“She’s dealing with some gifts Harold left by the back door.She wants to get them cleaned up before today’s delivery arrives; the delivery guy will wheel the hand truck right through the pile of dead mice if she doesn’t.”
I choked back a laugh.“What is wrong with people?”
Harold, the oversized feline, sat perched in his usual spot atop the antique register.I had to hand it to him; he knew his boundaries.Despite his love for the register, I’d never seen him near the coffee area.
“What’s your deal, champ?Is one mouse not enough?You have to leave a pile?Do you love Maya that much?”
I could swear Harold rolled his eyes at me before answering with a yowling meow.Typical cat, acting like he runs the place.
I gave Sierra a half-hearted wave before disappearing through the door to the storage area.Maya shouldn’t have to clean up Harold’s “gifts”, not when I was here.How bad could it be?I handled the litter box like a champ,I thought to myself,and this can’t be much worse than that.
Except it was so,somuch worse.
Halfway to the back door, I caught sight of a skyscraper-sized tower of dead mice, and I gagged before I could stop myself.Why were cats so cruel?He hadn’t eaten them, only stacked them like he was playing some twisted game of dead-mouse Jenga.
“Hey, Liam,” Maya said with a smile, though when she saw me, her expression quickly shifted.Her garden trowel clattered onto the cement, scattering mouse corpses as it bounced.
My mouth flooded with saliva, and my vision tunnelled with a murky blackness that crowded my peripheral vision.I swayed on my feet as I tried, and failed, to fill my lungs with air.
“Oh, oh my.Here.Why don’t you take a seat, Liam?”
Inky shadows closed in as Maya’s fingers wrapped around my wrist.She steered me backward with a firm grip.My legs hit something solid, hands pressed firmly on my shoulders, and I dropped into a sitting position.
“Sierra!We need water and a cold cloth.”
Maya’s voice floated farther away as my vision narrowed to a pinprick.The last thing I remember was hearing someone’s muttered, “Oh, shit.That’s not good,” as the floor rushed up to greet me.
twelve
no take-backs
Maya
“Well,thatwasunexpected.”I bent low to place a wet cloth on Liam’s forehead, barely resisting the inexplicable urge to run my fingers through his wavy hair.“I can’t believe he fainted.How can such a healthy, fit-looking man go down over a couple of dead mice?”
Sierra chuckled and nudged him with her foot.“I doubt this is how he pictured his day going when he came back here.”
She wasn’t wrong.Liam had stormed into the back room, seen Harold’s mess, and turned greener than a Ninja Turtle.Seconds later, he was out cold.Luckily, I made him sit before he face-planted onto the floor.Still, he’ll have a bruise from when his face kissed the cement.Not what I’d call a soft landing, especially not on your face.
Like I needed another thing to worry about on my already full plate today.After yet another rough night with Nana, cleaning Harold’s mouse collection was the last thing I wanted to do.Even when I was having a good day, it was gross.But today?When I’m exhausted and worried?It was unbearable.
Last night wasbrutal.After Liam left, Nana woke up and started storming around and swearing at the furniture.It took more than an hour to calm her down, and I spent the next few hours on her couch to make sure she stayed asleep.By the time I made it to my own bed, it was nearly morning.
Now here I was, grumpy and sleep-deprived yet again, babysitting a grown man who’d fainted at the sight of a few dead mice.Sure, it had been a fair-sized pile, but still.“I mean, they weredead.It’s not like they were going to come back to life and chase him through the store,” I said as Sierra helped me slide a few flattened boxes under Liam’s head.
I pitied the guy.It couldn’t be comfortable lying on concrete.Especially after you’d bounced your face off it.
“Crap!”Sierra shouted, jolting me from my thoughts.“I still need to open Polly’s,” she said, grabbing her coffee.“Call me later and tell me how this turns out.I want to knoweverything.”
She darted out the door, a flurry of flowing skirts and jingling jewellery, leaving me shaking my head.Sierra could be flighty, which is why I usually insisted on delivering her coffee.I’m glad she was here to help with Liam this morning, though.
“What am I going to do with you?”I murmured, glancing down at Liam’s prone form.“I can’t stay back here all day to look after you.”
After I finished cleaning up the mice, I propped the stockroom door open so I could keep an eye on Liam while I worked.He was still out of it, but as soon as I’d walked back out front, he groaned.
“Good,” I muttered to myself.“He’s coming around already.”
After making coffees for a few of my regulars and shelving a few books, I headed back to check on him.
