Page 7 of Eye on the Ball
And sneezed again.
“Nothing?”
“Nope.”
When Ursula put the stopper back in the bottle, Tess took it back out and dabbed some on the back of her wrist.
“I already have a different scent on the other side of my arm,” she answered my inquiring glance. “Try this.”
“It’s not a fair test.” I let a wicked smile slowly spread across my face. “You’realwaysirresistible to me.”
Tess blushed, which made me think delightful thoughts about what we’d been up to the night before. But she held out her arm, and I bent to sniff. And sneezed.
“Irresistible,” I told her, when I stopped sneezing.
Tess’s eyes widened, and I laughed. “But no more irresistible than usual.”
“That is so weird,” Ursula said, frowning. “It has been the bane of my existence for two solid months.”
I knew I shouldn’t ask, but … “Why didn’t you justnotwear the stuff? And I’m sorry, but why are you wearing a raincoat?”
She looked puzzled. “I always wear a raincoat. It might rain. And it’s not that easy to avoid the perfume. At first, it was fun to wear. Men and even some women were throwing themselves at me. It was outstanding for a while. But then, it got weird. Stalker-y, even. And it seems like the more times I wore it, the longer it took for the effects to wear off.”
“And now? You want Tess to sell it to some unsuspecting person?”
Ursula had the grace to look embarrassed. “Well, I thought she could dump it out, maybe. Wash it and it’s just a pretty bottle, you know? I think it’s the enchantment working on me, but I’ve tried to dump it out, and yet I just can’t bring myself to do it. Even now, part of me wants to keep it and go try it out in Hollywood in a room filled with rich guys or something.”
Tess held the bottle out to her. Ursula hesitated, but then shook her head. “No. No, it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Can you give me anything for it?”
I thought it was a bad idea, even though the perfume clearly wasn’t enchanted at all, but Tess was the kindest person I’ve ever known, and she agreed to buy the bottle, stinky perfume and all. They completed the transaction quickly, and Ursula, looking immensely relieved, turned to leave.
When she reached the door, she looked back at us, biting her lip. “This is odd, but I should probably tell you. Grandma said it can affect animals, too, so to be careful. But I have three cats, two dogs, and a parrot, and none of them showed the slightest interest.”
“Okay …” Tess said faintly, and then the woman was gone.
“The raincoat was weird, though, right?”
Tess tilted her head. “That’swhat you’re curious about?”
“Just weird. Anyway, she was trying to run a scam or a little … confused, right?”
“Who knows? But I have someone coming in for an interview in an hour and we’re probably about to get busy, so I’ll deal with it later. What are you up to this morning?”
I glanced at the Spartacus clock. I could see the time, even though the little gladiator was sneaking up on a taxidermied raccoon. “Going to go home and eat breakfast?—”
“We just had breakfast!”
“Eat a second breakfast and then do some lawn work at my place and yours.” After a decade as a rebel soldier in the trenches in the vampire war, now I was a guy who owned a small business and mowed my lawn. It still surprised me, but I liked it.
Tess hugged me—one of the few perks of lawn work—and I kissed her goodbye. The kiss had just gotten interesting when the chimes over the door tinkled, and several customers bustled in.
Tess pulled back, laughing. “Okay, hot stuff. I need to get back to work now. I’ll see you this evening.”
I was in my truck driving away before I remembered I hadn’t learned the deal about the mysterious softball ceremony. Oh, well. I’d find out soon enough. Knowing Dead End, it was going to be something weird, like we had to invite the leprechauns back to town to dip the softball in peanut butter.
I suddenly realized my standards for “weird” had changed a heck of a lot since moving back home to Dead End.
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