Part 4
At 6:59 the girls rolled off of Chloe’s bed and made their way next door to the Andrews’ house for their 7 o’clock dinner.
As they walked over they were greeted by Jughead and Toni, who were outside talking about Jughead’s bike. They continued on into the house, Annie announcing their presence. Cheryl came out from the kitchen, stopping on her way to the table to greet her daughter and nieces with a kiss before continuing to place some plates down. She was happy and relieved to see Olivia in such good spirits. Afterwards, she returned to the kitchen to help Veronica with the last of the food.
Eventually everyone settled down at the table and passed around each dish, serving themselves. Olivia always thought they made way too much. That is, until she noticed how much her Uncle Jughead would really eat. It’s been years but she still couldn’t help but stare sometimes. Laughter and chatter filled the room. Their family was never short of entertaining. As per usual, Uncle Archie and Uncle Jughead were trying to make each other laugh by throwing food. On the other side of the table the ladies were gabbing through their tipsy state as they’d taken out the Lodge/Blossom Maple Rum that had been saved from production years ago.
She was finally pulled away from thoughts upon hearing her Mothers voice.
“So he what?,” Cheryl piped up.
“He poached them,” Veronica replied in frustration, “He offered all my servers double salary plus bonus to go work at his casino. I have no staff now,”
She subtly listened in as Veronica continued to explain. Some man named Ellio stole all her employees in an effort to ruin her business. What hurt the most was that her staff, that she’d known and loved for years, could just turn on her for the drop of a dime. Sure, Veronica was their boss but she thought the relationship they all had was better than that.
“And where are you supposed to get all new staff? There’s no one left in Riverdale.” Aunt Betty asked.
“Well there are some agencies that people use to staff catering events. I think there’s one in Greendale, if they can pull enough people from out of town until I can find permanent replacements…”
Olivia didn’t hear anything after that, her ears began to ring so loud she had to make an active effort not to squeeze them.
New staff. From out of town. People they didn’t know. Could one of them be the mysterious man?
She could see Chloe in her peripheral giving her a knowing look while Annie just looked at her confused. Time passed as the girls silently communicated.
“Girls?” Veronica called them to which none of them replied. Unknowing of how many times she had called them before they’d heard her.
“Girls,” she followed up with a little more intensity
The three finally looked towards her receiving weird looks from all at the table about their strange response.
Veronica continued once getting their attention, “Why don’t you go upstairs and get into some comfy clothes while we set out dessert?”
Annie was the first to jump up, eager to hear what she had missed. The other two girls followed, Olivia stopping briefly when Toni grabbed her hand as she passed by to acknowledge her pale face and shakiness. However she avoided eye contact and continued upstairs to Annie’s room.
“What the hell was that?!” Annie huffed out when the door was closed behind the three.
“It’s really not a big deal-“
“It’s happening. We’re gonna die-“
Chloe and Olivia responded at the same time. Olivia with panic and Chloe, nonchalance.
“Okay spill!” Annie practically demanded.
“Olivia just had a bad dream and she’s scared it’s coming true-“
“It is coming true! I’m telling you it’s a premonition! Some stranger is going to set off a bomb during the party next week!”
Chloe and Olivia went back and fourth while Annie tried to form a response that would appease both girls.
“Okay, hold on, you had a dream that there was a bomb in La Bon Nuit, who would even do that?”
“That’s what I said” Chloe followed.
“Didn’t you just hear? It must be one of Aunt Ronnie’s new hires from out of town, they’re probably working for someone. Maybe that Ellio guy she was talking about.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little far fetched?” Annie argued.
“Listen, I don’t know how to describe it, okay, but I just have this feeling. This is gonna be bad.”
It began to sink in how serious this was to Olivia and there was some kind of unspoken understanding after that. The three would always support each other no matter what. That had to support Olivia whether this was a superstition or not.
“Okay, we’ll I’m sure those staffing places have files and background checks on all the people they employ. When my mom reaches out to those people we can just confirm with them. Then your mind will be at ease when you see that none of them are the man from your dream.”
“That sounds simple, right Liv?” Chloe adds looking over to her.
“But how would we do that? What would Aunt Ronnie think if we just asked her about the about her new hires?”
There was a silence between the three as they realized she was right.
“Hey, remember that time we ditched school early and they tried to call my Mom? I answered the phone and pretended to be her assistant and they totally bought it when I told them I’d get her the message. I can call after she sets it up, you know, to find out more information,”
“It could work, it’s not unreasonable to be concerned about safety. Especially in Riverdale,” Chloe said finally moving along with the plan. She really didn’t want to see her friend suffering.
“Okay,” Olivia whispered out hesitantly before the three girls pulled her in to do their secret handshake.