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Safe.
“Would you like me to show you?” he asks.
He doesn’t mean anything by it. I don’t even think he’s trying to hit on me—he’s barely an adult and seems much more enthralled by the instrument than by me.
“No.” My voice is sharper than I intend.
He blinks at me, shocked, and pulls his hands away from the jinrayaha like it’s burned him.
And that’s how I chase out my one potential paying customer of the day.
Before he leaves, I give him a small songbook as an apology gift. It’ll eat into my personal profits a bit, since I purchase it with my own money, tossing a few of my coins into the till. But a disgruntled customer badmouthing my shop would prove much more expensive in the long run.
Miothro has always had my back in customer disputes, not that they happen often. I don’t want to abuse his trust. I can’t snap at everyone with an eyebrow piercing and a taste for the jinrayaha.
Maybe it’s best that I close up a bit early. The sun hasn’t quite set yet. I might even beat Annalise in picking up the kids.
The jinrayaha seems to mock me as I lock up, but I turn on my heel and march across the street to the parchment shop.
It’s been long enough. Maybe I should try to play it a bit tomorrow. What am I going to do if Ezra wants lessons? I can’t nurse a broken heart forever. It’s beyond time to move on.
The parchment shop is locked, and my hopes for beating Annalise out of here dwindle. Miothro gave me a key to his shop when I started working for him just in case I ever needed to cover for them. And while I might be an excellent music shop manager, running a parchment shop left me frazzled and ruined for an entire day afterwards. I have no idea how Annalise handles the volume of business like she does, but she has the audacity to make it look easy.
A small bell chimes as I open the door, but no one answers. Annalise, in her usual efficient fashion, closed and cleaned up exactly on time.
A grin stretches my face begrudgingly. I don’t know how she does it—her shop was swamped with customers every time I peeked out the window. She refused to take a break for lunch until Miothro chased her out of the shop to join me.
But when business is done, Annalise runs to be with her children. She might work hard, but she never works late. I wish I could be half as efficient as she is.
“Miothro?”
I can hear him talking to someone upstairs. That isn’t so strange. Miothro is an avid businessman, always looking for the next best investment. He usually doesn’t mind me interrupting him, though, and I really need to give him my inventory report before I forget it—I don’t want to leave it in the wash again.
“Sorry,” I apologize as I knock. “I just have to–”
Miothro opens the door with a polite smile. “Inventory report?”
I hardly hear it. Miothro plucks the parchment from my hands and scans it perfunctorily before placing it on his organized desk. And I stand there like a frozen suru, eyes wide.
My world stops.
I must be seeing things. The young man who resembled him in the music shop is still scrambling my brain—but no. It’s undeniably him.
He hasn’t looked at me yet. His emerald eyes are downcast, almost completely obscured by his obscenely long eyelashes as he studies an instrument in his lap.
“This is actually perfect timing,” Miothro says. He looks pleased, which means that his trademark blank face is slightly less blank than usual.
I offer him a distracted smile, but I can’t stop staring at Ris.
He doesn’t look much different than before. Same handsome face. Same lithe, muscular frame. But he looks…heavier. Not weight-wise, but like the gravity of Protheka is pulling on him more than anyone else in the room. Even his lips are pulled down.
Ghildumal, the owner of the theatre, murmurs something in Ris’s ear. He nods, but he doesn’t look up. He looks like he couldn’t care less about anything in the world. He’s sprawled indolently in the chair and doesn’t bother to smother a yawn.
“We’ll need to increase the supply,” Miothro says. “These gentlemen are placing a wholesale order, and—are you alright?”
No.
Ris has always been above visiting to the shops, more inclined to practice his songs during the day. Zagfer shopped on his bidding, bringing instruments to his estate to try out, and contracting with the theatre if he gave his approval. I never thought I’d see him here.
