“Whyareweparkingall the way back here?”Lissa asked when Daria pulled her car into a public parking lot three streets away from the main drag.
“Hmm?”Daria asked, her attention focused on rapidly typing out a text message.
“Earth to Daria,” Lissa shouted, waving her hand in Daria’s face.“I thought we were going to the studio?Are you implying I need some exercise on top of everything else?”
“Oh, please,” Daria scoffed.“You should never go near a treadmill.When women lose weight, the tits are the first thing to shrink, and it would be a crime against nature if you lost those beauties.”Daria leaned over and tugged on the zipper of Lissa’s sleeveless hoodie.“In fact, let’s show them off a little more.”
“Funny,” Lissa replied dryly, yanking her zipper back up.“Now, why are we parked all the way back here?I guarantee the lot by the studio will be empty.It always is.”
Daria shrugged, a mischievous twinkle in her eye.“You never know.Now let’s move it.”
Following Daria at a sedate pace, Lissa headed toward the alley that would dip between two buildings and pop them out on Main Street.
The buzzing clamor of a crowd reached her ears before she was even halfway there.“Oh great,” Lissa groaned.“Is there an event today I forgot about?”
“I don’t think so,” Daria replied, hooking her arm under Lissa’s elbow and pulling them along faster.“Must be something exciting though.”
“Doubt it,” Lissa mumbled, but walked a little faster so Daria wouldn’t try to physically drag her through the alley.
They emerged out onto Main Street, and Lissa stopped in her tracks, frozen by the sight around her.“What is all this?”she asked, taking in the multicolored string lights hanging from the store fronts, and the thick evergreen garlands wrapped around each light pole.“Carol of the Bells” floated on the wind from unseen speakers, mingling with scents of kettle corn and roasted sugar almonds.Looking down the strip, Lissa spotted three different cart vendors passing out bags of treats to excited children.Mixie’s had a slate sandwich board propped up advertising “Free Gingerscone Man with every Blended Peppermint Mocha.”
Pulling free of Daria’s grip, she took a few steps into the blocked-off section of Main Street.A huge banner stretched from one side of the road to the other, loudly proclaiming, ‘Seacliff Presents: Christmas in July!’And then in smaller letters below that, ‘Sponsored by Smooth Expressions Art Studio, located on the corner of Driftwood and Main.’
A loud squeal erupted behind Lissa, followed by a screech of “I found one!”
Whipping her head around, Lissa noticed a teenage girl clutching a glass blown ornament and bouncing up and down like a kid at Christmas, her prize held high as she waved it back and forth with glee.
Lissa walked over to the girl who was proudly showing the ornament off to her parents and anyone else who happened to be nearby.It looked so familiar…
“Is that…?”As she got closer, Lissa could see it was, in fact, one of her ornaments—she’d recognize that signature swirl on top anywhere.So why was it out here and not nestled in a box with all the other ones that had gone missing?
“Can we go check out the studio, Mom?”the girl asked.“I want to see if they have any more.These would make great souvenirs for my friends.”
“Of course,” the middle-aged woman replied, and the family meandered off down the sidewalk in the direction of Smooth Expressions.
Lissa stood rooted in place, watching them leave.She felt like Alice down the rabbit hole, struggling to make sense of what was happening.People were going to her studio?People knew her studio even existed?
Daria slung an arm around Lissa’s shoulders.“Pretty cool, huh?We were out here at three a.m.hanging up all your ornaments for people to find this morning.Each one comes with a 20 percent off coupon to Smooth Expressions.”
Lissa rotated slowly to stare at Daria, tears welling up in her eyes.“You did all this?”
Daria shook her head.“Nah.I helped a little, but none of this was my idea.”
“Then who?”Lissa exhaled.
“It was all her,” Daria answered, nodding off to their right just as a rock came bouncing over and thumped against Lissa’s shoe.
Lissa glanced at it for a second, then raised her head.Her heart thudded almost painfully when she saw Ria leaning up against a brick wall, smiling shyly.Lissa’s feet carried her over to the witch as if moving through a thick fog.It all felt like a dream Lissa never wanted to wake up from.
“Hi,” Ria said quietly as Lissa approached.“What do you think?”
Lissa gaped at the gorgeous woman who held her heart in the palm of her hand.“You did all this?”
Ria nodded.“It was the least I could do after Daria helped me realize that you didn’t mean to hurt me.You were just trying to help the people you worked with.I may have been a little harsh, so I thought I might make it up to you.This was my original plan when I worked for Mercer.Hide a bunch of ornaments on Christmas Eve for people to find in the morning with your studio information attached.People love feeling special, like they’re part of something fun and unique.”Ria gestured behind Lissa.“There’s already a couple news crews covering the event, including one from Portland.”
Lissa didn’t bother turning her head to look.She only had eyes for the woman in front of her.“But…but how?How did you put all this together?How did you get the city to agree?”
Ria grinned and waggled her fingers.“I’m a witch, Lissa.I figured it was about time I used my power to actually help someone.Not that it took much, the city council loved the idea.I just used a little magical push to make it happen so fast.And that’s not all I got them to do…” Ria took Lissa’s hand and pulled her along the sidewalk.
