‘That’s amazing,’ he said. ‘You are unstoppable.’
I know.’
‘Dreama said you were Queen of the Universe, but I thought she was joking.’
‘She wasn’t. So why are you here exactly?’
He flashed his smile at her, and she saw how attractive he was, now that he wasn’t criticizing the place. ‘The head office sent me down because your sales have consistently been the highest in the area even though you have a relatively small customer base.’ He stepped closer. I’m assuming that’s because of you.’
‘And William,’ Mare said. ‘So we’re doing good. That’s great. Thanks for stopping by to tell us. Anything else’?’ Like a raise?
‘Oh, yes.’ He flashed his movie-star smile again. ‘I was sent to find out why the store was thriving and I think I have.’ He held out his hand. ‘Congratulations, Miss O’Brien. You are now the new manager of Salem’s Value Video!! Your salary will, of course, double.’
He went on but his words faded as the dusty Tuscan sunlight swirled into the store in a cloud of coppery dust and that damn baby laughed again and Mare felt the whole place swing around her, and she said, ‘No.’
Jude stopped. ‘No?’
Mare swallowed. ‘No.’ She put her hand out to the counter, her whole world unsteady, thinking, Tell him yes, you idiot, it’s a raise, but she knew she didn’t want it, clear as that sunshine. ‘No, thank you, no, I don’t want to be manager.’
Jude blinked slowly, his eyelids moving like shutters. ‘Was it the part where I said you’d have to behave normally, no funny stuff?’
‘No,’ Mare said, surprised. ‘I missed that part. What happened to William?’
‘We feel William will be happier in another line of work.’
‘No.’ Mare took a deep breath, surer every time she said it. ‘No, no, no.’ She took a step back and bumped her butt into the counter, knocking off a pencil and letting it roll to the floor. ‘We need William here. He’s the voice of reason. He does math. We need William as manager. I refuse to be manager. Go back in that office and tell William he still has a job.’
Jude picked up the pencil and handed it to her. ‘Miss O’Brien… may I call you Mare?’
Mare repressed an exasperated sigh. ‘Sure, Jude.’
‘Mare, I realize that some women have a fear of success-’
‘I’m not afraid of success. I embrace success. Success and I are practically twin souls. I just don’t want to manage a video store. Where’s the fun in that?’ As soon as she said it, she knew it was true.
‘Well, this.’ Jude gestured to the promotional displays.
‘Yes, but if I’m manager I have to have somebody else do that while I do the ordering and the books and all the dull gray dead stuff. No. No, no, no. Go tell William he’s manager again. I’ll wait here.’ Mare folded her arms and stared at him. ‘Go on.’
‘Well…’ Jude leaned against the counter, closer to her, smelling faintly of good, expensive cologne. He had a really large Adam’s apple, but on the other hand, his suit was very good. You couldn’t have everything. ‘There is another possibility’
‘William is still the manager.’
‘Yes, fine, William’s the manager,’ Jude said. ‘But I’m really intrigued by your displays. I think other stores in the chain could benefit from your imagination. Would you be open to working in the promotions department at the head office in New York City?’
‘You’re kidding.’ Mare frowned. ‘The promotions are designed in New York? You’d think they’d be more creative there. Greatest city in the world and their idea of a hot promotion is Two for One Tuesdays? Jeez.’
‘That’s why they need you,’ Jude said. ‘I can arrange for you to work outside the department, be your own boss. I get the feeling you don’t respond well to authority’
‘Authority has never responded well to me.’ Mare stared off into space for a moment, considering this new possibility. ‘New York. Huh. That could be good. The Statue of Liberty. I’ve always considered her a kindred spirit. Maybe…’ The dusty Tuscan sun tried to swirl in again, but she kicked its ass out of her frontal lobe. She had a real life to live here. And pay for.
‘Uh, well, that’s good,’ Jude said, clearly lost. He polished his tie tack with his finger for a moment and then he cleared his throat. ‘It’s Friday, so it’s going to take me a while to pursue this, I’ll have to make some calls, but can I say that you would be interested in relocating to New York?’
Mare almost said yes, and then remembered Dee and Lizzie. Would they like New York? Art museums for Dee, the New York Library for Lizzie, lots of anonymity, a good place to hide from Xan. It could work. ‘I’ll have to ask my sisters.’
‘For permission? Surely you’re old enough to make this decision on your own.’
‘To see if they want to move,’ Mare said. ‘We stick together’ We have to. We have strange and unusual powers, Jude. Lizzie could change you into a toad before you could polish your Rolex. ‘But I’m interested, yes. Go ahead and make your calls. And tell William he’s still the manager.’
‘Yes, Mare,’ Jude said and went back to the office.
Mare turned and crooked her finger at Dreama.
‘What?’ Dreama said as she got closer.
‘So you told Jude about William and the rope,’ Mare said.
Dreama flushed again. She put her hands behind her back and stuck her chin out, trying for innocence and missing by a mile. ‘He was asking me things and I just told him. It slipped out. He’s so gorgeous, Mare, don’t you just want to tell him everything?’
‘No,’ Mare said. And neither do you. You almost got William fired.’
‘Yes, but then you could be manager,’ Dreama said.
‘So you had a long talk with Jude,’ Mare said severely.
Dreama leaned closer. ‘You’d be a much better manager, Mare. You really would. William hates being manager.’
‘So would I. Listen to me.’ Mare fixed her with a steely gaze. ‘Do not tell Jude anything else. Ever. We are us and they are them. Got it?’
Dreama looked annoyed. ‘Then how are you ever going to get a promotion? You said you were gonna be queen of Value Video!! Well, you’re gonna need a promotion for-’
‘I changed my mind,’ Mare said, equally annoyed because she didn’t know what the hell she was doing, either. ‘Queens of the Universe do not get into ruts, Dreama. They stay fluid and unpredictable-’
The door chime rang and Mare turned to smile and then sucked in her breath, like a punch to the stomach. He stood there, tall and dark and blue-eyed as ever, the dusty Tuscan sunlight behind him, and Mare thought he was a hallucination and almost had words with her frontal lobe until Dreama said, ‘Oh, my,’ and then she put up her hand to ward him off and knocked over the stack of DVDs, scattering them all over her nice, tidy desktop.
‘Hello, Mare,’ he said and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking pretty much exactly the way he’d looked five years before when she’d been so in love with him that the world had tilted sideways every time she’d looked at him. ‘Uh, I’m back.’ He waited a minute while she stood breathless, speechless, and then he said, ‘You gonna say anything?’
‘Hello, Crash,’ Mare said, hating it that her voice cracked, and then she went toward him and all that sunlight, which wasn’t easy because the world was tilting again.
Xan put the shallow silver bowl in front of the see glass, now a mirror on her silver-paneled wall. As she reached to take down a gilded box from the shelf beside it, the angle of light changed and she caught her own reflection. The light of day wasn’t kind to a woman at midlife, she thought.
She looked closer. Even with magic and plastic surgery, the skin lost elasticity. Last night Vincent had leaned close to her, his tux immaculate in the low light of the restaurant, his white hair perfectly styled, and said, ‘We should always dine by candlelight,’ and she’d been fairly sure there’d been a snicker in his voice.