Casual Layovers

Chapter Twenty-One

 Dinner goes by rather quickly and when all the dishes have been taken away and the tables are cleared, Avery sees Deb waving for her to approach the raised platform once again, so they could do their special donation presentation. According to Deb, they received a very special donation this year that they wanted to share with the room and Avery has been looking forward to the big reveal all evening because she is very excited to find out just how much they were able to raise for the hospital. She excuses herself from the table and walks over to where the head nurse is already standing by the microphone stand. She looks down and over at Jane to see her best friend giving her two thumbs up and she smiles happily.

Deb pulls the microphone off of the stand and taps it a couple of times before she speaks into it. "Hello everyone. I hope that your dinner was enjoyable. We are so very grateful for everyone who could join us tonight. I see so many familiar faces out there that make it a point to come to this event and have supported us for over fifteen years now, and we cannot express enough how grateful we are for it. A few days ago, with the help from a new friend, we received a phone call from someone very special. Before I introduce you to who that is, I would like to first say that our goal this year was to raise enough money for two new Chemotherapy and radiation machines. When I talked to this wonderful lady earlier this week, she told us that her company not only wanted to purchase those two machines for us, but they wanted to give an additional one-hundred thousand, dollars to CSCH." Deb pauses for a moment as there are gasps and whispers throughout the room.

Just as surprised as most everyone in the room, Avery's eyes go wide as well. She looks over at Deb who is still staring out into the crowd and then over to Jane who now has a smug grin on her face. Jane, you little brat! You knew about this and didn't tell me! She turns her attention back to Deb, anxiously waiting for her to announce who this new benefactor is.

Deb looks briefly at Avery and smiles before turning her attention back to the room full of people. "This incredibly generous donation from the Mavis Financial Group..."

When Avery hears the name of the donor, she freezes, her mind starts racing which causes her to block out the rest of Deb's introduction and speech completely. Wait. What?! She looks at Jane again and sees that her best friend still has that smirk on her face. No, she didn't... But then her suspicions are confirmed by Deb's next few words.

"And with us tonight is the Chief Executive Officer Ryan Shaw. Ryan, if you could make your way up here please... "

Avery looks out into the large ballroom, and watches as Ryan, who is dressed in a simple but elegant black and silver ball gown, gets up and starts walking up towards where they are.

Ryan takes a deep breath and makes her way up towards Avery and Deb. She has not seen Avery for almost a month and feels terrible for ambushing her this way, but when Jane had approached her earlier this week about the charity event, and potentially becoming a donor, she agreed without a moment's hesitation. She knew that she could persuade the company to make their annual charitable donation to the children's hospital with or without the hope of winning Avery over. But, tonight, seeing Avery again, and being able to admire her from across the room all evening, all she can think about is what it would feel like to kiss her again. When she finally makes it up to the platform, she looks up at Avery and they meet eyes for the first time in nearly four weeks. It takes her a few seconds to adjust, but she finally smiles warmly at the blonde.

Avery smiles back casually, and it must have been the blood pumping in her ears that somehow caused her to tune everything out, but before she knew it, her and Ryan were standing opposite each other with a giant cardboard check and there are flashes of lights from cameras everywhere.