“Ah, yes. The famous Natalie,” Mayor Crane says as she holds out her hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” She watches me carefully as I shake it, as if she’s trying to decide something.
I chuckle nervously. “You’ve heard about me? Nothing bad, I hope.”
“I promise, I’ve been singin’ your praises,” Dominic vows as he reaches for a wet glass to dry with the towel on his shoulder.
“I know the name of every person who enters Mapletown,” Mayor Crane adds. “I also know the exact date and time when they arrived.”
Okay, that’s not ominous or anything. “How?”
She nods to the phone sitting beside her glass. “Your phone. It’s some kind of high-tech GPS tracker my chief of staff, Ezra, created. I don’t know much about it. Anyone who crosses town limits, we can access the data on their phone.”
“That seems like a breach of privacy.” Has the mayor seen the nudes I sent Mark last year? Or the litany of dick pics he’s sent back? My cheeks grow hot as I try to recall the other potentially embarrassing stuff on my phone. Like that time I searched for a Thor-shaped pillow with arms that I could wrap around myself. Or when I googled “Can you tickle yourself?” on a night I was feeling particularly sleep-deprived and depressed.
Mayor Crane shoots me a proud grin. “Oh, it definitely is.”
I swallow the lump in my throat as my palms begin to sweat. “So, you can seeeverythingon our phones?”
“Technically, yes, but we’re not searching through your private messages and stealing photos if that’s what you’re worried about. It’s a program that scans the contents of your phone and looks for things aligned with typical human behavior.”
That makes me feel a little better, I guess. “Like what?”
“Oh, you know,” she says, drumming her freshly painted red nails on the bar as she ponders this, “period trackers, food and exercise trackers, and most of the games in the app store that claim to be free.” She leans in, lowering her voice, “No offense, but humans tend to be more gullible than most monsters.Especially when agreeing to give away personal information in exchange for a game that just overheats your phone.”
I’m relieved that none of those are on my current phone. Or…wait. I deleted that old period tracker, didn’t I?
“Unfortunately, we’ve been burned too many times in the past to trust humans. Too many have tried to harm us or expose us. It’s easier this way. And itwouldgo against the federal privacy laws, except that Mapletown doesn’t adhere to federal laws. It’s considered protected enchanted land, so the town is governed by a committee of monsters.”
“Shit. Really?”
It’s like they live outside of space and time. In their own little world––a world I’m eager to remain part of.
She nods. “The rule used to be that humans can enter Mapletown with an invite from a resident, and since it doesn’t show up on digital maps, that invitation would be your only way in. That’s the mandate my great-grandmother created anyway.”
“Right,” I reply. “Martha Crane.”
Mayor Crane smiles as her gaze drops to the bar top. “She was a brilliant witch. When she cast the spell to protect Mapletown, however, she didn’t anticipate how much the town would grow over time. I think there were only a couple hundred people here back then. Now, the population is almost fifteen hundred. We’ve had to adapt accordingly.”
I have so many questions, and the one that pops out is by far the dumbest. “Does that mean you’re a witch too?” Of course, she is. Why did I even ask? “I mean, do you still practice?”
She nods. “Indeed. I wouldn’t be an effective mayor if I didn’t. The town is run by magic, and the committee wouldn’t give me access to the portals if I were no longer practicing.”
“I’m sorry, did you say portals?”
Chapter 12
Natalie
Mayor Crane did indeed say portals. She spent the next hour of my shift telling me all about the portals that connect the monster towns across the U.S. There are seven including Mapletown: Redwood Cove in California, Pine Hollow in Colorado, Elmwood Falls in North Dakota, Magnolia Village in Louisiana, Hemlock Hollow in Michigan, and Cedar Grove in South Carolina. Our portal is located beneath the bookstore on Main Street, and the mayor is the only one who has access to it. It allows her to travel to the other towns within seconds for council meetings or trade deals with other mayors. She also oversees resident transfers via the portal, which allows safe and speedy travel for monsters looking to relocate.
My mind is still reeling over this as I pull into the driveway at the end of the night. The moment Mayor Crane paid her tab and left, I couldn’t wait to get home and tell Winston. I know we left things on kind of an awkward note earlier, but this is going to blow his damn mind, and I’m hoping it’s enough for us to brush past the weirdness and go back to being roommates who playfully bicker over random shit.
I grab my purse from the backseat and notice the gift I forgot to give Winston the other day. He’s either going to think it’s lame or cute, and I’m okay with either, given how little I spent on it.
He tends to hover in the living room or the kitchen whenever I return home, but tonight, I find the first floor of the house eerily silent. Kicking off my shoes, I hang my purse on the hook by the front door and head upstairs. My room is completely dark, as is Nonna Penny’s old room, but there’s a dim light coming from the study. I follow it and find Winston seated in the high-back velvet chair, the emerald-green cushions slightly faded from where the sun streams into the room. The desk lamp is on, and a few of the candle sconces are lit, casting shadows across his jaw that make him look even more handsome than usual. His forehead is scrunched as he focuses on the book in his lap.
A floorboard creaks under my feet as I enter the room, and our eyes meet. For the briefest of moments, his face lights up, and in his gaze, I see reverence and hunger––the same intoxicating combo from when he kissed me. But he must remember how we left things before I went to work, because his lips quickly flatten into a line, and his gaze drops to the page he’s on. “Welcome home,” he mutters. His tone is cold, standoffish.
“H-Hi,” I say, not knowing what to do with the excitement I still feel at coming home to him, paired with the look of obvious displeasure.
