"I know!" Penny gushed. "Too bad you don’t live here. You could play Macbeth."
"Maybe I'll have to move here then."
"As much as we'd love for you to make a quick decision," I said firmly, "I'm afraid the spot has been filled. I'm playing Macbeth."
"You are?" Mace said, almost choking on his cake. I kicked him hard under the table.
"Oh, right, Garrett mentioned that last night," Mace said. "Our company likes to be involved in the town events."
As Mace went on about the Harrogate Trust and the Art Zurich Biennial Expo the town had won a few months ago, I watched Sebastian, trying not to look too smug. He thought he was going to impress Penny with his money, his charm, and his love of Halloween? Well, he had another thing coming. I had more money, I was better looking, and I could out-Halloween the best of them.
23
Penny
"Sebastian was really nice!" I gushed that evening when the Thalian Biotech CEO had left to travel back to Manhattan. "He seems to really care about his company's impact on the environment and the community and how he treats his employees. And he loves Halloween."
Sebastian and I had chatted about our favorite Halloween movies on the drive over to look at the Platinum Provisions site and the site Greg was planning on giving Thalian Biotech.
"He's as if a jar of mayonnaise became self-aware," Garrett said later after Sebastian had left and we were back in the office.
Mace snickered. "Thank you for all your work, Penny. If Sebastian does agree to sell to us, it's all because of you. You really charmed him."
Garrett glowered.
* * *
"Did I do something wrong?"I asked when Garrett and I were alone in the car.
"No, of course not. You were perfect. You are perfect," he said.
He thought I was perfect?
"Wait," Garrett said, looking around. "Where are we going?"
I glanced at him then back at the road. "You said you were going to play Macbeth."
"Shoot, that's right. I did."
"The play is going to be on a big outdoor stage. It's from the early twenties, all painted wood. Archer is letting us do rehearsals in the old Mast Brothers chocolate factory," I told him, "so we're heading there. The factory buildings there are big enough to hold the stage."
* * *
"Double,double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!" Ida called out when we walked in. "Hark! Is that Lady Macbeth I see?"
"Ida," her sister Edna said tersely, "that's not anywhere in the play. Do you even know your lines? Does anyone here know their lines?"
"I'm ready!" I called out as Garrett helped me shrug off my coat. His fingers barely brushed the skin on my neck. I shivered. And was it my imagination, or did his hand linger on my back before setting the coat on a nearby chair?
"I've brought us a Lord Macbeth," I announced, taking Garrett's hand and leading him up to the wooden stage. "They won't bite," I whispered to him.
"I will!" Ida said. "You tell them, Bert!"
Bert was asleep on the steps leading up to a fake doorway.
"Thank you for stepping up, Garrett," Judge Edna said. "As you can see, Bert does not have the stamina and vigor required to play Macbeth."
"You're supposed to say MacB," Ida countered. "Someone could be cursed if you say the name."
