Page 22 of The Plus-One Deal
“The presidential suite, but?—”
“And when are you leaving?”
“We just got here. We?—”
“So you’re getting three weeks, no charge, in a five-star resort, all because, what? Someone has a baby? You should be half as grateful asanyof those folks. Any of the rest of us who’ve found ourselves stranded. The staff at the front desk’s doing their best. Why don’t you go do the same for your husband?”
“Now, you listen here?—”
“He has a bad heart, right? You don’t think your tantrum is stressing him out? Why don’t you find him and go get somebreakfast, go sit on your balcony where you can’t hear that baby?”
She gaped at me a moment, then glanced behind her. I caught sight of a frail-looking man peering out from the shadows, face red as the flowers on his Hawaiian shirt. Mrs. Adelford glowered at him.
“Brian, get out here.”
Brian slouched back out, pushing back his white hair. “C’mon, hon, I’m hungry. Don’t you want pancakes?”
“Give him some sugar, and I swear he’s like putty. Doesn’t care about anything, as long as he’s fed. It’s like having a five-year-old…” Mrs. Adelford was still talking too loudly, angling for sympathy, but none was forthcoming. No one would look at her, and she stalked over to Brian.
“Fine,” she said. “Let’s get you some breakfast.”
I watched them go with a shudder. Claire came up beside me.
“If he has a bad heart, I know who I’d blame.”
I snorted. “Right? If I was his heart, I’d quit just to be rid of her.”
“Some people, I swear…” She shook her head. “I checked with the clerk while she was having her meltdown. We can stay till the airport’s up, but…”
I waited for Claire to finish, but she was looking away. Fiddling with her hair like she felt awkward.
“What is it?” I said.
“Well, there are more stranded travelers than they had rooms to spare. It didn’t seem right, us hoarding two suites. Not when, y’know…”
Claire wouldn’t look at me. I gave her hand a quick squeeze.
“So you gave up your suite. You did the right thing.”
Claire blew out a shaky sigh of relief. “So did you, with that woman. I’m truly impressed. You have a way with snobs. The snob touch.”
I grimaced at that. “Don’t make me touch her.”
We both burst out laughing, and my shoulders went loose. The knots in my gut uncurled at last. I’d been one big ball of tension since last night’s dinner, since that waiter came out and announced the storm. But as disasters went, this one was bush league. Stranded in paradise, who could complain?
“Was I acting like her?”
Claire stopped laughing. “What?”
“Earlier, yelling at Joe to fix this. To get us out of here, whatever the cost.”
Claire’s brows went up. “I didn’t hear that. But I doubt you werethatbad.”
“Still, I’ll owe him a dinner when we get home.” I took Claire’s hand and nodded at the big side doors. “Want to step out there and survey the damage?”
We headed out onto the beach-facing terrace and stood looking out at the ocean’s calm reach. The sky was that freshly washed, after-rain blue, halfway between robin’s-egg and Spanish bluebells. A line of cotton-puff clouds hung along the horizon.Birds wheeled overhead in lazy circles. It was a perfect day from the tide line on out. Above the tide line, the white beach lay cluttered. Plastic furniture lay in bleached, leggy tangles. Seaweed and garbage were strewn all over. On the terrace, a couple of planters had fallen, and two jeans-clad gardeners were sweeping up the dirt. A third was replanting pink and blue flowers.
“It’s not as bad as I thought, from the noise last night.”