La Mémoire de Lune

CHAPTER 2: The Real Movie Star

A month had passed since the Music Festival and, although still only the month of November, the Christmas season could already be felt more and more each passing day. Hope certainly felt the festivities of Christmas, alright. She could see the bright Christmas lights shining once the sun sets and the moon rises, she could feel the love and warmth the season brought and, of course, the stress.

She managed a hotel in Manila, one of the multiple hotels her family owned, and she'd been training to take over ever since she turned 15 years of age. She had to oversee that everything ran smoothly within her management; she had the responsibility to manage employees, plan, market, coordinate and so on. Hence, the Christmas season brought both joy and stress on to Hope since the hotel became busy with more guests coming in and multiple bookings for events to be held.

In addition to Hope's mountain of responsibilities, she had to organize an event to celebrate the hotel's 50th anniversary. Her family knew she loved organizing events so they gladly gave her the task of managing the celebration; this included finding a band to perform for the said event.

Hope searched high and low for a band to play for the event but each one of the bands she'd contacted declined her due to unavailability. Just as Hope began to feel hopeless, one of her friends brought up the idea of contacting Blue Moon. With newfound energy, she found the official number of the band and called them as soon as she could.

"Hello?" Someone answered the phone after a few rings and Hope, although unsure, somehow recognized the voice to be Evan's.

"Good morning, sir! I'm Hope Wintour, the manager of The Wintour's here in Manila. I'm calling to inquire whether or not your band would be interested to play for our upcoming 50th anniversary on the 15th of December."

"The 15th of December, huh?"

"Yes, Mister..." Hope trailed off and though she tried to breathe properly, she really did, her lungs had different ideas. She held her breath as she waited on the other side's reply.

"Evan Hunter, just call me Evan; if it isn't too much to ask, where did you hear about us from?"

Pleasantly surprised, that's exactly how Evan felt with the news of a company inviting them to perform. He couldn't help the excitement he felt at the thought of performing with his friends again but he also couldn't stop the curiosity brewing within him.

"We were at a music festival about a month ago; we fortunately had the chance to hear your band perform. So, Evan, will Blue Moon be available to perform on December 15?"

A short pause ensued wherein Hope heard muffled voices in the background, she presumed the pause meant Evan asked his band mates for their availability. Not a moment later, Evan returned, "Sorry for the wait, Ms. Wintour. We're available for the event."

"It's no problem, we're all set then. We look forward to our partnership with Blue Moon for our event."

"It's a pleasure, goodbye Ms. Wintour."

"Thank you for your time."

Hope could feel her heart racing even after she hung up the call, she wanted to bash her head onto a wall for feeling disappointed once the call ended. She willed herself to get it together by taking a few deep breaths.

The day of the 50th anniversary celebration came and Hope could be seen fussing about, making sure everything was set for the event. The moment Hope made her way towards the front office to give out instructions, she recognized a familiar group talking to the receptionist.

"Good afternoon, we're the band hired by Ms. Wintour for the 50th anniversary celebration." Evan just informed the receptionist of their agenda for being there when his eyes spotted Hope or, as he described her in his thoughts, "a bewitching woman full of grace". What caught Evan's attention more about the woman approaching them, however, was the fact that she seemed familiar, he just couldn't pinpoint why.