“Sometimes?” her last boyfriend had echoed. “Everything’s an emergency with you, Sophie. You’ve always got something. Or you think you’re getting something. Or you’re worried you’re gonna get something.”
That was an exaggeration. And it was only natural to worry. New viruses popped up all the time and people needed to take their health seriously.
“He does have a point,” her sister, Sierra, had said when Sophie tried to cry on her shoulder. “You can get a little squirrelly. That’s scary to some guys. I mean, I get it, but—”
“I am not a squirrel,” Sophie had insisted. “I’m just in touch with my body.”
“Right. That’s why you thought you had throat cancer last year when all you had was acid reflux. Then there was the time we all stayed at that cabin in the mountains and you were sure you’d been bit by a tick and had Lyme disease, and the time you swallowed that corn nut and—”
“Never mind,” Sophie had said, cutting off her sister before the list could grow any longer.
Just because a woman was vigilant about her health, it didn’t make her squirrelly or a hypochondriac. Cuts could get infected. So could insect bites. Colds could turn into bronchitis and bronchitis into pneumonia. You could pick up the flu virus simply by touching an elevator button. （Which was why Sophie always pushed those buttons with her knuckle. Or better yet, her elbow.） It was important to be aware of your environment, especially after what people had gone through when COVID-19 hit. That wasn’t squirrelly. That was preventive medicine.
Speaking of, she went to the shelf in her kitchen cupboard dedicated to her many bottles of vitamins, minerals and herbs, and took out her chewable vitamin C. Sneezes turned into colds in a heartbeat.
Her work was done for the day and her immune system was now boosted, which meant there was no putting it off any longer. She had to go to Costco and purchase those food supplies for her friend Camilla, the caterer. Camilla almost always did her own shopping but she was swamped and one of her employees was out sick, so she’d begged Sophie to help her out. The big warehouse store would be a zoo, full of people carrying all kinds of germs. This time of year people were walking petri dishes. No one stayed home when they were sick anymore. She’d take more vitamin C before bed.
She was reluctantly moving toward the closet to get her coat when her sister called. “Are you working?” Sierra asked.
She usually worked straight through lunch, eating an apple （an apple a day and all that） and some yogurt （probiotics, good for the digestion） while she surfed the internet on behalf of her clients. Today she’d gotten done early and once she’d braved Costco she was going to curl up on her couch with a cup of rooibos tea and stream a Hallmark movie.
“Just finished,” she said. “You on your lunch break?”
“Yeah. Thought you might have a minute to talk.”
A minute to talk. Obviously about how Sierra’s plans for the night before had gone. There wasn’t any excitement in Sierra’s voice. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Sure,” Sophie said cautiously. “What’s up?”
“Murder.”
“Oh, no. Mark didn’t like his Christmas surprise?” How could he not?
“He can’t go.”
“Can’t go? Why not? Is the Grinch holding him for ransom?”
“He says he doesn’t have enough vacation time left and, anyway, he’s swamped.”
Sophie frowned in disgust. Really, Mark was such a waste of man sometimes. “Why can’t he, like, talk to his boss, borrow from next year’s vacation time or something?”
Could you do that? Sophie had never been Miss Corporate America. Before she turned her shopping passion into a business, her jobs had been the kind that involved plates of food and tips. So what did she know?
“I don’t know. I talked to his boss months ago, told her what I was planning. She said she’d be fine with it.”
“Maybe his boss forgot about your conversation and needs him. Maybe he really does have too much work to do.”
“Or maybe he just doesn’t want to go with me.” Sierra’s voice was threaded with insecurity.
“What man in his right mind wouldn’t be working every angle to go on a glam holiday cruise? With his wife,” Sophie hastily added.
“Mine, I guess. I mean, I know things haven’t exactly been perfect these last few months, especially with him working so much, but we still love each other.”