Page 15 of Players and Pages
The changes brought in more people and income to fund the renovations of some of the older buildings and even the town park.
Willow Lake was changing for the better.
"How great is this?" Taryn asked before we entered the building, gesturing to the new specialty tea and herb shop that was putting out their sign. The woman out front with wispy, gray hair gave us a friendly wave that we easily returned.
"I love watching all the new faces around town," I agreed. “This place was feeling desolate for a while there. That storm changed everything. I think it forced some places to finally dothese renovations, and with us opening, and the other new shops, it’s like a whole new town.”
"Now, for some sexy guys to show up at the lake and I’ll be golden," Bea huffed out a laugh as she pushed open the door and flipped the sign to ‘open.’
"Oh, so you're looking now?" Taryn perked up, eyeing our friend who just rolled her eyes.
"For a good time? Yes. Nothing more yet," she said with a shudder, like finding your pack was a punishment. Then again, look at the drama that followed me trying to find mine.
"Move it, ladies, it's almost time to open," I told them as we moved toward the register.
Just then the bell rang and a cute teen girl in a Knuckleball Knockouts tee walked in.
"Excuse me, my boss asked me to put up flyers around town, can I place one in your window?"
"Do you work for the Knockouts?" I asked, unable to stop myself. Hope and curiosity lined my voice but she didn’t seem to notice.
"Yes. The PR side for now. I'm an intern," she explained with a professional smile.
"Of course, anything Knockout related is welcome," Taryn told her. “We’rebigfans.”
She shot me a look that barely hid her amusement.Brat.
"Do you need tape or anything?" Bea asked her, already reaching under the counter.
The girl held up a roll of tape. "No thanks, I'm good."
While she did her thing, we rushed around doing our opening tasks. The guys wouldn’t be coming with the babies for another thirty minutes, so I lost myself in straightening the shelves.
Until I remembered the flyer.
When I walked out front to read the bright blue paper that faced the sidewalk, my jaw dropped.
No fucking way.
Desperate didn’t even begin to cover the way Cy was acting. Even Griff had joined into the erratic behavior, stalking all over the building and tacking up more flyers.
That wasn’t even including the stacks of flyers he sent out with the interns all over the freaking city and surrounding towns.
I sighed as I lost myself in the studio of our shared apartment. The table in front of me was covered in bits of leather and costume supplies.
There was a convention coming up in two months and I wasn’t about to miss it. The beauty of cosplaying was that there would usually be masks or makeup involved, meaning no one knew it was me.
Though, my face was hardly as recognizable as Cy or even Griff. Both of them did the interviews while I sat back in the locker room. Except the last one. Cy was losing his mind and seemed determined to drag us with him.
Despite having a job that was entertaining others, I didn’t do people well, especially when it was one on one.
Out there, doing dances, I could blend into a persona, another costume of sorts.
“What are you working on this time?” Cy asked as he sat down in the empty chair, eyeing the worktable and the mass of material and leather in my hand.
“The convention is a Sci-fi theme so I’m going Star Wars,” I said as I wove the needle through the material, creating the lining of my costume.
“Another mask,” he teased. “You don’t have to hide if you don’t want to.”
