Party Perils by Patti Benning (the chimp paradox TXT) 📕

“Sean definitely did not ask me about it,” Hannah said. She was irritated, but not quite angry. She would be more than happy to host her brother’s wedding, but she was not happy that she had apparently been roped into it without even getting asked.

“No, I’m sure he said he was going to,” her mother said, unhelpfully. “Jennifer was so excited to finally have a good location, she called me just to tell me about Sean saying they could use your house.”

“Why do they even want me to host it?” Hannah asked, sitting down in one of her chairs with a groan. “My house is nice, but it’s not exactly a mansion, and it’s far from an actual wedding venue.”

“You know they didn’t want an expensive wedding,” her mother said. “Decent wedding venues are expensive, and they figured they would save a lot more by asking you to host it. That way they will be able to go all out on the decorations. Besides, you have a lovely, private property and a gorgeous house. All the guests won't be staying there of course, but it will be a wonderful place for the family to stay. I’m sure Jennifer will be much more comfortable getting ready there than she would be in a hotel room.”

“Don’t I get a say in this at all?” she asked

“He was supposed to ask you,” her mother said, beginning to sound truly stressed. “Honey, I know you’re upset, and I would be too. He really did say he was going to talk to you about it, and I just assumed that he did when I saw the address on the invitation. But if you back out, it’s going to crush them. They’re really looking forward to this.”

“They should have talked to me about it first,” Hannah said firmly. “I'm expected to host the entire family and entire wedding and reception and no one could even bother to ask me if I was actually okay with that?”

“I'm… I’m guessing he didn’t talk to you about the food either?” her mother asked cautiously.

“The food?” Hannah growled.

“Well, instead of hiring an outside company, they were hoping that your restaurant would be able to cater the event. They’d be paying you for that, of course, and with the family discount it would cut down on the expenses…”

Hannah uttered a word that she was sure she had never said around her mother before and tossed the invitation down on her desk before leaning back and looking up at the ceiling, trying to regain some semblance of self-control before she spoke again. “Okay, great. I’m hosting the wedding, the reception, the entire wedding party, and I’m also in charge of the food, and no one even thought to tell me. Perfect. I really appreciate it.”

“I know you’re upset,” her mother said with an attempt at a soothing tone. “But maybe you should talk to your brother and Jennifer before making a decision. I’m sure it was a simple oversight.”

“An oversight maybe, but not a simple one,” she muttered. She let out a long sigh. “Fine, I’ll talk to them, but that’s only because I happen to like Jennifer a lot more than I like Sean right now, and I don’t want to wreck her wedding.”

“Thank you, sweetie. I’m sorry for all of this. I’m sure they will make it up to you.”

“They’d better,” she said. She exchanged a few halfhearted pleasantries with her mother and ended the call. With another sigh, she gazed at the invitation on her desk.

What upset her the most was that she would have been happy to do all of it if only they had actually talked to her first. She didn't have a problem with opening her house up to guests for the weekend, nor with hosting her brother’s wedding there. She didn’t even have a problem with giving them a discount on the catering. But what she did have a problem with was them just assuming she would do it all, and not even bothering to talk to her first.

“I did not need this tonight,” she muttered as she leaned forward to rest her forehead against the desk. A death at the dinner party, and now an unexpected wedding to host. Could this night get any worse?

Chapter Five

Thankfully, it seemed that was all that fate had in store for her that evening. They all retired to their rooms, tired and sad, but without any further disaster. She stashed the invitation on her bedside table, far too emotionally spent to deal with calling her brother, and settled into an uneasy sleep.

The following day ended up being too busy for her to be willing to take on the added stress of confronting Sean, so she focused solely on keeping Caroline company. The three of them went down to the police station to answer more questions, during which they learned that Edward’s official cause of death was anaphylactic shock, and further investigation would be necessary to determine where the case would go after that.

The police didn’t give them any real answers, but Lacey did. Caroline and Hannah spent two hours in the kitchen making the best casseroles they could think of before heading over to the Finches’ house. It was obvious that they weren’t the first ones to have that idea; when Lacey led them into the kitchen, it was absolutely packed with food and flowers. Hannah gave her an embarrassed grimace as she handed over the two casseroles she was carrying.

“Sorry. It’s all we could think of to do. You can freeze them, though. They will reheat nicely.”

“Thanks,” Lacey muttered as she shoved the casserole dishes in the freezer without ceremony. She turned back to them and then took a seat on a barstool by the breakfast bar with a groan. “I guess you two want to know more about what happened?”

“No,” Caroline said quickly. “We don’t want to impose. We just wanted to stop by, drop off some food,