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“We don’t have time!” Harold urged.
Jenna’s heart thudded as she slunk backward through the bathroom door, hoping it wouldn’t creak. She dived into one of the stalls, locking it and climbing up onto the toilet, her skirt wound into a ball in her lap. Her phone chirped with an incoming message. Oh, no, no, no... Drew was finally responding to her texts. Freaking spectacular timing.
Jenna jerked the phone out of her evening bag with trembling hands, silenced it, then clicked open the audio recording app. She crouched there, balanced on her toes. Afraid to move or breathe as she heard Tina’s shoes clicking against the bathroom floor.
Harold followed her in, still scolding. “Hurry up! We’re missing it!”
Tina banged open the door of one of the stalls. “Why do you have to be so mean?”
“Why do you have to be so dumb?” Harold shot back. “And speaking of dumb, did you check the bathroom stalls?”
“No,” Tina said, her voice sulky.
Jenna’s teeth clenched as Harold swept the line of stalls, peering under the doors for feet. He didn’t try to open any of the doors, to her intense relief.
“I don’t deserve to be treated like crap,” Tina said.
“I paid you.” Harold’s voice was icy cold. “We had an agreement.”
“Yeah, well we also have a baby,” Tina said, sniffling.
Harold made an impatient sound. “You signed the documents. You took the money. Do what I ask and don’t give me trouble. Have the baby or don’t, whatever you want, just don’t involve me. He’ll give you more money not to bust his balls, or else my uncle will. So shut up and be grateful.”
“Why do I always get sucked into your schemes?” Tina complained. The toilet flushed loudly. “It’s gross,” she went on, when the noise abated. “Having me spray ketamine in your cousin’s face was a real psycho move, Harry, and it was a monster dose, too. Poor guy was sick as a dog. You coulda killed him. And now I gotta go in front of all those people and tell them he got me pregnant? Why do you hate this dude so much? Did he, like, kill your puppy?”
“Hurry up, Tina. It’s too late for a crisis of conscience.”
She banged the stall door open again. Her heels clicked on her way to the sink. “I don’t see why you even have to be this big-shot CEO at all.” The water hissed as she washed her hands. “You’re doin’ fine. I’ve seen your house, your car. You got money. More’n I ever had, that’s for sure. Can’t we just be happy? With the baby?”
“You really think that scenario could ever make me happy, Tina? Wake up.”
Tina turned the water off, sniffling loudly.
“Oh, for God’s sake, don’t start crying,” Harold said impatiently. “We don’t have time for this. Put your lipstick on. Come on, hurry!”
The door sighed closed after them, and clicked shut. Their squabbling voices faded away.
Jenna finally dared to exhale, teetering. She caught herself on the side of the bathroom stall, stepped down onto the bathroom floor. Her legs felt like jelly.
She ran the recording back, with ice-cold, clammy fingers, and clicked Play.
...we’re missing it.
Why do you have to be so mean?
Why do you have to be so dumb? And speaking of dumb, did you check the bathroom stalls?
The voices were faint, but clear, and turning the volume up made Harold’s nasal, drawling voice perfectly recognizable. Thank God.
She’d gotten it all, from the very beginning. But it wasn’t going to do Drew a damn bit of good unless everyone heard it all at once, at the right moment, and before Harold’s big fabricated bombshell.
Jenna edged out of the women’s room and looked up the hall. Tina and Harold were just turning the corner, still snarking at each other as he dragged her along toward the ballroom. She couldn’t go that way without overtaking them, and she wanted to get there first, without them knowing that she’d copped to their game.
The fastest alternative way back to the ballroom was outside, along the walkway skirting the building and back through the front entrance.
Jenna hurried out, barely feeling the frigid wind or the wooden planks beneath her feet as she ran. She hiked her skirt up and held her shoes with the other hand. They bounced against her leg with each step.
She stopped outside the lobby and stepped back into her shoes. A swift peek at her own reflection in the glass made her realize that at this point, there was just no way to salvage the up-do. Her hair needed to come down, once and for all. She plucked out the pins and shook her mane loose over her shoulders, finger-combing it as she hurried inside. She was flushed and her chest was heaving, but she was presentable.
