INSIDE THEIR MINDS

It's An Emergency

ALEX

I finally arranged the perfect "practice" bouquet for the engagement party. Normally the task of designing the floral arrangments was simple and routine but this groom had a very particular set of requests.

1. Every flower must be locally grown.

2. No flower should be red or pink.

3. This bouquet had to be unique, like nothing I have ever arranged before.

Locally grown I understand, red can be extremely over done at weddings so that I get, but unique? A floral arrangement that has never been seen before? There are only so many ways you can arrange flowers in a vase and after nearly four hours I think I had tried almost every combination. It wasn't until around four o'clock that I felt I finally found the perfect set.

It was a perfect collection of blues, yellows, greens and oranges, arranged in different heights and widths. It was perfect and it was definetly different from anything I had ever done before.

The rest of what was left seemed easy in comparison. The china and cutlery had already been hand picked along with the table cloths. The 12 piece band that was scheduled to perform has been confirmed and thankfully the location wasn't something I had to concern myself with at all.

All I was told was that it was a new property he had just purchased and he will be closing the deal in the next week.

He said that he had hired someone else to organize the space for me and that all I had to worry about was wrangling the materials and confirming the band, servers and valet.

He was a rough, very wealthy man and there was something about him that unsettled me.

I simply had to move past that though and having worked with much worse customers it wasn't that hard to deal with. I also had to admit the paycheck was very nice too, about three times the amount I usually make from a gig,.

Though half of my business was organizing weddings and engagement parties part of me felt I would never have one of my own, but now with Derek maybe that would change.

I mean if that picture is of the ring he bought for me and the pamphlet of the place he would like to be married, it could be happening sooner than I thought.

PHIL

The entry way was busy but there was one voice that was raised above all else and the moment I saw him I knew that it was the man that had taken me.

I thought he was my friend, or at least someone that could be trusted. I mean his job is protect and observe the people of this building, my builing. Funny thing is he has actually helped me out personally.

I hid behind a crowd of people also headed to the elevators on the opposite side of the room.

I made sure Brian could not see me while he spoke with another security officer behind the desk that was centered purposefully so as to get a view of everything. The large black ring encircled a few chairs, computers and of course the several security officers.

His black uniform made me sick as the silver plated badge gleamed under the lights. How could someone that agreed to protect the innocent be a perpretrator of a kidnapping?

I decided it was best to just quickly jog the rest of the way to the elevator rather than hide behind a group of strangers.

I rapidly pushed my button and finally the elevator arrived. I turned over my shoulder to see Brian looking back at me, a deep scowl on his face.

I rushed inside the elevator, pushed a random button and the last thing I saw was him speaking on his radio as he ran toward me at full speed.

DEREK