When I returned to Elliot’s Emporium, there was someone talking to Elliot and they didn’t look like a customer. Based on the body language between them, I would have guessed that they were already very familiar with each other.

I only caught the tail end of their conversation.

“You named your store after yourself? That’s cute,” the visitor said with a snort, implying that it was anything but. Whoever this nemesis of Elliot’s was, they happened to be close to six feet tall and willowy in stature. They were sharply dressed and wore some very expensive perfume. 

As they were leaving, Elliot watched them go, glaring in silent anger at their back.

I apologized for being late and asked, “Who was that?”

Elliot hadn’t taken her eyes off of the door. After a few moments, she blinked and exhaled a heavy breath.

“Her name is London Graham. She’s a former model, but she eventually went into design. We were roommates back in design school for about two years.”

I walked up to Elliot and put my bag down behind the register. “Let me guess. You used to be friends?”

Elliot groaned and turned in place, looking for something to work on. “Yes! And after a series of unfortunate and unavoidable events that I’d rather not spend any more time dissecting, we somehow became rivals. I’m so over it, Aqua.”

Without needing to say that much about it, Elliot seemed very exhausted by whatever went down between her and London.

“It doesn’t seem like London is,” I pointed out as gently as I could. “What was she doing here anyway? Is she going to be showing her line in a few weeks too?”

Elliot fought back a dark laugh. “No way. London doesn’t even work here. She came all this way to intimidate me and throw me off my game.”

Judging by the way Elliot was working her jaw and glaring at the ground instead of focusing on organizing the clothes on the rack, I’d say that London’s plan was working.

“Hey, um…” I tried to think of something quick. “Why do people around here call Sean a ghost hunter?”

Like I suspected, Elliot seemed to appreciate the change in subject matter. And though I had no intention of telling her what went down outside of the old Pacifico store, I wanted to see what this gossip about Sean was all about. 

Back to her perky self, Elliot said, “So, you’ve probably guessed it by now, but this mall wasn’t built yesterday. It’s got old man bones if you know what I mean. Maintenance around here isn’t as much of a priority as it is with the newer outlets.”

I noticed that Elliot had whipped out her soft measuring tape. She waved for me to follow her to the back room where her rolls of fabric were stored.

“Anyway, the weirdest stuff breaks down all over the mall. At the strangest times too. And when that happens, they call Sean. He does… whatever it is he does and the problem just goes away. Or if something goes missing, he finds it. That happens a lot too.”

I thought back to my grape soda that I couldn’t recover from the trash bin. “What sort of stuff goes missing around here?”

Elliot shot me a nervous grin. “Light bulbs. Right out of their fixtures. Food from the food court. Straight out of their freezers. Of course, you sometimes have the missing personal belongings, but most of the lost items are way more bizarre than the occasional missing phone or bag.” She shook her head and chuckled. “One time I had to call Sean because my key wouldn’t work. I couldn’t open the gate to my store. I totally freaked out for no reason.”

She looked like she wanted to say more, but all she said was, “Anyway… Sean fixed it. I guess.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You guess? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Elliot shrugged. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, Aqua. You should see the look on your face right now.”

I almost dared Elliot to try me, but someone interrupted us. Dustin, the event coordinator, poked his head inside the room and cleared his throat.

“Hey, Elliot. Got a second?”

Whatever it was, it seemed pretty urgent. Dustin nodded politely at me before walking away with Elliot. I started cleaning up some of the extra threads and other scraps crowding Elliot’s work station while I waited for her to return.

That’s when my pager went off. 

| G o s s. 8.05 P M. |

That must have been Sean because I didn’t recognize the number. Plus Goss was short for Gossamer, one of the big retail stores that shut down a while back. It was kind of a mess in there despite all of the shelves being cleared. The lone escalator in the center of the department store did give off those standard haunted vibes. Was that where the carousel had been moved?

“Are you fucking kidding me!”

I dropped everything and rushed to the door.

“Two weeks from now! Why?”

I stayed out of sight, but listened to what was happening. Apparently the fashion show got bumped up by a few weeks. I personally knew that Elliot was nowhere finished with her line. She was working so hard, though. Honestly, it wasn’t fair.

Dustin mumbled something about how it was a logistical error on the committee’s part and there’s nothing he could do about it. The mall needed the original date for something else.

“An expo for some new small retailers will be in town. They didn’t want to let the chance go by so the rest of the committee booked it. Told us to work around it.”

Elliot sounded like she had pulled herself together, but barely. As soon as I heard her say goodbye to Dustin, I backed away from the door. Seconds later, Elliot came in, red in the face as you could get and trying not to explode.

I sighed and turned away, trying to give her a little privacy. “If you need to scream, I won’t care.”

Elliot let it out. She pushed over a table and seesawed between laughing and sobbing. Then she crouched down, curled into a ball and tried to get a hold of herself.

“You heard what he said?” 

I went to stand the fallen table upright. “Some retail expo took your spot.”

Elliot wiped her nose with a loud sniff. “London Graham’s store is one of the ones on the list. Dustin showed me. That’s why she was here. To check out the space.”

I bit my lip. “Elliot, I’m so sorry.”

The designer wiped her eyes and stood up. “Such is life. This is my first show and I wanted everything to go perfect. But you rarely get perfect in this business.”

I helped her clean up some more before asking, “Why would the mall event committee go out of their way to give a platform to stores that don’t even sell here? Shouldn’t they prioritize stores like yours?”

Elliot made a tired sound. “You would think. But they want customers, Aqua. They want warm bodies in the mall. If they’re looking at two events to give a spot to, they’re not going to pick the one that’s not guaranteed to make people show up. I mean, look at me. You’re the only model who wants to work with me.”

Without even thinking twice, I tried to reassure her. “We’ll get more models. We just have to think of something else besides flyers, that's all.”

Elliot threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t have any more extra money to pay for ad space anywhere. Not to mention, I’ve got to get a whole wardrobe out in a fraction of the time than I originally had. Oh, and I have to run an actual store. There’s that.”

I left the room and started looking around the store. I found the pile of Models Wanted flyers on a lounge chair.

“Aqua, what are you doing?” Elliot asked, trailing after me. 

I held up the flyers as I walked out the door. “Not wasting any more time.”