Page 50 of Poinsettia Lane

Now that her day has opened up, Everly momentarily considers calling Addison, but then remembers how cranky she was at nine am and considering it’s an hour earlier in San Diego than it is in Arizona, she decides to wait. She texts Frankie instead, asking if they want to meet up.

An hour later, they’re walking out of Roasted, tightly covered travel mugs in hand. Frankie recently hired a couple of the local teens to help out—so they can take off and do other things during the day without having to close down and risk a violation—though it’s just a matter of time before their nemesis comes up with something else to hassle them about. Frankie waves to the two teens through the front windows as they walk the few feet to Crooked Books next door.

Mrs. Langdon’s head pops out from behind multiple stacks of books on the counter when they step in, and she barks at them to leave their drinks by the door.Everly and Frankie exchange a glance, smothering their laughs at her snarky attitude.

“Yes, Mrs. Langdon," they sing-song in reply, and she narrows her eyes at them before letting out a ‘hmph,’ twitching her nose and disappearing behind the stacks again. Everly and Frankie view this as further evidence of her secret fondness for the two of them; they’re fairly certain she’d have kicked out anyone else already and they haven’t even stepped a toe off the welcome mat yet.

Leaving their drinks by the door, they both take a deep breath of the musty, papery book smell, tipping their noses up to the ceiling. When they realize what the other is doing, they pause and look at each other, laughing when they both say “jinx” at the same time, followed instantly by “you owe me a book!” in the same breath too.

Frankie cackles, and Everly shrugs.

“Sounds good to me," she says. “Pick out two, I owe you one anyways for neglecting you recently.”

Frankie just grins before weaving their way to the back corner where Mrs. Langdon keeps all the raunchy pirate smut. Everly smiles and follows in their wake. She’s not looking for anything in particular, but browsing a good bookstore is one of her favorite hobbies so she happily sets to looking around. They pull books off the shelves, snicker together at the lewd covers, ooh and aww at the cute ones, and create their own little corner of quiet chaos in the back of the store. They’ve learned to keep their voices down to avoid Mrs. Langdon’s infamous wrath, so most of what they do and say is done in hushed whispers with exaggerated hand gestures and facial expressions to compensate.

“So how is business going?” Everly asks, her voice soft. “Has you-know-who made any more threats?”

“No, thank goodness. I ran into him at the store again last week, but he just gave me a nasty death glare.” Frankie rolls their eyes.

“So you served him one right back, I assume.” Everly smothers her giggle in the crook of her elbow, since she currently has books in both hands.

“Obviously, and you’ll be proud to hear I’ve only closed during “regular business hours” twice since welast talked about it.” Frankie tucks a book under their arm and uses their fingers to make air quotes around the words, clearly displaying their ongoing skepticism regarding the concept of regular business hours.

“That’s actually very impressive for you!” Everly whisper shouts.

Frankie snorts, and Mrs. Langdon rounds the shelves, eyes already slitted like she was just waiting for them to do something wrong. She eyes them both up and down, and Everly freezes, looking at Frankie from the corner of her eye to be sure neither of them are breaking any rules at the moment.

Mrs. Langdon lets out a loud sniff as she shuffles past them to the back room. They don’t move for a few seconds, waiting until they no longer hear her footsteps, then they turn to each other at the same time, Everly’s wide eyes meeting Frankie’s.

“Close one," Everly mouths to Frankie, and they nod, hunching their shoulders and pretending to shrink in on themself.

They go back to browsing, picking out a couple books each. There’s no sign of the cats, much to Everly’s disappointment. She’s not holding onto the idea of getting a pet quite as strongly as she was before, but she does like to see Luna and Harriet, and was hoping Luna would let Everly pet her again. Everly keeps her eyes peeled for a flicking tail or bright eyes as they meander up to the counter, but no luck on the cat front today.

Mrs. Langdon meets them there, eyeing the books they both place gently in front of her. Everly could swear she catches a glimpse of an upward lip twitch when Mrs. Langdon sees Frankie’s choices, but it comes and goes so fast she can’t be sure.

Everly pays for all of them, insisting on it when Frankie protests, and Mrs. Langdon slides them into a paper bag. They thank her, and Everly is even more certain this time of the sparkle in her eyes, but her voice is gruff when she tells them to “Be on your way then, I’ve got enough to do putting your mess back together.” while shooing them out the door.

“Shelovesus," Frankie says, as soon as they scoop up their drinks and step outside.

Everly throws her head back and laughs. “The only things Mrs. Langdon loves are her books and her cats.”

“No way, did you see, she smiled at me!” Frankie’s eyes are alight and they throw their hands out as they talk. “And I left the romance corner a mess on purpose. I knew that old bat was spying on us and I wanted to see if she’d be mad. She totally wasn’t.”

“She absolutely was, you’re delusional.” Everly can’t stop laughing. “I did see a hint of a smile though, so you’ve got me there.”

Frankie smirks and they come to a stop outside Roasted. Everly opens the bag on her arm and passes Frankie’s books to them.

“Come over soon? I want to show you the terracing," Everly says.

“You tell me when and I’ll be there.”

Hugging her friend a quick goodbye, Everly veers toward the park along the river, intent on starting one of her new books.

~~~

She’s just finishing up the first chapter, already hooked by the thrill of a mysterious death and hints of a cult, when her phone buzzes with a text. Everly opens it to see a picture of Moose giving serious puppy eyes, with a hole in the wall behind him full of wires and tools.

Asim: Moose isn’t nearly as fun to work with as you are.

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