Free Caught in a Bind by Gayle Roper

receiving line.
    “Ladies’ room.” Jo grabbed Edie’s right arm.
    “Good idea.” I grabbed her left.
    “Hey!” Edie wasn’t quite certain what was going on. “Let me go. I wanna meet Mishter Mon’gomery.”
    “That’s what we’re afraid of,” I muttered.
    We got Edie into the ladies’ room without incident, and once in there we claimed the sofa in the anteroom. Jo and I sat on the edge of the sofa on either side of the slumping Edie.
    “I take it Tom hasn’t come home,” Jo said.
    “Or called,” I added.
    Two big tears rolled neatly down the pathway made on Edie’s cheeks by previously melted mascara.
    “Ranny tole me to stay home.”
    “For once, Randy was right.” I patted her hand. When in doubt….
    “But I need to meet the new boss.” She pronounced it bosh.
    “I think not,” Jo said. “You want your job come Monday, don’t you?”
    Two more tears. “I don’t care.” She was deeply into self-pity. “I just came for Mac. I want him to have his job.”
    “That was very thoughtful.” I cringed at what a drunk Edie might mean to Mac’s career.
    “Thoughtful, schmoughtful.” Jolene stood and stared down at Edie. “If Mr. Montgomery saw you now, he’d fire Mac for hiring incompetents.”
    Edie drew herself up, quite a feat when you’re slouching on a sofa. “I’m not incompetent.”
    “You couldn’t prove it tonight.” Jolene stalked to the sinks, grabbed a fistful of paper towels and stuck them under the cold water. Then she walked purposefully to Edie.
    Poor Edie never saw it coming.
    Jolene was just finishing her forceful washing of Edie’s face with Edie batting ineffectually when the door opened and Delia glided in.
    Everyone froze for a moment. Then my stomach dropped and my hands turned cold. Of all the people who shouldn’t see Edie, it was Delia.
    She smiled nastily at Edie, who was too miserable to notice. “I see you still know how to pick your friends, Jolene Marie.”
    “Nice to see you, too, Delia.” Jolene smiled regally, as if bathing snockered friends was the posh thing to do.
    Delia walked to the mirror and checked her perfect makeup. She pulled out a lip pencil and colored her already perfectly colored mouth. Satisfied, she turned to leave. She looked at us and contempt oozed from every glamorous pore.
    “Did you hear that?” I demanded as the door shut.
    “What?” Jo asked, staring daggers in Delia’s direction.
    “Her silent sniff! I never heard anything like it.”
    “I heard it too,” Edie lay her head on the back of the sofa. “She doesn’t like us.” Her sniff was very audible. “Where is he?”
    Both Jo and I decided to treat the question as rhetorical.
    Jolene reached into her little silver evening bag and pulled out a lipstick. She rubbed some on her index finger and then rubbed her finger over Edie’s pallid cheeks. She did this until Edie looked healthy again. Then she carefully put some on Edie’s lips. “I don’t have any mascara with me, but we can’t risk her crying it all over herself again anyway.”
    I reached in my little black bag and pulled out a tiny metal bristled brush. “Sit up, Edie. It’s hair time.”
    While I brushed, Jo asked. “Do you think there’s coffee out there anywhere?”
    “Probably not.” I pulled Edie to her feet. She barely swayed. I smoothed her green dress over her hips and tugged at the hem to get it to lie smoothly. It was a bit snug, but not as snug as the skirts she usually wore to work.
    Jolene circled Edie and nodded in approval. “If one of usis always holding her elbow, I think we’ll be okay. Just don’t let her near Mr. Montgomery.”
    “But I have to meet him,” Edie said. “Now’s not a good time,” Jo said. “We don’t want him to get mad at Mac.”
    “No, we don’t,” Edie agreed. “We want Mac.”
    “Shoulders back, Edie.” I took her elbow. “Here we go.”
    We walked back to the Brennan Room, and no one but Mac and Reilly even knew we’d been gone. I