Page 15 of Brews and Banishments
By the time the sun began to set, the shop grew as quiet as Daisy was used to. She stood behind the counter as an amber glow took over the storefront, not a soul in sight. Groups of people still lingered in downtown Willowbrook, window shopping and deciding where they should eat dinner. Daisy glanced through the front to see a few patrons with familiar brown bags in their hands, the classic Fields’ Herbals logo printed in the middle. Daisy couldn’t stop the tired smile from pulling at her lip.
Tessa curved around one of the aisles as she swept. “Boy, am I beat,” she said. “I can’t remember the last time I really needed tocleanaround here.”
“Tell me about it,” Daisy said as she popped open the cash register. Pulling the bills out, Daisy retrieved her calculator as she began counting through their sales. She reached triple digits sooner than expected, and once she hit four digits, Daisy began to feel short of breath. There was enough money in there to fix the divot in the floor, and then some. Daisy could order more supplies and ingredients without tainting their final profit.
Somehow, the margin of their sales was more overwhelming than not making a single dime.
“T-This is unbelievable,” Daisy murmured.
Tessa poked her head up. “What is it?”
“Everything we managed to make today,” she said, her eyes unable to pull away from the surplus of cash in her hands. “Can you imagine if it stays this way? We’d be better than surviving, Tessa. We’d besuccessful.”
Tessa approached the counter cautiously, resting her broom against the wall. “You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?”
“Not about this, Tess.”
She peered over the cash register, her eyes widening. “This means we can pay for SusyandAnne, Daisy.”
“Now, I wouldn’t get my hopes up that far,” Daisy said, lowering the cash back into the register. “But, for now, we don’t have anything to worry about.”
“Then why don’t you seem more excited?”
“I’m…” Daisy’s words trailed off. “I don’t even know what to think.”
Tessa slipped around the counter, snatching onto Daisy’s hands and yanking her away from the money. “This was all we needed, Daisy,” she said, unable to hide the excited smile that pulled across her face. “Just one day to prove our worth, and the entire town will be flocking here soon enough. Breathe. Be excited. Beproud. This, after all, is all because of you.”
Finally, after the day was over, Daisy felt the joy sink into her skin. She grinned, all the possibilities of what to do with their profits soaring through her mind. Everything she thought she wouldn’t be able to do from a lack of business seeped out of her. All of their hard work was beginning to pay off, and Daisy felt drunk with the ease it gave her.
Before Daisy could begin to jump and laugh and cry with happiness, the bell rang through the shop another time.
Tessa groaned. “Honestly,” she muttered, “if we’re so rich, can’t we just close early?”
“Don’t go saying we’re rich, now,” Daisy teased, giving Tessa a gentle push from behind the counter. “You’ll jinx us before we ever really get going.”
Turning towards the storefront, Daisy stepped onto the tips of her toes to get a good look at who was slowly making their way towards the counter.
Tessa’s eyes narrowed. “Isn’t that -”
“Alan Harris,” Daisy finished, her eyes widening in surprise.
Once her high school boyfriend, Alan was now a man that Daisy preferred to avoid. Most of the townspeople called him a heartthrob or a stunning bachelor, but Daisy couldn’t see it. Perhaps it was because he called her boring when they were together in grade school, which led to her first heartbreak. But Daisy’s taste happened to be narrowed down towards disheveled lawyers with grey streaked hair. Her mind lingered on Ethan for a moment before her attention turned back to Alan, who had finally made his way to the counter.
Alan dressed like he normally would - a button down flannel with a pair of rustic denim jeans. But the one peculiar thing that pulled Daisy’s stare up to the top of his head was the wide brimmed hat he wore. The main attraction most people found about Alan was his luscious hair, even when they were teens. Alan spent more time grooming his hair with ludacris products than caring about anything more important. Even then, when Daisy happened to pass him by in the street, she could tell that, without a doubt, Alan was still incredibly vain about his dirty blonde locks.
Daisy sighed. When her mind happened to touch on him, she wondered how amusing it would’ve been to see Alan lose all his hair. Perhaps it was only her jilted heart talking, but something told her that the childish wish would’ve shown more of his true character than anyone else ever realized.
“Busy day?” he finally asked.
Daisy raised a brow. “The busiest in a while. Did you -?”
“I need your help, Daisy.”
Immediately she noticed how Tessa hung around the counter, her interest obviously piqued. Daisy glanced over Alan’s frame, curious as to what it was that ailed him when everythingseemed as right as rain. If only he wasn’t wearing that strange hat.
“I know I haven’t been the nicest,” he continued, not bothering to wait for her to respond. “Or the most caring. B-But you know how kids are, right?” Alan forced out an awkward laugh, though no one else joined in. He gulped.
“Alan,” Daisy said. “What’s the problem?”
