by Lucy True
“I’m not entirely sure, but it seems like the chief and one of his officers have crushes on Martha and Cass.”
“What?” Charlotte drew out the word as she turned to glance over her shoulder at the police officers, who had settled back down to a normal level of conversation. “You’re kidding. I mean, they’re wonderful women, but those guys should know better.”
“That’s what I said, which is why I’m at a loss.”
“It sounds to me like you need to stop thinking so hard about this, enjoy the best omelet you ever had, and then just take care of you. After all, it’s not your problem. You’ve got your own issues to deal with, so don’t even put another ounce of energy into thinking about them. I’m going to place an order for you, okay?”
Burgundy wanted to give Charlotte a hug, but she settled for nodding and smiling at her. Her friend was absolutely right. Whatever other people were dealing with wasn’t her problem. Even if they came looking for potions or spell kits, it wasn’t up to Burgundy to get involved. She was supposed to sell them the item and shut the door. That’d always been her aunt’s rule. Any consequences were on the buyer, not her or her aunt.
The clock ticking on the wall above the door showed that she had only a half-hour to enjoy her food, before she had to open the library. Each tick grated on her nerves, though, reminding her she was there alone, alone, alone.
Burgundy almost wished she had some kind of awful habit – smoking, chewing and snapping gum, something to keep her physically busy so she wouldn’t keep thinking about Jenna. She hadn’t bothered responding to Jenna’s text, because she knew it was pointless. Her ex-girlfriend was the kind of person who, once she made up her mind, was determined to see her choice through.
Besides, what was Burgundy going to say to a person who couldn’t even dignify their break-up with a face-to-face talk, or at least a phone call? She knew if she bothered to text even one word to Jenna, she’d end up caught in a loop of sending plaintive messages over and over again. If Jenna wanted to call it quits and move on fast, Burgundy would try to do the same.
She’d never been much for moping, but it seemed that was all she had the energy to do. She gratefully accepted the steaming hot breakfast Charlotte put in front of her. Each bite of the omelet strengthened her resolve to work through her pain. If Jenna wanted to be done, they were done. If she couldn’t “do this anymore,” then Burgundy wouldn’t beg her to. There were too many other things in life to concern herself with, anyway. Like her witch training, her work as a librarian, and handling her aunt’s business for the rest of the year.
Her mind went back to the moment Charlotte’s hand touched hers and, just as quickly, she shook it off. There was no way, she told herself, she’d ruin her friendship with Charlotte simply because she was lonely. They were best friends, nothing more. And I’m not about to rebound with someone I actually care about, Burgundy decided.
No, she was better off without a girlfriend. It was a lie that, she hoped, would become truth. In time.
Chapter Five
“Have you thought of a new idea for the young adult display?”
“Huh?” Burgundy turned to blink at Lynn.
The Farrah Fawcett-haired woman indicated the section marked “Teen,” a designation Burgundy hated. She preferred “YA.” It was the correct term, a shortening of the words “young adult.” However, the children’s librarian labelled the books and the section “Teen,” and it didn’t look like that was about to change, no matter how many times Burgundy asked.
“You should be thinking about changing the display. It’s been up for over a month, now.”
“Why thank you, Lynn. I’m so glad I have you to tell me how to do my job. Have you checked the trash lately?”
The assistant stared at her, eyes wide. For a moment, there was a hint of the cat side clawing its way out. Then Lynn shook it off and pushed away from the desk, clearly miffed. Burgundy didn’t care.
Heck, if it was up to Burgundy, she would fire Lynn and hire someone who wasn’t such a royal pain in the ass. But since it wasn’t her decision, she was stuck with the insufferable woman.
Lynn was having one of her annoying days, when she made her opinion known to anyone who would listen and took it upon herself to delegate to the entire staff, even though she was the assistant, not the librarian. She often talked about how she would rearrange certain sections of the library, if she were in charge. That always made Burgundy guffaw internally. The odds of Lynn getting any sort of promotion or career advancement in little old Rock Grove were nil. Their director had managed the library since back before anyone could remember. Assistants pretty much always stayed assistants, and librarians rarely changed.
The only reason Burgundy had gotten her job was because the previous adult librarian decided to move to Colorado, to be with her pack. Sylvia, the children’s librarian, had been there since Burgundy was in preschool. She’d never forget the story hours she’d spent sitting on the rug downstairs with other children, listening to Sylvia read to them.
Exactly what Lynn was trying to do with her constant bossing people around and showing off, Burgundy had no idea. Never mind that Burgundy and Sylvia were senior to her, and Lynn had no authority to delegate to anyone, not even the other assistant. None of that seemed to stop Lynn from giving orders or discussing the changes she wanted to make to the library.
Of course, her behavior also meant the rest of the staff whispered behind her back about how annoying she was. No one felt guilty about it. Even if Lynn caught the three of them in a corner, nodding in agreement as one of them recounted a tale about her uncool behavior, they didn’t feel bad.
It really had to stop. Burgundy couldn’t take anymore. Maybe that’s what Lynn wants, she told herself as she walked down the creaky old staircase that led to the basement. The staff stairs were in the center of the building, hidden by a heavy old wooden door. But there was nothing secret about them. The groans and squeaks of two hundred-year-old wood pierced the stillness.
Burgundy walked slowly, never quite able to find any sort of sweet spot that might actually be silent. She finally made it down to the director’s office and knocked on his door.
Mr. Knight didn’t make appearances often. In fact, no one ever saw him enter or leave the building. His race was a bit of a mystery, too. Burgundy didn’t necessarily care for secrets, but she also didn’t feel the need to pry. If Mr. Knight preferred to keep his life private, so be it. A man who’d lived for at least the same amount of time as the library deserved his peace and quiet.
All that mattered to Burgundy was the smooth running of the library. She hadn’t spent six years in college just to let her master’s degree go to waste. Devoting herself to library science meant she’d lost out on quite a bit of her witch training with Aunt Iris, but Burgundy knew she didn’t want to spend her life parceling out potions and spells to the townsfolk. Her passion for organizing and help others locate information would not be denied. She was, first and foremost, a literary geek at heart. The fact that she also happened to be a witch, well, that was a condition of birth and genetics.
Now she knocked on Mr. Knight’s door in the hopes that they could talk, librarian to librarian. This was a matter of professional importance. His response was a simple, “Come in.” That voice with its Irish brogue had melted many a female employee’s heart, but not Burgundy’s.
Sure, she acknowledged that Mr. Knight was a handsome man – tall with dark hair and dark eyes – but she hadn’t fallen prey to his charms. Part of her wondered if he was an incubus, the male equivalent of a succubus. But he didn’t seem to put out that magnetic sexuality intentionally. The other speculation around town was that he was a vampire, which was why no one ever saw him out during the day. Regardless, the few times Burgundy had seen women cooing over his presence, Mr. Knight looked more bewildered than anything.
Lynn had a rather icky penchant for wearing low-cut tops that bared her cleavage. So, so, so inappropriate for the work environment. Burgundy knew she
had a not-so-secret crush on Mr. Knight. Maybe that was the actual reason why he never left his basement office. I’d hide down there too if I thought Lynn had the hots for me.
She started with a “Happy Monday” when she poked her head into the room. “I hope this isn’t a bad time.”
“I wouldn’t have bid you enter if it was.” Mr. Knight looked up and flashed her a brief, close-lipped smile. He held a piece of paper between both hands and Burgundy recognized budgeting software on the computer monitor behind him.
Creating, maintaining, and reconciling the budget were the only aspects of the library director job she wouldn’t care for. That involved wrangling with the town council, convincing them that money was needed to allocate to programs the library hoped to offer the public. Then again, Burgundy didn’t have aspirations beyond her current position. It was probably for the best. She made a better employee than employer.
“What can I do for you, Miss Hart?” Mr. Knight’s query pulled her attention back to him.
“It’s about Lynn.” Burgundy settled in the chair on the opposite side of her boss’s desk and folded her hands in her lap. In her demure blue dress with its Peter Pan collar and ruffles down the front, Burgundy hoped she looked professional. She wore a cream-colored cardigan to keep her warm, not to mention cover her tattooed arms. Even though he looked young, Mr. Knight had traditional sensibilities. That meant no short skirts and no obvious bra straps. He didn’t mind the tattoos so much, but Burgundy tended to cover them at work. She liked to think that even at twenty-six years old, she had good judgment about what was appropriate in the workplace.
Mr. Knight’s features didn’t betray whatever he felt, if anything, as he said, “I see. What has she done?”
It was difficult enough to complain about a co-worker, particularly a subordinate, without sounding catty, so Burgundy chose her words carefully. “I feel that her demeanor with the staff is often inappropriate. She treats me and Sylvia with very little respect, even though we’re her supervisors, and tries to delegate to Marian. Well, to all of us, really. It’s putting a damper on morale.”
“Interesting.” Mr. Knight’s gaze remained inscrutable and nothing in his tone indicated he found anything remotely interesting about what Burgundy had to say. If anything, he sounded bored. Burgundy could almost imagine him saying, “Be gone, with your silly little games, girl.”
But he pressed his lips together, as if considering the situation. Burgundy kept her own mouth shut. This wasn’t the time to make one of her usual jokes or launch into a diatribe about everything wrong with how Lynn behaved at work.
“I understand that is the consensus,” Mr. Knight finally said. “Have you talked to her about it? You are, after all, her supervisor. It’s up to you to handle this matter and take disciplinary action, if necessary.”
Burgundy fought the urge to swallow. Why did this conversation make her feel like she fell short of some expectation? Yes, she knew it was her job to delegate to the assistants and even to keep them in line, if necessary. But chastising someone like Lynn was a tricky business. She was the kind of woman who could go from condescending to reasonable to outright bitchy at the flip of a switch.
Ugh. Cat shifters, Burgundy thought. One minute, you’re rubbing their belly. The next, they bite your hand.
“Is that a problem for you?” Mr. Knight asked, his mellifluous voice still not betraying an ounce of concern.
The last thing Burgundy wanted to do was sit Lynn down for a talk. Especially when she could already imagine Lynn’s reaction. As much as she didn’t want to add fuel to the gossip between herself and her co-workers, she knew she would have to consult with them for strategies.
“That is not a problem at all,” she answered thickly. “I will do my best to resolve the matter. Thank you, Mr. Knight.”
When Burgundy left the office, dread settled over her. Her stomach sank with each step she took and tears burned at the corners of her eyes. She’d had a hard enough weekend with Jenna dumping her. Now her boss was dumping on her. Was she ever going to catch a break?
Shelving books allowed her to hide in the stacks and flail around in her own self-pity for a half-hour. She’d done way too much wallowing lately, but she reminded herself she had every right to it. After all, shitty break-up? Check. Dealing with a catty – no pun intended – co-worker? Check.
When Burgundy returned to the circulation desk, she tried to think up more items to add to her mental list of Why Everything Sucks Right Now. As soon as Lynn left the desk to start vacuuming, Burgundy turned to her computer and debated emailing the children’s librarian. She tapped the spacebar lightly as she wrestled with indecision. On the one hand, an email would be a quick, easy way to let the other librarian know she needed to talk. But she would have to be subtle. It was one thing for everyone to refer to Lynn as “Evil-Lyn” behind her back, but it was quite another to lay out her gripes in an email.
She kept it to a concise suggestion that they get together for lunch on Tuesday, along with the other assistant. Burgundy hated to make it look like they were hanging out without Lynn. It might rouse suspicion if the wrong person saw them. Her guilt was short-lived, however, when Lynn returned to the desk.
“I need you to take down the display in the glass case.”
“Excuse me?” Burgundy swung her head around to stare at her assistant.
“Well, the vacuum is acting up again and I need to pack up everything from the display, because a new one is coming in later this week. The Historical Society is setting up something.”
Burgundy grumbled internally, wishing she’d never given Lynn any responsibilities. Ever since putting her in charge of the display case, Lynn seemed to think she had a right to dictate who set it up, and when and how. Really, her actual task was to manage the case entirely on her own. If she needed extra help, she was supposed to ask the other assistant to lend her a hand. Telling Burgundy what to do was so far out of line, that Burgundy had to grit her teeth to keep from telling Lynn off.
“I appreciate it,” Lynn said, then went back to the vacuum and started fiddling with it.
Burgundy closed her eyes and drew in a breath through her nose. Clearly, there was no end in sight to the shit-storm brewing around her. Tonight called for more take-out and ice cream therapy.
Without another word to Lynn for the rest of the afternoon, Burgundy removed the tacky display of teddy bear figurines. She wrapped them in paper and placed them in the boxes Lynn had shoved at her between messing with the defective vacuum and trying to use the appliance. A rather startling rattle emanated from the machine, getting louder with each pass over the carpet until the vacuum died without another sound.
“Great. There it goes again.” Lynn threw her hands in the air and Burgundy turned away to hide her grin. The assistant had a peculiar obsession with vacuuming every afternoon, no matter how good the carpets looked. It was a small library, only open four days a week. As far as Burgundy was concerned, Lynn was putting on a ridiculous show. For Mr. Knight, she could only imagine, but she doubted the efforts would catch his eye.
Since she really didn’t need to respond, Burgundy completed her task, shut down the computers in the computer lab, and counted out the cash register. At least her day was ending on a high note. Few things amused her as much as watching Lynn get frustrated over the vacuum.
It was the kind of thing she would secretly text to Jenna.
Hey, you’ll never guess who’s at it again.
Who? Jenna would respond.
Then Burgundy would say something terrible about Lynn’s constant vacuuming and correlate it with the self-grooming she speculated the annoying assistant did in cat form. It all made for incredibly inappropriate and delightful humor.
Only...
Burgundy sank down in her chair and glared at her phone. Only, there would be no more mean-spirited texts bitching about work from her to Jenna, or a girlfriend’s commiseration in return. There was just Burgundy, more alone than she’d been in
a long time.
Pushing her sadness aside was easier said than done. Faced with another night alone at home, she went through her closing routine in silence, walked outside with her co-workers, and locked the doors.
Distantly, she heard Sylvia and Lynn exchanging goodbyes and then a slightly louder, “Well, there’s something you don’t see every day.”
As much as Burgundy didn’t want to interact with Lynn – like, at all, ever again – she said, “What?” and finished locking the door. When she turned to look at where Lynn was pointing, her jaw dropped.
Chief Brandon was strutting down the street with...
“No way,” Burgundy breathed.
Martha was at his side, arms linked, and heads tilted close. And they looked happy. Burgundy walked to the edge of the library steps and stared at them as they walked down the street, past the fire station, and then turned toward Main Street.
“This can’t be real,” she whispered.
“Isn’t that cute?” Obviously Lynn either hadn’t heard her or disagreed with her assessment. “Well, I better get going. See you Wednesday.”
“Uh-huh.” Burgundy remained rooted to the spot, her heart thumping out a painful beat. Charlotte’s words about it not being her responsibility to fix everybody’s problems came back to her, but...
But, shit, she was the only witch in town right now! The only other person who even came close was Charlotte herself. As a medicine woman, Charlotte had the power to heal spiritual and emotional afflictions. Martha somehow falling in love with Chief Brandon certainly looked like a problem in need of fixing, and no one else in town was capable of doing it.
Another couple passed, walking in the opposite direction, and she stared. She recognized both boys. One of them was her friendly neighborhood punk, the one who tended to loiter on the library steps after school, and the young man holding hands with him was the son of the principal. No stranger to high school cliques, Burgundy knew there was no way these two would have a thing for each other. Even if the goody-two-shoes principal’s son did have a thing for the rebel kid, and vice versa, their relationship would be the stuff of secrets until the giddiness faded and things ended.
