When Where and How to Love

Chapter 44. The extraordinary board

Miss Juliana Valdés,
You have been summoned to appear
On March 20th at 7:00 pm.
At 233 Lincoln Street.
Sincerely
The V.P.B.

Future Jauregui-Cabello apartment - Two days before the wedding.

Juliana stopped at the door of her friends building, once again she had been summoned. "Well, I'm here, and with ten minutes to spare. I'm calm... very calm... Oh God! I could use a Diet Coke right now." Her cell phone received a message and even with shaking hands she managed to read it.

'Relax love. Everything is going to be fine.'

It was Valentina, obviously. "That's easy to say when it's not you who's being cross-examined," she said to her phone. "Come on Juls! You are a superstar! You live under constant pressure from coaches, your teammates and fans, you can't be scared by a simple meeting." And with this self-conviction the athlete pressed the intercom.

"Come in," a voice from beyond the grave buzzed open the door of the building.

"You can do this Juliana! You can!" She repeated to herself as she arrived at the door of the apartment. She looked at her watch, "Seven o'clock. It'll be okay," she said and knocked on the door.

"Come in," the same voice encouraged her to enter.

The brunette entered the room expecting to find a circle of people around a chair, which she would occupy, but she was wrong. There was a chair for her, but she was not surrounded by people. Rather, the Jauregui-Cabello living room had disappeared, and instead of the sofa, there was a small platform. On top of the platform there was a child's highchair, accompanied by two stools, one on either side of the highchair. To the right of the stage there were two rows of seats and these were repeated on the left side of the stage.

"My God!" Was all the brunette managed to say when she saw so many seats. "This is going to be a massacre!" Camilla appeared behind her wearing a toga? It looked like a black toga. "Can you explain..."

"Juliana Valdés, please take a seat," the dancer pointed out the chair she had to use and the athlete did not delay in occupying it. The brunette took out a sheet and proceeded to read.

"From this moment on, everything you say can and will be used against you or may be recorded for future analysis." Juliana knew that Camila was the spokesperson for the group. "You should only speak when you are asked and you must answer absolutely all questions honestly. You were allowed to bring a leopard..."

"Lawyer darling," someone corrected her from behind.

"You were allowed to bring a lawyer. Did you come with someone?" Camila looked up from the paper to look at Juliana.

Juliana shook her head. "No," she replied regretfully. It was actually Lauren's fault, she had warned her that hiring a lawyer would deduct points and blah, blah, blah, she should have guessed it was just an intimidating act from the Latina. Even more so when the dancer, after hearing the negative whisper something like, "Every time you sink even deeper!"

"To begin the meeting, you must stand," she looked at the brunette who, from the speed she stood up, threw the chair backwards.

"Sorry," she apologised while lifting it.

Camila after a semi-deadly look, because nothing deadly could come out of Camz's eyes, continued with the reading. "First we welcome the voluntary members of the Board." One by one they settled in the rows to the right, Lucho, Finn, Arturo, Glen, Kurt, Shane, Mariana, Sugar, Sam, Derek, Joe and Rory. All dressed the same as the ballerina. The athlete only recognised her friends from New York, therefore she assumed that the rest were Valentina's friends from high school who had been invited to the wedding.