Excerpt: Sweet Dreams

The three representatives from Cloudbase Electric were standing around Kate with empty coffee cups in their hands. Kate had somehow managed to turn the conversation to her own pet project, labour redistribution, and her captive audience were politely attentive. Sandra errupted through the door, leaping into the middle of the group and cutting Kate off mid-sentence.
"It is good to see you again, Ms Peterson, Ms Singh, I'm so sorry to have kept you," Sandra took each of their hands in turn and turned her smile up to full beam. "Please, take a seat and we'll get started."
There was general shuffling as the six people tried to arrange themselves around each other and the table. Sandra stood behind the chair at the head of the table with her fingertips pressed into its surface. Ben turned the lights down in anticipation of the presentation, so Sandra was stood in the spotlight of the projection, momentarily blinded. Ben and the third Cloudbase Electric employee, a young but slightly balding man, brushed past Sandra to get to the remaining seats at the back of the room. As he walked past Sandra felt him brush against her. Did his hand touch her? Was that his hand? She thought she felt his breath on her neck but her eyes had adjusted to the dark and she could see the two men at the back of the room. The draft was from the air conditioning. Sandra stepped out of its path through a wall of vertigo. She looked for the stack of brochures she had prepared. Where were they? They already had them, they were looking inside. They were going to spoil their dinner with those treats. She clicked the start presentation button. Something glinted in the shadows and caught her eye.
"As you can see..." Sandra began. She looked at the screen. It was just the welcome page. She clicked the button again. "As you can... you can see... from..." She couldn't catch her breath. Her heart was pounding so hard her lungs had no space to work. The room lurched.