Page 16 of The Alpha Under My Bed

Five

ELEANOR

The cool glassof a perfume bottle pressed against my palm as I adjusted the front display, my fingers tracing the delicate golden lettering across the label. The weight was familiar, solid, grounding. I moved each bottle half an inch to the left, aligning them perfectly with the mirrored backdrop. The motion was automatic—something I had done a thousand times before, a ritual as much as a task.

The boutique was quiet this morning, the only sounds the soft clink of glass as Jules restocked shelves behind me and the faint rustle of tissue paper as Claudia wrapped a customer’s purchase at the counter. The scent of sandalwood and vanilla was thick in the air, clinging to my skin, but beneath it, I could still taste the faint trace of my morning tea—hibiscus and honey lingering on my tongue, a sharp contrast to the warm, musky fragrance of the shop.

It was familiar. Steady. A place that had always felt like mine, like I belonged.

I sighed, already feeling the tension in my shoulders ease as I hung up my coat in my effort to tidy up—only to pause mid-motion. A small frown pulled at my lips as I scanned the counter near the register, the spot where I had left my scarf this morning. Except... it wasn’t there.

I was sure I had set it down neatly, folded beside the stack of order forms just like always. Glancing toward the hooks by the door, I checked the small basket near the counter where Jules and I sometimes tossed our things during shifts. Nothing.

“Hey, have you seen my scarf?” I asked, looking toward Jules as she stacked a row of new arrivals onto the shelf beside me.

She barely looked up, blowing a pink bubble with her gum before popping it loudly. “Which one?”

“The gray one. The one I wore in.”

She frowned, pausing mid-stack before shifting the bottles again, like she was second-guessing their placement. “Did you check the back?”

I hesitated, glancing toward the office. “I don’t think I put it there.”

Claudia, who had been tallying inventory nearby, barely spared me a glance as she waved a dismissive hand. “It’ll turn up. You’re always leaving things places.”

I frowned, but she wasn’t wrong. I had a habit of misplacing things when I got distracted, my mind wandering in too many directions at once. But something about this felt… off. The boutique wasn’t big, and I hadn’t stepped outside of the front area since I arrived. It wasn’t like it could have just vanished.

Still, a small thread of unease curled in my stomach. I shook it off, forcing myself to move on.

I busied myself with rearranging the mid-note section of the perfume display, reaching for the familiar comfort of routine, when Jules flopped against the counter beside me with an exaggerated sigh.

“So,” she drawled, propping her chin on her hand, “tell me, what’s the latest in Ellie’sSad Dating Life™?”

I groaned, shoving a bottle into place a little too forcefully. “You have to stop calling it that.”

She snorted, flicking her gum wrapper into the trash with the accuracy of someone who had worked retail for far too long. “I’ll stop when it stops being true.”

I scowled. “That’s rude.”

Jules just grinned, leaning against the counter like she had nowhere else to be. “It’s not my fault you keep getting ghosted.”

I let out a long-suffering sigh, letting my head fall against the shelf for a moment before straightening. “I know.”

Jules propped her chin on her hand, leveling me with a faux-sympathetic look. “You know, at some point, we have to consider the possibility that you’re being catfished.”

I snorted. “By an algorithm?”

She shrugged, completely unfazed. “You’re telling me it’snotweird that they all disappear? I’m just saying—maybe TCI is running some kind of psychological experiment, andyou’rethe test subject.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah, that makessomuch sense.”

“It really does,” she said, nodding with exaggerated solemnity, like she had just cracked the case of the century.

Despite myself, I laughed, shaking my head. But even as I joked with Jules, a small, nagging unease curled in the back of my mind.

I shook it off.

The scent of vanilla bean and jasmine clung to the air as I moved behind the counter, double-checking an order form before the next shipment arrived. Jules had wandered off to the back, leaving me alone with the steady hum of the shop. The warmth of the space wrapped around me, familiar and comforting.

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