Business was booming for a Tuesday, which should have pleased Audra. And it did, but she couldn’t keep from wishing that the boom had come any other day. They were short-staffed because she’d fired Chad, which made for high tensions and short breaks, and Beef had been avoiding her all day. She wanted to corner him and explain everything, but there just hadn’t been time. Oh, and there was also the little matter of the missing lamp containing a sadistic djinn just waiting to fall into the wrong hands. She’d covered that problem, but it still nagged at her. But no matter how badly she wanted to shake Chad until he talked, it wasn’t a good idea. And she couldn’t just leave. If the business fell apart, there would be no storage to put the djinn back into.
The combined weight of all her worries made her distracted, which resulted in her accidentally overcharging one woman by $100 for a signed Elvis poster. The woman made it as far as the parking lot before storming back in, her face purple with rage, to shout in Audra’s face and demand to speak to the manager. Wordlessly, she gestured for Beef to come over, since he was in fact the manager, and she couldn’t take it anymore. As he began to try and make her latest mistake right, she fled to the back room and cried.
After a few minutes, the door opened, and Beef entered the room. He closed the door behind him and leaned against the wall as if he was unsure of his welcome. His long face was drawn and serious.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
“Not really. But I deserve it. I’m such an idiot.”
“Yes, you are.” His voice remained steady and calm, but the words hurt all the same. “For someone who’s so smart, sometimes I wonder how you manage to make so many poor decisions.”
She sighed. “I have poor taste in men, I know.”
He shook his head, meeting her eyes intently. “But it’s not just that. You do make some stupid decisions when it comes to dating for sure. But Audra, you know I love you. And you know I’ve got your back. But I’ve got to love you enough to be honest with you. You’re careless. You don’t think before you act, and you make promises you don’t keep, and you don’t realize how much it affects other people.”
“Is this about not showing up last night? I said I was sorry! But how could I leave when the fire department was here? I sent you a message.”
“Yes, you did. After it was all done. After I’d spent hours worrying about you, and wondering what the heck you were up to. Think about it from my point of view. You make up some lame excuse about why I can’t stay after work with you, and then the place catches on fire, and you don’t think to cancel our plans until hours later. It just doesn’t add up.”
“I…” But what could she say? She’d planned to tell him the truth, but now didn’t seem like the right time. It wasn’t like she could confess to having magical abilities after he’d pretty much said she was untrustworthy and made bad decisions. Sure, some of her weird behavior could be explained by the need to keep her magic secret, but that didn’t change the fact that she’d been stupid. She hadn’t told the truth to him about her abilities. She hadn’t told herself the truth about Chad, or the guy before that, or the guy before that. And now she was hiding the truth about the lamp from Darius, because she wanted him to like her.
There. She’d said it. He was an attractive guy, and for all of her claims to be done with dating, she sure hadn’t acted like it. She’d bent over backwards to try and make him like her, and look where it had gotten her. If she’d been honest about the missing lamp, they might have had it back already.
“You’re right,” she said, wiping her still-leaking eyes. “And I’m sorry.”
His mouth fell open in a display of shock that might have been insulting if she hadn’t agreed with him.
“I am?” he asked.
“Yeah. About all of it. I’ve made a mess of things, and I’m going to fix it. I know I don’t have the right to ask for anything, but I’m going to ask you for just a little more patience with me. Once I’ve put things right, I promise I’ll come clean. I should have told you this stuff a long time ago.”
He looked at her for a long moment and then swallowed nervously. “I’m worried about you, Aud.”
“I’ve got this.”
She spoke with more assurance than she felt, but it must have been convincing because he nodded.
“Okay. Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked.
“Can you find someone to replace Chad? We’ll have a revolt on our hands if we don’t get some extra help around here.”
He nodded. “And what are you going to do?”
She shrugged hopelessly, not really knowing how to answer. This whole situation had gotten out of hand so fast that she didn’t know what to do. Or rather, she knew what she should do but didn’t want to do it.
“I’m going to quit hiding from my mistakes, I guess,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Okay. I’ll help. Whatever you’ve got going, you promise you’ll tell me?”
“I promise,” she said gravely.
“But not now.”
“It would take a long time to explain, and I need to fix it first,” she said. “I’ve been hiding my head already, and I’ve wasted too much time. But I really will tell you when it’s all over. Pinky swear.”
The juvenile phrase brought back memories of earnest high school promises and years of friendship. They both knew it was the kind of thing neither of them would dream of breaking. After a moment, he nodded.
“Okay. You got this,” he said. “I believe in you.”
Then he gave her a thin smile, the kind of smile people force out when they’re trying to be reassuring but don’t quite feel reassured themselves. Still, she appreciated the effort. She sat there for a long time after he left the room, trying to work up the courage to do the right thing.
By the time Darius arrived shortly after 6, she knew what she had to do. She was waiting impatiently for him when he arrived. He pushed open the door and nearly bowled over an old man who’d decided that the doorway was the best place to stand to admire his new vintage hat. After a murmured apology, he made his way across the crowded and cluttered floor to the jewelry counter where Audra stood.
“Just wanted to check in before I got some dinner,” he said with a hint of apology in his voice. “I hope you don’t mind. I’m obsessive, I know.”
“Actually, I’m glad you came. Do you have a minute to talk?” she said squaring her shoulders resolutely. “There are some things I should tell you.”
His brow went up, but he didn’t ask. Not in the middle of a crowded room where anyone might hear.
“Sure thing. Where?”
“How about we take a short walk?” she suggested.
He nodded, and she detoured past Beef, who stood at the register, looking through all of the receipts with a puzzled expression. Something wasn’t adding up. She knew the feeling all too well.
“I know this is bad timing, but I need a few minutes,” she said.
He looked from her to Darius, and a knowing expression came over his face. It was almost funny, because that expression couldn’t have been more wrong. There was no way he could know what she was about to tell Darius, and if he had known, he might have tried to have her committed.
“Is this regarding our earlier conversation?” he asked, and she nodded. “I’ll cover it.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
He flashed her a quick thumbs up and went back to what he was doing. That task taken care of, she gestured to Darius and led him behind the counter and down the hall to the new back door.
As they exited, he said, “New door working out for you?”
“Absolutely. It opens and closes. And no one’s tried to pull it off the hinges yet today.”
He grinned. “It’s still early.”
“True.” She led him in a slow stroll away from the building. The weather wasn’t yet into the slap-you-in-the-face level temperatures, and a nice breeze lifted the hair from the back of her neck. She took a moment to enjoy the fresh air after spending the day in the shop. Or she tried to, but she was too wound up to really relax. “So I have something to confess.”
“I’m listening.”
She snuck a look at him, and he seemed cool and collected. Ready to hear what she had to say. He probably wasn’t going to be so calm in a few minutes, but there was no avoiding that now.
“I made a mistake,” she said. “I’m going to fix it, because it’s my mess, but I thought you deserved to know.”
“Whatever happened, I’m sure you’ll make it right.”
She let out a little laugh. He seemed so sure of her, while she felt very much the opposite. It hurt to think that she might lose that status in his eyes, because she found that she really did care what he thought. He was such an upstanding guy. But she’d promised honesty, and she was going to deliver. No more hiding or running.
“I lost the lamp,” she said. “I’ve never lost anything before, and so I thought I’d get it back before anyone knew it was gone. I’m still going to find it, but I figure you should know since you’re the one who entrusted me with it in the first place.”
“Do you know where it is?” he asked. “Did somebody take it, or did you misplace it, or what?”
She tilted her head and looked at him as she stepped over a concrete stanchion that separated her parking lot from the gas station next door. He was taking all of this so calmly. Maybe this honesty thing really did pay off.
“Someone took it. The night of the fire, I think. I remember opening the portal, and I remember starting to build the tether. But then I was falling, and I knocked my head on something hard. One of the shelves, maybe. That doesn’t make any sense. I don’t walk around while I’m doing void magic, because it’s really distracting. The memories don’t fit together the way they should.”
“Magic, maybe? Somebody messed with your memories?”
“Yeah, but I think I know who it was, and they’re not supernatural in any way. They left a signature behind, you see. And it doesn’t make any sense.”
“That is odd.” He fell into a thoughtful silence. “Although if the person got their hands on the lamp, they could have used a wish right then and there. Had the djinn scramble your brain.”
“Of course they did!” she said excitedly. “Here I was thinking I’d gone nuts.”
“I don’t think so. And while I wish you’d said something about this earlier, when you realized the lamp was gone. Why didn’t you?”
She sighed. “I didn’t want you to think I was incompetent.”
He put a warm hand on her shoulder, and she almost relaxed into it. The urge to lean against him, to take comfort from his warmth and see where that led them was so great that it felt like an almost physical pull toward him. But she couldn’t give into it. She’d made too many impulse decisions already, and she had work to do. Finding the lamp would be so much more difficult if she was distracted by whatever was growing between them.
“I don’t think you’re incompetent. Headstrong. Maybe a bit overly independent. But you could say the same things about me, so I don’t think I’m in a place to throw stones,” he said.
“You’re very kind,” she said.
“Nah. Just honest. So what can I do to help?”
“Nothing, thanks.” She patted her pockets. “Actually, could you loan me a couple of bucks to get a Coke? I left my purse in the shop.”
“I’ll buy you a Coke,” he replied, fishing for his wallet. “But I’m not satisfied with doing nothing. That lamp is just as much my responsibility as it is yours. I shouldn’t have left you alone with it. I knew that from the start, and I did it anyway. So I’m going to help you retrieve it whether you like it or not.”
“That’s…I’m not sure whether to be relieved or insulted.”
“It’s not a statement on your capabilities,” he said, pulling open the gas station door and holding it for her. “I firmly believe that dangerous jobs shouldn’t be tackled alone. It’s a basic rule in construction, and I broke it, and now I’m paying the price. I’m not going to make that mistake again.”
“I think I’m way ahead when it comes to mistakes made. If we’re keeping score, that is.”
“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “When this is all over, we can tally up our mistakes, and the loser buys the winner a candy bar. I like Reece’s.”
“Pieces or cups?”
“Pieces. Naturally.”
She let out a melodramatic sigh. “Well, we can’t all be perfect, can we?”