Two Bar Mitzvahs by Kat Bastion with Stone Bastion

“I’m not excluding any suspects at this point. Neither should any of you. It could be anyone.”
    Kendall leaned over the coffee table from her spot on the floor and pulled the bowl of tortilla chips closer to her before grabbing a handful. “Might even be competition. What better way to steal our clients than by making us look incompetent?”
    Hannah narrowed her eyes. “But how would they do it? I’m sure Kristen doesn’t broadcast our plans.” Kristen raised her brows and shook her head as Hannah continued. “No one, besides us and our clients, knows which events are scheduled and which vendors we’re using.”
    “Ahhh, but one part of that isn’t so hard to figure out.” It’s what I’d finally realized before we walked in. “The vendors who cater to our caliber of event planning are limited. It wouldn’t be that hard for someone trying to fuck with us to call all the higher-end florists pretending to be Kristen, fabricating some excuse to cancel or change our next event. How many party tent and furniture rentals are there in the Greater Philly Area?”
    “Not many,” Kendall replied. “Maybe a half dozen.”
    Kiki nodded. “And maybe twice as many florists that are reputable enough to handle the prestigious and large events.”
    Kristen’s expression darkened again, her eyes narrowing. “Whoever the fuck is pretending to be me is twisted.”
    Kiki groaned. “This is a nightmare. How do we alert our clients that there might be a problem without knowing who is doing this, or when they’ll strike next? We can’t do that.”
    “No. We don’t want to unnecessarily alarm our clients. Right now, the incidents have been contained. We need to keep it that way until we figure out who’s behind this. Before we leave tonight, let’s divvy up all the companies we work with. We’ll call them to make sure they only change or cancel orders if they’ve heard from us by our company email.”
    “And if they ask why?” Kendall arched her brows.
    “Let them know someone is messing with our business by changing or canceling orders without our knowledge. Emphasize that if they’re contacted in any other way, they are to immediately email us.”
    Slow exhales sounded out in the room as everyone nodded, ready to play hardball with an unknown enemy. I finished off my beer and got up to grab refreshers.
    When I walked back in, Kristen had calmed some. I handed her another bottle first. “Moving on. What’s the big event we needed to talk about that couldn’t be emailed?” I dropped onto the couch and took a long pull off my fresh beer.
    Kristen put hers down onto the table and grabbed her electronic tablet. “A double event. Two bar mitzvahs.”
    My lungs seized, and I choked, trying to catch my breath. I stared at her like she’d gone insane. “No. No fucking way.”
    “Yes. Yes fucking way.” She arched a challenging brow at me. Our pragmatic Kristen was back.
    I sighed, irritated I had to state the obvious to make my point. “Are they kids?”
    “Well, yes,” Kristen admitted.
    “Then, no. We unanimously agreed on a ‘no kids’ rule when we formed Invitation Only.”
    “They’re turning thirteen, and these bar mitzvahs are significant coming-of-age events; they’re becoming adults.”
    Sensing a technicality coming on, I narrowed my eyes. “When, exactly, are they becoming adults?”
    Kristen smirked. “Actually, they’re turning thirteen midway through the event. Their mom thought it would be special to throw the event during the actual time of their birth.”
    “How fucking cute.” I snarled the words, then downed the rest of my beer. My mood apparently could only handle one topic of bad news at a time. Sabotage and kids? There had to be a limit to the level of insanity we had to swallow in one night.
    I stared hard at Kristen. “They magically poof into adults halfway through? Fine, we’ll throw them half a party.” I closed my eyes, willing the madness away. “No.