Page 28 of Dreaming of You

Jana crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently on the floor. "You couldn't get me into the Palmer Hotel."

"They're booked years in advance."

"If you had clout, you could have gotten me in."

"The room at the Palmer is out of your budget, Jana, even if it was available."

"My mother can cough up more money. She can take it out of her facelift fund." Jana paused as loud voices rang through the air. "What is that about?"

"Those people must be going to the office downstairs." She got up from her desk. "Let me shut the door."

When she reached the doorway, a string of obscene swearwords floated up the stairway.

"What is happening?" Jana demanded, following her into the outer office. "Is that another bridal couple?"

"I seriously doubt it. They are probably visiting the attorney downstairs. He specializes in divorce law."

"Well, we can't continue our meeting with all this noise."

She frowned. Shari had gone home for the day, so she couldn't send her downstairs to shut things down. Where the hell was Barrett? Why wasn't he dealing with his clients?

As more sexual insults rang out, she said, "Let me just tell those two to take their argument elsewhere."

She marched down the stairs, her annoyance turning to fury as Barrett stood in the doorway to his office, listening to the man and woman vent their anger.

"What on earth is going on?" she demanded, stopping halfway down the stairs.

"They're having a minor disagreement," he shouted back, running one hand through his hair in agitation.

"Well, do something," she ordered.

He turned back to the arguing couple, who were standing no more than six inches from each other but were yelling at the top of their lungs. "Gary—Janice. Please, calm down."

They both ignored him, and he threw up his hands in disgust. "See what I mean?"

Kate took a deep breath, furious at the disruption. She stomped back up the stairs and into her office only to run into Jana, who was obviously on her way out.

Kate tried to apologize, but Jana was not about to be placated. "This is totally unprofessional," she said angrily. "I'll expect my deposit back in the morning."

"Please, this is a very unusual occurrence. Why don't we meet at your home tomorrow? Then we can avoid any other unfortunate situations."

Jana hesitated, still plainly irritated by the events. "All right. But you'll have to call me for an appointment. I don't have my date book with me, and I'm not sure I'm free tomorrow. This is really inconvenient, Kate."

"I agree, and I'm sorry. I'll call you tomorrow," she said hastily, as Jana left the office. While she wouldn't really mind losing Jana's business, her bank account would miss her large deposit, and she'd already spent a lot of time on Jana's wedding. She needed to salvage things.

But first…she was going to end the scene going on downstairs.

As she spied the water pitcher on the table, a really bad idea came into her head, but she was just that annoyed.

She grabbed the pitcher. It was only a quarter full, but that should be enough to get someone's attention. She walked down the stairs and noticed that Barrett was nowhere in sight. The coward. He had probably gone home and left those two to destroy the building.

"Excuse me," she called out loudly.

"Stay out of this," the woman shouted, without missing a beat in her continuing tirade.

"Look, this has got to stop," she said. "This is a place of business." Neither one paid any attention to her, and Kate's irritation turned to full-blown fury when the woman grabbed the large brass coatrack at the bottom of the stairs and pushed it over, narrowly missing her opponent. Without further thought, Kate raised her arm and tossed the water into their faces.

Time stood still as two dripping faces looked at her in confusion, and the resulting silence was deafening. Kate eyed them warily, wondering if she had gone too far.

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