“Don’t you have to worry about the store?” Iris asked as she hauled her tote bag onto her shoulder, grimacing a bit at the weight of it.
“Nah. Business is slow today anyway. You hear that, Gerty?” she called to the ghost. “You can start your inventory early today.”
“Wow, that’s rude,” Arden said.
“What’s rude?” Iris asked, looking behind her, where Arden’s gaze was, but not seeing anything.
“Your little old ghost lady just flipped you a double bird.”
“You canseeher?”
“You can’t?”
“No. She walks through me sometimes, but that’s it.”
“She thinks that’s hilarious,” Arden said. “Also, she says you were reading a spicy romance and that you cried when the duke proposed at the masquerade.”
“I had something in my eye,” Selene insisted, chin jerking up. “It’s calleddisbelief.”
“Sure, sure, sweetheart,” he said, heading toward the door.
Selene turned back to the store in general and hissed a quiet, “Snitch!” at her ghostly predecessor.
“She wasn’t dealing with dementia at the end of her life, by the way,” Arden said.
“Then why is she always doing inventory?”
“Darling, what makes you think she’s doing inventory? She’s just screwing with you.”
Selene stopped to gape at him. “But why?”
“Something about a cash register.”
“Seriously? The ancient thing didn’t even work anymore!” Selene yelled into the store, making a book fall off a shelf. “Real mature,” she grumbled.
“She says you could get it fixed. In fact, she demands it.” As if to emphasize her point, another book flew off the shelf, whacking Iris in the shoulder.
“Ow,” Iris grumbled, leaning down to grab and right the book.
“It was her father’s cash register. She says it belongs on the counter he built, where you read your smutty books.” That last part made Arden’s lips twitch.
“Fine, you old bat. I’ll get the thing fixed. But I can’t actually use it. It doesn’t take credit cards. Let’s go. I need all the cake.”
With that, they were out.
“What’s wrong?” Selene asked when Iris hesitated at the top of the stairs that led down to, she assumed, the subway platform.
“I’ve never been,” she admitted.
“Really? What have you been doing since you came to the land? Walking everywhere?”
“I haven’t been going out much now that Monty has started his social climbing and networking. I’ve mostly been just getting food from local places and reading. And, you know, collecting bugs and teeth.”
“And trying to learn how to use her cell phone,” Arden added. “That accidental dial while you were belting out a Celine Dion chart-topper was hilarious, by the way.”
“Gee, thanks,” Iris said, wincing at the memory of realizing she hadn’t ‘been alone’ while she got dressed, like she thought.
“We’ve got you,” Selene said, sliding her arm through Iris’s and leading her down the steps.
