I peeked through the window and gave her a little wave. She held a finger up and I turned to explore the rest of her shop. It had been a couple of weeks since I'd been in and she'd rearranged it...again. She claimed it was due to feng shui and energy, but I just thought she had too much nervous energy and needed to staybusy.
Maybe good feng shui helped that. I wouldn't know feng shui if it bit me in the butt, but I liked my reading chair positioned with its back toward the kitchen so I wouldn't have to turn the living room light on to read. It was both energy savvy and lazy, two of my favoritethings.
Five minuteslater my friend exited the classroom and gathered me in a hug. She smelled like sage and jasmine. Wild black hair curled around her face and her pretty blue eyes were accentuated with gold eyeliner. "Karina is back there. We have a Wicca for Beginners class going on." She rolled her eyes. "It's the newest batch of human high schoolers. We could teach them about Wicca until we’re blue in the face, but they’re never going to get it until they realize the only tools they need to perform real magic are inside of them." Pepper grinned. "But until then, we have this fancy bunch of hand crafted wands we upsell by three hundredpercent!"
I snickered and leaned over the case to look at the overpriced wands. "They're pretty," Iremarked.
"They sure are. And about as magical as my lefttoe."
I gave her the once over. "Maybemyleft toe. Yours is prettymagical."
"True," she said, "but you get mydrift."
I did. Pepper was always bitching about the Wiccans. As a powerful hereditary witch, Pepper couldn't stand to see someone's potential wasted with what she called "pansy" magic. By this she meant the whole law of attraction thing that had become so popular over the last five years. This was the kind of magic where you sent your request out into the universe and thought positively. She equated her Wicca classes to this, but when she tried to change them to get into the deep roots of magic, her students dropped exponentially. So she was forced to go where the market was. Light magic, woo woo light stuff, and upselling products she didn't think people needed. Pepper might have been a witch first, but she was a businesswoman second, and if people wanted to spend too much on pretty wooden wands, she was going to give it to them. And then bitch to me inprivate.
"Where are we going?" I asked as Pepper dragged her jacket on. I was pleased to say she no longer looked like a Harley Quinn goth queen, but she still looked pretty over the top. That was justPepper.
She wore a blue and white tartan skirt because she had announced she was binge watching Doctor Who for the next two months, a white collared camp shirt, and a pair of black combat boots. If anyone who wasn't a Doctor Who fan saw her, they'd probably think she just looked like a rebellious Catholic school dropout.
"Marco's," she said. "It's about time we got a good Mexican restaurant in this place." She grabbed her keys and headed out of the shop, flipping her sign toClosedand punching a code in the locking pad on her door. Her assistant would let the students out later, but locking them in meant Karina wouldn't have to deal with customers while she wasteaching.
I headed around to the passenger side of Pepper’s small pickup truck. As much as she hated having to drive a truck, she needed it to haul plants and other things to and from her nursery. She wasn't like Hank in that she grew everything from seed. Pepper was more of a plant hunter. She researched, shopped around, and would usually drive at least a few hours to pick up a new plant that caught hereye.
I slid into the seat and got a whiff of loamy earth. Double checking to make sure I wasn't sitting in dirt, I discreetly wiped the seat before Pepper unlocked herdoor.
"I saw that," shesaid.
"I don't often dress up. I don't want any mud onme."
She rolled her eyes. "Dirty is the newblack."
"No. It isn't,dork."
"I picked up some corpse plants," she said, her eyes sparkling as she checked her mirrors. "I've never been able to get those before. They are going to smell so bad when they finally bloom!" She cackled as she pulled out of thelot.
"Can't wait," I said, my tone dry asdust.
"You're going to be front row! People drive for miles to see this kind of stuff. Speaking of that, when do I get to see the layout Hank came upwith?"
We chatted for awhile about the permaculture plan until she pulled into a brightly lit restaurant. On the top of the building was a massive sign with three neon Mariachi players that lit up in time with the music blaring from thespeakers.
"My," I said. "This isloud."
"Right?" Pepper exclaimed, enthralled. "I've been wanting to try this place forweeks!"
I was a little less excited because the parking lot was jam packed with people. "Don't worry," Pepper said as she climbed out, "I used that new app to reserve us a seat. We shouldn't have to wait long atall."
We pushed through the doors only to get assaulted with the spicy scent of salsa, sizzling meat, and people. We had to practically elbow our way up to the front. Pepper gave the hostess our names and the woman smiled at us and grabbed twomenus.
"Right thisway."
We got some dirty looks but I kept mumbling to everyone, "We used an app, we used an app." No onecared.
I followed Pepper to our seats marveling at the decor of the place. Used hubcaps were attached to the ceiling. The floors were a bright, searing orange, and the music was a cross between mariachi and hip-hop which was so weird I wanted to put my hands over my ears and yellmake it stop! But Pepper seemed to fit right in. She waved at a bunch of people she knew and I smiled politely at them even as their mouths turned down once they saw me. Funny. I lived in a town full of paranormals where most couldn't step outside of the boundaries of Midnight Cove because of their appearance, and they still judged me. Sometimes I wanted to grab them by the shoulders, shake them, and scream, "DO YOU NOT SEE THE TUSKS COMING OUT OF YOUR HEAD?" Their prejudices against me were bizarre especially when I had no doubt they'd spent most of their lives being judged. But this is what Midnight Cove was. A haven for us. Even if we couldn't get past our ownjudgments.
We finally made it to our seat and I slid into the small both, surprised at both its size and comfort. But immediately, I felt like someone was staring at me. I looked up and lo and behold. Right in front of me, in the booth right behind us satHank.
I groaned internally. Hank scowled atme.
