by BJ Hyman
“Nah. I don’t feel like it. Dance with Sabrina.”
“Your loss.” He danced away from her with a hand out to Sabrina. She smiled in all watts, slid gracefully from her chair, and shimmied to the dance floor with him.
Charlie smiled and watched them on the floor before scanning the tables around. She caught sight of the man in the hoodie that she ran into and her cheeks flushed instantly. She couldn’t be quite sure, but it looked like he was watching her as he sipped his beer alone at a nearby table.
She tried not to look but kept finding her eyes drifting from the dancing throng to the dark recesses of where his face should be.
As a distraction, she grabbed Eli’s hand and pulled. “I want to dance too.” Even while following her lead, his eyes were filled with suspicion. It was out of character for her. She never wanted to dance.
Her gaze kept slipping up to the stranger. It seemed as if his body had turned to better watch her on the floor with Eli. She shook off the notion and tried not to look. But it was a compulsion.
After several glances, he tipped his beer at her. A tingle of apprehension tickled down her spine, leaving her cold. He was watching her.
“Hello. Is anybody out there?” Eli whispered in her ear, drawing her attention away from the faceless man at the table. His breath on her neck caused the fine hairs to rise in goosebumps.
She blinked a couple of times and did a bit of a double take before settling at looking in his warm brown eyes. “Oh. Uh. Yes. I’m sorry. I got distracted.”
“I’d think that being this close in my arms would be distracting enough.” He leaned back to give her a wink. His long, dark eyelashes that framed his eyes made the move mesmerizing and hard to resist. With a light chuckle and smile, she stretched up for a kiss. His soft lips soothed her nerves and made her feel safe in his arms. When their lips parted, she put her head on his chest.
Moments later, she couldn’t help herself. She peeked again at the stranger over his shoulder.
He was gone.
CHAPTER TWO
Flowers
Charlie pushed playfully at Eli’s chest. “I mean it. It’s time to go home. I want to go to bed.”
He nibbled at her neck as he whispered, “I do too.” She let his kisses linger a moment more before extracting herself from his arms.
“If I don’t play hard to get every once in a while, you’ll get bored with me. Tonight is a night I plan on leaving you wanting more.” She took his hand and led him to her front door. She opened it and leaned against it so fetchingly that Eli had a hard time not pulling her right back into his arms.
Instead, he brought her hand to his lips and kissed them. “I’m a gentleman at the whims of a fair maiden. I can take a hint. We’re still on for tomorrow night though?”
She nodded with a smile. “I’ll be ready for you at the store.”
With one more brush of lips to hers, he walked out the door. “I’ll see you then. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” After watching until he turned the corner down the hall, she closed the door with a click. She locked it before double checking to make sure it was secure before walking through her apartment turning off the lights.
When she got to her bedroom, she changed into her nightgown and went to wash her face and brush her teeth. The only sounds in the apartment were her own as she readied for bed. Charlie sat at her vanity brushing her hair absentmindedly. Eli was very nice, and she liked him a great deal. She didn’t think she loved him yet, but she thought it could happen in the future. For some reason, the image of the stranger at the Arctic Circle came to mind. Where did he go?
A movement behind her caught her attention and she focused on the shadows of the room in the mirror. Putting down her brush, she slowly turned and stood. Creeping along, she pulled back curtains to be sure all her windows were secure. Once comforted she had looked in every corner, she felt foolish that she had gotten spooked.
Climbing between the sheets, she picked up her phone to be sure her alarm was set. With a click of the light, she snuggled down for sleep.
◆◆◆
Charlie Ray had no neighbors on the other side of the wall from her bedroom. She’d had them in the past, but they’d all moved out due to her morning alarm – a whooping siren that gradually grew louder to become one long, shrill scream that lasted up to fifteen minutes before she would come out of her sleep.
There had been complaints, but, since Charlie’s sleep issue was a medically-diagnosed condition, she couldn’t be discriminated against. The landlord considered adding extra soundproofing in the walls surrounding her bedroom, but it was cost prohibitive. So there was no tenant in the apartment to the left of hers until a cost-effective solution presented itself.
There had been complaints from her upstairs and downstairs neighbors, but there was more material between the floors, so no one had felt the need to move away over the issue. They’d rather take the discounted rate the landlord offered to help make the problem more palatable.
That morning was no different. The alarm was just as loud and annoying and lasted just as long. But what was different was that Charlie woke to a surprise. She reached to turn off the alarm and almost knocked off a vase of flowers. Her fingers just caught the teetering floral gift before the inevitable crash to the floor. She reached up to brush her fingers on the large dark faces and yellow petals of sunflowers. When she lay back, she found she was crushing a single flower beneath her that had been lovingly tucked between her arms.
Picking it up, she gave it a sniff before putting it in the vase with the other flowers. Its face drooped downward as if it were sad to not be special anymore. Charlie grabbed her cell to dial the most logical suspect.
Kellie picked up on the third ring. “What you want this early?” She sounded sleepy.
“Well, I love you too,” Charlie said with a laugh. “I just wanted to thank you for my surprise. I don’t know what I did to deserve them but thank you.”
Charlie was greeted by a confused silence. Finally, “What are you talking about, sis?”
“The flowers!” Charlie walked to the vase and took the sad one in between her fingers to raise its face. “You know how much I love sunflowers.”
“Yeah. I didn’t send you flowers.”
She released the bud and its face fell back toward the ground like a dejected Charlie Brown. “You didn’t bring a vase of sunflowers over and put them on my nightstand last night while I slept? I woke up to flowers.”
“Charlie, I didn't leave you any flowers.” Her voice became instantly more awake. “So, you're telling me that you had flowers sitting in your bedroom when you got up this morning?”
“Well, if it wasn’t you, who could it be?”
Kellie couldn’t keep the sarcasm from her voice. “What about Eli? He is the one you are dating, right?”
Charlie brushed down her wayward hair and smoothed her pajamas to buy time before quietly answering. “He doesn’t have a key.”
“Why the hell not?”
Charlie squinted at the loud inquiry. “We’ve only just started dating and I’m not sure where it’s going yet. A key is a commitment that I’m not sure I’m ready to make just yet.”
She braced for the wave of frustration from Kellie. She heard her take a deep breath before starting. “Are you freaking kidding me? You’ve dated him eight months. In what world is that just starting to date someone?” Charlie just kept her silence. With a sigh, Kellie forged on. “What about Dean? Does he still have his key?”
Charlie picked at a string in her comforter. She hated Kellie’s judgment. “Yeah. Unless he’s thrown it away.”
“Damn it, Charlie. When are you going to get it back? How long do you have to be broken up before you do the ‘bringing each other your stuff back’ thing?”
“I know. I just hate to call him. I don’t think he’d do this.”
“Well, who else could it be? Ugh! He touched you while you were sleeping! That’s creepy. You know what that i
s? It’s borderline stalker, that’s what it is. You won’t give Eli, the man that you ARE dating a key, but will let Dean, who you’ve been broken up with for a year and a half, have a key. What kind of logic is that?”
“I’ve got to get ready for work.”
“Who’s going to yell at you? You’re the boss. Besides, Craig’ll open up, and I want to talk some more about this.”
Charlie forced patience. “Kell, I’ve got to go. We’ll talk later.” She hung up and dropped the phone onto her bed despondently. She cast a worried glance around her room before she rechecked the locks of all the windows and doors. All secure.
She put her hands on her hips and stared at the vase filled with happy blooms (and one depressed and crushed specimen). She scrubbed at her face and scratched her head before heading toward the shower.
CHAPTER THREE
Making Magic
Charlie juggled a paint can and a bag from a hardware store while trying to open the back door to her shop. Right when she was about to lose the bag, Craig swept in behind her and caught it. “Here. Let me get that for you.”
She looked up at him gratefully through the hair that had fallen over her face. “Thanks!”
He took the key from her hand, unlocked the door, and held it open for her. They stepped into a messy back room where Charlie started flipping breakers in an old fuse box. She called out to Craig, “Just put my keys on the peg where I always leave them, would ya?” The lights of the store came on in sections until it was all brightly and artistically lit, revealing a trendy shop full of re-purposed and refinished furniture and decorations. White Christmas lights filled a skeletal tree near the front of the store. Autumnal colored kraft boxes that had been re-covered and decoupaged surrounded it.
Craig headed to the front, pulled the cord to light the OPEN sign, and flipped a switch that lit up the storefront signage. Reclaimed letters spelling out Vintage Rebel Designs shined proudly over a beautifully decorated front window display of kraft paper stationery, handmade candles hanging, kraft paper stars, and various ephemera in varying shades of fall. He unlocked the front door before walking back to an old-fashioned cash register on a long counter to the right of the store. A laptop was set up beside the register and he sat down to log in.
Charlie leaned on the counter. “So, I think Dean broke into my apartment last night.”
His head snapped up instantly. “What? Why would you think that?”
She hopped up on the counter and crossed her ankles. “I woke up to flowers on my nightstand. Sunflowers. Only someone close to me would know how much I love sunflowers this time of year.”
“What about Kellie?”
“Called her. Denied it AND planted the seed of it maybe being Dean.”
He leaned forward and tented his fingers before his face. “The plot thickens. Hmmm. What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.” She smacked the desk beside the laptop. “Check our Etsy orders, would ya? I’ll get started on that table you found the other day. I’ve had a design inspiration.” She wiggled her fingers with her eyes wide and round with expression.
She hopped down from the counter and walked back towards the large work space where customers could watch them create some of the pieces they sold in the store. She rolled out a well-used drop cloth in the center of the area before she carried out a little beat up table to the center. After popping open the paint can, she stirred the vibrant red paint, readying it for use.
She walked to the back room, grabbed an assortment of brushes, and carried them to her work area. After fully saturating a brush with color, she flicked the brush slightly to get excess off before beginning to paint. Before even the first stroke, bruising on her arm caught her eye. It completely circled her forearm, almost looking like a hand. To even an untrained eye, it looked like someone had grabbed her and squeezed very forcefully. She pressed at the flesh trying to remember where it could have possibly come from. With a shake of her head, she went back to her painting.
Craig moved around the store placing sold tags on the items that were purchased overnight in their Etsy shop. “Hey. We got a few orders. That wreath that’s been here forever finally sold. Good riddance.”
“I told you it was just waiting for the right person to find it. Feathers aren’t for everyone.”
With a laugh, Craig placed a tag on the flamboyant wreath. “I wish we could see the lives of some of these people that get our creations. Where does a purple feather wreath fit in?”
Charlie shook her head as she applied a clean, precise swipe of paint to the edge of the table. “You never know.”
He came over to watch her brushing the bright red paint onto the surface of the table. Her small brush filled in the crevices of the hand-turned legs. “So, this is your vision?”
“It’s one you’ll have to wait for. This is just the beginning.”
Charlie worked for half an hour and was nearly finished with the first coat when the door made its familiar ping and a man walked in. Charlie called out without looking away from her work. “Hey! Take your time looking around! There’s lots of things here that need a home.”
The man waved a hand at them both before raising up on his toes to get a better look. “Thanks. What are you doing over there?”
Charlie gave a mischievous grin. “Making magic.”
“That’s a nice way to look at it.” He walked around the store, but his eyes were mostly on Charlie working.
Craig stepped up to him. “You can get closer. That’s why we use a section of the store as a workshop: so that customers get a piece of the history of an object. We have a website, a Facebook page, an Instagram, Twitter, and an Etsy shop. When you get a chance, come pick up a card so you can look us up.”
The man walked over to watch Charlie work for several moments. She finished up on her first coat and stood to wipe and clean her brushes. “Are you doing anything else to it?”
“Oh, yeah. This is just the start. You should come back tomorrow to see what else I’ve got planned. I’ll put the second coat on after this one dries in a couple of hours and then do a bit more after that dries.”
“Is this what you do all day?”
“It’s a life. I create and then I sell.”
He nodded. “Sweet life.”
“You’re telling me.” She raised her messy hands in the air before gesturing toward the back workroom. “I’m gonna go clean up my hands and brushes before it gets too hard to clean. Have fun looking around.”
She headed to the washroom and cleaned the paint off her hands and tools in a deep utility sink that had splotches of paint from many past projects decorating its edges. When she looked in the mirror, there was a blood red smudge on her cheek giving her the appearance of having a deep wound. She grabbed a paper towel, wet it, and scrubbed the paint off, leaving a red mark in its place.
When she came out from the washroom, the ping of the door as the man left startled her. “He didn’t stay long.”
“He bought something: one of your hand painted boxes and a screen-printed scarf.”
She clapped her hands with a put-on glee. “Oh, great! We’ll be able to eat lunch today with the proceeds.” Craig chuckled knowingly before getting back on the computer to check out their Facebook page. With a glance back at the door, Charlie walked over to her work table and pulled her next project to the center.
CHAPTER FOUR
Night Air
Charlie was lost in thought as she painted. She made long strokes with her brush. Her mind was settled and a world away from the shop and the sounds around her. She was painting the second coat on the table when Craig tapped her on the shoulder. She was putting the last stroke of turquoise over her earlier red. She jumped and dropped her brush on the floor. Craig raised his hands in the air. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you. I figured you’d hear me coming.”
Charlie put her hand to her chest, smudging paint onto her shirt. “You certainly got my attention.”
“I’ve
got all the paperwork done for the day but wanted to remind you of the time. Don’t you have a date with Eli tonight? I thought you might like to get cleaned up.”
Charlie looked down at her paint splattered clothes with a smile. “What? You don’t think I’d appeal to him like this?”
“You know you’re adorable. Cut it out. But I do think you’d get a lot of looks going out with a whole quart of turquoise and red paint all over you. The Jackson Pollack look just never really caught on.”
She reached up and patted his cheek, leaving a smudge. He tried to dodge at the last second, but it was too late. He gave her a grin. She touched the tip of his nose so that it was a bright turquoise blue. “Whatever would I do without you?”
