Loving Wright

Chapter 32: A Night at the Gala

Eli...

"Eli, stop staring," Kendra said.

"I'm not staring!"

I was definitely staring. And hard too. I don't think I stopped since I picked her up from her apartment.

She sent me a disbelieving looking.

"Ok, so I'm staring," I admitted, "But what else am I supposed to do? You look amazing."

She shyly smiled and looked down "Thanks, but it makes me feel more self-conscious about this dress. I don't know why I listened to Iris and picked it."

"What's wrong with the dress?"

"All of this," she pointed to the rather low neckline of the dress.

"I don't see the problem," I said, staring again.

"Stop it," she slapped my chest and grabbed the scarf, wrapping it around her shoulders.

We were in the limo, on our way to the benefit gala. The dress was some sort of red color, and her natural hair was up in some fancy hairdo. The length of the dress covered the red sneakers that she was wearing. She was still having some soreness, and figured heels weren't the best thing to wear right now. I was in a suit, nothing special about it. But Kendra said I looked nice, and that was all that mattered.

After a few more minutes of riding and we were at the event. The driver pulled up in front of the steps and a few seconds later he was opening the door for us. I exited and helped Kendra out. She hooked her arm around mine and we made our way up the stairs.

"How's the foot?" I asked.

"It's good. These sneakers are oddly comfy," she said.

We made it to the entrance at the top of the stairs and I handed the invite to the man at the door. He took it, read it, then looked up at me.

"Welcome Mr. Grant," he said.

I nodded and walked in with Kendra.

"Mr. Grant?" she asked once we were inside.

"Angela was supposed to come here with her brother. Now that she can't be here, he gave me the tickets," I answered.

That was a lie. I just called the event planner and told them who I was. Two invites were at Alex's apartment by the end of the day.

"Well that was nice of him," she said, then looked around at the ballroom. "Woah."

The place was huge. The walls were green and off-white. The floor had a complicated intricate tile design, but it somehow worked well with the walls. The place was littered with fancy paintings, statues, and indoor plants. And to top it all off, the floating lights of a chandelier hanging above us.

"This place looks so pretty," she whispered to herself as she kept looking around.

Wait until she saw the one at my parents' house. It wasn't this big, but it looked just as good, my mother made sure of it.

"Ok, so what's do we do first?" I asked.

"We find our targets," she answered.

With that we made our way through the crowd, scanning the faces as we passed them. Kendra spotted Ramona's husband at the bar. His wife was nowhere in sight. He was talking to a group of men and it was obvious that he was the only one that wasn't sober.

"How are you drunk this early in the event?" Kendra asked.

"Hanging out with your wife and her side piece will do that to you," I commented.