Page 19

Chapter 18

Ferretcon

Jemma

“W ell, hello there!”

I glanced up from my half-set-up table to find Humphrey grinning over at me, two takeaway coffees in his hands.

“Ezra informed me that I needed to look after you this evening, seeing as he has to work … and that looking after you meant caffeine first thing.” He held out one of the cups to me. “Hazelnut latte?”

I took the coffee, wishing it was cool enough to slurp immediately. But it wasn’t, so I set it down on my trestle and picked up the box of costumes I was sorting through. “Thanks. Are you working tonight?”

Humphrey nodded. “Yeah. I’m in the next row over.” He leaned closer. “I’m so bummed we’re not side by side, because if your blond beau comes to visit you today, and I miss seeing him, I’m going to die! Ezra said the nurses who saw him at the hospital have not stopped gushing.”

My stomach fluttered. It had been a week since the infamous brunch. In that week, I’d lied a lot to Ezra, ignored a number of texts from Joe demanding SJ’s job credentials, his housing situation, his income … which in Joe’s mind was much more important than how he treated me.

I’d repeated the same sappy, completely fake donut story that I’d told Ezra to Ellie, Faith and Harper when they demanded to hear all about our meet cute.

But there hadn’t been so much of a single flash of heat, the thing I had begun to realise heralded a visit from him. Every day that passed had me even more riled up, on edge with waiting for him to show up unannounced, sporting a smirk, and his next task for me.

This feeling in my stomach, it must have been nerves. It couldn’t possibly be anticipation. Because nothing good would come from a visit from SJ.

Except it sort of had, at brunch. Hadn’t it?

The way he stroked your thigh was very, very good … the dirty, smut-loving part of my brain said slyly. You climaxed so hard last night, thinking about his hands on you …

That’s just because I’m about to ovulate, I argued with myself like a lunatic. I’m always super horny for a few days beforehand!

Which meant a visit from SJ today would be a very, very bad thing. Ovulation hormones plus an unfairly attractive man, whose alter ego happened to be every monster romance girlie’s wet dream …

“I don’t think he’ll be around today. He’s gone out of town on business,” I told Humphrey, hoping my voice sounded airy and not dishonest.

The way Humphrey’s face fell was almost comical. “You better approve him for official best friend introductions soon, because I am itching to check this guy out!”

I slapped him on the arm, maybe just a little harder than necessary. “Excuse me, you’re madly in like with my best friend!”

A wistful smile playing played at the corners of Humphrey’s mouth. “I really am, you know.”

My heart went all squishy, and without thinking, I pulled him into a hug. “I know you are … and I am so flipping happy for the both of you!” Tears prickled my eyes, and I pulled out of his embrace, wiping at them, giggling wetly.

“So … when are you and Ezra going out again?” I asked, setting up Luci’s little playpen at the front of the stall.

Humphrey grinned. “Two sleeps. He wants to cook me dinner at your place, Sunday night … since he’s finishing this night shift stint.” His cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink.

“Aww, does that mean I’ll need to wear my noise-cancelling headphones to bed?” I raised a cheeky eyebrow.

Humphrey swatted at me. “Oh my God, don’t …” His grin widened. “But maybe you should …”

I winked at him. “Consider it done. Now, don’t you have some pottering to do … or whatever it is you call it?”

Humphrey tilted his head to the side, hazel eyes gleaming. “You know, I’m not even sure what it’s called. Potting, maybe? Claying? Sculpting …” He shrugged, then handed me his phone. “Hey, send yourself a message so you have my number … and if your big blond beast turns up unexpectedly this evening, I want to be the first to know.”

I sighed, tapping a bunch of emojis into his phone under my number and hitting send. “Everyone is so desperate to meet SJ.” If only they knew the truth, they’d be more than happy to keep their distance.

“SJ,” Humphrey sighed, pocketing his phone. “Gosh, even his name sounds adorable.”

I clenched my jaw, because if I didn’t, I was going to blurt out that it was short for Satan Junior, and he was not adorable, because he was trying to steal my soul!

“Super adorable,” I grated instead and turned quickly before he caught my eye twitching. “Thanks for the coffee!”

“Have a great night … well, I’m sure you will, since you’ve got your lucky undies on.”

“How can you … how did you know about that?” I whirled around, but Humphrey was already walking away, waving cheekily over his shoulder.

I stomped over to my car and unloaded Luci. “When Ezra gets home in the morning, you have to bite him on the bum for me,” I told her, rummaging on the seat for the costume I’d decided to put her in tonight. “I can’t believe he’s been telling people about my lucky undies!”

Luci glared beadily at me as I stretched the little devil horns over her head and tied the little wings on her back. “Now, you know I’m only joking, don’t you?” I lectured, taking her to play in her pen. “Don’t really bite Ezra. Well. Maybe a little nip wouldn’t go astray.”

Luci found her squeaky stuffed toy and immediately began wrestling it. I swore that she gave me intense eye contact as she rotated it with her paws and then sank her sharp little nippers into its backside.

“I’ve created a monster,” I muttered as the lights of the showground flicked on, signalling the official start of the Twilight Markets. There was a definite change in the air tonight, a mildness that had me almost shrugging out of my yellow cardigan—the one with the cherries embroidered all over it.

But winter hadn’t quite relinquished its grip on the city just yet, so instead of taking it off entirely, I settled for letting it slip off my shoulders, letting the cool air caress my skin as I bustled about, putting the final touches on my stall.

“We were hoping to catch you again tonight, Jemma!”

The voice was vaguely familiar, and I spun. I couldn’t quite place the humans until my eyes fell on their giant white boy.

“Oh! It’s the Maltese Ferret!” I joked, reaching out to stroke him, grinning up at his owners. “What’s his name? I’m sorry, I usually make a better point of learning my customer’s names.”

“He’s Falcor,” said the taller of the two women, smiling down at me with twinkling grey eyes and the coolest undercut hairdo I’d ever seen. She reached out a hand in my direction. “And I’m Esther, and this is my partner, Jules.”

I took her hand, turning to the smaller woman. She had to juggle the monstrous weight of Falcor to be able to shake my hand, her brown curls bouncing around her freckled face.

“Is your girl friendly?” she asked, tilting a head in Luci’s direction. “Do you mind if I pop him in with her? I think I’m getting tennis elbow from carrying him.”

I laughed. “She adores a ferret play date!” I scooped Falcor out of her arms and plonked him down in the playpen. Immediately Luci scuttled over to sniff at him. “If I’d known you were coming tonight, I would have brought the axolotl costume. It’s sitting on my bed, ready to post out on Monday.”

“Oh, no rush on that.” Esther waved my apology away. “But it’s great to see you again, anyway!”

“It is?” I asked, meeting her gaze. There was something lively and energetic in her expression, something that had excitement zinging up my spine.

“Yes, we have a business proposition for you.”

I tilted my head, confusion swirling in my stomach. “Okay?”

Jules smiled warmly, her eyes crinkling. “Esther, you don’t need to make it sound so serious!” She nudged the taller woman with her elbow. “We’re very active in the ferret-owning community, and we’re also avid cosplayers.”

My little, pop culture-loving heart accelerated at that. “I’m in.”

Esther chuckled as Jules grinned wider. “We haven’t even told you our idea yet.”

I shrugged, my cardigan falling to my elbows. “You had me at ferrets and cosplay. Have you seen what I do here?” I gestured to my stall.

“Which is exactly why we thought of you immediately for this concept we’re developing,” Esther explained. “You do know that you’re semi-famous among local ferret lovers, don’t you?”

I wrinkled my nose. “No, that’s ridiculous.”

Jules’s smile widened. “You really are. Every ferret parent we speak to knows about Dooks of Hazzard.” She gestured towards the logo tablecloth hanging from my trestle table. “Cool name, by the way!”

My face heated with pleasure. “Thanks! I thought so, too. The first costume I ever made for Luci was a little hat and a plaid shirt … the Daisy Dukes were a little hard to manage on a ferret …”

“I can imagine,” Esther chuckled. “And we’re not kidding. You’re almost a celebrity in the ferret-having circles we run in. And, in our travels, we’ve discovered that the Venn diagram between ferret people and cosplay people … well, it’s almost a perfect circle.”

“I’m not sure I’m entirely following you … but I’m super excited anyway! Is that weird?”

“Not at all!” Jules reassured me. “That’s exactly the sort of enthusiasm everyone loves about you!”

I felt my nose trying to wrinkle in denial again, and I forced my face into stillness. But were they for real? I mean, I had decent and consistent engagement on social media, and I had noticed that my sales through Etsy were steadily growing, but … were there really people out there—a vast number of them, if they weren’t exaggerating—who knew about me and loved my brand?

They had to be exaggerating.

Esther planted a hand on my arm, giving my elbow a little squeeze. “So, we were hoping that you and Luci might like to be the faces of an event we’re planning.”

“An event?”

“Ferretcon!”

My mouth fell open. “You mean, like …”

Jules was already nodding wildly. “Like a cosplay event, but with ferrets!”

“Is there really a market for that?”

“We believe that not only is there a market locally, but this has the potential to be an event that people will travel from out of town to attend.”

I couldn’t stop the nose-wrinkling this time. “Are you serious?”

They nodded in unison. “Deadly serious. And we want you, and Luci, to be the faces of the event. We’d obviously offer Dooks of Hazzard a prime position on the day, but you’d have the ability to market to our ticketholders in the months leading up to the event, and your face, and your logo, would be on all our marketing materials, and our website.”

I couldn’t speak. My heart was jumping into my throat. This was a massive opportunity. If this was touching people from out of town, people who owned and loved ferrets …

“How much is this going to cost me?” I blurted. Because this all had to be too good to be true.

“I don’t follow …” Jules looked genuinely confused.

“Well, it sounds to me like a sponsorship opportunity. And I’m not … strictly speaking … in a position to be outlaying money right now.” Understatement of the century.

Esther squeezed my arm tighter. “We don’t want cash from you, Jemma. More of an … exchange, I suppose you might say.”

Heat pulsed behind me, and every nerve that had been fluttering all week turned to a riot. Esther’s eyes lifted, and her eyebrows rose as a deep voice from behind me boomed.

“What exactly are you suggesting that she exchange with you?”