“It’s just an old dress, right?”
“Yeah, but-”
“Clothes are ten dollars. You got ten dollars?”
Ten dollars? Of course I had ten dollars. “Are you sure? That’s all this is?”
He chuckled roughly. “If you want to give me more, missy, you can.”
“Ah, no, that’s okay.” I didn’t want to rip him off, but if that was the price, then that was the price. I fished out a ten-dollar bill from my wallet and passed it over.
“Do you want a bag?” he asked, taking my money. He held up a white plastic grocery bag, and I knew there was no way in hell I was stuffing my dress into that tiny thing.
“That’s okay,” I said. “I’ll just carry it.”
Suddenly he stood up. Peering closer.
“Did you get that from the trunk?” he asked, eyes turning sharp.
“Which trunk?” I said defensively. I didn’t know if he was going to try to get more money out of me.
“Steamer.” He waved a hand. “In the corner. With the tags on it.”
I couldn’t help myself. I glanced over at it. “Yes,” I said reluctantly. “Why?”
“Came from a lady.” His eyes narrowed. It looked like he was trying to remember. “A widow. She lost … She lost her …” His eyes grew cloudy again. “She lost her husband. At sea, I think.”
A chill ran down my spine. Lost her husband … waiting, by the sea …
Just like I’d pictured it. And even if he was wrong, even if the trunk hadn’t been hers, just the idea that he thought it might have been was eerie.
“Okay,” he said suddenly, back to the present again. “You enjoy it. Bye-bye now.”
I nodded and slowly walked to the door, dress clutched tightly in hand, and that little slip of paper tucked safely in my pocket.
When I found Beth back at the dress store, she was standing in line, trying to juggle my red dress and a black dress, while simultaneously pulling out her phone. “Hey,” she said, looking up at me. “I was just going to call you. You’re definitely going with the red one, right?”
I nodded.
“Here you go.” She handed it off, and then caught sight of what was in my hands. “What’s that?”
“Um … Halloween costume?” I replied.
“Okay.” She looked at me like I was a bit crazy, then shrugged and turned back toward the line. I peeked over her shoulder. “What did you pick?”
“Since you’re going with the sexy red dancer dress, I went with one of those too. We’re going to bring a little Latin flare to the Hollow Ball.” She held her dress up so I could see it. It was super short, matte black, with ruffles that zigzagged along the hem and up one side.
“Niiiiiice,” I said.
She stepped up to the counter to pay, and I moved behind her. I couldn’t see who was at the register, but I recognized the tone. “Will this be all for you today?” a bored female voice asked.
My head whipped up. “Aubra?” I moved out of line so I could see her.
She gave me the barest hint of a smile. “Hey.” Then she turned back to Beth. “Cash or charge?”
“Charge.” Beth sat her purse up on the counter to dig through it, but it fell over. A tube of lip gloss and the perfume sample I’d made her went rolling. “Sorry,” she said, but Aubra was already reaching for the perfume.
“What’s this?” She opened it and sniffed.
Beth pointed back to me. “Abbey makes perfumes. That’s an exclusive one she made for me.” She said it with such an air of superiority that I had to hold back a grin.
Aubra smelled it again. “Smells good. Vanilla.” She capped the tiny bottle and reluctantly gave it back to Beth, who was standing there with her hand out.
“Can you make one of those for me, too?” Aubra asked, looking past Beth and directing her question to me.
“For a price,” Beth replied before I even had a chance to open my mouth. “Of course, it won’t be this blend exactly, since it’s an exclusive. But we can work something out.”
I cast an amused glance between the two of them.
Aubra nodded at Beth, then rang up her purchase. She motioned for me to move forward next, and I placed the red dress on the counter, being careful to hold on to my white dress. She tallied up my total, and I slid some cash across to her.
“So when can you make a perfume for me?” she asked, putting my dress into a plastic garment bag.
“Uh, I guess whenever,” I said.
“There will have to be a deposit,” Beth broke in. “Half of the formulation fee up front, and the other half on delivery.”
“How much will that be?”
“We’ll get back to you,” Beth said as she smoothly reached across the counter and picked up my dress. “Come on, Abbey. We have to go.”
I shrugged at Aubra, and followed Beth outside.
“That was awesome!” she exclaimed, turning to grin at me as we walked to the car. “Can you believe it? She is so totally sold on that perfume.”
“I need to hire you as my salesperson,” I joked.
“You’ve got that right.” Beth agreed. “I never liked Aubra. She’s such a bitch. We’ll have to jack up the formulation fee to include an I-hate-you charge.”
I laughed at her. “We can’t do that. Besides, I’m not even sure I can make her a perfume.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s hard to make perfumes for other people. Especially when I don’t know them that well.”
“But you don’t really know me. I mean, not super well. And you made me one.”
“That was different.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.” I struggled for words. “It just … was.”
“You can totally do this, Abbey. I’ll pimp you out to a bunch of other people I know too. They’ll eat it up.”
“I’m going to need that shop space sooner than I thought,” I mused absentmindedly.
“What shop?” she asked.
“My shop. My mom paid the rent for a year on a storefront downtown as an early graduation gift. So I can start Abbey’s Hollow.”
Beth turned to stare at me. “She did? That’s sweet!”
“Yeah. I just didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to actually follow through.”
“Why not?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Well, complicated or not, I just scored you your first client, sister, so I’m thinking I need to become your partner.”
I stayed silent on that one, but it was an interesting thought. I’d never pictured anyone other than Kristen helping me out at Abbey’s Hollow. To imagine Beth there was strange.
Chapter Seventeen. THE SÉANCE
… and haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless horseman, or Galloping Hessian of the Hollow …
– “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
Caspian was finally awake when I got home, and I was thrilled to get the chance to tell him about everything that had happened.
I hid the white dress behind the red one in the back of my closet, and spent most of the night talking about Mom and Dad’s graduation gift and my shopping trip. I left out the part about what I’d found at the antiques store, but it was so good to just be able to lie in bed and talk with him again.
The only thing that didn’t come up was how long his sleep had lasted this time. And there was a moment of uncertainty when I rearranged a pillow to get more comfortable and it fell off the bed. He reached for it, but he couldn’t pick it up. Couldn’t grab on to it.
I quickly told him that it was fine where it was, and I moved on to a funny song that I’d heard on the radio at the store today, but his eyes were worried even as he agreed.