“She’s amazing.”
“Of course, she is,” Heather said. “She’s my friend.”
Chapter Six
Kay
She was trapped in the bathroom.
Kay was literally trapped in the bathroom, and her Jane Austen book was in danger.
Why had she decided to pee?
Or more importantly, why had she decided to leave her purse and, inside of it her cell phone, with Heather?
Oh yeah, because she hadn’t wanted to wrestle with her full-length dress and heels and a purse all while trying to hover so her butt didn’t touch a gross public toilet seat.
“Hello?” she said again, trying the door handle for the umpteenth time.
It still didn’t budge, and she’d lost count of how many times she’d knocked on the door, trying to get someone’s attention. All she knew was that she’d been locked in the room for what seemed to be an inordinate amount of time.
“Hello?”
Why did the stalls have to be floor to ceiling with actual doors?
What she wouldn’t give in that moment to be able to crawl out beneath that shin-high gap most public bathrooms sported, dirty, germ-filled floor aside.
Who cared? Her Austen was in danger.
“It’s going to be fine,” she murmured. They were auctioning the tables from one upward. Her Austen was number ten.
She had plenty of time.
Except . . . how long had she been trapped?
“Shit!” she muttered then raised her voice. “Help!” she called. “Help!”
Finally, she heard footsteps. “Hello?”
“Hello?” she said. “I’m stuck in the stall.”
“Oh no,” came a female voice. “This one?” The handle jiggled from the outside.
“Yes.”
“Okay, let me try.” It wiggled some more. “Can you turn it at all?”
Kay and her mystery female help worked for a few minutes more, trying to get the handle to move or the lock to disengage, all to no avail.
“Shoot,” the woman eventually said. “I can’t get it to budge. I’m going to see if I can find an employee. Maybe they have a key or a screwdriver or something.”
“Thank you so much,” Kay said, even though her heart was sinking as the minutes passed. There was no way the auctioneer wasn’t getting close to her table, and the likelihood of that early edition of Pride and Prejudice being added to her collection was dropping with each passing moment.
A few minutes passed, and the woman reappeared . . . or at least her voice did. “I found an employee, and they called maintenance, but are you by any chance Kay?”
“Yes,” she said. “Why?”
“Because there’s a guy out here named Garret. I guess he got worried and came looking.”