model thin body perfectly. With a fur wrap around her shoulders, she exaggerated her entrance, soaking up the attention.
My self-esteem took a hit before I remembered no one was going to be looking at me anyway. With a deep breath, Victoria and I began our own descent. We were almost to the bottom step when Connor noticed us.
“You two look lovely.” He smiled warmly.
“Oh dear,” Mrs. Bishop gasped and placed her hand to her chest. “Victoria, you’re beautiful. What an adorable dress.”
“Can you believe I convinced the designer to release it to me?” Grace beamed proudly. Her face fell when she took in my dress. “You look…nice.”
“You look beautiful, dear,” Connor quickly stated.
I gave him an appreciative smile before going to get our coats from the closet. Along the way, I glanced at Dr. Bishop, taking in the way his dark gray tuxedo enhanced his strong, lean build. His eyes focused on me, but instead of the calculating look, his eyes were reminiscent of swirling seas of emerald. For just a moment, the right corner of his mouth began to lift.
“Doesn’t she look beautiful?” Grace gripped onto Dr. Bishop’s arm and motioned to Victoria. His eyes stayed on me.
“Yes, she does.”
“Collin?” Grace hissed.
Swiftly, I pulled my attention away from the draw of his eyes and back on the coat closet.
“Yes,” his tone was sharp. “You look lovely, Victoria.” He knelt on the floor in front of her.
“Thank you, Daddy.” Her smile could have lit the darkest night.
Upon arrival to the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Seattle, we were helped from the car by valets. Mr. Bishop took Mrs. Bishop’s arm and led her into the hotel. I took Victoria by the hand and followed. We met up with Dr. Bishop and Grace in the lobby and then proceeded in the direction the signs led.
We entered the West Foyer reception area where cocktails were being served. There were two bars and at least fifty small cocktail tables full of mingling people. Victoria began to fidget.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
“I don’t see any other kids,” she whispered back.
“I’m sure there’s at least one somewhere,” I tried to reassure her, but honestly I didn’t see any other children either.
Mr. Bishop appeared before us and asked for our coats. We passed them to him, and he carried them to a coat check window. I waited for him to return with the tickets. Once he did, we were ushered to follow Dr. Bishop and Grace around the room. They mingled and introduced Victoria a couple of times. I stayed back and tried to stay out of the way.
The cocktail hour finally ended, and we were allowed to enter the ballroom. Streams of people piled into the room of round tables. Both the east and west ballrooms were opened up into one. At the front of the room were pictures of different men, including Dr. Bishop. Victoria and I walked to the front to view the portraits.
“That’s Daddy,” she said excitedly.
“Yep.” I scanned the plaques beneath each picture. “These other men were also up for the award.”
“But my daddy beat them.” Victoria’s face was full of admiration. I led her to where the Bishops were taking their seats.
Max, Larissa, Allison, and Jonathan had arrived when we returned. They were sitting at the round table. Another table where William and Amber were sitting with the kids was obviously where we would be seated. Thankful I didn’t have to sit at a table with the Bishops all night, I breathed in relief and pulled out seats for both of us.
“Well, well, look who cleans up nicely.” William winked at me.
“Thank you, kind sir,” I curtseyed.
“That dress is amazing.” Amber walked over to my side and held my hands out so she could take in the entire dress. “I love it.”
“I’ll let you borrow it next time.”
“Yeah, like I would look that good in it.” She released my hands and sat back down.
“You would,” William said without looking at Amber. A small smile crept up on her face.
Dinner was served and announcements were made. The kids were restless so Amber pulled out crayons and coloring books from MJ’s diaper bag. That kept them entertained for a little while.
The speaker finally got to the awards portion of the night. Before speaking of Dr. Bishop’s accomplishments, he spoke of the other candidates and described the decision-making process. Thankfully, Dr. Bishop kept his speech short and to the point. After three long grueling hours, I’d had enough. Just as I was getting ready to run out the door, it was announced that the bar would be open for two more hours, and a small orchestra set up to play. I groaned.
Victoria was bored to tears and being whiney. In order to lighten things up, I took her to the dance floor. Dr. Bishop was dancing with Grace, Allison with Jonathan, and Max with Larissa. We stayed off to the side, away from them.
“Oh my goodness,” Victoria gasped.
“What’s wrong?” I stopped dancing.
“Becca’s here.” She waved to her friend.
I followed her line of sight and saw her friend standing on the other side of the room, waving wildly. Becca moved to us quickly.
“Have you been here the whole time?”
Becca nodded.
“Can we play?” Victoria pleaded with me.
“Of course, but don’t get in anyone’s way and stay close. Okay?”
She nodded frantically and ran off. I smiled and began to walk off the floor.
“May I?” I looked over to a very tall, dark, and extremely handsome man with his hand extended toward me. He wore a dark tux that complimented his olive skin, brown eyes, and thick dark hair.
“Um…”
Did he realize I was just a nanny?
“Please?” he half grinned.
“You realize I’m not…you know…one of these people?”
His brow wrinkled. “One of these people?”
“Uh, yeah, I’m…uh…I’m a nanny.” I bit my lip.
“Oh, I see,” he smiled mischievously. “Well, that would explain it.”
“Explain what?”
He took my hand and guided me back to the dance floor.
“Why I haven’t seen you with anyone besides a little redhead all night.”
“Oh, yes. Well…”
His left hand held mine while the other came to rest on the small of my back. He pulled me close enough to feel the heat from his body and to smell his cologne. Lord, he smelled good.
“So I’m assuming you work for Collin?” He glided us across the floor gracefully.
“Yes, I take care of Victoria. Do you know Dr. Bishop?”
“Collin? Of course. We work in the same circles,” he smiled down on my upturned face. Our lips were too close so I looked to the side.
“You’re a doctor as well?”
“How rude of me.” He pushed away from me and introduced himself. “I’m Dr. Dominic Erickson, but you can call me Dominic.” He pulled me back against his chest, this time even closer, and began moving us across the floor once more.
We talked about his job, my job, and my writing goals through the next three songs. I’d been randomly checking on Victoria while we danced. During my last check, I caught sight of Dr. Bishop. He was standing with Grace in his arms on the dance floor. They stopped moving, and he looked furious.
“I think I should go check on Victoria.” I tried to excuse myself, but Dominic wasn’t finished with me.
“You’ve been watching her the entire time. She’s perfectly fine at the table with the Wrights’ daughter.”
I wrinkled my brow.
“I’m not ready to release you just yet.”
“Oh, well, I apologize, but I should really –”
“Miss Ashwood?”
I knew the voice, his voice. I clenched my eyes shut and silently groaned.
“Y-yes?” Dominic finally releasing me, I faced Dr. Bishop.
“Where’s Victoria?”
“She’s fine,” Dominic spoke before I could. “She’s right over there with Duncan’s daughter.”
Dr. Bishop shifted his eyes to Dominic.
“Dr. Erickson,” he nodded tightly.
“Congratulations, Dr. Bishop.” He held his hand out to him.
Dr. Bishop took his hand and they shook, but I felt like I was watching a contest. At any moment, I expected them to clear a table and start arm wrestling.
Antichrist versus Greek God. Place your bets, ladies?
“Thank you,” Dr. Bishop answered sharply. Then he returned the ferocity of his eyes back on me. “Perhaps it’s time for Victoria to be taken home.”
“Of course,” I answered, turning to Dominic. “Thank you for the dance. Good evening.” I started to walk away.
“Wait,” he grabbed my waist and faced me to him. “How’re you getting home? Do you need a ride?”