My Buddy Archie [3]

63..

My eyebrows pulled together as I scanned over the file Iris gave me only a few minutes ago. "Does his team know he's out?" I asked Iris, both of us hustling down the hall to the conference room. "I don't need any bullshit," I muttered.

"Based on the way Ted was talking, I don't think so. Seemed like Frank's family business was sudden. We should contact him at some point."

"Yeah, make sure all is okay."

We turned into the conference room to find about twelve men already seating in chairs around the table, waiting for us-well, Frank, but he's busy with family business so Iris and I are taking over his project. Usually it wouldn't be a cause for worry, we've done it before, but when Frank's team is made up of some of the more narrow-minded people in the company, we're not naïve enough to think this will go smoothly.

Iris and I took the last two seats at the head of the table. "Okay, let's get started," I said, looking up at expectant faces-male faces-staring back at me. "Good morning, I'm Connie, this is Iris, and-"

"What happened to Frank?" One man interrupted.

I tilted my head. "If you had let me finish I would've said Frank is away on family business and Iris and I are filling in for him for the duration of this project." He and I shared a tense moment of staring before I looked away to pull out the file out of my purse.

"Okay," I started, looking over the brief I printed out. "Everyone knows our goal is to organize, execute, and cover this fundraiser with Flanders incorporated. Next week Iris and I will be sitting down with their team as well." I looked around at my group, all staring at me attentively except for a few who seemed disinterested.

Brushing them off, I continued. "We'll have meetings at this time every day this week, hopefully it'll be enough time to have everything together when we meet with Flanders' team. So, that's what we're doing today-brainstorming what sort of fundraiser this should be."

"All ideas will be considered," Iris jumped in. "But we think Frank said he'd like the children to be included in the fundraiser, so a banquet wouldn't fit into that."

"How about a fair," one man said. Iris typed his idea down on her iPad as he went on. "We advertise it enough so a lot of people can come, bring their kids, spend money. It'll be fun."

"This fundraiser is supposed to take place in February..." Another said.

"Rent an indoor place then."

A red haired man spoke up, "What if we hook up with Ray of Sunshine, get some famous people to come-"

"Because that's so easy..."

"How would that make outside people want to pay though?" I nodded, knowing that guy had a point about that.

"You don't have any ideas of your own, Miss Connie?"

I looked up at the same man who spoke up about Frank missing. "It's Mrs. Horan actually," I corrected. "If I had an idea, I wouldn't have requested a brainstorm. Please go on throwing ideas out-"

The man leaned forward, mischief alight in his eyes as he smirked at me. Don't start with me... "Do you have children?"

"A seven year old." I folded my hands. "What exactly is the purpose of you interrupting an important part of this process to ask me personal questions?"

"I'm just trying to get to know you a little better," he smirked.

I gave him an overly sweet smile. "Well, it would do you good to quit now."

"Don't mind Jim," one man cut in. "He's always asking for trouble, but he's good at what he does. Don't mind his foolishness."

I regarded the salt and pepper haired man as he glared at his colleague. Nice of him to defend a man who seemed like a huge pain in the ass. "Anyway," I moved on. "Perhaps something with local schools? Kids love to run around. We could rent out a place for...football tournaments, or something-have people pay a certain amount for their team." I couple people nodded and Iris typed down the idea.