December 2 & 3
Saturday afternoon and Cordy was back in the living room looking over her board.
As soon as she had gotten home yesterday, she compared the mitten she found at Joe’s to the mitten she had found at Sophia’s. They were an exact match.
She moved them on the board to her area dedicated to Joe. She also added a sticky that read “Jeep in Garage” and another that said “Pet Dog”. She really wanted to ignore the evidence staring her in the face, but she was out of excuses for how or why the pieces were matching together. Joe and Sophia went missing at the same time, likely the same day. Sophia had driven to the airport…and Joe seems to have caught a ride wherever he went. If Marcus was to be trusted, Joe and Sophia both had copies of the same Alaskan travel brochure. They had both packed warm clothes for wherever they went…and they both seemed to have packing in a hurry.
At the airport, Sophia had a small bottle of men’s cologne in her car. It may have fallen out of travel luggage while it was in the back seat. Joe did not have any cologne in his bathroom, which could mean a number of things, but it could mean it was his cologne forgotten in the back of the car.
Joe had one of Sophia’s gloves at his home and Sophia had boxes of Joe’s books stored in her closet.
What if Joe was blackmailing Sophia? Had he planned to close his business, cash out his assets, steal his own tome, and somehow Sophia got caught up in it? Did she stumble into something she shouldn’t have? Did she have to drive Joe to the airport at gunpoint? Was she forced to buy their tickets to some out of country location and now she was stranded? Or worse? Was Sophia a willing participant…even coconspirator in any of this? Were they away together in a romantic capacity? Could the rumors that they hated one another be completely wrong? Did opposites attract? Were they away on separate vacations and one had nothing to do with the other? Was there another explanation for the storage and the mitten? Were they planted evidence by someone else trying to cover their tracks?
Cordy’s thoughts were getting away from her and a headache was starting to take occupancy behind her temples.
She needed to take this back a few steps before she spiraled. First off, she wanted to investigate Joe owning a dog. That was a place to start that could yield information – and not spiraling suppositions.
Cordy thought about the complications a pet brought when leaving in a hurry. From experience she knew that not all travel accommodations were pet friendly (especially big pets!) and that travel would require either taking the animal along, finding a friend to host them, or taking them to a boarding facility. If Joe left the dog behind, perhaps there was a way of getting more information about when he left and who he left with.
She would check all the local pet boarders to see if anyone had any information.
She decided it was time to put her poster board up over the wall again. It had become her habit to hide it out of sight since her parents came over for Thanksgiving. No need to have to answer any questions if someone popped by unexpectedly or expectedly, as Brandon was due soon for their Saturday night date.
Cordy had continued to keep Brandon up to speed on most of her sleuthing, but it would probably terrify him to see the board in all its (overwhelming) glory. She was a like a woman possessed. Probably not something he needed to see a few weeks into dating. That was probably more of a four-months-of-dating milestone.
~
Brandon was always on time for their dates. Prompt. Polite. Pet-friendly. And devastatingly handsome. Cordy paused a moment to admire him as she opened the front door of Sophia’s house.
“Hey. What? Everything okay?” He asked as she awkwardly ogled him.
“You brought me flowers,” she said.
“Well, yeah. You’re my girl and I have a rule about bringing my girl flowers.”
Cordy could have melted into a puddle right there on the cold porch. She accepted the snowy roses and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“How are you feeling?” Brandon asked as they stepped inside the house. “Ear all better?”
“Better.”
Brandon followed Cordy into the back of the house so she could put her roses into a vase. Wayne got the hugs and loves he needed from Brandon along the way.
“No Christmas tree.” Brandon stated as he looked at the living room.
“No, I guess not.” Cordy said with some surprise. Again, the simple things of life were escaping her. She was usually a holiday-decorating fanatic, who loved to deck her halls with every bough of holly she could find…but none of that seemed important to her right now. Not with Sophia gone.
“Change of plans.” Brandon declared.
“Put some warm clothes on, we are getting you a Christmas tree tonight!”
Cordy thought about it for a moment.
“If you have time for a dinner date, you have time to put up a tree.” Brandon urged. “Wayne can help.”
Cordy smiled, his holiday spirit was catching.
~
The Christmas tree lot was a quaint, family-operation; it was also maddeningly romantic. Lights were strung up over the lot, glowing over the proudly displayed pines. There was still snow on the ground from the prior storm and everything glistened in the night.
Cordy could see her and Brandon’s breaths in the cold air, as they walked through the lot sipping their cups of hot cocoa. Several families were on the lot with their kids, the children were all running about excitedly searching for the best tree. It was the perfect night.
“See one you want to adopt?” Brandon leaned in close and watched Cordy’s face as she looked around for her pick.
Cordy could feel his eyes on her as she looked around, he seemed totally in tune with her. Present in that special moment. “Let’s choose together.”
“Oooh.” Brandon nodded. “A together tree. We’re getting pretty serious.”
“Well, I would suggest a Christmas card…but I plan to do that with a very handsome, rich, and talented other man.”
Brandon cast a look down at Wayne who was at the edge of the leash, trying to sniff at a tree that had caught his attention. “He’s always making me jealous.”
Cordy laughed.
Brandon pointed to a gorgeous tree. “Do you like this one?”
“I do.”
“How about this one?” He pointing to another very beautiful pine.
“I like that one too.”
“This?” Brandon asked, pointing to a tree that was a little bent out of shape.
“Love it.”
Brandon shook his head. “You’re like the crazy cat lady of Christmas trees, aren’t you?”
Cordy laughed. “I would adopt all of them if I could.”
“Well how about the one Wayne just marked?”
“Oh no!” Cordelia laughed pulling Wayne away from the tree he just claimed.
“You have to buy that now!” The lot attendant had spotted the infraction and had hurried over to alert them to the doggy policy.
Brandon and Cordy both laughed.
“We can chop that part off.” Brandon promised. “We’ll take it!”
~
Once home, they hosed the tree off and then sawed about a foot off the bottom. The tree was too tall for the loving room anyhow. With the tree as good as new, and free of Wayne’s blessing, they put it up in the living room.
Cordy found Sophia’s decorations in the basement, and they went to work.
To the merry tunes of Christmas, a roaring fire, and a couple glasses of eggnog, the tree was soon up, decorated, and lit.
Cordelia snuggled with Brandon on the couch looking up at their masterpiece. For the first time that season, the magic of Christmas touched her heart and everything felt like it was going to be alright.
Little did she know (as the saying often goes) what Monday would have in store.