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“Everything we managed to make today,” she said, her eyes unable to pull away from the surplus of cash in her hands. “Can you imagine if it stays this way? We’d be better than surviving, Tessa. We’d be successful .”

Tessa approached the counter cautiously, resting her broom against the wall. “You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?”

“Not about this, Tess.”

She peered over the cash register, her eyes widening. “This means we can pay for Susy and Anne, Daisy.”

“Now, I wouldn’t get my hopes up that far,” Daisy said, lowering the cash back into the register. “But, for now, we don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Then why don’t you seem more excited?”

“I’m…” Daisy’s words trailed off. “I don’t even know what to think.”

Tessa slipped around the counter, snatching onto Daisy’s hands and yanking her away from the money.

“This was all we needed, Daisy,” she said, unable to hide the excited smile that pulled across her face.

“Just one day to prove our worth, and the entire town will be flocking here soon enough. Breathe. Be excited. Be proud . This, after all, is all because of you.”

Finally, after the day was over, Daisy felt the joy sink into her skin.

She grinned, all the possibilities of what to do with their profits soaring through her mind.

Everything she thought she wouldn’t be able to do from a lack of business seeped out of her.

All of their hard work was beginning to pay off, and Daisy felt drunk with the ease it gave her.

Before Daisy could begin to jump and laugh and cry with happiness, the bell rang through the shop another time.

Tessa groaned. “Honestly,” she muttered, “if we’re so rich, can’t we just close early?”

“Don’t go saying we’re rich, now,” Daisy teased, giving Tessa a gentle push from behind the counter. “You’ll jinx us before we ever really get going.”

Turning towards the storefront, Daisy stepped onto the tips of her toes to get a good look at who was slowly making their way towards the counter.

Tessa’s eyes narrowed. “Isn’t that -”

“Alan Harris,” Daisy finished, her eyes widening in surprise.

Once her high school boyfriend, Alan was now a man that Daisy preferred to avoid.

Most of the townspeople called him a heartthrob or a stunning bachelor, but Daisy couldn’t see it.

Perhaps it was because he called her boring when they were together in grade school, which led to her first heartbreak.

But Daisy’s taste happened to be narrowed down towards disheveled lawyers with grey streaked hair.

Her mind lingered on Ethan for a moment before her attention turned back to Alan, who had finally made his way to the counter.

Alan dressed like he normally would - a button down flannel with a pair of rustic denim jeans.

But the one peculiar thing that pulled Daisy’s stare up to the top of his head was the wide brimmed hat he wore.

The main attraction most people found about Alan was his luscious hair, even when they were teens.

Alan spent more time grooming his hair with ludacris products than caring about anything more important.

Even then, when Daisy happened to pass him by in the street, she could tell that, without a doubt, Alan was still incredibly vain about his dirty blonde locks.

Daisy sighed. When her mind happened to touch on him, she wondered how amusing it would’ve been to see Alan lose all his hair. Perhaps it was only her jilted heart talking, but something told her that the childish wish would’ve shown more of his true character than anyone else ever realized.

“Busy day?” he finally asked.

Daisy raised a brow. “The busiest in a while. Did you -?”

“I need your help, Daisy.”

Immediately she noticed how Tessa hung around the counter, her interest obviously piqued. Daisy glanced over Alan’s frame, curious as to what it was that ailed him when everything seemed as right as rain. If only he wasn’t wearing that strange hat.

“I know I haven’t been the nicest,” he continued, not bothering to wait for her to respond. “Or the most caring. B-But you know how kids are, right?” Alan forced out an awkward laugh, though no one else joined in. He gulped.

“Alan,” Daisy said. “What’s the problem?”

“Well, you see, it’s…well, it’s…” Alan fidgeted with his hands, messing with the few bottom buttons of his flannel. “Honestly, it’s pretty embarrassing.”

Daisy leaned against the counter. “This is a shop that heals any sort of problem, Alan. I’ve heard stranger things than you could probably imagine.”

He glanced in Tessa’s direction before returning to Daisy. “Well, I…” Finally, Alan released a sigh, his shoulders sagging in a defeated way. “I suppose it’ll make more sense just to show you.”

Alan reached for his hat and yanked it off.

“Holy -” Tessa began before clamping a hand over her mouth.

The long locks Alan had cherished for as long as Daisy could remember were no longer there.

His hairline seeped back into his scalp, a very telling sign of early balding.

Patches were missing hair while some other spots still had the wavy curls.

A wide bald spot started at the top of his head and was slowly working its way out, till eventually, there wouldn’t be a single strand left.

Daisy crept around the counter, her eyes focused on his head. Even without touching him, she could feel the magical energy wafting off his skin. She could only imagine how deep the spell must travel beneath him to have such a detrimental effect on his hair.

“It just started yesterday,” Alan explained in a small voice.

“At first it was just chunks in the shower, but by the time I got to work -” he paused to point to the growing bald spot in the center, “- this had grown larger than a baseball. Now I’ve got handfuls of hair falling out.

Please, Daisy, tell me you can help me.”

She hesitated before she reached, her hand just barely hovering over his scalp.

The tension radiating off of him was enough for her to realize that there wasn’t anything in the shop strong enough to eradicate whatever it was that had been placed on him.

Perhaps it was a jilted lover or vexed coworker.

Maybe they managed to buy a black market potion that worked overtime to rid Alan of his hair.

Either way was possible, but unfortunately untouchable by Daisy.

She’d need days of research before ever knowing how to truly heal it.

Daisy lowered her hand. “I’ll get you some cream to slow it down, Alan,” she explained. “But you’ll need to give me time to find a solution.”

“That bad, huh?”

She frowned. “Why don’t you come back in a few days, and I’ll have something better prepared.”

Alan lowered his head solemnly, but didn’t argue. Maybe the hair loss stung deep within him, deep enough to give him a few strands of humility to hold onto.

Daisy crossed the room to grab onto a squat bottle of some hair growth cream.

She couldn’t even give a confident answer as to whether or not it would work.

Something told her that whatever ailed Alan was far too strong for a simple over-the-counter cream, but it would have to be his best friend for the time being.

Daisy passed the bottle over to him and Alan exchanged a few bills.

“This is far too much, Alan,” Daisy said after counting the money.

He shrugged, a far off look on his long face. “Keep it.” He continued on towards the door, his head hanging low, as he replaced the hat on the top of his head.

Tessa crept around the counter, her eyes clinging to his receding figure. “That couldn’t have really been Alan Harris, right?”

“Who else would it have been then?”

“His good twin,” Tessa teased with a loud laugh.

“Don’t be cruel.”

Tessa raised a brow. “Was it not you who wished for him to lose all his hair when we were girls?”

“Hey,” Daisy argued, “you were wishing for it all the same.”

“My point exactly!” Tessa laughed again as she leaned against the counter. “Serves him right.”

Daisy pressed her lips together. That gnawing feeling returned to her stomach.

Despite it hanging around her for a few days now, Daisy could not pinpoint it.

Her gaze drifted towards the slip of paper poking out of the register, where she decided to hide the ominous note.

Despite only sticking out halfway, Daisy remembered the words on it as if she’d spoken them herself.

Without facing Tessa, she mouthed the words to herself.

Now you’ll get what you deserve.

Just then, as dusk took over Willowbrook, Daisy heard the distant melancholic call of the mourning doves. “Coo-OO-oo, coo-OO-oo.”