“Then I think it will probably be fine.” I sighed, my shoulders collapsing in relief. A Ph.D. in microbiology was so reassuring about this kind of thing. “Of course, I specialized in plant spores,” she added, collecting a plate full of kebabs and heading over to a grill.

My sister waved me to a stop. “Laura, what’s wrong with the water? Didn’t you tell us we didn’t need to pack iodine tablets if we were coming to France? Your friend Éric keeps telling us not to drink it, or we’ll get sick.”

“What? It’s fine. You’re either getting the spring water we bought or the bottles of tap water we froze for ice. But I’ll go check.”

I went to where Éric was working the card-table bar, beside a brown plastic garbage can filled with drinks. “Why do you keep scaring my sister about the water? It’s fine!”

Éric, who had seconded his compatriots in refusing the refrigeration of mayonnaise, tuna, and both raw and cooked chicken, stared at me. “Are you crazy? That water’s been frozen, thawed,

refrozen, and thawed again! She could catch all kinds of diseases from it!”

I sighed and stood shaking my head, realizing more clearly than ever what a miracle it was when a Frenchman and an American got together and lived to tell the tale. All this time I had been selfishly afraid Sébastien would give me salmonella when at any minute I could have eliminated him with a careless ice cube.

The next few hours were a blur of party hosting and juggling multiple requests for copies of the video from our church wedding. “Why?” I asked. “What are you going to do with it?”

“Um, nothing,” the guests said, not meeting my eyes. “Don’t you ever have a clip of something you just take out and look at whenever you’re depressed?”

“Or show at parties and in funniest home video contests?”

“Hey, we got back at your priest for you,” said a couple. “Remember how he was yelling at all the guests that you were going to make him late for his steak?”

“No,” I said. “I missed that part because I was the one late. But I’ve heard reports.”

“Well, we pulled in front of him when he was leaving the church. We stopped at the stop sign and turned to each other so he could see us and just kept up the liveliest conversation for the longest time. You should have heard the way he laid on that horn. It made us a little late for the mayor’s ceremony, but it was worth it. By the way, have you started auctioning off the video yet? We definitely deserve a free copy.”