Ava Moore sat in her town house apartment sipping champagne, looking out across the lake at her scenic view contemplating her plan. She had the best view in the city, all because her Daddy was the Mayor. Not many people knew that. Ava was one of those people that liked to make her own way and not live on her family’s money. She had always been good at being an editor and it was a job that she really enjoyed. She had never flaunted her family’s success and almost never did public appearances with them.
She did however attend several charity functions on her own and donated quite substantially to many black tie events. In fact she was on the board of directors of a fund raiser this year for the local Children’s Hospital here in town. They were raising money for a new wing that would specialize in treatments for leukemia patients. The fund raiser banquet is next week-end and it is a staggering one thousand dollars a plate. Many elite players will attend and also those wanting to flaunt their wealth and status. Ava didn’t care as long as they brought a full checkbook.
Ava had lost a daughter from leukemia many years ago, and never hesitated to raise money for the cause when she was needed. With the banquet coming up and all the corporate sponsorship she had already acquired; Ava hoped to raise most of the money needed for the new hospital wing. The new wing would be named after her daughter Lily. It was an honor and a privilege to have her daughter linked with this unit. She would always have a remembrance of her beloved daughter.
With a second motive to be excited for concerning this event, she began to plan how she would get Luke and Sophia together. Luke was already a speaker at the banquet, thanks to her Daddy. Luke was a preferred speaker around town thanks to his handsome appearance and charming demeanor. Plus, he always had one famous model or another on his arm. This year Ava had it on good authority that Luke declined his plus one, as luck would have it, and he would be coming alone. Now to work on Sophia.
Sophia was a very proud woman. Ava knew she would never accept an invitation to a fund raiser without paying the price of admission herself. Ava didn’t want her to have to come up with the thousand dollars for her entry. She wanted Sophia to contribute to the event, but also to be her guest. Ava had a great idea! She just didn’t know if she would be able to get Sophia to go along with it.
Ava knew Sophia mainly from work. They didn’t socialize outside of the office, but Ava considered Sophia a friend anyways. They formed a bond while working together over the years because of their children. Over lunch one day Ava had told Sophia about Lily. Sophia had a similar story about her daughter Jamie…
While attending college Sophia had gotten pregnant. Her parents were very supportive and she had to move back in with them until she had the baby. Unfortunately she had to drop out of journalism school. Sophia was still with the baby’s father and they ended up getting married. It was a rocky road for both of them at such a young age, so the marriage did not last long.
Sophia had the baby and it was a girl. Jamie was a beautiful, active toddler, but soon became very sick. Every test available was run and it was discovered that her child had a blood cancer much like leukemia. Jamie received years of treatment and with constant monitoring, since they caught it early enough, she went into remission.
Sophia and Ava could both relate to the pain the other one had when dealing with this terrible illness. They grew close and shared stories of their daughters when they were little.
The issue Ava was having was how to approach Sophia and ask her to discuss this time in her life as a speaker at the banquet. The plan was to have her seated beside Mr. Luke Dalton and the rest would be up to them.
Ava decided to put her plan into motion the next day at work. With that decision made she sat back and enjoyed the rest of her drink and the spectacular view.
Ava arrived at the office before anyone else the next morning because she knew Sophia always came in early.
“Good morning Sophia!” called Ava as Sophia was walking up to the desk.
“Good morning Ava!” Sophia replied. “You’re here bright and early today!”
“Yes, I have something I’d like to talk to you about before we get started today, if you don’t mind?” Ava stated. “Can I treat you to a coffee from the break room?” They both giggled.
“Sure, lets’ go,” said Sophia. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh nothing serious,” said Ava as they walked in the breakroom and started getting the coffee. “It’s just this damn fund raiser I’ve been telling you about. It’s really got me stressed out. I had a speaker cancel last minute and I’m trying to fill the spot. I was really hoping I could get you to talk about Jamie and how the treatments she received when she was little saved her life”.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Sophia tentatively. “That was a really tough time in our lives. I don’t know if I could even talk about it.”
“Just think of the benefit to the fund raiser you would make,” Ava replied. “A real life success story of what we are trying to fight. It would be a great tribute to the healing processes we are trying to build in that wing. Plus, I’ll be there talking about Lily and we can sit together. What do you say? Please? I’m in a bind and it would really help me out,” Ava pleaded.
“Well, that does make a lot of sense,” answered Sophia. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to say a few words if you think it would help.”
“Yay!” Ava yelled and gave Sophia a big hug. “Thank you so much! You won’t regret it!”
“But what am I going to wear?” asked Sophia. “I haven’t attended something like this in years.”
“Don’t worry about a thing; I will take care of everything!” Ava said confidently with a gleam in her eye as they walked back to their desks to start working for the day.
That evening Ava phoned the administrator in charge of the seating arrangements for the banquet. He had no hesitation about adding an extra plate for Sophia Adams right beside the seat of Mr. Luke Dalton…