I’ve found that out the hard way over the years, and it’s a practice that serves me well now.Savor the melted cheese and peppery sausage, the perfect, buttery yeast dough.Inhale the aroma of fresh coffee and baking bread.Take a second and relish the fact I’m warm and dry and safe.
“This is just what I needed,” I tell Tara, finally opening my eyes and smiling at her, grounded.“The food and coffee—it’s amazing.I can’t tell you how thankful I am for you both inviting me here… and being able to hear ye olde talking cat.”
Ye olde talking cat makes a grumpy noise, still distorted by the saucer of milk in front of her.
“You’re going to be okay,” Tara reaches for my hand, squeezing my wrist briefly.“You aren’t imagining any of this.The world is strange and full of magic, but I will do my best to help you, and you have Prudence.”
She manages to say that last part without one iota of sarcasm, but she grins when my eyebrows raise at Prudence’s name.
“Alright.”Tara claps her hands, settling back in her seat with her mug of steaming coffee.“So.On top of starting a whole business, you also, apparently, have an unfriendly ghost infestation.Let’s take it one component at a time.”
I nod, my stomach twisting uncomfortably at the idea of everything I still have to freaking do.“Aiden set up my website last night, and I need to call the graphic designer for logo and branding stuff, and then basically it’s time to clean the store from top to bottom, and—oh shit, Colton the contractor is coming by…” My voice goes quiet as my mind spirals.“And then there’s the whole evil spirt thing.”
“Okay, honestly, it sounds like you’re in a good place.Cleaning?We can use that as a two birds, one stone type of thing.You can clean for dirt while you cleanse for spirits.Two for one deal.”
“She is smart.”Prudence dabs a black paw in the milk, then licks it off.
Tara and I stare at each other for a long moment, and the urge to laugh grips me.I bite my lips to keep the sound from coming out.
Honestly, though, this is all so incredibly weird—it’s a wonder I haven’t melted down yet.
“I don’t have time to melt down,” I say out loud.
“She does that,” Prudence tells Tara.“Talks to herself.”
Tara ignores my bad-attitude familiar.“You’re right.You don’t have time to melt down.Besides, you have me.And Aiden set up your website for you?That’s… really nice of him.”
“Yeah,” I shrug as Tara narrows her eyes at me.“He said the town council assigned him as like my welcome wagon person or whatever.”
“Right.”She drags out the word, still giving me a hawk-eyed look.
I take another huge bite of egg-and-sausage-filled kolache, not trusting myself to say much more about Aiden.
For once, Prudence keeps her thoughts to herself.Probably because she’s currently busy eviscerating a sausage and can’t be bothered to stop gorging herself long enough to make a snarky remark.
I make a mental note to start keeping sausage handy.
“But yeah, I mostly need to check on wholesaler book orders and do some last-minute shopping, then figure out what he started online and finish setting that up, then just work on having the actual store functional.”I let out a whoosh of breath.God.It’s a lot.“I can do this, right?”
“You can absolutely do this,” she says, grinning.“If me and Em can run businesses, anyone can.It sounds like you know what you need to do, and it’s just time to get it done.”
“And then there’s the whole avoid the evil ghosts haunting the bookstore and oh, by the way, I’m a witch?—"
She holds up a hand, cutting off my desperate rambling.“Okay.Let’s file evil spirits under store functionality.Have they given you any sense of what they want?”
“No.There was one in my apartment, house, whatever—last night.It woke me up.It felt…” I shiver, goosebumps sending hair all over my arms upright at the memory.The malevolent, heavy presence, oily fear.“It felt like it wanted to hurt me.”
She clucks her tongue, her gaze faraway as she braces her elbows against the table.“That’s not great.”
“The cat told me to salt the doorways, and that did something.I didn’t expect it to glow?—”
“It glowed?”Tara asks the question carefully, and there’s a note of either awe or disbelief in her voice—which, though, I’m not sure.
“Yeah.”
“My witch has a lot of power.”Prudence’s green eyes glow with pleasure.
“Oh, thank?—”
