Kresley honestly couldn’t stay mad at Birdie though because it brought Grace into their lives. The day of interviews to find a new assistant wasn’t going well at all. And then enter into the mix one Ms. Grace Puckett. Grace was the next to last on Kresley’s list of candidates to interview and she was exhausted by the time Grace arrived. It was like this huge ball of energy had entered the room. Kresley shook her head as she remembered watching Grace walk in, with a box of office essentials in one arm and a potted plant in the other. She introduced herself in a very unique way.
"Hi. I'm Grace Puckett, your new assistant. Where's my desk located and how do you take your coffee? No coffee? Okay then, how do take your men? Hot, brooding and packin’?” After that statement, her lyrical laughter could be heard a few streets over and it seemed to fill holes in some cracks in Kresley’s heart. Grace became her assistant and best friend that very day. Adding the fact that Grace has a son named Jaxson, who is cute as a bug, only added to Grace’s allure.
Kresley had been no match for Grace then and she certainly wasn't now. Lord, that was five years ago. Time flies when you're having fun or trying really hard to keep from bailing your best friend out of jail. A loud snort erupted from her at that thought and Kresley guiltily looked around in case someone heard. She then remembered she was alone in the warehouse. Grace heard the snort and immediately asked what was so funny. Kresley innocently said she didn’t know what she was talking about.
Kres moved through the darkened building with ease. She knew every piece of furniture, every doorway, every wall like the back of her hand. Being in business and located in this building for the past fourteen years had made it like a second home to the Anderson sisters and their parents. They knew every crevice and hiding place. Living, eating, and breathing it 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, had made Kresley very familiar with everything. Her parents, James and Denise Anderson, began doing event planning for just friends when Kresley was a young teenager. It soon expanded into a huge business that took on clients in their small town and even those outside of it in the Atlanta area. Kres, Birdie, Francie and Gertie all started working for their parents as teenagers and learned the business quickly. Kresley planned her first wedding event by herself at the age of 18. An overwhelming feeling of sadness and despair washed over Kresley as she continued to walk towards the back of the warehouse. Oh, mama and daddy. I miss y’all. Would it ever get easier? The pain in her heart seemed so heavy some days. Would the guilt ever ease?
Kres could hear Grace talking in the background with someone. She quickly figured out it was with Grace’s 6-year-old son Jaxson and the conversation was about him going to bed soon. Kresley looked at her watch. Goodness gracious. It was already after 8 PM and she had been there since sunrise that morning. Honestly though, did it really matter? She had no husband, no boyfriend, no pet, not even a potted plant to go home to. Whimsy Events, LLC was her home, her life, her prison even, at times. Kresley could hear the sarcastic "bless your heart" mutterings now from her sisters. They weren’t the workaholic she was. None of them worked past 6 PM unless it was the day of an event. They knew how to balance life, right? None of them were attached to anyone. Birdie and Francie dated, but quietly. Gertie just stayed the hell away from men in general. With good reason. Gertie had been through something horrible and was finally in a better place now. Well Kresley guessed she was, since she didn’t talk about it much and hadn’t complained of any new nightmares lately. But Kresley knew trying to add a man to Gertie’s life would probably put her in a tail spin for sure.
It's not that Kresley wanted to be alone. She did want the fairy tale, the prince holding the glass slipper, leaning over her to kiss her back to life. Oh wait, those were two separate fairy tales. But the way her luck was going, if Mr. Charming showed up with a glass slipper for her, it would be two sizes too small and her toe nail polish would be peeling. Or if he tried kissing her awake he would have horrible breath.
Self-esteem issues weren't the problem. Kresley knew she was pretty. She didn't have a big head about it, but she was honest enough to admit that though she got her mother's good looks, she didn’t really feel beautiful enough for a man. Red hair, flowing down her back, a little above her waist, was a definite gift from her mama, along with the green eyes and peaches and cream skin. But she was definitely not a bombshell, sex kitten, or pin-up model worthy of male attention. The guys she had encountered since high school mainly wanted the thinner, model type of women with not much curves or extra padding. And Kresley definitely had curves. She had the butt for twerking, if she were ever inclined to try it, and her waist dipped in to curve over hips that were a handful. Her breasts weren’t worthy of floatation devices, but they were a decent C cup and didn’t sag too much. She wasn’t a brickhouse and mighty, mighty, but she could give
