It Is All Shelly’s Idea

Keep up with Elise and her story of becoming a successful entrepreneur:

• What do you Know?
• Education
• Just Notes
• Golden Numbers
• How Much?
• Neither Borrower nor Lender Be
• Walking Many Paths
• Horse Trading
• Three Card Monty

“Is taffeta too gouache?”

“What?” Elise asks, confused.

“For the party, for the store: is taffeta too late-nineties-Breakfast-Club-retro? It’s peach.”

Elise looks around the crowded campus commons then back at the girl who has walked up out of the blue and asked the question. The girl is acquaintance of Elise’s, certainly, but one so distant that Elise is not entirely sure of her name. “I have no idea what you are talking about?”

The girl (Sheri? Charlese? Cherri?) frowns, then suddenly looks contrite. “Uh, oh. Maybe this was a surprise thing.”

“Talk,” Elise demands in her best mother-questioning-an-errant-child voice

A few moments’ interrogation reveals that it is all Shelly’s idea. Elise cannot help but laugh. Shelly is a heck of a character. Shelly loves throwing parties, lots and lots of parties, and she is known to latch onto any idea for new theme or twist. Apparently, Elise has just become the beneficiary of Shelly’s endless quest for new excuses to host a shindig.

Shelly is throwing a party at her own house, a party in honor of, and for the benefit of, Elise’s store. The theme of the party is simple: each guest is to come wearing several bundled layers of his or her chicest, most over the top clothes. Then, over the duration of the party, the guests will shed several (though according to the rules, never all) of their layers. At the end of the night, guests have to go home wearing only what they have left on. Everything left behind at the house is to be a donation to Elise’s store.

Elise decides that it is time to get in touch with Shelly, let her know that the cat is out of the bag, and insist upon a space in the planning committee. Shelly will not mind the extra hand, and Elise really wants to maximize her exposure and the store’s burgeoning reputation.

Next Week: the party line.

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2. Education It is story time. Every Friday I will tell another piece of a growing story centered on one or more fictional young entrepreneurs. Throughout the...
3. Meet Elise It is story time. Every Friday I will tell another piece of a growing story centered around one or more fictional young entrepreneurs. Throughout the...
4. Just Notes Of course, Elise had thought about financing for her store. In some ways, money is all she had thought about for days. No solution had...