"What? No! They'll have hotdogs and candy corn, how can we pass that up?" Amber strived to maintain a healthy diet, since keeping in shape was just one of the many keys to success. How would she keep up with all her projects and plans if she didn't have the form to survive it all? But the occasional treat was okay, and Halloween only came once a year. She could scarf down some junk food without much harm. Unless the fair had food poisoning, in which case she wouldn't want to be healthy enough to come into work the following day, treating all the other poisoned patients. “I bet they have papier-mâché witches and other things so tacky we won’t believe it until we see with our very own eyes. They might even play tapes of evil cackling and boiling caldrons!”

It'd been years since she'd gone to one of these. As a kid she went with her brothers, and later, there was always someone willing to tag along to check out how much worse the Halloween festival could be compared with years past. Since med school she’d been too busy to think of, much less go, to a cheesy seasonal festivity. This haunted house could’ve come and gone without her ever caring, but now that she knew about it, Amber wouldn’t let the chance pass by—not when she could go through it with Eric. If nothing else, they could joke and reminiscence afterward just how cringingly bad it’d been. “C’mon, Halloween is only once a year. I promise that if I get scared I’ll scream and jump into your arms.” Amber grinned, certain that he’d like the notion of being her knight in shining armor. To strengthen her argument, she ran her hand up and down his thigh.