“Whoa, whoa. Let us help you with that.” Elisa hurriedly set down the tote bag she’d had slung over her shoulder and crossed over to study the guardrail. “These things usually have a button to make it simple.”
“That’s the problem.” Sophie blew out a breath in frustration. “This one’s modern enough to have a lot of buttons. Every one of them does something nifty, but I’m too stir-crazy to sit here and figure out which button does the exact thing we want it to at this very moment.”
Lyn laughed outright. “Patience is not one of your virtues.”
Elisa snickered.
Sophie narrowed her eyes at both of her friends. “No, it’s not. But normally I can at least pretend it is. I’m just so done with this place.”
She’d slept in this morning. Something she never did. When she’d realized the time, she’d almost panicked. But when she’d called in to work, they had seemed surprised she’d called in at all. Her boss had told her to take the time she needed, of course, and that they’d talk when she returned to the office. She’d ended the call with a very bad feeling.
Yesterday had been an afternoon off at her boss’s suggestion, one she’d started with an excursion for some retail therapy. She’d planned to splurge and binge on some sweets, then maybe go over to the kennels and indulge in a massive round of stress baking. All to avoid thinking about the recent change in climate at the office and her doubts about the career she’d chosen.
She’d only accomplished the one thing on her list, and even that was for naught. The tea set couldn’t possibly have survived the explosion. Her day had been completely hijacked in a way no one could’ve anticipated.
Kind of like her life.
If she believed in signs—and she did to a certain extent—then she’d figure yesterday was a big one. Change. Things were changing in abrupt, hurtful ways, and she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do next.
At the moment, she had no desire to do anything but get home, curl up on her sofa, and sulk.
“Sophie? What’s wrong?” Elisa had lowered the rail, and Sophie hadn’t even noticed.
“Sorry.” Sophie dredged up a small smile, not wanting to worry Elisa.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Elisa stepped to one side as Sophie carefully swung her legs over the side of the bed.
Elisa had escaped an abusive relationship. Her ex had not only been an intelligent, calculating person, he’d been a man of influence and financial means. It’d taken a combination of courage and wits to not only survive being with him but also to leave. As a result, Elisa was hypersensitive to changes in mood in the people around her. She could walk into any situation and immediately gauge the temperature of the personalities around her.
Sophie didn’t try to hide her troubled thoughts. Elisa would only call her out on them. It was part of the reason Sophie valued her friendship.
“Did you all wonder why I was in New Hope yesterday, in the middle of the day on a workday?” Only Ky had asked her yesterday, in his capacity as a police officer. So he’d been the first person she’d told. Today, she needed to tell her friends and maybe some of the anxiety would give way so she could do something constructive about it.
Lyn pulled the wheelchair into the room and closed the door. “We figured you’d get around to telling us.”
Now was a better time than later, then. They’d been wondering, and she really appreciated their consideration in not peppering her with questions yesterday when she’d been out of it.
“I was wondering, too.” It’d been weird. A red flag. “My boss gave me the afternoon off, and I was wondering if there was something wrong at work. Maybe the company is going under.”
Lyn sucked in a breath.
Elisa’s eyes widened. “Do you think your job is in danger?”
Sophie pressed her lips together and shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’d gone through the morning tasks and prepped a couple of client folios for afternoon appointments. My boss called me into his office to comment on how hard I’d been working lately. Then he said I should take the afternoon off. Clear my head.”
It’d been out of character for him. Since the day she’d started working with the small accounting firm, they’d always had the expectation that she be in early enough to set up and be working promptly at the start of the business day. Staying late was a given around tax season, but it happened heading into the fall, too, because a lot of small businesses set their budgets in the fall. There’d been a lot of work to do over the past week or so, and she’d put in long hours to keep them all from getting buried.
“Seems odd.” Lyn owned her own dog training business, working with dogs with behavioral issues and their owners. She’d been successfully running her own business for years.
“It was, absolutely.” Sophie tugged at a length of her hair. “And I was excited to take an afternoon away. It’s been really uncomfortable at the office lately.”
Elisa frowned. “How so?”