“Are you quite sure?” he eyed the big burly guy suspiciously.
“Yes. Jez! Take His Majesty and give him some more tea.”
“On it, boss.”
“So, is this some kind of cosplay shop? Who are you supposed to be then?” the other guy asked, looking over at the prince, then back at me, eyes spending a particularly long time lingering at the V of my shirt. “Snow White?”
“Uh . . . yeah. It’s a gimmick we sometimes use, to get more people in the door. This is a magic shop, and there’s nothing more magical than fairy tales, right?” Both men just looked at me steadily, no reaction. “Anyway, the space for rent is just through here.”
Never had I been so relieved to turn my back on someone. After my stunning introduction, I needed to salvage this meeting desperately. I forced myself to walk at a reasonable pace through the shop to the open doorway that led to the book stock. Set up much like a library, every kind of occult book under the sun could be found lining the walls. The issue was no one was looking anymore. I didn’t know what had happened. Tess had done an analysis of the business. The Magicorium had been doing a pretty brisk turnover right up until our Nan’s death, then it just died when she did. We had enough to keep things going for another month and that was it, so I’d decided the library had to go. We could keep the books or sell them off on eBay, but having rental income coming in could be enough to tide us over, for a little while anyway.
“The bookcases will all be removed, but as you can see, there’s plenty of room. Big windows to let in lots of natural light at the front.”
“Could we install a separate door in the storefront?” Gabriel, or rather Gabe asked, inspecting the shop front.
“Sure! I intended to put a door in here as well, key lockable, so you won’t even have to come next door at all.”
His eyes flicked to the doorway and then back to the walls, “Don’t need that. Plenty of women come in wanting unicorns and fairies tattooed on their butts. Your business is not a bad fit for ours, could get some cross traffic going on.”
“Yeah?” I tried not to sound too enthusiastic and failed. Anything that could bring in more business.
“Whaddya reckon, Flea?” Gabe asked the other guy. He bobbed his head, as he looked around. It was like he could see what the shop would look like already.
“I’m cool with it. Better than the other dump I’ve been working at.”
“Looks like you got yourself a deal,” Gabe said, holding his hand out. I shook it quickly and then jammed my hands in my pockets once I’d let his fingers go. I could never touch this guy again and it would be too soon. He smiled at this but turned back to the walls. “We’ll get the designer to mock up the refit and run it past you. That sound cool?”
“Ah, sure, there’s no rush. I’ve got to get some friends in to help remove the bookcases and work out what to do with them.”
“You sell them, you’ll end up with a nice chunk of money. Look like oak. Solid, well made. We really need to get a jump on the refit. No shop, no money. How about we take the bookcases out for you, sell them and split the proceeds.”
“Really? You’d do that? Wow, that’d be awesome.” Right now I didn’t care if he used the bookcases for kindling. They’d been in the family for a while, but I needed to make amends for my actions and if splitting the sales of some furniture helped him look past me getting handsy, we could take that hit.
“No problems. Your people will be able to handle the books?”
“Of course. I’ll get everyone on to it today.”
“So, love, now we’ve got that out of the way, you interested in a celebratory drink?” Gabe asked, fixing me with a steady look.
“It’s only nine, so no, but thank you.”
> “Happy to make it a coffee? Tea? Whatever takes your fancy?” His eyes raked down my body as he said the word fancy, long and slow.
“No, I couldn’t. Gotta move those books, right?” I was pretty sure he was just wringing this last bit of malicious pleasure from my epic screw up. “Look about before, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said, “Best start to a business meeting I’ve ever had. Well, if you’re sure?” I wasn’t, I really wasn’t. I was tempted, seriously, to get the girls to haul the books while I sat and made goo-goo eyes at this hunk of man flesh, but I knew I couldn’t. “Flea and I will be by tomorrow morning at opening time with the truck,” he said before turning to leave.
3
I followed them out, only able to let out the great sigh of breath when the door closed behind them. I sank into the closest armchair and scrubbed at my face. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God! Omigod, omigod, omigod!”
“Ash, it’s OK,” Tess said, bringing me a cup of tea.
“It’s not! I touched . . . then I–” I wailed.
“Damn straight, you did! He’s that friend of Jersey’s I mentioned. Goddess above, girl, a moment later, and I thought you were going to whip out his cock,” Jez said. “Not that I’m complaining, because that was one gorgeous lump. Did he feel as good as he looked?”
“Just shut up, please,” I said. I buried my head in my hands, taking a couple of deep breaths. "Let’s leave my spectacular lapse in judgement and get our minds on the business. We have to get all the books out of the library, clean it up and find some damned customers."