By comparison my outfit felt bland. I hadn’t bought my own clothes in nearly a decade. Mike hated anything flashy and usually sent his mother out to pick out clothing for me.
That meant that I wound up looking like a weird miniature of his mother, which seemed to please him. Psychologists would have a field day with my husband’s Oedipus complex if they ever got the chance.
I wanted to buy new clothes. Ones that I would like… though at this point I wasn’t sure what those would even look like.
“New clothes are expensive,” I reminded myself as I brushed my hair and pulled it up into a ponytail. “Focus on getting Peep fixed first.”
With my morning pep talk finished, I tugged on my sneakers and opened the car door.
The beach was pleasantly empty, a thick fog still hanging over the water from the night before. The tide had come in at some point during the night, washing away any footprints from the day before and leaving a blank slate behind.
In the distance I could see the shape of someone in the fog, a pair of huge dogs dancing at their feet. It brought a smile to my face.
We had lots of pets when I was growing up. Dogs, cats, an entire stable of farm animals and a plethora of smaller animals. My mom was a huge animal lover and always wanted to be surrounded by them.
By the time she told me she was sick, most of our animals had been sent to live with new families. All of them except for the horses which still pulled in revenue. It had been one of the few things we argued about during her last months. I would have taken care of them if she’d given me the chance. I would have taken care of everything.
Now that I really thought about it, Mike had probably convinced her that getting rid of them was the best course of action. He had her ear more than anyone else in her last few months.
I’d learned quickly that he had no patience for animals, not even the pair of Yorkies his mom owned. I’d seen him kick the poor things more than once during our marriage.
Hugging my cardigan more tightly around myself, I watched the figure and the dogs disappear completely into the mist.
Making sure that Peep was locked, I made my way back to the Wharf just as people were opening up shop for the day.
“Decided to stick around then, gorgeous?” a familiar voice called out to me as I passed the carousel.
The lizard man that owned the coffee shop was standing outside and putting up a sign. It had all of the specials for the day on it and a silly little lizard drawn in chalk paint. The man’s yellow eyes rotated in their sockets until he was focused on me.
“Uh, yep, got a job and everything,” I said, unsure of how much information I wanted to give the guy.
He nodded before holding up a hand. “Stay right there, lovely.”
I watched as he ducked back inside of the shop and hurried back behind the counter. He fiddled around for a couple of minutes before emerging with a paper to-go cup in hand.
“For your first day,” he said as he held the cup out to me.
Eyeing the cup, I opened my mouth to tell him I couldn’t accept but the man didn’t seem to want to take no for an answer. A cool, scaly hand gripped mine gently and put the warm cup in my hand.
“I insist. It’s on the house. Can’t start your first day without caffeine, right?” His lipless mouth turned up into a dry smile.
He was right. My body still ached from the contortions I’d put it through sleeping in the backseat of Peep last night. Besides, as soon as the smell of coffee hit my nose my mouth was watering.
“Thank you,” I finally said, accepting the cup gratefully.
“Anytime, darling.” The lizard man grinned and turned back to his sign. “Now you go on, and don’t let those buffoons at that shop bully you.”
With one last wave I was on my way again, puzzling over how the man knew I was working at the tattoo shop.
Seagulls were still screaming overhead by the time I finally made it to the end of the Wharf, the pungent scent of fish and seaweed filling my nose.
I was fifteen minutes early, so the shop was still closed, the waiting room inside dark.
Sipping on my coffee, I practiced in my head how I was going to greet whoever came down to open the shop. I assumed it would be Effie since she lived upstairs, but I wanted to be prepared for anything.
My stomach began to sour as my nerves got the better of me. What if I couldn’t figure out the complicated scheduling software that Effie told me about yesterday? Or I was unknowingly rude to one of the patrons who came into the shop?
I knew basic facts about most supernatural creatures, but then again some races had a specific social etiquette that I had no clue about.
