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"Shoot! I forgot my posters," Nate exclaimed as we stepped out of the hardware store. He then smiled, slyly. "Guess I'll just have to walk you back to Bitter Beans to get them."
"How very convenient..." I teased. I turned back to Granny and Richard. "We'll leave you to talk out all the grown up stuff with Ralph."
Granny gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then wiped off the magenta smudge she left. "See you back at the shop with all the good news."
Nate and I strolled back, waving at Johnny down by his surf shack as we passed. Inside Bitter Beans, the posters were sitting on a table next to the door. Captain lifted his eyelids to see who was breaking into the place and gave a faint meow of welcome before settling back in. I gave the orange tabby a scratch. "You're a fierce guard cat, Captain."
Rather than head off to the Grand Hotel, Nate helped me flip on the lights and get the place open again. "So, what do you think, Paige?"
"It's a big project," I replied, putting my apron over my head. "I hope they are up for it."
"I hope so, too."
"But Granny's right. You gotta take advantage of the opportunities when they present themselves." I washed my hands and flicked the water off my fingers. "So amazing they found it before anyone else!"
Suddenly, the bell over the door tinkled. We glanced over in unison. In came the winner of my own personal Least Favorite Person prize... Madison.
She was wearing a fuzzy, crop top sweater and black leggings. Her blonde, flat-ironed hair was pulled back in a ponytail. And somehow, she had managed to perfect the art of walking in four-inch heel tennis shoes and texting at the same time. I longed for the day when she missed a step.
Madison invaded Seaside trying to get it converted to a cruise ship port. The historic main street would have been replaced by chain stores faster than you can say "Abandon ship." Nate was able to get the downtown recognized as an historic place with all the protections that afforded it, but even though she lost that battle, she had not given up on the war. Madison kept sticking around. And on top of that, she was dating my old boyfriend, Trevor, who ran the saloon a few doors down. I still wasn't sure if she actually liked the guy or just felt like being spiteful. She was trying to get him on the city council even though he had only lived here for a couple months, and she was just an all around snake.
And I had no idea why she always decided to show up at Bitter Beans at this moment. Trevor was perfectly capable of providing her with a free coffee. I'm pretty sure it was just to make my life miserable.
Not even looking up from her phone, she rudely asked, "Why are your grandmother and that old guy—"
"His name is Richard," I reminded her.
"—creeping around the hardware store?" She finished whatever text she was writing and popped her phone into her purse, nailing me with an unimpressed glare.
I sighed, trying to figure out all the ways that Madison could weaponize this against us. "They need to find a home for the new historical museum."
She wrinkled her nose. "MMmm.... Old buildings for old people to put on display a bunch of old stuff. How on brand." She glared at the posters Nate was holding, like their mere existence was offensive. She pointed a long, pink claw at them. "And what are those?"
"Good to see you, too, Madison," Nate replied. "The island puts together a Halloween festival every year. I'm just helping to spread the word. Want to hang some up in Trevor's saloon?"
She snatched one from him. "Ew. Who designed these?" she said as she glared at it. "You should have contacted me. I know people who are experts at graphic design and marketing, and would have made something that's not so janky."
"Um... Thank you for your generous offer. I'm not in charge of the festival."
Madison sniffed. "Oh. I thought you were in charge of eeeeverything..."
Nate ignored the dig. "Just helping out," he informed her, calmly. "And hey, if you would like to help, I'm sure the organizers would love someone who is an expert with social media." He was a frickin' hero the way he was able to be so inclusive of someone who was such a pain in the bucket. I don't think I could have done it.
"It's called influencer," she chided. "And like I don't already use my platform and organic reach all the time already for this dump." She sat down at one of our tables and threw her bag onto the chair. "Okay, so what's the whole branding identity of this event?" She smiled at me. "Paige, be a dear and brew me a large pumpkin spiced latte with coconut milk, extra foam."
"That'll be $4.25," I informed her.
"Nate?" Madison said, staring at my boyfriend expectantly, as if thinking it was his job to pay.
"Um... what?" he asked.
She pointed at the cash register. "Um, I'm brainstorming for you and your stupid festival. Buy your volunteer some gratitude."
Nate shook his head with disbelief, but pulled out his wallet. It was like he couldn't even believe he was doing this. Madison has that effect on people.
While Madison closed her eyes like she was summoning up some kind of genius vision, though, I motioned to him that his money was no good here. If he could take one for the team, I could, too.
"Okay. So. Just tossing words around." She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, rolling her hands as if somehow that would make things flow. "Halloween. Autumn. Gruesome. Dismembered body parts. Blood—"
"This is a family friendly event," Nate pointed out.
She frowned. "How boring. Who wants to come to something stupid like that?"
"Um... families? With kids? You know... the people the holiday was created for?"
She rolled her eyes. "Do you know the spending power of a six-year-old? It is not much."
"Yeah. That's why we are aiming for families."
Madison huffed with frustration that he was not getting what she was trying to say. I walked over with her drink and she took it, then took two stevia packets out of her purse to sweeten it up. She flicked the bags impatiently.
"Okay, well, if I'm going to be your social media manager, I need to have something I can sell. Something other than 'family friendly.' Don't you have a monster or a theme or something?"
"Again, I'm not in charge," Nate reminded her.
"Well, for the purposes of this assignment, pretend you are. Monsters? Anything?"
"We weren't really thinking monsters." He shrugged. "I mean... maybe pumpkins?"
"Doesn't this backwater island have local legends or something?"
"I don't think so..."
"Hey, we might have a ghost haunting Ralph's old place," I joked, leaning against the counter.
Madison suddenly locked onto me like Captain when he spots a mouse. "Excuse me? A ghost?"
"Oh, it was nothing," I was kind of taken aback by her intense interest. "Just we were upstairs and something fell and we joked it was a ghost."
"No..." said Madison, slowly. It seemed like she was noodling through what I had shared like it was this genius revelation, and then she had an epiphany. "THIS I can work with. THIS can actually be something."
"It was some unbalanced paint trays," I pointed out. "And there was an open window."
"Well, don't tell anyone else that." Madison rose, grabbing her purse and her drink and her phone. "Don't you worry, Nate. I have already got a plan for how to upcycle this garbage patch into the best Halloween festival Seaside has ever seen!"