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was surprised to find that
she looked much calmer than she felt. She dropped Chaos off at doggie day care
for the day, since she wouldn't be able to make it home at noon to let him out.
After kissing him on the head and scritching his ears, she told him that she
loved him and that he should behave. He looked up at her with some sense of
incredulity, since he believed that he always behaved, a feeling that most of
the staff at the doggy day care did not share. After a friendly chat with the
woman behind the desk, she headed to the office.
    Work
was a panacea for Emma. It took her mind off things and made her day go
quickly. By the end of the workday, Emma had not only completed most of the
things on her task list for the day, but she had also written the contract for
Mason to sign, gone over Jen's contract one more time, and even gotten a start
on some work she had planned for the next day. Funny how needing a distraction
can make you that much more focused at work, she thought.
    “You're
a dynamo today,” her secretary, Rhoda, observed as Emma dropped one more letter
on her desk for mailing.
    “Some
days, I’m the picture of productivity. Other days, I can’t put a sentence
together to save my life. Fortunately, I’m having a good day today, at least as
far as verbiage goes. You doing OK?”
    “Fine,
thanks for asking,” Rhoda smiled up at her. “I managed to change most of your
meetings tomorrow for either later in the day, or to reschedule them until
Monday. I haven’t been able to reach Ben yet to try to move your 2:00.”
    “If
you can’t reach him, I should be able to make that one, though I might be
late.”
    “You
have a hot date?” her secretary teased.
    “Oh,
if you only knew,” Emma smiled back, thinking to herself, no, really, if you
only knew...
    “I’ll
keep trying. Was it time-sensitive, or can it wait until next week?”
    “I
think it can wait, but Ben can make the call.”
    “Hey,
if you’re free tomorrow night, a few of us are headed to that new Mexican
restaurant over on Glendale. Frank wants to try their margaritas.”
    Emma
grinned. “Any other time, I’d take you up on it, but I can’t tomorrow. I’ve got
plans, and I need to have an early night since I’m headed to San Diego this
weekend. Speaking of which, do you have all of the Drellis files ready for me?”
    “Most
of them. I’ll have everything ready to go by noon tomorrow. Is that soon
enough?”
    “Oh
yeah. Plenty soon. Thanks, Rhoda. If the margaritas at that new place are good,
I’ll be wanting our next scheduled happy hour there,” she warned.
    “We’ll
let you know. Sorry you can’t join us.”
    Me
too, Emma thought. But she didn’t think that scheduling a work happy hour on
her wedding night seemed entirely appropriate.
     
     
    Mason
was pacing. It was Friday, and it was nearly noon, and yet there was no sign of
Emma. He had the paperwork ready, and he had the contract that Emma had sent to
his lawyer at the end of the day on Thursday. So that was a positive sign - she
had taken time yesterday to put that together. But other than that, nothing. No
contact, no calls, nothing. Was she coming?
    If
she didn’t, he’d sue for breach of contract. It wasn't the money, he reasoned.
It was the principle of it. People couldn't promise things and then renege.
Well, Jen, anyway. Emma hadn’t promised anything. He chuckled to himself. She
was probably still reading through the contract on the way over here in a cab,
trying to figure out how to get out of it.
    He
checked his watch again. Their appointment was at 1:00. They’d need to leave
his home by 12:40 to ensure that they made it there in time. So that didn’t
leave a lot of time to work with. OK. What if she didn’t come? What was the
first step? Well, contact his lawyer of course. But then what? He’d have to
figure out if he was going to let the voting stock go, or try to find a wife in
a few weeks. He wanted no emotional attachment, of course, so that meant