132

KATYA

“ACHOO!”

Barb lets out another fake sneeze — her hundredth of the day. It’s so dramatic it actually makes me jolt, and my plastic fork nearly catapults a strawberry across the room. There goes my carefully curated ZEN state — the one I spent all afternoon cultivating so I could juggle a fruit salad in one hand and tomorrow’s report in the other.

I lower my fork slowly, inhale, and press my l