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How can this me possibly save Odai? Find myself? Trust in myself? How? It was a good thing The Owner took the deck with him, or I might have wrenched that High Priestess card back and torn it in two.
Squeezing my eyes tight a few times to stay any stupid, pathetic tears from falling, I cannot get out of The Magic Shop fast enough.
Odai
I look up from the work I am doing on the office computer. Jeffrey has exited The Magic Shop. I know because what connects me to him, my sense of him, is completely cut off when he is in that place.
I cannot read his thoughts exactly, but it hits me like having my chest struck in its epicenter that he is upset. Knowing Jeffrey went there to find leads to help me makes the ever-present need in me to fulfill his desires crescendo to a cacophony.
I must fulfill his wishes, but I also want to, and it is to that end that I am continuing to investigate Mrs. Sherman. There is something quite scandalous I discovered using the resources of the internet. What an invention, connecting nearly everyone on earth to the dirty laundry of everyone else. It seems Mrs. Sherman has a very specific reason for disliking this establishment. She has a vendetta, a personal one, and such crusades are rarely deflected without a long and grueling war.
I must take the next battle to her.
“Hey, Mr. B!” I hear SJ through the open office door and peer over the top of the computer to see her approaching Mr. Bevilaqua at the checkout counter.
“Hello, dear,” he says. “Taking Cas to lunch today?”
“That I am!”
“She shouldn’t be long. I’m just waiting on Jeffrey to get back from an errand, and I’ll be headed down to the gift shop. The current tour should be finishing up shortly.”
Two people weren’t required until the tour neared its end. A third was only needed during midnight tours. No one grabbed any patrons hands through the “incubus hole” when Jeffrey wasn’t the one telling the tale.
“You can head down now if you want,” SJ says. “I don’t mind watching the counter for you.”
“Are you sure, dear?”
“Of course!”
“I suppose that’s all right. Odai is in the office if you need anything.”
Mr. Bevilaqua heads into the tunnels, and SJ takes up his place behind the counter, just as Jeffrey enters the building.
“There’s our star!” SJ giggles. But her voice shifts to something somber. “Hey, who kicked your puppy today? Is everything okay?”
“It’s nothing,” Jeffrey says.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Yes! Really. I just ran into someone I didn’t want to see.”
Who? I wonder.
“I still hate seeing such a glum expression on that gorgeous mug,” SJ says. “I know! I’ve been meaning to take in one of your midnight tours again. It has been forever! I need to see that swagger in action! How about I come to one of the Friday shows? I can bring some of the Fluid Fashion crew. Assuming there’s enough room with how awesome you champs are doing lately.”
“Sales are good, but not that good.” Jeffrey chuckles.
“Speaking of Fluid Fashion, have you worn that smashing zip-up Odai bought for you yet?”
I feel as well as hear in Jeffrey’s voice that his mirth sinks again. “Not yet.”
“Tell me when you do because I am sure you will look killer in it. Odai seems great, by the way. And cuuuuute.” I sense her lean back from the checkout counter to look at me, but I keep my eyes on the screen.
“Yeah,” Jeffrey says softer, likely remembering that I am within hearing distance. There is genuineness in his tone but sadness too. “He is pretty amazing. And he really likes you and Cas. You two are, like, the dream couple, something to aspire to. Perfect complements.”
For the first time since I met SJ, her answer sounds listless. “Yeah. Don’t think you need to copy our pacing or anything.”
“You mean like how long it took you two to move in together?”
