by Jea Hawkins
“It was just an idea,” Crystal added, following her behind the cash register. “But there are other ideas we can explore, too.”
“Such as?”
“An online store, just like you said.”
Emma felt like a bobble-head doll as she nodded. “Which just brings us back around to the ‘what makes us special’ question. If we can’t answer that question, we might as well shut down entirely. Because what’s keeping people away these days isn’t the fact that we aren’t selling what they need. It’s that they can get it anywhere.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very sure.” Emma braced herself against the display case to the left of the cash register. “We said it ourselves on the drive home. Online retail is beating out the little guy. Unless we can make ourselves stand out as something unique, we’re going to lose this or have to at least downsize. Big time. Maybe even go online only, so we don’t have to carry a large inventory.”
Her breath hitched and Emma felt a tear run down her cheek.
“But the reason I wanted a store,” she said, her voice catching, “is because I wanted to give people a welcoming place where they could come and be around those with similar beliefs. IF we lose this space, we lose that aspect of it. That’s what pains me the most.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Crystal’s arms went around her and Emma turned into her embrace, lowering her face against her hair to hide the tears in her eyes. Despite that, they fell, hot and drenching Crystal’s hair.
This was what she had wanted since she was a child – to bring her gifts to the wider community by giving them a place where they could come to her and find solutions to their problems, fulfillment for their needs.
“Okay,” Crystal whispered, stroking her hair. That hand petting down along the length of her brunette waves soothed her and Emma relaxed into the embrace.
“Thank you for this.” Emma tightened her arms around Crystal and relaxed against her, inhaling the scent of her skin, her shampoo. “I needed the hug,” she finally admitted.
Crystal laughed lightly, her body shaking Emma too. “I’m glad you can say that. And I think it’s going to be okay. We figured us out, sort of, and now we just need to figure out this store stuff. We’ll think on it. I know there’s got to be something that makes us special, that’s going to give people a reason to come back to shopping with us. We can do this if we put our heads together. I know we can.”
Chapter 17
It had been too long since they held a get-together with the inclusion of Crystal. Now Emma was making up for that with a dinner party. Her house wasn’t exactly the best place for them to host a party, especially for four more people. But Emma knew they were overdue for a chat with their friends. It was past time they hosted a party as a couple, and not two people who had drifted apart over space and time.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Crystal asked her. “I know how stressed out both of us are these days.” She stood at the counter, putting the finishing touches on a Cobb salad. Every time she chopped an ingredient, though, several pieces of it seemed to find their way into her mouth, instead of onto the salad.
“Yes. I think we need it. After all, we have to brainstorm ideas to keep the shop going and who better than the coven to help us?”
Crystal nodded and popped a bit of avocado into her mouth.
“Hey.” Emma swatted her hand gently with a dish towel. “Stop sampling the goods. This is a dinner party. We need something to serve our friends.”
“My hands are clean if that’s any consolation.”
Emma smiled and shook her head. “That’s not the point. That means one less piece of avocado for one of our guests. You’re making a Cobb salad, not serving a plate of lettuce.”
As they moved around the kitchen together, bantering like old times, Emma felt at peace. The last time they cooked together was before Crystal’s infidelity. After that, Emma didn’t have much of an appetite. Not that it mattered. Her appearance remained unchanged – solid curves that still kept her buying clothes in double-digit sizes.
It was something Crystal had never complained about, though. She said she preferred a soft, full-figured woman like Emma, while Emma had spent years pining for the kind of waifish look both Crystal and her friend Waverly had.
“They’re here,” Crystal trilled as she sprinkled a bit of oregano on top of the salads.
Moments after she spoke, Emma heard the telltale sound of car doors closing. Leave it to Crystal to catch on to four other people’s emotions before Emma heard a thing. Of course, her clairvoyance didn’t show up for something as simple as predicting the arrival of friends. It only showed up as needed, she supposed. It would be nice if it gave her lottery ticket numbers for a change.
“Do you want to let them in or shall I?” Emma asked, dusting her hands off on her apron.
“I think you should. I mean, if they know anything about us, they’ll think I’m the bad guy. Right?”
Emma cringed a bit. She had told her friends the truth, hadn’t she? But she never clarified after the fact that she and Crystal had worked things out together. Only Fiona knew. Still, if Fiona knew, she probably told Gabe, and if she told Gabe, she probably told both Avery and Waverly.
“Good idea,” she agreed and took off her apron to hang it on a hook on the kitchen wall. Just to be safe, she would answer the door and make sure her friends knew Crystal was a welcome part of the circle once again.
Smoothing her hands over her jeans, Emma checked to make sure she wouldn’t leave trails of flour or spices in her wake. She had put two days into preparing for this party, which included baking bread and making a pasta dish her friends loved.
When she opened the door, there they were, huge smiles on their faces. “Hey,” she said, “we’re so glad you could make it.” It was the most subtle way to let them know everything was back to normal. Would they catch on?
Avery did immediately, of course. The blonde-haired air sign was always quick on the uptake. Waverly was a little slower, but when she got the hint, her eyes flashed with curiosity. Fiona and Gabe simply exchanged smiles and hugged her.
“I’m glad it worked out,” Avery whispered, squeezing her arm and then walking into the house.
“But I want to know what’s going on,” Waverly added as she passed. “What happened on your trip?”
Fiona rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell her anything. Where’s Crystal?”
“In the kitchen,” Emma answered, shutting the door behind them. “And if you don’t hurry, she’s going to eat all the avocado. I hope you like lettuce because that’s all your salads are going to be at this rate.”
“That would be a tragedy,” Gabe said.
From down the hall, Crystal called, “I am not eating any more of them. I promise. But I can’t vouch for the hard-boiled eggs.”
“Excuse me.” Emma elbowed her way past her friends and into the kitchen, then stopped short when she saw Crystal had all of their salad bowls on a tray, ready to serve. They looked perfect, the lettuce topped with plenty of avocado, egg, onion, bacon bits, and shredded cheese. “You’re such a troublemaker.”
Crystal’s grin made Emma want to grab her then and there for a kiss. But there was a tray between them and four guests behind her. Kissing would have to wait. Crystal must have recognized the look on her face because she winked and kissed at the air.
“But you love that about me, dearest Em.”
“Oh yes, so much trouble.” Emma turned away and gestured for her friends to go into the dining room. She and Crystal didn’t use it very often, so it felt nice to have guests there for a change. “I want to thank all of you for being here tonight. We’ve got some catching up to do.”
“I’ll say,” Waverly agreed, eyeing Crystal as she served the salads. Everyone knew Waverly didn’t have the same control over her empathy as Crystal and was just waiting for her moment to pounce. It was a problem of too much power, Emma knew. She also knew other things about Waverly – terribly sad th
ings she had never told anyone. Even Waverly’s own sister, Avery, didn’t realize what her sister had endured as a result of her powers.
Clearing her throat, as if that would also clear her mind of the thought, Emma turned and flicked on the stereo. Music was Waverly’s saving grace. When Emma looked at her again, the brunette’s features had relaxed and she was swaying a bit in time to the tempo of the soft music.
A memory resurfaced, of her sitting down with Waverly to tell her she needed to stop what she was doing herself and find a way to live through it. Emma blinked and spun on her heel to stride back into the kitchen.
She was glad Waverly had found her answer in music. If only she could hone her empathy to the point that she wouldn’t need outside help to shut everyone else out.
When everyone had their food, Emma sat down at the head of the table and said, “I’m so glad all of you are here tonight. We wanted to host a party for a bit of a selfish reason. This is kind of a celebration and, well, kind of a call to action.”
“Call to action?” Fiona looked interested, which only made sense. The fire witch loved anything that involved getting things done.
“Yes. You probably know what I’m talking about, considering you watched the store all last week.” It was the first time Emma had really admitted out loud to her friends that her work was in trouble. Like when she told them about her problems with Crystal, she wanted to cry. Only this time, she didn’t. It was personal, yes, but she somehow managed to rein in her emotions. Probably because Crystal was sitting to her left and reached out to hold her hand.
“Well.” Fiona and Gabe exchanged glances, and then looked at her again. “We figured that’s your business, not ours. But whatever you need, we’ll try to help.”
It felt strange reaching out to her friends and asking to count on them. Emma didn’t normally ask for help. Not even from her own girlfriend. So the fact that she already had two people offering help before she even laid out her thoughts made her throat close for a moment. “You ladies are wonderful,” she said, her voice sounding a bit choked.
Crystal rubbed her back and said, “They are. All of us are lucky to have each other.”
“So here’s what’s going on,” Emma said when she regained her voice. “I feel stuck in my business. I mean, both Crystal and I love it, of course. But it feels like a generic new age store and we’re losing business.” There. She had said it out loud to someone other than Crystal.
“We need something to differentiate it,” Crystal continued. “We have to make it more distinctive from others like it. Why should people bother coming to Ashland, Nebraska for their herbs or incense or candles? Or ordering from us online?”
“Ordering online?” Waverly asked. “Do you have a website?”
Crystal shook her head. “Not yet, but it’s at least one thing we can do – add a website and a store for people to shop from. As for differentiating ourselves, we’ve tossed around some ideas, but nothing solid, so we could really use some help here.”
“What about growing stuff, you know, at the shop?” Waverly asked.
Emma looked down at her plate. Everything they grew out in their backyard was still growing well, despite her tough times with Crystal. Other than the devastating loss of the rosebush, all of the other plants seemed to be doing just fine. But Waverly was right – it might be nice if they could grow their herbs at the shop somehow.
“There’s not enough room there,” Crystal answered softly. “Not that we don’t love the idea, but there’s no more space. Then again, there’s no room here, either, so we’re not sure what to do.”
The subject dropped as everyone ate and moved on to other topics of discussion, like Fiona’s new house, which Emma envied. Then there was the ballet recital Waverly was preparing her dance students to put on in the fall. And, of course, Avery was all about her work at the marketing agency.
“But whatever you do,” Avery said, “let me handle any ad campaigns and branding for you. We should talk about using social media. I don’t think you even have so much as a Facebook page. It might be one way to increase your visibility.”
Visibility certainly sounded like a good first step and Emma looked at Crystal to see if she agreed. Crystal reached out to squeeze her hand and nodded.
“Great. We’ll see up a meeting.” Avery took out her cell phone and swiped through her calendar. “And I’ll let you know if I come up with any more ideas. It’s my job, after all.”
When their friends filtered out of the house later that night after several dinner courses, Emma shut the door behind them and then slumped back against it.
“So much for a coven brainstorming session,” Crystal observed. “All we got out of it was a potential Facebook page.”
“I know, right?” Emma picked up her vintage, leather-bound address book off the telephone table near the front door and flipped the pages, then set it back down. “I thought they would have ideas since they’ve got that outside-looking-in perspective.”
“They might, sure, but they might also need time to sleep on it. Amazing ideas don’t come to us when we demand them. They come when we’re ready for them.” Crystal offered her hand. “Come on. I’ve already loaded the dishwasher. Why don’t we get some rest? I’m sure tomorrow morning will help shed some light on things.”
With a sigh, Emma took her hand and followed her up the stairs. She was right. Maybe someone would come up with something the next morning.
Chapter 18
But nobody came back to them with any ideas the next morning or the morning after that, or even a week later. Business stayed steady, but it didn’t pick up again. Which meant they were still barely making what they needed to pay the bills and keep the store running. Emma put out some new inventory and changed her window display to something more autumnal with Lughnassadh coming, but there was no increase in business or even interest in the store.
“Maybe everyone is at the water park,” Crystal suggested after one of her tarot clients left. “Even my regulars haven’t been making appointments this summer.” She folded her arms over the glass display case next to the cash register and leaned forward. Her paisley blouse dipped enough to give Emma a view of her cleavage, a reminder that when things didn’t go right, she didn’t need to look far from home to find comfort.
“Maybe,” she agreed, looking down at the athames in the display case. “Or maybe it’s all the other things we’ve talked about. Why purchase a fifty dollar custom piece for your rituals when you can get a mass-produced one for half-price online? It’s kind of sad that people have such a mass market, consumeristic mentality.”
“No, I think that’s only part of the equation.” Crystal straightened and shook out her mane of golden hair. “One thing we have going for us is exactly that. We have some wonderful local artists who make one-of-a-kind pieces. I was thinking we could feature an artist or maker or crafter of the month every month, to draw attention to their work. That would be great for drawing people to our website and social media. Maybe that artist would be willing to negotiate sale prices for their featured month.”
Emma pondered Crystal’s words as she went through the week’s receipts. “I like it,” she finally said, “but it’s still not enough to differentiate us. Even if we set up an online store, it’s not like people will just find us and start buying from us. We need something more than that.”
“Well, there is something else I want to show you if you’re willing to check it out.”
Emma stepped away from her computer and raised her hands. Right now, anything would be a welcome break from trying to figure out if they were about to go on a diet of ramen noodles and microwave burritos. Emma hadn’t even had those days in college, thanks to living with her parents and using a combination of work-study and scholarships to cover her tuition. Not to mention she went to community college the first two years to save on the cost of attending school.
She followed Crystal into the back room and Crystal pulled up a video on her laptop. “
What’s this?” Emma asked as strains of violin music filled the room.
“While we were, you know, on the outs, a friend and I made this.”
The video started off with a soft, hazy focus that sharpened when the brunette playing the violin entered the frame. She was lovely, ethereal-looking with her long brown hair and the way she swayed to the music.
And then Emma heard Crystal’s unmistakable voice. “You made a music video?” she asked, pointing at the laptop.
“Yeah. We just made it for fun. Lark’s brother needed to produce a short video as a project for this semester’s class he has on video production, so he asked us to help. A music video happened to fit the bill for time limit and composition.”
Something lodged in Emma’s throat and she realized she couldn’t speak around it. Still pointing at the screen, she tried to ask, “Is… is she… the one… you…”
“No!” Crystal shook her head vehemently. “Gosh, no. Lark is a good friend. I’ve known her since junior high, but it wasn’t her. She’s an earth sign like you, but definitely not my type.”
Emma nodded and the lump in her throat disappeared, leaving only dryness behind. She reached for the glass of water sitting on the table next to the laptop and sipped at it, alleviating the parched feeling. It did little for the way her heart was thumping, though. That would take longer to settle, she supposed. Even with the past forgiven, she didn’t know what she would do if she had to confront it face to face.
Shaking the thought from her mind, Emma finally asked, “So what are you thinking? How can this help us?”
“Well, you love it when I sing and the people who’ve watched the video definitely do.” Crystal pointed at the number of likes on it.
“Wow, how did you get over five hundred thousand likes? That’s pretty amazing for someone’s school project,” Emma said, pride flooding through her. Of course, she had always known Crystal was talented. Hearing her sing on her own, without the radio to back her up, was even more amazing. The violin was her only accompaniment and it was easy to see the synergy between the singer and the musician.
