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“Hi Dale,” Willow chirped. “You’re early.”

“No I’m not,” he replied. “I’m right on time. What happened in here?”

“Oh just doing some… rearranging.”

“This place is a mess!”

“Don’t worry. I have a system. Do you want to go over to Bo’s to grab us some coffee?”

“I already did. And I picked up those property records while I was there.”

Montgomery peeled himself off the floor, feeling every prickle of discomfort in his body. He never imagined pain would give him so much joy.

As he stood, emerging from behind one of the bar height bookshelves, he stayed a few feet behind Willow as she spoke to Dale, making an effort to remain quiet. But something strange happened. Dale’s eyes shifted, and he stared right at Montgomery.

“Who’s that?” Dale questioned suspiciously.

“Who’s who?”

Montgomery wondered if Willow was testing Dale or trying to buy time. It was a delicate situation which was too new. If Dale could indeed see him, how did he appear to him? Like a spirit? Like a man?

But Dale pointed right at Montgomery. “Him. Did you hire another employee? Because you said you couldn’t afford more hours and we have an agreement. I can’t give up any of my hours.”

“He’s not an employee,” Willow said defensively.

“Oh.” Then Dale tipped his chin at Montgomery in greeting. “Sup.”

Montgomery nodded back to him in turn.

“Are you Willow’s boyfriend?” Dale asked.

“Yes!” blurted Willow. Exactly that. “My boyfriend. Mo… Mon… Mountie. She shuffled back a few steps, hooking her arm in Montgomery’s. “Mountie, this is Dale. My sales clerk.”

“Mountie’s an interesting name,” Dale said. “Is it Arabic?”

“Canadian,” Willow said immediately. “He… was named after the Mountie Police. His parents were big fans of those wide brimmed hats.”

Dale nodded, completely buying it. “I had a Canadian girlfriend once. Nobody believed me, though. Eventually we broke up.”

“Um… did you say something about property records?” Willow said to redirect the conversation before she got in too deep with the lie.

“Yes, they’re right here,” Dale replied, retrieving a manila envelope from his messenger bag. “Bo said he sweet talked Mrs. Johnson into including the change of ownership statements.”

“That’s real nice of Bo,” said Willow.

Dale nodded solemnly. “Yeah. He’ll be a little gloomy when he finds out you have a boyfriend.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” said Willow, and something clenched inside Montgomery’s stomach.

Dale stood in awkward silence, looking from Willow to Montgomery to the mess of books all over the shop, just taking it all in like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Then clapping his hands together said, “Okay well, I’ll head to the office to clock in and check my socials. I posted a video of me juggling tiny pumpkins and I think it’s about to go viral.”

With that, he pranced into the back office, leaving Montgomery and Willow to process what just happened.

“Oh my lanta! He can see you.” Willow squealed.

Montgomery, regarded her coolly. “Mountie? Really?”