"Hey Kitten." Penelope turned to look at Rossi. He was standing in her doorway, a bemused smile on his lips. From his very manner, she knew that he wanted something.
"What can I do for you, my fine Italian Stallion?" she asked, hoping to throw him off his guard. He came in and shut the door, taking a seat on her sofa. Taking out her Bluetooth, she joined him, clasping her hands in her lap.
"We, that is, I have been tasked with the job of organizing this year's fundraiser for the FBI. I've managed to avoid it in the past, since Strauss would put the kibosh on letting me touch something important like that."
Penelope snorted. "She was right, you would have put the least amount of effort into it and the whole thing would go down in a big ball of flames. How did you end up with the responsibility this year, then?"
"She's been sick this week, with that flu bug that's been floating around. No one else wanted the challenge, and when someone put forth my name, I wasn't paying attention and they voted before I could say no."
"And now you want what from me?"
He took a deep breath and gave her a winning smile and her heart sank as she suddenly realized what he was going to ask her. "I want you to help me plan this year's shindig. You have an impeccable sense of taste, despite how you dress." She gasped and he chuckled. "Not that I don't love that about you, you just are unorthodox in many respects."
"And this makes me want to help you how?" She raised an eyebrow as she stared at him.
"Because I think if we work together, we can come up with an amazing party that will raise a lot of money. What do you say, are you willing to help a guy out?"
She already knew what her answer would be, but decided to make him sweat a little. "Yes. As long as I have full creative control," she said after a few moments. "And I get to go for free."
"I'm certain I can arrange that. So, do you have any ideas?" He relaxed back into the sofa, a pleased grin on his face.
"Okay, since I've been young, I've liked weird, quirky, things. One of those was the movie Phantom of the Paradise, which got me interested in the musical Phantom of the Opera. And you know how act two starts? With the giant…"
"Masquerade." His grin faltered a little as he looked at her. "You want to hold a masked ball at the end of January?"
She nodded as a fresh wave of excitement washed over her. "It would be a lot of fun to pretend we're someone else for a night. And we can do the unmasking at two to see who we've been interacting with all evening. This town loves anonymity, why not give them that for an entire night?"
"This is going to take a lot of planning, you realize."
Again, she nodded. "But that's what we have our team for, Dave. We'll be the brains, they'll be the brawn. And this will be the best fundraiser the FBI has seen in years."
"You sure are confident here, Kitten."
"I know we can do this. So, let's start to work on the details. We're going to need a color scheme, a menu, music, drinks, a ballroom, security…"
All he did was nod, a slightly dazed look on his face at the alacrity of her plans. "Lean on, Kitten."