Her friend gave a small cry and then, arms flailing, struggled to regain her balance. “My goodness, it’s slippery out here.”

“How are we going to do this?” Sarah asked. “You can’t walk on this ice.”

“Sure I can,” Mary assured her, straightening with resolve. But she soon lost her balance again and grabbed hold of the car door, just managing to save herself.

“It’s like you said—we’ll do it together,” Sarah declared. “We have to, because I’m not leaving you behind.”

With Mary’s arm around Sarah’s waist and Sarah’s arm about Mary’s shoulder, they started walking down the center of the road. The treacherous ice slowed them down, and their progress was halting, especially since both of them were drunk and weepy with emotion.

“I wonder how long it’ll take Greg to realize I’m not home,” Mary said. Her husband was in trouble as it was, leaving her a defective vehicle to drive.

“Probably a lot longer than Jake. I told him I wouldn’t be more than an hour.”

“I’m sure there’s some football game on TV that Greg’s busy staring at. He won’t notice I’m not there until Suzanne and Thom arrive for dinner.” Mary went strangely quiet.

“Are you okay?” Sarah asked, tightening her hold on her friend.

“Yes, but…Thom. I was thinking about Thom. He’s in love with Noelle, you know.”

“Noelle’s been in love with Thom since she was sixteen. It broke her heart when he dumped her.”

“Thom didn’t dump her. She dumped him.”

Sarah bristled. “She did not!”

“You mean to say something else happened?”

“It must have, because I know for a fact that Noelle’s always loved Thom.”

“And Thom feels the same about her.”

“We have to do something,” Sarah said. “We’ve got to find a way to get them back together.”

“I think they might’ve been secretly seeing each other,” Mary confessed.

Sarah shook her head, which made her feel slightly dizzy. “Noelle would’ve told me. We’re this close.” She attempted to cross two fingers, but couldn’t manage it. Must be because of her gloves, she decided. Yes, that was it.

“We’re drunk,” Mary said. “Really and truly drunk. The cookies didn’t help one bit.”

“I don’t care. We’re best friends again and this time it’s for life.”

“For life,” Mary vowed.

“We’re on a mission.”

“A mission,” Mary repeated. She paused “What’s our mission again?”

Sarah had to stop and think about it. “First, we need to deliver the Christmas baskets.”

Mary slapped her hand against her forehead. “Right! How could I forget?”

“Then…”

“There’s more?” Mary looked confused.

“Yes, lots more. Then we need to convince Noelle and Thom that they were meant to be together.”

“Poor Thom,” Mary said. “Oh no.” She covered her mouth with her hand.

“What?”