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“Did she break something? She’s not hurt, is she?” Shoshana said, because that’s all she could think that would be causing such a reaction. Baxter wasn’t opposed to kids usually. He didn’t like them crawling all over the furniture, but he was good at wrangling the parents so that didn’t happen.
“No, you need to come. Come now. Trust me.” Baxter widened his eyes for emphasis. Shoshana sighed and spread her hands, looking at Derek with awhat are you going to doexpression on her face.
“We’re going to get started soon, I swear. I should have had this set up already, I’m sorry I’m making you wait.”
“No worries, man, go deal with the tiny terror. You’re my only job today,” Derek said, and she knew he really meant it. Shoshana made it a point to be overly prepared for these shoots specifically because she knew they took a lot of time and Derek was a good videographer. She figured she’d let him return the favor a bit, because if today was going to be bonkers she would accept the help where she found it.
“Thank you, Derek, seriously. Help yourself to the donuts over there, I’ll try to be as quick as I can.” Shoshana stepped off the dais to follow Baxter back into the showroom. They had walked almost the entire length of the workroom before Shoshana grabbed the back of Baxter’s jacket, playful but pointed. She skipped the few steps to catch up to him--he was really moving fast to get back to the showroom--and stopped walking.
She wanted to know what she was walking into before she walked into it. If whatever-it-was was that bad, she would rather know than be surprised. Because when she was surprised she had a tendency to cuss, and she didn’t need to piss off a customer because of her god-damn dirty mouth.
“What. Is going. On.”
Baxter let out a breath and glared at the open showroom door, collecting himself before he spoke. “If I tell you, you’re going to think I’m out of my mind. You just need to come and see this.”
“Bax,” Shoshana said, wondering if the kid was peeling the wallpaper off the walls or something, “You know I’m on maybe ten minutes of REM cycle. Don’t do this to me.”
“There is a child,” Baxter said, pinching the bridge of his nose to fend off a headache, “in the window. The actual window.”
“Of the showroom? How did--” Shoshana was confused. The showroom had a number of large display windows that they used to showcase the season’s collections and other oddities Shoshana thought were cool. But they weren’t accessible to the public, they were walled off. There were doors with locks.
“It is entirely my fault and that’s not so important right now, but I need for you to come and see this. Also, possibly to help get her out, but we can get to that later.”
He took her by the hand, half dragging her to the door. She realized that what she had taken for panic was equal parts amusement and something else that she was pretty sure she was going to have to address later. She opened her mouth to ask more questions, but he was still talking.
When they got to the showroom door he stopped, looking at her seriously. “So, you remember when you said the mice would be a hit?”
* * *
His child was locked inside a show window and David couldn’t decide if he should be freaking out or taking pictures. He could see into the big, bowed window from his place next to its door because the whole front of the furniture store was windows. She waved to him happily as she picked up one of the little Victorian-dressed taxidermized mice and inspected it before moving it to another place in the tableau.
He could hear her chatting to the mice, clearly enjoying the game. He glanced over his shoulder, wondering if the floor manager was going to be able to find another key to the door.
Because the key was the problem.
Dani, being herself, had noticed that the door used an old-fashioned key and asked if she could look at it. Dani, being an incorrigible magpie, had managed to pocket the key, then lock herself inside the show window. Because why not? Now she could happily play with her little mice (obviously they were hers now) as long as she liked, and no adult could stop her reign of terror becauseshehad the key.
He laughed, deciding it was better to simply appreciate her ingenuity. He would have a discussion with her later about boundaries and personal property, also about snookering nice men into giving her exactly what she wanted. That was a great life skill, but one she needed to learn to wield with better wisdom.
In the meantime, he took out his phone and took a few pictures of her. She realized what he was doing and waved happily. David smiled at her, because she wasn’t actually in trouble yet. It had only been about ten minutes. They hadn’t really tried that hard to get her to open the door or anything. The floor manager had been laughing as he said something about going to find a skeleton key.
So, David went with it, knowing Mariam would enjoy this, he started a new text message, typing outyour daughter is taking “whimsy” to new levels.
“Uhm, David? What are you doing here?”
He felt a thrill at that voice. He recognized it immediately because it had been in his ear for almost eight hours last night, but he was confused how he could be hearing it now. He slipped the phone in his pocket, text forgotten, and met Shoshana’s wide, confused green eyes.
“Hey,” he said, equally confused. His brow furrowed and then he felt foolish as soon as his brain made the connection, “Oh,Goldman’s. It didn’t even occur to me. Hi.”
“Yeah,” Shoshana said, one corner of her mouth lifting in an almost smile, “It’s… been a family thing since about 1923.”
“Nice place.” David said, meaning it. He looked around the showroom appreciatively. It wasn’t like any furniture store he’d ever been in before and he wanted to roam for a while, probably best without Dani, because she would definitely be as intrigued by everything as he was.
“Yeah,” Shoshana said, dipping her head to accept the compliment before gesturing to the window. “Yours?”
“Yeah,” David said, feeling the heat of embarrassment as he realized not everybody would find Dani’s antics as charming as he did. “I’m sorry about this, she’s been obsessed with those mice since we saw them on a walk last week.”
“I mean, I’m flattered.” Shoshana bit her lower lip and he was momentarily entranced by it. “I’m sure the artist will be glad to hear it too.”
