Ana comes up beside me. “She’s not hanging around?”
“I told her I need to work.”
Ana looks amazed. “That was it? She didn’t tell you family comes first and work could wait?”
“Nope.”
“Wow, she should sit down and have coffee with my mom to share that perspective.”
“Don’t you think it would be weird if someone else’s mother was yours?” I say idly.
“Yes, but that doesn’t stop me from wishing she could be a little more like other ones, the same way she wishes I were a better daughter. Or any other daughter.” Before I can respond, she points at the window. “I didn’t tell you. Priscilla and Elvis are back together.”
“What happened?”
Her face lights up. “It was awesome. To set the scene, I was doing the window. Do you like it?”
“Very springlike.” It has a stuffed bunny offering a purse that looks like a carrot to another bunny. Perfume bottles line the back like a fence. I’ve already adjusted the bunnies so they’re more centered in the window, and although it’s a little twee for my liking, I don’t want to hurt Ana’s feelings by changing anything else.
“Elvis walks by. Then I see Priscilla go by a few minutes later. This happens a couple more times until they’re on the same side of the street. I couldn’t hear them, but there was lots of staring at feet and I assume groveling, but from which of them, I don’t know. Then they started making out again.”
“Gross but emotionally satisfying.”
We putter around the store for a bit, me casting glances at Ana and trying to decide whether I want to suggest my jewelry-fragrance idea. Ana says, “Why don’t you just say it?”
“Say what?” I drop the broom with a clatter.
“Whatever it is you want to ask me.”
“How do you know I had something to ask?” I demand.
“I am an empath.”
“Shut up, you are not.”
“God, Lucy, you’re as easy to read as a Dr. Seuss book. You keep giving me these looks out of the corner of your eye like a Victorian housemaid wanting to ask for an extra hour off so you can meet up with the milkman.”
Only Ana would use such a weird analogy. I give in. “I had an idea.”
“Is it that we should install a huge wooden bear out in front of the store?” she asks eagerly.
“What? No. Why would you think that?”
“Oh. No reason! Spill.”
I do my best to not worry about whether I’m going to come into work one day and find a new decoration to deal with. “It’s for you, but you don’t need to take it.”
“Understood.” She waits another few seconds and then does a tick-tock motion with her hand to hurry me up.
Well, if she doesn’t like it, she doesn’t like it. My mom said it was cool. “I was looking at your drawings and your work.” I walk to the back and she trails behind me. “Those cherry earrings, for instance. If they were hollow, you could put in scent. Perfumed jewelry used to be very fashionable.”
Ana picks up a rose locket she’s crafted out of filigree. “How would it work, exactly?”
I point to the back. “You could add a small box or cage with a removable ceramic pellet that would absorb the scent. You can also sell the pellets along with the jewelry for top-ups when the scent fades.”
“I like it.” She nods. “I’m in.”
“In?”
