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Chloe looked up, to see a different woman in an apron.

This woman was several years older, short, with dark hair, and obviously quite heavily pregnant.

Chloe felt a little alarmed to see that she was working – she looked like she was ready to pop at any moment! – but she seemed cheerful and relaxed.

Chloe glanced at her nametag, which read ‘Sylvie’. That explained it, then – Chloe had known enough small business owners to know that a lot of them lived for their work, no matter the circumstances.

“I would love to hear about the specials,” she said. And it was absolutely true – despite the massive meal yesterday, she was pretty sure that she was ready and willing to devour her entire weight in baked goods.

Sylvie beamed. “Well, here goes then.” She began counting off on her fingers. “First of all, we’ve got sourdough donuts, filled with fresh rosewater custard and topped off with crushed pistachios.”

“Oh, yum,” Chloe said. She was definitely going to get one of those! Even Ethan looked interested, though he was obviously trying hard to hide it.

“Second, we have kanelbullar – Swedish cinnamon buns with cardamom and pearl sugar,” Sylvie went on.

Well, crap. Now I have to get both of them, Chloe thought in anguish. Maybe Ethan will go fifty-fifty, so we can try them both?

“And our third special today is an oldie but a goodie,” Sylvie concluded.

“Warm cherry pie with lavender and vanilla bean ice cream.” She winked.

“Though probably not quite traditional in every sense. Unless you make your cherry pie with Chinese five spice and pomegranate juice, plus a few other things that I’m going to have to keep as a professional secret. ”

“Oh my God.” Chloe rubbed her hands over her face. “Are you really trying to make me choose? And these are just the specials! I haven’t even looked at the regular cakes yet!”

“Sorry,” Sylvie laughed, not sounding particularly sorry.

Even as Chloe contemplated rending her garments in despair at the choice she had been presented with, deep down, she knew that she’d already chosen.

Because what on the entire planet went down better on a cold, dark, foggy fall day than a big, warm serving of cherry pie?

“I’ll take the cherry pie,” Ethan said suddenly, jerking Chloe out of her reverie. She stared, shocked, but he looked serious. She supposed that he was justifying it as fruit content.

Would it be weird for me to order the same? Will he think I’m copying him? This is my opportunity to try a range of options, after all.

But no, she really, really wanted the pie.

“Make that two,” she said. “And would I be able to get an Earl Grey tea with milk as well?”

“Of course,” Sylvie said with a smile. “Anything to drink for you, sir?”

“I’ll have a black coffee,” Ethan said, and Chloe bit her tongue before she could say Of course you will . The fact that he was willingly ordering cherry pie and ice cream was pretty impressive – she didn’t want to give him a complex!

Sylvie bustled – well, as much as she could bustle with a belly like that – back to the counter, and Chloe turned back to Ethan and Curtis, the latter of whom had remained silent so far.

Is it rude to eat delicious cake in front of ghosts?

she wondered, though it was a bit late now.

She hoped Curtis wasn’t feeling left out even more than he must be already – being invisible to everyone except Ethan and Chloe meant, of course, Sylvie hadn’t even known he was there to ask if he wanted anything.

“So, uh, what’s the plan?” she asked, as she looked between them. “Did you remember anything, Curtis?”

Curtis shook his head a little mournfully. ~Not a single thing, Miss Chloe. I have ruminated on everything I looked over with Miss Margot yesterday, but I am afraid I still simply have no idea what it is I’ve been sent here to accomplish.~

“I was thinking that perhaps we could walk with Curtis around Girdwood Springs,” Ethan said. “We tried driving around yesterday, which didn’t achieve much. But maybe looking at things more in-depth will work better.”

“That’s definitely worth a try,” Chloe said with a nod. “Do you expect that you’ll know what you’re looking for when you see it?”

~I certainly hope so,~ Curtis replied. ~After all, I was able to eventually recall the town of Girdwood Springs. And then, yesterday, I was drawn to the house in which you work, where my own home used to stand.~

“I wonder if it’d be worth taking you back there,” Chloe said thoughtfully. “Perhaps going back will bring up some more memories for you, even if the house is no longer there.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Ethan said. “We have to start somewhere, and so far that’s our only lead. Unless we want to see if we can ask Margot for help again.”

“It seems like a witch would be the best person to ask about ghosts,” Chloe agreed – was she really just discussing ghosts and witches so casually now?

What had her life become?! “But Curtis, you did spend a lot of time with her yesterday with no luck. And she seemed the friendly type – I’m sure if there were anything she could have done to help, she would have done it. ”

~I believe you are correct, Miss Chloe,~ Curtis agreed glumly. ~I had hoped simply coming to this town might solve the problem, and I could return to the afterlife. But it seems it’s not so simple.~

He sounded so down-hearted that Chloe couldn’t help but feel more than a little pang of sympathy. She felt bad for thinking of him as an interruption to her time with Ethan – clearly, hanging around on earth instead of wherever he’d passed over to wasn’t his idea of a good time either.

Curtis brightened a little. ~But it sure has been an adventure to meet you all, and to see what has become of Girdwood Springs.~ He perked up further still. ~And to watch the moving pictures of the ‘bullet trains’. They truly are a marvel.~

“It’s been wonderful to meet you too, Curtis,” she said warmly – and truthfully. It certainly had been an adventure, she could agree with that!

And seeing his wonder at things that she took for granted was making her reevaluate the way she saw the world a little.

There really were all kinds of amazing things in day-to-day life that she never really thought about.

She hoped that moving to Girdwood Springs and getting away from her previous cramped, hectic city lifestyle would allow her to slow down and really appreciate things.

“Likewise,” Ethan said with a nod. Chloe knew that Curtis had turned Ethan’s life upside-down, but he seemed genuine in his sentiment.

“I’m so sorry! I’m afraid I have to apologize!”

Chloe looked up at the sound of the voice above them. Sylvie stood by their table, an apologetic look on her face and a tray in her hands.

“There was only once slice of cherry pie left – another customer came in and snatched the rest of it up while I was talking to you! I’m afraid I didn’t realize until I got back to the counter.”

With another apologetic smile, she placed a plate on the table. The slice of pie that sat on it was so enormous that Chloe could barely believe that it was ever intended for one person to begin with. It was practically an entire cherry pie in itself!

“No… that’s okay…” Chloe murmured, as she stared at the pie in awe. “I think this is going to be more than enough, even for two.”

The scarlet cherries glistened as they spilled out the sides of the slice, swimming in a mouth-wateringly gooey sauce, and the pastry lattice was cooked to the perfect shade of brown, dusted in sugar.

Nestled in beside the pie were three gargantuan scoops of creamy vanilla ice cream, dappled with tiny specks of vanilla bean and delicate purple flecks of lavender.

On top of it all danced a dazzling array of edible flowers in all the colors of the rainbow, arranged with an artisan’s flourish.

Chloe gaped. It was too pretty to eat! And yet the ice cream was already beginning to soften at the edges, and surely the pie would be starting to cool…

I have to eat it anyway, even if it does feel like I’m destroying a work of art. It’s what the pie would want me to do. It’s its raison d’être, after all… not to eat it would be even more of a crime!

“I’ve added extra ice cream, and brought you a donut and a kanelbullar on the house,” Sylvie said, putting down two more plates loaded with cake.

“And you can have any other item off the menu free of charge, or else wait for about twenty minutes until the next batch of pies is finished and have a slice of that instead.”

She started muttering to herself before Chloe could get another word in edgeways. “I can’t believe the timing got messed up! That never happens!”

Chloe’s heart went out to her. Clearly she was in the middle of handing over her business before she went on leave to have her baby… and clearly she was also a perfectionist who wanted her customers to have the best possible experience.

“Please, it’s fine,” Ethan said. “Truly.”

Chloe nodded. “This is more food than I could eat in a week. Please, we don’t need any more cake. This slice is easily two serves’ worth.”

Sylvie looked like she was about to protest again, and so Chloe held up her hand. “Nuh-uh! I won’t hear it. We’re going to eat this amazing pie, and you’re going to talk to your staff, or sit down, or whatever it is you need to do.” She smiled. “You want us to eat this before it goes cold, right?”

Sylvie smiled back, laughing a little. “Okay, you got me. I’ll leave you to it. Thank you,” she added gratefully, before she shuffled off, her hands on her belly.

“Wow, generous people they have here,” Chloe said appreciatively. “Honestly, I’m more than happy with just this cherry pie!”

“Yes…” Ethan said musingly, eyeing the enormous slice and slightly soft ice cream as if it were some challenge he had to overcome. Chloe wondered when the last time he’d eaten pie was… if he’d ever eaten pie at all.