Page 27 of Be My Valentine

“I’m not sure it exists yet.”

“Annie Carson won’t like that answer at all.” She commented in a contrite tone.

He burst out laughing.

“You and Emma will get along wonderfully!”

And it was true.

Chapter 12 / Kate

I love you terribly.

If a flower would bloom

Every time I think of you

every desert would be full of them.

(Khalil Gibran)

“Are you telling me you haven’t started organizing yet?”

Emma turned towards her, touching her baby bump.

“Don’t you start too! They’re giving me so much grief. You knew I was a hopeless case, didn’t Mark tell you?”

“He only told me that you needed help, not a miracle.”

Emma huffed.

“We have three weeks.”

“Two and a half,” Kate corrected her, “Why are we going to the Plaza if you’ve already decided the event will be held there in their gorgeous ballroom?”

“Because we have to pick out the tablecloths. We need to find cloths that match the foundation’s colors, yellow and blue.”

“We could have sent a photo and taken care of everything over the phone.” Kate objected.

“It doesn’t work that way. It’s a matter of tradition. You go, smile, introduce yourself, enthuse to the point of exhaustion, and start the battle.”

“What kind of battle?” Kate began to have some trepidation.

“The kind that marks out your territory by proving that the Holmes & Arrow Women’s Charity Organization is becoming more and more active and relevant. We have good projects around New York, but what we’re interested in at the moment is funding a girls’ school in a… difficult neighborhood, shall we say.”

“That’s a very ambitious project,” Kate reflected, “you can’t just plan a boring night and ask for money.”

“That’s what we’ve been doing forever. Music and entertainment with a few quite well-known faces from show business. The big guys get the foundations that already have a national structure, we’re not that big, but we’re going to be. We have a lot of big families on our side, and we need to parade some more.”

“Parade some?” Repeated Kate.

“Literally.” nodded Emma “Take them out of the ranks of other organizations and get them to fund just ours.”

“That doesn’t seem fair, they’re all charities.”

Emma sighed.

“You’re an idealist Kate and I adore you, but don’t underestimate one important aspect: prestige, which leads to relationships with influential people… it’s a chain.”