“Patty, hi. It’s Sadie Landry,” she said. Sadie wished she had a better rapport with Patty. Truthfully, she’d been standoffish toward the middle-aged woman at the holiday party out of loyalty to Ethan. Patty was the right-hand woman to Ethan’s awful boss, Frank Marlow, and she seemed to have no trouble doing his dirty work, whether that meant canceling important meetings at the last minute or withholding previous company-wide benefits, like early dismissal Fridays.

“Oh. Sadie Landry?” Patty replied, her voice strangely warmer than usual. “How are you doing?”

“Um, okay? I guess?” Sadie fumbled. “And you?”

“Hanging in there,” Patty sighed. “As you can imagine, things have been pretty tense around here following the layoffs.”

“Layoffs?” It seemed as if the living room tilted, rising and crashing down on one of the choppy waves in the cove.

“Well, sure. It wasn’t like Ethan was the only one to get let go.” Patty lowered her voice. “There were at least five associates on Marlow’s hit list, and they all got the boot. I had to deliver the letters myself. I’m sorry I had to be a part of it, and I’d appreciate it if you passed along those sentiments to Ethan.”

Sadie suddenly felt weak. She set a hand against the window to steady herself.

“When did that all…start?” she asked, not wanting to reveal the fact she hadn’t known her very own husband was unemployed while simultaneously searching for more answers. “The, um, layoffs.”

Patty whistled. “Ethan was the first to go, and that was what? Three weeks ago now? And it’s just continued in a steady stream ever since.”

“Three weeks ago,” Sadie repeated hollowly.

“Time flies,” Patty said, which she thought was weird when one considered the remainder of that idiom. “Anyway, what can I do for you, Sadie? Do you have a question about Ethan’s severance package?”

A question? Sadie had nothing but questions.

“I, um… I was just curious…” Sadie racked her brain for a plausible reason to telephone the administrative assistant of her husband’s former employer. A severance package seemed like safe territory, and it was certainly a topic Sadie was interested in. “Um, Lincoln threw up on the paperwork. Could you email me another copy of the severance package?”

Perfect. No one could argue with a toddler throwing up.

“Oh, dear…yes, yes, of course I can,” Patty said. “What’s your email address? I have a pen and paper right here.”

Sadie rattled it off.

“Is there anything else I can help you with, Sadie?”

Unless Patty Hubbard could track down her husband or prevent a hurricane there certainly was not.

“Thanks for your help,” Sadie said. “Have a nice afternoon.”

“Uh-huh. You, too. I heard that big storm we’re having is headed right your way. Getting worse all the time. Take care.”

“I will,” said Sadie. “You stay safe too.”

Click.