Page 34 of Bright Dark Curses

“He runs some kind of food video blog, right?”

“I don’t know about that. I’m talking about the boy band.”

My mouth fell open. “The what?”

“The boy band. I heard he was part of one when he was a teen.” She snorted. “Hard to imagine, right? I wonder why he needs a job?” She studied me with a measured gleam in her eyes. “If you need more help, I’m free right now, you know. I have some experience waitressing.”

I tried to process the boy-band bomb drop. Had Dru known about this and hadn’t told me? Had Key? “Which boy band?”

She scrunched her nose. “I don’t know. Six on something? Something on Six?”

“Do… Do you have a link?”

“Nah. Just something someone told me.” She licked her lips. “About the job…”

I touched her shoulders and gently turned her around. “I’m good for now, but I’ll make sure to keep you in mind if there’s an opening.”

“Meh. All right.”

I pushed her through the bead curtain. “That’s the spirit.” To Brimstone, I said, “Charge fifty on top of whatever she had.”

Conning teenagers from their money wasn’t exactly what I’d envisioned when I took over the shop, but as the old saying went, they won’t believe it if they don’t pay for it.

Natalia sent me a grateful look and went to pay. As she did so, I took out my phone, finding it hard to look away from Brimstone. Fire mage, food video blogger, and possible teenage heart throb. Was there anything Key’s uncle couldn’t do?

I texted Dru a row of exclamation marks.

We literally just saw each other, was Dru’s answer.

Did you know about?—

Someone cleared their throat. “Excuse me?”

I looked up from my phone. The other woman sitting at the counter was studying me with cool blue eyes. She was dressed in jeans and a heavy sweater, and her chestnut hair was gathered in a bun at the back of her head.

Putting the phone away with a bright smile, I slid behind the counter. “Yes? How can I help you?”

“You’re the owner, right?”

“Indeed. Hope Avery, at your service.”

Her expression grew even more unimpressed. “You’re the owner, but you’re not often in the shop?”

This line of questioning might seem rude and strange to the uninitiated in the ways of customer service, but for experienced veterans like me, it was par for de course. “I had some errands to do this morning, ma’am. Brim—Jeremy here is very good at taking care of the shop while I’m out.”

Or so I hoped, anyway. Come to think of it, I had no idea what Jeremy did while I was out. Did he yell at customers? Spook them out with ghostly thunderstorms? Maybe it was time to install a nanny cam.

“But he’s not the owner.”

I tuned up my smile. “You never know—one day he might be! Life is funny that way.”

“Then it wouldn’t be a witch shop anymore, would it?”

Ah, she was here for a potion. What a balm for the soul.

Genuine warmth filled my voice. “I understand. I apologize for not being available until now.” Passing her a pad and a pen, I added, “Please fill out your special order here.”

To maintain my customers’ privacy in the presence of others—and protect our secrecy with humans around—I’d come up with the idea of having them write down their orders on the pad if there were other customers in the shop. Then I’d either bring them into the back to ask more questions, or prepare the order if I had the potions at hand. It had worked great so far.

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