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“Ye ken what this party needs?” Fiona said, clapping her hands happily.

“Tea?” I teased, grinning at her. We’d been in the shop all of three hours and we’d already had three cups. She’d promised me tea that would make me forget how little sleep I’d gotten, and she’d more than delivered. My brain was firing on all cylinders, but I wasn’t nearly as jittery as I would have been after three cups of coffee.

“If ye’d like,” she said, winking at me. “But I meant music. Art, d’ye think ye could take a look at the new sound system? Mam found it used, and I’ve no idea how to set it up.”

“Of course!” Art beamed, thrilled to have been given a job he’d excel at. “Point me at it.”

As the first soothing strains of a Norah Jones song filled the shop, Viv hollered down from the snug. “It’s ready! You can all come see!”

Beyond curious about what she’d been working on all morning, I put down the tongs I’d been using to arrange the cookies in the display case. Art arrived first, and my heart sank when I saw the confusion on his face. Fiona’s delighted expression appeased me a little.

“Och! That’s pretty, love. What’s it fer?”

Hardly a ringing endorsement, but one I had to agree with when I got to the top of the snug stairs, pushed past Fiona and Art, and stopped dead in my tracks.

The sign she’d promised us was nicer than I’d anticipated, but it was hanging on the brick wall of the snug rather than out front where I’d hoped to display it. Even more confoundingly, it was surrounded by a tapestry of flowers and leaves.

“What do you think?” Viv cried. A hint of trepidation made her voice wobble as she glanced between us and the wall.

“It’s… pretty,” I managed to say. “Unexpected, that’s for sure!” I added when her face fell.

“You don’t know what it is, do you,” she said, sounding far more accusing than her statement warranted. I hated to do it, but I had to shake my head. “Ugh,” she exclaimed. “It’s so obvious! It’s an Instagram backdrop! Isn’t it perfect?”

To demonstrate, she went and struck a pose in front of it, grinning ear to ear, pointing at the sign. If she thought that was explaining anything, she couldn’t have been more wrong.

“I’m sorry. I’m confused. What’s an Instagram backdrop and why would we need one?” I asked. “It’s taking up an awful lot of space, don’t you think?” She’d had to move the armchair I’d placed by the fireplace over to the side of the room with the table where she usually sat and did her schoolwork, making the usually tidy snug look more cluttered and smaller than usual.

“People are going to line up to take photos here, and then they’re going to share them to their socials,” Viv explained, only rolling her eyes once. “You’ll see. It’s going to be amazing free publicity.” Her eyes shone with delight as she bounced on her toes with excitement. “Ahh! I cannot wait!” she cried, clasping her hands.

Art caught my eye across the room and shook his head. I snapped my mouth shut, my question about how anyone would know about it in the first place dying on my lips. If he thought this wasn’t a battle worth fighting, who was I to argue? After all, he wasn’t wrong; he did know her better than I did.

The bells above the door jangled, and we all jumped.

Fiona laughed. “Saved by the bell. Viv, love, yer photo wall is beautiful. Thank ye fer doing that fer us.” She patted Viv’s shoulder affectionately, and the pride that bloomed on the teen’s face left me feeling sheepish.

“It is beautiful. Fiona’s right. Thank you. That took a lot of effort and planning,” I said. The smile that exploded across Viv’s face was worth sucking up my reservations.

“You want to take the first selfie with me, Meg?” Viv offered, sounding a little more shy than she had a moment earlier.

“Sure!” I replied, grinning at her. “Why not? Wait! Are you going to put this on the Instagram?”

The only reply I got was an explosion of giggles and a “you’re so funny, Meg.” Art simply shrugged and grinned at me when she pulled me in front of the flower wall and held up her phone. “Okay, now, don’t smile directly at the camera. Look down, and when I say go, just look up at the screen. Okay?”

The door jangled again just as she said “go,” and I didn’t have the courage to look at the photo she snapped as I glanced to see who was coming in. There would be plenty of time for edits after the first rush ended.

But from that moment on, there was no break in the constant flow of visitors. Many were locals excited to congratulate us and get a cup of tea from Fiona, but more than a few customers were complete strangers who oohed and aahed as they walked around the shop, holding their phones out, snapping pictures of everything.

“OMG! Look. At. These. Biscuits, Bri!” one girl squealed, stopping in front of the cookie display and grabbing her friend’s arm as she walked by. They hotly debated which to get and which would photograph better as I boxed up half a dozen cookies for another fashionably dressed cell-phone-waving young woman.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” a fourth asked from behind the three crowding the counter. “Where’s the photo wall?” She brandished her cell phone, holding it still just long enough for me to catch sight of a photo of Viv and me in front of the flower wall. I blanched.

“Excuse me. Can I see that?” I asked, gesturing to her phone.

She recoiled slightly, protectively holding her phone to her chest.

“I don’t even need to touch it,” I reassured her. “I just want to see the photo.”

“Oh!” Her whole demeanor brightened to its previous incandescence, and she held out the phone.