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Oh, my goodness, had Lacey crawled out the window to avoid talking to me? I was a monster. And not the usual kind that lived in the town: most of them were actually pretty personable. I was the worst kind of monster: a rude, bad neighbor kind of monster.
I dropped my head into my hands and groaned.
Chapter Five
A middle-aged customer bounced one of my anointed candles on her palm like she was trying to guess its weight, and then lifted it up to her nose to give it an obnoxiously loud sniff.
I winced, making a mental note to wipe that one down if she decided not to buy it.
“So, what’s this one do, again?”
My best customer service smile fixed in place like a shield, I explained to her for the third time in twenty minutes. “It’s a Fortune’s Blessing candle.”
“And what’s that mean again?”
“It means that you scratch what you want to attract into the side of the candle.”
“Scratch it? With what?”
I shrugged. “A pencil, a pin—whatever will get the job done.”
“Oh.”
“Then you burn the candle for an hour each day for a month, and it will bring you whatever it is you’re looking for. Love, money, or health are popular ones.”
She hummed and sniffed it again. “Smells like flowers.”
My cheeks were starting to hurt from the forced smile. “Yes, it has jasmine oil in it.”
The lady turned the candle over in her hands, like she thought the other side would look different. “Do you think my sister-in-law would like it?”
I blinked, taken aback. “I don’t know. I’ve never met her, but most ladies like it.”
She scoffed, like I’d failed some kind of test. “Whatever. Fine, I’ll take it.”
I’d never been so grateful to make a sale in my life (just to get rid of the irritating woman), and I was careful to touch the nose-smudged candle as little as possible while I wrapped it carefully in tissue and popped it into a bag before ringing the customer up.
“Thank you for coming to Poppy’s Potions, and have a wonderful–”
The door closed behind her, cutting off my goodbye, and I let out a gusty breath, half-collapsing onto the counter.
I didn’t know if it was something in the air, or the planets were out of alignment or what, but I’d had nothing but difficult customers for the entire afternoon. People who wanted impossible things, people who touched everything in the store, or moved bottles and candles out of place, and people whose kids ran around screaming (making me nervous that they’d break something).
A headache started up, pulsing behind my eyes, and all I could do was pinch the bridge of my nose and hope it went away, or I’d have to dip into the medical supply aisle that Wanda and I had worked on together.
My shelves were looking worryingly bare, but I’d managed to scrape together a few supplies to try and brew some potions while I was at work. One was merrily bubbling away, and I knew I’d need to check on it shortly to keep it from scorching.
I’d just headed towards the back to do so when the bell over the door jangled, and I had to slap on a smile to greet my latest customer.
The portly, balding man took a few cautious steps into the shop, looking at the shelves warily, like he thought the vials might leap at him and douse him in perfume if he wasn’t careful.
“Hello. Can I help you with anything?” Not that I had much stock left to help him with, but I could still try.
He cleared his throat, obviously still uneasy. “Uh, yeah. What have you got for losing weight?”
I blinked at him. “Well, I have quite a few potions aimed to help in losing weight. Were you looking for a potion to give you more energy to exercise more? I also have sleep potions to help you make sure you’re getting enough sleep each night?” I didn’t really have anything for making a person feel less hungry, unfortunately.
“No,” he said, obviously frustrated. “Like, something you rub on your skin, and the extra weight goes away.”
