My Party Planner, page 1
My Party Planner
The Friends to Lovers Series
by
Reba Bale
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
About This Book
Dedication
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Kelsie
Joey
Kelsie
Joey
Kelsie
Joey
Kelsie
Joey
Kelsie
Joey
Kelsie
Joey
Kelsie
Joey
Kelsie
Epilogue – Joey
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Copyright
MY PARTY PLANNER
© 2024 by Reba Bale
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No portion of this book may be reproduced, scanned, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system in any form by any means without express permission from the author or publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact the publisher at authorrebabale@outlook.com.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, organizations, or locals is entirely coincidental. Trademark names are used editorially with no infringement of the respective owner’s trademark. All activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.
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About This Book
She agreed to plan the party, but she never planned for love!
Joey is turning thirty soon and there’s one thing she wants for her birthday: a huge party to celebrate living past the age her doctors told her she’d never see when she was a kid. And she knows just the person to help plan the big event: her friend and party planner Kelsie.
Kelsie is one of Seattle’s most in-demand party planners. She loves her job. She also has a huge crush on her friend Joey, but that’s her little secret. She’s been in the friend zone with Joey ever since they met.
The two women couldn’t be more opposite. Kelsie is a light-hearted extrovert – a ray of sunshine wrapped up in cute dresses and well-chosen lipstick. Joey is serious and introverted, spending most of her time gaming or working in her construction business. But their attraction is undeniable...
Long days planning the perfect event soon turn into long nights wrapped up in each other’s arms. But a secret from Kelsie’s past comes to light, will their love withstand its first test?
“My Party Planner” is book thirteen in the “Friends to Lovers” romantic novella series. Each book in the series is a steamy standalone featuring an LGBTQ couple making the leap from friends to lovers and looking for their "happily ever after".
Be sure to check out a free preview of Reba Bale’s lesbian romance “The Divorcee’s First Time” at the end of this book!
Dedication
For all the people who think they have a time limit. Prove them wrong and remember: living well is the best revenge.
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Kelsie
“I want to plan a party for my birthday. A big one. Huge.”
I looked at my friend in surprise. “Who are you? And what have you done with my antisocial friend Joey?”
Joey pushed her choppy blonde hair away from her blue eyes. Her hair needed a trim, but I wasn’t going to mention it. Joey was just as likely to hack at her bangs with a pair of household scissors as she was to stop by Super Cuts and have a professional do it. My friend had always been one to prioritize practicality over vanity, a trait I both admired and found endearing.
She played with the strap of the denim overalls she wore over a light blue henley. She was short and slim, with small breasts and narrow hips. Joey was all compact muscle, surprisingly strong due to her years working in construction. It always cracked me up. She looked like a little sprite, not a construction worker.
“You know I was really sick when I was a kid, right?” Joey’s voice was calm, but there was the slightest hint of vulnerability beneath her words.
“Yeah.”
Over the years Joey had shared a little about her childhood spent fighting leukemia. I really hoped this conversation wasn’t about to take a bad turn. When Joey didn’t speak right away, I started to freak out.
“Oh my God! You’re sick? What’s wrong? Are you going to die?”
My words spilled out in a rush, drawing curious looks from people at nearby tables.
Joey squinted her eyes at me, the way she did when she thought I was acting crazy. “I’m not sick, Drama Girl.”
“Then what’s with the party?” I asked, relief flooding through me.
“It’s going to be my thirtieth birthday next month.”
“I know, we’re the same age, remember?”
Technically I was three weeks younger than her, but we always laughed about how we were practically twins. We were even born at the same hospital here in Seattle. It’s like we were fated to be friends.
I wished we were fated to be something more than friends though. I’d had a crush on Joey since the day I met her. Well, crush didn’t quite cover it. The truth was, I’d fallen in love with Joey the first time I laid eyes on her and had spent pretty much every day of the last five years pining for her.
Joey was, of course, oblivious. She lived in a world of her own, one where she rarely left the house other than for work, our weekly happy hours, and our regular ‘take out and trashy TV’ nights. She always told me if it wasn’t for her forcing her to do something social, she’d be stuck hanging out with her gaming friends online.
“So why do you – the most antisocial person I know – want to have a big party for your thirtieth birthday?” I asked. “I mean, I think it’s a great idea, but it doesn’t sound like you. At all.”
“When I was a kid and they found out I had leukemia, the doctors told my parents that if I lived through treatment, there was a good chance the cancer would return later. They told my parents not to expect me to live until thirty, and that I’d only live that long if I was very lucky.”
“Oh my God! Your parents actually told you that the doctor said you were going to die before you turned thirty?” I was immediately annoyed for her.
“No, my parents were talking in the living room one night and I came out on the landing because I couldn’t sleep. When I realized that they were talking about me, I sat on the stairs and listened until they moved onto another topic. My mom was crying, telling my dad they needed to enjoy whatever time they had with me, and they could only hope that I could at least make it through high school.”
“Wow.” I didn’t know what else to say, but my heart ached for the pain she’d endured over the years, and the uncertainty that clearly lingered.
“So anyway, here I am, defying the odds, healthy as a horse and ready to turn thirty. I’m going to have a big cheating death celebration and invite everyone I know, and everyone I’ve ever known.”
I released the breath I’d been holding. Nothing bad was happening. Thank God.
“Okay then, that sounds fun.”
“Good, because I want to hire you to plan the party.”
“Me?” I asked.
“Well, you are a party planner,” she reminded me.
It was true. I had my own party planning business and had done quite well for myself. Well enough that I had several part time employees who worked for me now, and I regularly turned down jobs. It was not the career that I expected to have when I got my degree in business administration, but it definitely worked for me.
“Oh yeah right, of course, I was just touched that you wanted me to help with your big day.”
“Who else would I ask?” Joey said. “You’re my person.”
We were definitely each other’s ‘person’. We talked or texted every day, used each other as emergency contacts, and had keys to each other’s houses.
“Aw thanks. I’d be honored to plan your cheating death birthday party,” I told her. “Now tell me what you have in mind for this big shindig.”
Joey
Kelsie looked so cute when she was excited about something. As I listened to her animated chatter, sharing her initial ideas for my big birthday party, I felt a sense of gratitude that she’d adopted me as a friend several years ago.
We’d met at the summer picnic for the construction company I worked with. Normally I avoided those kind of gatherings like the plague, but I’d skipped the event the year before and so many people had asked me why I hadn’t been there I realized it was easier to just put in an appearance for a couple of hours than to deal with all the questions about why I wasn’t there.
I’d spent a good chunk of my childhood in and out of hospitals and medical facilities. My mother had hom
Over the years I’d made a couple of friends, mostly extroverts who took pity on me and adopted me. It was good to have someone I could sit with at lunch or go to the occasional movie with, but I’d never had a true best friend until I met Kelsie.
She’d come to the picnic with her boyfriend at the time, a guy named Keith who was on another crew. The minute she saw me sitting by myself at a picnic table she’d come over, demanding to know who I was and what I liked to do. It didn’t take long to realize that we were somehow both very much alike and very different. We’d been best friends ever since.
Meeting Kelsie had been like staring into the sun. Her personality was bright and sunny and cheerful, the complete opposite of mine. She had long hair that was somewhere between dark blonde and light brown, huge brown eyes, thick pink lips, and a curvy figure that I only occasionally fantasized about. Okay, I regularly fantasized about.
I was in love with my best friend, had been since the moment we met, but she had no idea. And I’d never tell her either. I had no desire to ruin what I had with Kelsie. Her friendship was much too important to me.
“Your birthday is on a Saturday,” Kelsie reminded me as she looked at the calendar on her phone. “I’ll see what venue I can get for that day and let you know. There are several places I work with regularly on events like this. Meanwhile, you start making a guest list including email addresses and any other way to contact them that you have. I’ll set up a party webpage with all the details, and people can RSVP there.”
“Sounds like I picked the right party planner,” I teased.
“You know I’ll always take care of you, babe,” she responded, her voice warm with affection.
She glanced at her phone and wrinkled her nose. “I’d better go, I have another appointment. Start thinking about what kind of theme you want.”
“Theme?” I asked.
“You know, like the nineteen eighties or superheroes or country chic. We’ll coordinate the decorations, food and drink and depending on the theme, people can dress up.”
Party planning was already more complicated than I thought. “Okay, I’ll give it some thought.”
She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. I felt a tingle pass between our fingers and resolutely ignored it.
“This is going to be so much fun,” she gushed. “You’re gonna have the best birthday party ever!”
Kelsie stood up, smoothing down the cute little dress she was wearing. I didn’t know anything about fashion, but I thought it looked great on her. The dress was yellow, with little cartoon ladybugs on it. It hugged her round breasts, nipped in at the waist with the help of a wide black belt, then flared out over her shapely thighs, ending just above her knee. She’d paired the dress with black ballet flats. She was, in a word, adorable.
As soon as I lifted out of my chair Kelsie pulled me into a long, tight hug. She was a hugger by nature, and I both loved and hated it when she touched me. It always seemed to bring up emotions I wasn’t quite prepared for. I wrapped my arms around her and inhaled the sweet scent of the lavender perfume she always wore, wondering what she would do if I pulled back and gave her a kiss.
Maybe I was imagining it, but for a moment, the air between us felt charged, like maybe I wasn’t the only one thinking about a kiss. Then I remembered that Kelsie was my best friend, one of my only friends, and I needed to avoid rocking the boat with her at all costs. I pulled back, already missing the warmth of her embrace, and gave her a smile.
“I’ll see you later?” I asked.
“Not if I see you first.”
It was the same thing we always said when we parted. It was corny, but it was our thing.
As I walked back to my apartment, I wondered what would happen when Kelsie got into a serious relationship with someone. In the five years that we’d been friends she’d dated here and there, but only casually. I knew she dated both men and women, but mostly preferred women, although she didn’t seem too focused on finding a long-term partner.
I’d never had a real girlfriend myself. Other than the very occasional hook-up, I’d never done much dating. My years of social isolation had made me awkward and unsure how to do the typical dating things like flirting. My hook-ups only happened if the other woman made the first move, and even then, she needed to be explicit about being attracted to me, or I’d be completely oblivious.
Now that I was turning thirty, I was starting to think about the possibility of dating someone. Maybe I should ask Kelsie to teach me how to flirt? I discarded that idea immediately. I’d seen that scenario play out too many times in books and movies to think it would work out for me. Kelsie only saw me as a friend, so there was no sense doing anything to make myself even more head over heels for her.
No, I needed to get over my crush on my best friend and find someone to date. I’d beaten the odds and lived longer than anyone ever thought I would. At my last check-up, I was still one hundred percent cancer free. It was time for me to start thinking about doing grown-up things like buying a house, adopting a pet, and finding a life partner.
The only problem was that Kelsie was the only life partner that I wanted.
Kelsie
I spent the next few days wrapping up details for a major fundraising event I was coordinating, then I was ready to dive headfirst into planning Joey’s birthday party. She was literally the last person I ever expected to be planning a party for. I don’t think Joey had ever even been to a party. I was determined to make it perfect, giving her the celebration that she deserved.
Early on in our friendship she’d shared that she wasn’t comfortable in crowds or larger groups. She was convinced that she came off as ‘weird’. But the truth was that my best friend was just one of those people who did better one on one or in small groups as opposed to a crowd. She was perfectly comfortable if I invited her to a small dinner party, or if we did something with one of the couples I hung out with, like our friends Hannah and Ashley.
Joey wanting to have a party was a big deal, and I was determined to make it perfect for her.
“How about you come over for pizza tomorrow and we’ll start going through my planning checklist?” I suggested later that week. “Then we can catch up on 90 Day Fiancée.”
Joey and I both had a secret obsession with the reality show. We’d discovered this early on in our friendship and gotten into the habit of binge watching all iterations of the show, as well as following subreddits focused on the adventures of the Americans looking for love by marrying people from other countries. Not that we’d admit our obsession to anyone else in our circle of course.
‘Take out and Trash TV Night’ was just for us.
“Sounds perfect,” Joey agreed.
The following evening, I set up my dining room table into what I considered my ‘war room’ mode. I had my planning document projected on a wall where I could easily scan it, neatly stacked samples of themed items on one corner of the table, and several catering menus on the other. In the center, my laptop and iPad both stood at the ready.
“Wow,” Joey laughed when she came into the dining room. “Are we planning a party or storming Normandy?”
Another thing Joey and I shared was a love of history, especially World War II. Other than my best friend, I’d never met any WWII history buffs who weren’t middle aged white men.
“Haha. Sit down so we can talk about the venue.”
For the next two hours we debated the pros and cons of various venues that were available on Joey’s birthday and then worked on picking a theme. Joey wanted “I cheated death” to be the theme but I got her to choose the more positive “Celebrating thirty years.” We decided to go out with a bright color theme of reds, blues, and yellows, with a dance floor and a DJ to play upbeat music.
“I’m thinking a casual buffet of various small bites,” I told her. “What do you think?”
