They Thought My Mate Chose Her novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: The Agent
Two days later, I was back on Fifth Street at eight in the morning with a mop.
The front of the shop had dried out.
The walls were still smoke-black, and the back was a hole in the building covered with a blue tarp.
But the front room was mine, and the bell still worked.
I'd taped a card to the glass. OPEN FOR PICKUPS, 8 TO 10.
At nine fifteen the bell rang, and a stranger walked in.
He was the kind of stranger Calumet notices from two blocks away.
Gray overcoat. Leather gloves. Shoes that had never seen a snowbank.
He had a garment bag over one arm and a phone in his other hand.
He smelled of hotel soap and nothing else.
Not a wolf.
"You're the tailor?" he said.
"I'm the seamstress."
"Is there a difference?"
"About forty dollars an hour."
He laughed. He was younger than his coat, maybe forty, with a pleasant tired face.
"Somebody at the gas station said you're the only one this side of Houghton." He unzipped the bag. "I need the trousers taken up an inch. I've got a closing Sunday morning and I'm not standing on a beach with my cuffs in the sand."
I took the trousers.
Navy wool. A Duluth label.
My hands didn't shake. I'd trained them not to.
"A beach closing," I said. "In November?"
"My client's idea. The seller's, really." He rolled his eyes a little. "Some local tradition. There's a big family gathering out there Saturday night, and Mr. Hocking wants it signed on the spot at eight the next morning, before anybody goes home. Pens on the tailgate. It's very rustic."
I knelt and pinned the hem on the trousers over my own knee, because I needed somewhere to look.
"Mr. Hocking," I said.
"You know him?"
"I've hemmed everything he owns."
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