Page 55 of Snowed In on Valentine's Day

I bit my lip when realizing I must have been frowning or, worse, staring at him. “Nothing. I … I’m glad you like my idea. I literally only thought about it this morning. I don’t know for sure—I mean, there would be a lot of details to figure out.”

“Roxy can help! She’s amazing at coordinating all the details of things. And to be honest, she’s seemed a bit … I don’tknow, restless the past six months or so. Maybe she’s bored? This could be something new and interesting to work on.”

The gears in my head were turning as I nodded slowly. “You know, that’s a great idea. I’ll call her tomorrow.”

“Is she that quiet girl I met at the resort that one time—the one who didn’t come to our wedding?” Terry asked, looking between Mari and me.

“That’s her,” Mari said. “She’s really shy. But super sweet and amazing at what she does.”

I nodded. “She’s awesome. I just haven’t spoken to her much since I haven’t had any events for her to plan.” I took a sip of water as they looked at me in expectation. “All right, I’ll get in touch with her soon.”

When I had casually mulled over this new idea this morning, one issue had lodged itself in my brain and refused to leave. I debated on bringing it up to Mari now, but I’d rather wait until we were alone.

“Spill, Haz. What’s wrong?”

My eyes were wide as they landed on my friend. “How do you always know—”

“I’ve been studying up on emotional intelligence.”

“Seriously?” I chuckled. “That’s interesting.”

“You didn’t know her back then,” Terry said, turning to Peter, “but my wife used to be the most anti-emotion person I’d ever met.”

“Anti-emotion person?” Peter repeated, his lips twitching ever so slightly.

“You know what I mean, man,” Terry said, elbowing his friend. “She was—”

“I’m here, you know,” Mari said, scowling at Terry for a moment before she laughed. “It’s OK, I don’t mind admitting it. Anti-emotion definitely described how I used to be, before falling in love.”

“Again,” I chimed in. When she shot a questioning look my way, I added, “Falling in love again.”

Her smile was brilliant as she nodded. “Yes. But stop distracting me. You were about to tell us something, Haz.”

I shook my head even while smiling. “All right, it’s just—most body image coaching programs and the like are prohibitively expensive. I have a lot of peers in this field who are amazing women, but their rates are only affordable for wealthy people. They do have some middle-class clients, but they tend to be short term, not enough time to truly resolve their issues, since it costs so much to continue longer term. And for lower-class people, there’s virtually no access at all. A few get lucky with a good therapist covered by their insurance, but that’s rare. I want—I want to be able to help people of all income levels. I’d love to reach people who’d never be able to afford this kind of help otherwise.” I pause, smiling briefly. “But I also have to make a living. So, therein lies the problem.”

The table went silent as everyone stared at me for a long moment.

Eventually, I saw tears welling up in Mariana’s eyes. She placed her hand on her chest before speaking. “Hazel, this is—I love this so much. You know—you know I came from nothing. So I know better than anyone how being poor can be a blocker to treatment, especially mental health, but all kinds. Sometimes I wonder if my dad would’ve survived if ….” She trailed off, hiccupping through her tears. “Anyway, I love it.”

Terry had reached across the table to hold her hand, looking a bit stunned since Mari never cried. He nodded at me. “It’s a great idea, Hazel.”

Peter cleared his throat, and my eyes reluctantly moved to him. He was looking at his glass as he said, “You can apply for funding, from investors and sponsors.”

My eyes widened. “That’s … true. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.” The best idea of the night, coming fromhim? The world seemed upside down. “Thank you.”

He merely nodded before taking a sip of his water. He’d also said no to the wine tonight, I noticed.

Finally, the conversation moved away from me and my life for the rest of the evening, until we were heading toward the front door to leave. We were talking about exercise as I pulled on my coat, and out of nowhere, Terry exclaimed, “Hey, I just had the best idea.”

I turned to him warily, as he was more than a little tipsy.

“Peter here goes on walks every day, he just said.” Terry pointed to Peter as if I didn’t know who he was. As if I didn’t know about the daily walks. Well, I couldn’t blame him for not knowing that. “Hazel, you said you’ve been bored with working out at home, and Zumba classes are always crowded this time of year. But you guys live right next to each other—you could go walking together!”

My head whipped around as I shot Mariana a look of horror, ayou-must-stop-thispleading look. But she was smiling and looking at Terry.

“Oh, I couldn’t—I wouldn’t want to impose. Surely Peter loves takingsolitarywalks. It can be so meditative, you know?”

The silence was especially awkward as I fumbled with a zipper that was stuck. Finally, as I pulled it loose, I heard his deep voice. “I do enjoy solitary walks. But I don’t mind if Hazel joins me.”

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