In Between Dreams (19 page)

Bailey felt Sam kiss her forehead and heard two pairs of footsteps file out of the bathroom. Sam was always this way: sweet, soft, conventionally loving. He always seemed to want Bailey to be as comfortable as she could. His small outburst in the living room was a strange occurrence for him.

Bailey sat on the floor as her head began to clear, and her stomach gradually settled down. When the door was closed, she huddled over
her tea and whimpered a little. She could still hear the two men fighting outside the door, but she didn’t have the energy to eavesdrop.

After she finished her tea, she stood up and pulled off her sweater and stepped out of her skirt. She kicked off her flats and began pulling at her leggings. She was grateful Katherine broke up Sam and Daniel’s hushed argument outside.

“She’s hungover, not deaf,” Katherine said loudly from outside the door. Bailey sat herself on the edge of the tub and continued pulling at her leggings. “Move your argument outside. Also, heard you grew some balls and kissed your princess. Good for you, Danny.”

There was a moment of silence before Katherine walked in with a bottle of French painkillers and a handful of towels and an overnight bag over her shoulder. “You better thank me for saving your ass. If I wasn’t here, Halene would have had to get you ready. That would have been a mess.” Katherine grinned at Bailey. “I see you’re almost undressed.”

Bailey looked down. She was in just her underwear and a tank top and suddenly felt uncomfortable. “Don’t be nervous,” Katharine said. “Just think of it like a locker room.”

Bailey couldn’t get the look of dislike off her face. She didn’t know what it was about Katherine that she didn’t like. But she did not like her. “I can shower myself.”

“You’re three sheets to the wind. I’m not going to leave you to drown.”

“It’s a shower,” Bailey pointed out, and began to say something else but was caught off guard by the look on Katherine’s face. Katherine’s jaw seemed to drop as her eyes focused on Bailey’s shoulder. Bailey followed her gaze.

“What the hell is that?” Katherine pointed, and Bailey observed the healing circular wound on her shoulder. It looked grotesque, and the flesh was bulging. It looked like a scarred scabbed. “Is that a—” Katherine got closer. “Holy shit. That’s a gunshot wound. You
are
bad ass.”

Bailey inspected it, “No it—it couldn’t be.” She wasn’t shot at in China; she was shot. Bailey was stunned. She suddenly remembered the bullet hitting her shoulder.

Katherine reached to touch it, and Bailey smacked her hand away. Bailey pulled a towel from the piled and wrapped it around her and walked toward the door.

“What are you—” Katherine started to speak.

Bailey opened the door and poked her head out searching for Sam. “Halene,” she said when she saw her pacing in the living room. “Get Sam. I need Sam.”

Halene shook her head. “No, you can talk to him after you shower. The clock is ticking,” Halene instructed, and Bailey mumbled a curse word under her breath and began to exit the bathroom when she felt Katherine pull her back in.

Once she was inside all the way, Katherine closed the door harshly and looked at her. “Listen, you clearly need to talk about this, but you’ll have plenty of time for that on your way back to China.”

Bailey glared openly at Katherine. Katherine shook her head. “You can hate me all you want, bitch. But I will not let you leave this bathroom until you are showered and changed.” She pointed to the pile of towels and the bottle of medicine on top. “Take four ibuprofens, and get in the shower. Let’s get this show on the road.” Katherine clapped her hands as if to say “hurry” and Bailey felt like she was being bossed around like a dog.

Bailey had so many questions, but she knew it wouldn’t do her any good arguing with Katherine, who Bailey was now calling a list of expletives in her head. She pulled off the rest of her clothes and hopped in the shower and washed herself as quickly as possible. She needed to figure out what the hell was going on.

thirteen.

B
ailey pulled on a long-sleeve orange dress over brown leggings that Katherine had laid out for her. She squeezed styling gel into her hand and finger-combed it into her wet hair to hold her curls. She then reached in the overnight bag and pulled out a clear makeup container. She fumbled through it and grabbed some mascara and quickly swiped it over her lashes. She felt a slight headache under her eye and was definitely still hungover, but she didn’t want to walk out of the bathroom looking like a mess.

She dug around in the makeup bag for a couple more minutes to find some makeup that she might use normally. She couldn’t find anything she necessarily liked, so she settled for dabbing a little eyeliner on and threw the makeup back in the overnight bag with her dirty clothes and zipped it up. She folded the towels and picked them up and opened the door to see Katherine standing sentry outside the door waiting for her.

Katherine looked Bailey up and down and tilted her head. She grabbed the bag from Bailey’s arms and riffled through it.

“What’s the matter?” Bailey asked. Bailey was trying to get past the event, physically at least, so the team could move forward. Apparently Katherine had assigned herself to gatekeeper.

“You’re not wearing that right.” She pulled out a thick, brown fashionable belt and shoved it at her. “This goes around your waist,” she said, looking at Bailey’s red shoes. “And switch shoes with me. Those don’t match your outfit.” Fortunately they wore the same size.

“Why is this so important?” Bailey groaned as she pulled the belt around her hips as Katherine kicked off her flip-flops.

“You have two semihandsome guys in the kitchen that seem to be fighting over you. You should at least give them something
good
to fight over,” Katherine said, and looked Bailey up and down. Her voice sounded whiny when she got excited. Katherine smiled and clapped her hands in a playful, childlike rapid manner once the belt was around Bailey’s hips. “You look great,” Katherine said with a wide smile. Bailey furrowed her brow at her in confusion.

“You’re clearly out of your mind,” Bailey replied as she took off her shoes and slipped on Katherine’s flip-flops. “Where’d your heels go?”

“They’re in my bag. You can wear those if you want but you might slip. The cobblestone streets around here were rough on me.” Bailey looked up at Katherine again, and she was giving Bailey her best “go get ’em” grin.

“Katherine,” Bailey started. “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression with the whole Sam and Daniel thing.”

“What do you mean? That you’re stringing them both along?” Katherine said it like it was a fact, not up for discussion. Bailey knew her denial would be a waste of effort, but she pushed on nevertheless.

“I’m not,” Bailey urged. “It may seem that way, but really I’m not. I’m just trying to leave it alone.”

Katherine raised a confused and skeptical eyebrow at her. “I know I’m supposed to figure everyone out here. But your explanation doesn’t make any sense. What do you mean ‘leave it alone’?”

“I don’t want to acknowledge their supposed interest. It just complicates things, and as you know, we have a lot going on. With Mei and Babette…”

“That makes some sense, but I don’t think you realize that your confusion is causing conflict.” Katherine’s view was, of course, more practical. But Bailey had her reasons, and she didn’t want to go in any particular romantic direction right now.

Katherine tried a different tack. “Do you know who Yogi Berra was?”

“Sure, my dad loved him. He was a catcher and later a manager for the New York Yankees,” Bailey said, confusion heavy in her voice. She wasn’t sure where the conversation was going.

“He was a master at stating the obvious. He once said, ‘When you come to a fork in the road, take it.’”

Bailey laughed spontaneously in spite of her splitting headache. She brought her palms up to rest on the temples of her head to mitigate the pain of laughing while suffering from a hangover.

Bailey saw the issue. She would lose her opportunity to have relationship with either man soon. Choosing one or the other had always seemed counterintuitive. She needed them both. She cared for them both. Sam was her translator but also the only person who could comfort her. Sam had always been the only one who could talk her off the metaphorical ledge. He was quiet, calm, determined. He was exactly her type. The thought of losing him hurt her heart so intensely. Then, there was Daniel, the logic. He was crude, outspoken, mean at times, and everything Bailey wasn’t. The pure opposition of him attracted her in a way she couldn’t explain. He somehow knew her better than anyone; he called her out when she was acting foolish, and she did the same for him. She had fun with him. She figured having them at arm’s length was better than losing them both.

“I like them both. I really do. But we’re not here to make love connections,” Bailey said with a shrug. “I don’t want it to get in the way.”

“You don’t want to choose, because if you do the other will be pissed about it. And it’ll screw with the dynamics of the group,” Katherine said matter-of-factly. “I can see where you’re coming from. But I don’t think you’re getting the desired effect.”

“What do you mean?” Bailey asked, rubbing her lips together out of habit.

“Listen, overall this is the least of our worries. But let me just call it how I see it real quick for you,” Katherine said. “Babette told Sam she saw you two kiss. Clearly it was a drunken silly kiss that was somewhat of a mistake. But it got Sam all riled up. Sam and Daniel clearly have a beef with each other, and it’s centered on you. They both have a thing for you, and you’re over here playing dumb. The playing dumb is only hurting the situation. Get in the game.”

Bailey opened her mouth to argue, but Katherine spoke again, her speech rushed. “The point I’m trying to make is this: you’re clearly
acting ignorant that the rift between these two guys is you. Daniel is your basic jackass who threw himself at you as soon as he got the chance, and Sam is patiently waiting for you to wake up and just fall in love with him. To Daniel you are a conquest. To Sam you are a savior. Either road has pitfalls.”

Bailey’s eyebrows raised, and her eyes shot to the kitchen doorway. Her mood was turning to anger, and she suddenly really didn’t want to be talking about this anymore. “We should probably head in,” she said, and Katherine laughed under her breath. Bailey thought to respond but decided to hold her tongue.

“If you think continuing to ignore it is what’s best…” Katherine trailed off, and put on Bailey’s red flats.

“Let’s go,” Bailey said, her tone was clearly saying “we are done talking about this.”

Bailey led the way to the kitchen where the group was. When they got into the room, Babette looked like she’d been crying. Sam and Halene sat with her at the table, and Daniel stood behind them drinking a cup of coffee.

“What’s the plan?” Bailey said immediately in her average down-to-business attitude. Babette stood, spoke a few words to Sam, and excused herself. Bailey made eye contact with Babette as she passed her, and Babette broke the eye contact quickly. Bailey tried to move past the sick feeling in her gut as she sat down.

Halene took a breath and looked at Bailey. “We dropped the ball with Mei.” Daniel avoided eye contact with her. “It’s not your fault; it’s not Sam’s fault. But we have to make this right.”

“We can’t just leave Babette,” Katherine snapped.

“I know we can’t. No one is suggesting that we do,” Halene agreed quickly.

“Then what are we going to do?” Katherine asked while leaning against the wall in frustration. “We’ve already burned a lot of time.”

“Listen,” Halene snapped at Katherine. “Daniel and I have talked about this a lot, and we’ve decided we need to split into two teams.”

Bailey shook her head. “What? No way. We need to get to China, and Katherine can fly solo here.”

“No,” Katherine argued. “I need Sam and Halene.”

Bailey shook her head. “No,
we
need them in China. Mei trusts them.”

Halene cleared her throat to bring the attention to her. “This isn’t a discussion,” Halene said, and stood up and pointed Katherine to sit in her seat. “I am telling you the plan, and y’all are going to do it. It’s time to execute.” Bailey and Katherine exchanged a tired look. Bailey looked at Halene and nodded at her with resigned agreement.

It was strange to Bailey how wrapped around Halene’s finger she actually was. The entire crew both protected her and knew that she was the boss. The dynamics were odd, but it somehow worked.

“I’ve thought about this in a lot of different ways,” Halene continued. “Mei didn’t know me very well. Not as well as she knows the three of you. I don’t need to be there. I’ll be available on my phone.”

“As for Babette, we need another translator. I have one on the way. I need Katherine. Daniel and Bailey have done a pretty good job of making Babette have zero need for them, so I think she might actually be more comfortable if you left.” Halene’s words made Bailey cringe. “No offense, B.”

“It’s fine,” Bailey said unconvincingly. She was embarrassed about her behavior. It ended up affecting the client. Bad form.

“Daniel got you three tickets. I would like to keep Sam with me, but with Mei’s sticky situation, I think it’s best if someone she knows is there when you do finally get to her,” Halene continued.

“Do we know where she is?” Bailey asked nervously.

“We have a hunch,” Sam finally spoke. He made eye contact with Bailey, and his eyes softened. “I have to ask, I remember the shot going off and—”

Bailey pulled the collar of her dress down so he could see the wound she had on her shoulder. “This?” she asked, and Daniel looked over lazily. The realization hit Sam and Daniel at the same time, and both of their mouths dropped.

“Bailey? You got shot,” Halene gasped.

Bailey pulled the fabric back to cover her shoulder. “I guess so. I didn’t really put it together until now. I mean…I felt the shot and—”

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left,” Daniel told her, and rubbed his hand over his face in frustration. Bailey had never heard him apologize for anything. She had never heard him utter the word “sorry.” “We have to get going. They have to start on their work, and we’ve got a sixteen-hour flight to catch.”