January 24th 2020

Chapter 24
Their Haunting in the Aisles

"Mona is running late, can you cover her section?"

Lucas looked up from the computer and found Maeve standing next to the client he was in the process of assisting.

"Sure, no problem," he told her. She turned back to look at him again as she walked away, which told him she had seen something in his face and she would ask about it as soon as she got the chance. This turned out to be roughly four minutes later, after he'd sent the man off with a stack of books for his three daughters, none of them twins, who all had their birthdays in the span of a week in early November. He was still looking through the stacks, couldn't help it. A lot of the time, he'd still feel like there was more he could have suggested to one client or another after they'd gone.

"Hey," he felt a double tap on his shoulders and he turned around to see Maeve had rejoined him. "You look like you've got something going on in there," she pointed to his head. "The longer you keep it in there, it's just going to get bigger and bigger until it knocks everything else out of the way, and that's how people walk into columns," she gestured around their floor now. "We have a lot of those, and I've seen it happen… way too much times… may have experienced it personally once or twice. Protect your nose and talk?"

"I won't walk into the columns," he promised with a chuckle. "They are a menace though," he agreed.

"Lucas…" she insisted.

Of course there was something on his mind, but it wasn't really his to tell, was it? After what he and Maya had discovered the night before when Sam had come home, he had been thinking about the whole Sam and Dora situation. He really felt so bad for Sam, though on the whole he and – in vast, vast majority – Maya had helped him get to a place where he could be mostly okay, and Dora… He hadn't even known that his cousin had been seeing the Anders kid, so he really didn't know the context of anything where she was concerned. What it all came down to was that, for the time being, everything that could be done by him had already been done, and now, much as a part of him didn't want to, he had to let it go and just let those two sort things out for themselves.

"Halloween," he told Maeve, hoping to throw her off the scent. "Maya and I are having a party at our house, same as we used to back when we lived in Houston. You are invited," he declared, in a very 'this goes without saying' tone. "I need to check with Aarti and Mona, and Tanner and Julia tomorrow, to see if they're interested… and available."

"Costumes?" Maeve straightened up, and Lucas laughed. Of course she would be a Halloween fiend, too.

"Of course."

"Theme?"

"Uh, might be one, might not. I'll have to get back to you on that."

"Can I make a suggestion," Maeve raised her hand, index extended. "I do love a good zombie apocalypse."

"I think we had one of those before," Lucas smirked.

"Yeah, well, those undead suckers do tend to come back," she shrugged before spotting a woman with the all too familiar 'I need a person' look and hurrying off to assist her.

Lucas: Party theme?

Maya: Need one of those.

Lucas: Maeve wants a zombie apocalypse.

Maya: A classic…

Maya: Let's do it!

Lucas: Great, I'll let her know.

Maya: Braaaaains…

He put his phone back in his pocket, trying not to let his face show too much of the smile he was feeling. Maeve was relatively fine with them using their phones for personal things while on the clock, but that was a sort of thing that said 'I trust you, so don't overdo it.' He also knew it could all come down to a customer making a comment to the wrong person, so he only ever used it for absolutely valid reasons. Halloween, in their household, absolutely counted as valid. Halloween had made everything happen for them, a whole eight years ago this year.

Every year that went by, he would get this beat of 'I can't believe it's already been this long.' He still remembered it, all of it. Her as the vampire Serafina, the Crimson Menace, him as the unfortunate victim of a beheading, thanks to her makeup magic… They had this picture somewhere at home, with him standing there and looking just a bit unhinged, his severed neck on display. Maya stood just sort of next to him but turned to face him, long hair down her back, with her hand – with those sharp looking fake long nails – poised just below his throat with appropriate menace, while her face was turned to the camera with a gaze so hypnotic as to fit her character of the night. If he had seen her for the first time that night, he would have been… well, as captivated as he'd been, having known her two years at that point.

If he ever had trouble believing it had been so long, he only had to look at that picture. He'd been sixteen, her fifteen… They really had been that small. It wasn't lost to him, in a fleeting thought, how his cousin was the age he'd been, and her brother was the age she'd been, almost like the universe trying to tell them something. Or maybe it's not… not anymore…

They'd burst out laughing, him and Maya, almost as soon as the picture had been taken. Looking at it now, he would look at those two little goofs, thinking about how they had no idea, neither of them, how their lives would be altered within hours of that picture. There would be a hunt for candy wrappers, and an almost kiss, and in the morning, after a lot of consultations with friends, as they'd walk off to school together on the first day of November, she would kiss him, sealing their fates.

Now they were living together, in their own house, they were engaged to be married… So much had changed over these eight years, but what stayed the same was that whether it was this year, or last year, or next year, or the one after that, or ten, twenty, thirty years from now, they would have this feeling in them that said it was only the beginning.

"What's that?" He looked up to find Aarti casually peering at the notepad where he'd been scribbling some passing ideas.

"Just some options for my fiancée and I on our anniversary," he told her, unsure whether this was the right time or place for what could easily be a long conversation, especially with Aarti. She was in her senior year in high school and a romantic to rival even the likes of Sophie 'let me fly you across the country to get your girl back' Zvolensky. Hers was an appreciation which involved knowing her way up and down the whole of the romance section like she might have written several of the books herself. Most times, she'd have one of them – her own copy or borrowed – in hand or peeking out the top of her work vest's pocket.

"Oh!" she gasped, eyes widening and more or less proving his point. She'd heard the word 'anniversary' and she was a goner. "How long?"

"Eight years," Lucas told her. "Junior year." But we'd loved each other long before then. "We were engaged over the summer." Aarti looked like all she wanted in that moment was to hear the whole of his and Maya's story. Once again, he was 'rescued' by the coming of a customer. The girl sped off, leaving Lucas once again to his notes.

"Hey," a voice pulled him out of his brainstorming. Looking around, he discovered Mona crouched at his side, looking through the cabinet there and rising again with a pair of books bound together with an elastic, a piece of paper also showing the name of the customer who'd had them put aside.

"You made it," Lucas nodded in greeting.

"Yeah," she sighed, running a hand over her shaved head. "Had to drive my roommate to an appointment. Thanks for covering for me."

"No problem. It's been pretty quiet."

"I see that," Mona nodded to his notes.

"Yeah, I should go around," he scanned the floor for a moment, sticking his notes in his vest pocket. "Hey, Halloween party at my house, you in?" he asked as he went around the counter.

"Can I get back to you on that?"

"You know where I work," he nodded with a smile.

He would probably never say this anywhere close to where Rosa might hear him, but he did love working here. It wasn't even about this place over Coleman's or the other way around. He loved both stores for their own qualities. He loved Coleman's for its sort of small/medium sized space, but then he also loved his new store, the breadth of it, and his floor especially. He was getting to know every corner of it pretty well, much as he'd done at his previous store, and he would make discoveries now and again…

Walking along, he would put back items left out of place, direct some customers and help others more thoroughly. All the while, he'd be playing anniversary planner at the back of his mind. It was always this sort of fine balance, at least it was what he got to notice more and more as the years went on. In the beginning, those anniversaries, those big capital D Dates, would feel like he needed to pull these huge surprises, big things to make her see the lengths she inspired him to go or something. It wasn't to say that he didn't do anything big anymore, now that they had been together for near to a decade, far from it. The difference now was simply that he and Maya both had come to a point of knowing between themselves that it wasn't important for them to end up on a boat, or on a private museum tour, or in some fancy restaurant. As they had told each other more than once, the important ingredients of a special Date, anniversary or no, were and would always be him and her. Everything after that was bonus, whether they went for some more simple bonuses or extravagant ones.

What was he going to do this year? It was the first anniversary they would have as being engaged, and as being back living in Austin, in their house… It suggested to him that he wanted to go for something a bit more special than plain. But what kind of special? They were fortunate this year so far as days of the week. Halloween landed on a Friday, their anniversary on a Saturday. He had cashed in a day off for that Saturday in question. Maybe he'd need that Sunday, too…

"What's she doing?" Aarti asked. Lucas turned, noticing her nearby and staring off somewhere with a mildly spooked look on her face. Following her line of sight, he had to smirk when he spotted Maeve casually testing out her zombie walk across the floor. They could see Mona watch her go, laughing as she went on with her shelving.

"Practicing for the apocalypse," Lucas turned to his young co-worker.

"What?" Aarti turned to him like she believed him for a second.

"Halloween," he clarified. "There's going to be a party at my house. You want to come?"

"Oh! I'll have to ask my mother."

"Alright, let me know," Lucas told her. Zombie Maeve caught them looking and gave them a good rattling walk. Aarti gulped.

"Don't like zombies…" she breathed.

"She won't bite," he assured her with a smile.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners