Lulu nodded and smiled graciously as she extended a black gift bag edged with gold towards the two tall men in front of her. They were the captain and co-captain of the Montrose Magpies and devilishly handsome. If the brunette weren't so frazzled she would have taken that opportunity to properly oogle some of the men in this room. Unfortunately, Lulu had been struck by the usual feelings she got during an event. She was rushing about, felt unprepared, frazzled, all while trying to maintain that professional and calm exterior. She was barely succeeding. Barely.
Today was the Annual Captain's Conference. Hosted by the Department of Magical Games & Sport, this conference was attended by the team captains of not only all the major league UK teams, but also by many international teams as well. It was an opportunity for the players to discuss league rules, regulations and stipulations with the officials at the Ministry that created those procedures. It was also one of the biggest press events for Lulu's department, a show of how well they communicated with their quidditch clubs and how much they respected the players. Lulu, however, felt like she needed to clone herself a dozen times just to be able to handle everything she needed to.
The conference was held in one of the Ministry's board rooms, large and spacious and elegant with long rectangular tables set in a rows facing a podium. The board room had been transformed by Lulu and a few interns from its conservative, bland appearance into more of an elegant affair. The walls were draped with floor to ceiling insignia banners to represent every team present at the conference. There were miniature model quidditch players flying about over the heads of the attendees. The lighting was moody but brightened by spotlights charmed to highlight each banner randomly. There was a crowd of wizards and witches already mingling in the room, a high hum of voices, chatting and laughing, all overlapping each other.
Lulu was stationed, with a few interns, at the door leading from the reception hall into the board room. She was to greet each captain as they came in and hand them their gift bag. She had studied for weeks to make sure she knew each captain by face, could pronounce their name correctly, and a few important tidbits about them. For example, she knew that Timothy Twining (her favorite player) liked grilled cheese sandwiches and had one before each game. Well... maybe that wasn't important per se, but it was something she had committed to memory anyway.
On the surface, she tried to appear cool and welcoming, the perfect picture of a ministry official completely prepared for the event. On the inside, she was freaking out. The Floo department had apparently gotten things mixed up and the team representative from Lithuania was not granted access to the Ministry access points. And if that wasn't bad enough, the name plates she had ordered for everyone were late! The printer said he would have them done first thing this morning (on account of the last minute rush order Lulu had placed), but they still weren't here! And if that wasn't bad enough, Lulu was starting to suspect that she had some pretty bad sweat stains under her armpits. How. Embarrassing! Her boss was busy schmoozing with a few of the team owners that had attended and she just hoped she could get everything figured out before he found out!
Lulu turned and smiled politely as the swoon-worthy French captain asked after a cup of coffee. Lulu graciously nodded and excused herself to take care of the matter, leaving her interns to man the door, she rushed over to see where the coffee was. Mildred was supposed to have taken care of this! She quickly poured a cup of coffee into a dainty white cup, grabbed a saucer, and turned quickly, aiming to get the coffee to the Frenchman quickly before he disappeared into the growing crowd. The only issue was that she turned right into someone, the coffee spilling disastrously all over a handsomely tall man. Lulu let out a squeak of surprise and apology as her eyes went wide, her gaze stuck on the wide coffee strain on his chest before traveling up to his eyes.
"I am so so sorry!" she whispered, horrified at what she had done.
