Twice Over

Chapter 117 - Orchestrate

orchestrate

verb

1. arrange or score (music) for orchestral performance.

2. plan or coordinate the elements of (a situation) to produce a desired effect, especially surreptitiously.

Claire Godfrey talked about everything that was on track for the show to take place in a week's time, then she went over the few things on her list of things to do, outlining some action points that needed my help.

"The catering needs finalising with Mrs Hepburn, you will need to go over this with her, please. The models are arriving next Friday afternoon for a rehearsal so we will require the clothing samples at this time. We had a problem with the makeup artist, she had double booked, which was a problem on her end, so we received our deposit back and have booked with another team who are available both Friday for rehearsal and Saturday night for the event."

"That's good. I think the first makeup artist was a peer recommendation, so I'm not worried about breaking it off with them. Have you worked with the new team?" I asked but I wasn't too worried as I trusted Claire and her planning abilities implicitly.

"Yes, I've worked with Sharon and her girls many times. She is fantastic and will doll the models up perfectly." Claire nodded and smiled, then moved onto the next thing on her to-do list. Once everything was addressed and finalised, I looked down at the notepad app on my phone and realised there were only two action points that I was responsible for. It was a great relief that everything else was sorted.

"So I need to chat with Mrs H about catering and I need to deliver the sets of clothing for each model to wear. Do you have sizes for each model and will I need to provide footwear? Oh, footwear? Why haven't I thought of this before now? Thankfully I didn't remember this at the last minute." I patted myself on the chest in a moment of worry then instant relief.

"I can cover footwear, Lily. Leave that to me." Eyva was happy to contribute towards the project.

"Yes, please. That's great." I smiled at her offer of help. "Thanks, Eyva. OK, catering." I looked down at my phone to make sure I wasn't going to interrupt Mrs H getting ready for the next meal. We still had about half an hour before the dinner, so I think she will be super busy.

"I might have to chat with Mrs H after dinner. She will be arranging the meal right about now." I gave up that idea, then turned back to Claire.

"Once I have model sizes, I can get the clothing delivered anytime."

"One last thing." Claire said just before I said goodbye to her. "I had a note down here on my list to ask you about how many male models you needed for the show."

"Oh, yes. I have five different designs, but the robes can be worn over anything so we have seven to eight different sets, so four male models will cover it. Just to confirm, we have twenty female designs, so with ten extra robes that makes thirty. Ten female models should be enough. The children's designs include five pyjamas sets and five robes, but I think five kids would be fine." Thinking about kids had me thinking about JacJac and how cute he would be on the show. Then I turned to Eyva and wondered if she wanted to join us on the cat walk. When I grinned at her she stepped back, worried about whatever it was I was thinking.

"What?" She asked cautiously.

"You, me and JacJac walking the show. Whaddoya think?" I asked with a grin. "Your peachy pink set is perfect and you could wear a pink tank top under the robe. I could wear my magenta and navy blue with the peacock print and we could put JacJac in the emerald green set that he loves, the one with the bunny rabbits on it. The three of us, strutting our stuff." I was momentarily excited about the crazy idea, then I had a think about what that would involve with being Wallace Overmeyer's children and I wondered if he or his parents would allow that to happen.

"If you can convince Dad to let us parade in public in our nightgowns, then yeah, sure. I'm happy to help." She smiled, a rather sardonic smile as she didn't believe Wallace would let any of his kids do that in public.

"It's for a worthy cause!" I grumbled, at Eyva or Wallace, I wasn't sure.

"What worthy cause? Your bank account doesn't fit into the 'worthy cause' category." Eyva snarked back. We waved goodbye to Claire and moved back towards the house, arguing all the way.

Just before we entered the building I had a stray thought. We were short male models. I knew of some hunks who owed me a favour or a ten. I grinned again and shook my finger at Eyva.

"Sis, do you have Liam Ferguson's cell phone number?" I asked her.

"Liam who?" She asked in confusion.

"Stuff-a-duck, you Stupid Beautiful Amnesiac." I growled at her.

"Should be on my old phone?" She suggested a way to find his phone number. After the mishap with the impromptu after school party at our place after Eyva came home from hospital, she had purchased herself a new cell phone, complete with new SIM card. "Explain why you want this Liam guy's number. Is he cute? Are you dating him? No, you wouldn't be asking for his number if you were dating him. Is he cute?" Eyva rambled on as she followed me into the house.

Her rambling was a new addition to the Eyva 2.0 new personality matrix. She would often do this now and sometimes I think she does it just to annoy me.

"Yes cute, in a young boy-next-door kinda way, no, not dating anyone, and yes, I wanna call him to see if he and his friends will be free to model next Saturday. What do you think?" I automatically asked her opinion on if he would make a good model or not, then remembered – amnesiac, she doesn't remember a thing. "Shit, you gotta get some of your memories back. Just the good parts though, not the bad parts." Yeah, that was a stupid and insensitive thing to say to her. When I realised what I'd said, I quickly apologised and smacked myself on the head.

"Sorry, that was horrible. Eyva, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. Please forgive me," I whined at her.

"Yeah, totally an arse thing to say. Glad you know it." She huffed with a smile on her face, but I could see that my insensitive words hurt her. I pulled on her arm and pulled her to sit down on the lounge couch where JacJac was watching cartoons on the laptop on the coffee table.

"Sorry, Sis. That was stupid of me. Don't take it to heart. I like the new you. The new you is happier and healthier. More fun to be around. I feel like we're real sisters now. It's much better this way. Trust me on this one." I sat closely beside her and bumped my shoulder with hers, trying to cheer her up.

She finally gave me a genuine smile and I knew all was forgiven. We sat there for a while watching cartoons with JacJac thinking about our own different things.