Page 2 of Unlikely You

Taking one last look at my display, I looked toward the doors and prepared myself for the next seven hours.

“Thank you so much,have a wonderful day,” Honey said, handing the paper bag over to the customer. It was stamped with the Holloway Apiary logo. Cute and rustic. I had to hand it to them, their marketing and branding was perfect. I wondered if the parents or if Honey was responsible. The parents didn’t seem like the type to worry about things like logos or brand cohesion, so I had the suspicion it was more her doing. The font was sweet and charming, with a little watercolor bee. I would have tweaked a few things, but overall, it looked nice.

I turned around and dropped my smile, massaging my jaw. I had a natural resting bitch face that I had to fight nearly every single day by forcing my face into a smile. Sometimes it even gave me headaches. One of my indulgences was a massage whenever my body decided I’d had too much. My massage therapist always did a lot of work on my face and jaw and that helped.

Honey probably didn’t need medical attention after smiling all day. Her face was built for smiling. Literally, because she had a dimple in each cheek. A matching set. And to add insult to injury, she was one of those people who smiled and made you want to smile in return. I’d seen people with straight-up frowns on their faces leave the Holloway Apiary table with grins.

What the hell did they put in that honey? They were always giving out these little sample sticks that people lost their minds over.

“Busy day,” Honey called over to me.

That was the other thing. She wouldn’t stop trying to be friends with me. No matter what I did, she always acted like we were besties. Or coworkers in the trenches together.

I let out a grunting noise that was supposed to make her smile falter and not want to talk to me anymore.

It didn’t, though.

“Would you like some tea? We’re brewing lavender chamomile today. It’s very soothing.”

Jesus fucking Christ. That was another thing they did. Gave away free cups of tea (dosed with liberal drizzles of their honey of course) to anyone who wanted one. Obviously, I knew that giving away free shit was a marketing tactic, but they gave away a lot of free shit.

They were just so…nice.

We were smack dab in the middle of the mid-afternoon lull that I absolutely hated. The energy ebbed and flowed with the crowds and I would have much preferred it to be busy as opposed to quiet with just browsers who were bored and weren’t going to buy anything.

All I wanted to do was sit down, but that could signal bad energy, so I kept standing and tried to ignore Honey. Her parents were who knew where and her siblings were either kidnapped, missing, or behind the table on their various electronics. I couldn’t blame them. If I was a kid, I wouldn’t want to be here on my summer vacation either. Why the hell weren’t they at camp? My parents had loved camp. An excuse to get rid of me for weeks at a time when they could mostly forget I existed?Sold.

Yet here they were, bored out of their skulls and only doing something when Honey goaded them. As an only child, I didn’t really get her dynamic with them, but it was pretty obvious that the mom and dad were kind of off in their own world and didn’t really concern themselves with much.

I had to give Honey respect for that, at the very least. Respect and nothing more. She still annoyed the living hell out of me.

“I’m fine,” I told her because I couldn’t not respond. I could be a bitch, but I didn’t want to be an asshole. Most of the time. I could be an asshole if the situation warranted and sometimes when it didn’t.

Honey just kept smiling and filled up a cup. “Suit yourself.”

I clenched my teeth and went to rearrange my display. Again.

At last,it was time to close down for the day. I rolled my tight shoulders and thought about a bathtub full of water and Epsom salts that was calling my name. Maybe I’d have an edible too. Or at least a half of one to take the edge off.

That would all have to wait until I’d eaten, fed Arson, and had caught up on some admin work. I did my best to take care of that earlier in the week, but it didn’t always happen. No matter how much I did, there was always more work that could be done.

At least Arson would be happy to see me, even if she was only happy that I was there to feed her.

I covered up my table and made sure everything was as it should be. The marketplace had excellent security, so I didn’t have to worry about leaving everything overnight.

The kids were all yammering at Honey that they were hungry and asking her what they were having for dinner. The parents had swanned in and out about an hour ago.

“We’re having taco lasagna, remember?” she said, fixing the ponytail of the youngest girl. One of these days I was actually going to learn their names.

“Why can’t we have pizza?” the only boy whined. The sound grated on my ears after hearing so many voices all day. I couldn’t wait to get home to my quiet apartment. Arson was a vocal cat, but that didn’t bother me.

“Because we had pizza on Friday night, remember? Pizza is for Fridays, buddy.” The boy didn’t look impressed as he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

“You love taco lasagna. And you can put tons of sour cream on it,” Honey said, putting her arm around him and ruffling his hair. There she was, working her magic again. Her voice was soft, but firm.

“Come on, Arch. It’ll be good.” She kissed his forehead and I could sense he really wanted to argue, but she’d mollified him somehow.

Arch. His name was Archer, I recalled. The girls were…Emily? No, something fancier than that. The other one they called Ellie, but that was a nickname for something probably. I really was bad at paying attention to them. To be fair, their names were ridiculous. Naming a baby Honey was all cute when she was young, but what about when she was an adult and had to get people to take her seriously? You couldn’t take someone named Honey seriously.

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