CHAPTER THREE
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BENDING CLOSER, RAJ tried to make out his last note in the low light. A small candle on the table revealed he was…scrutinizing his grocery list. Oh, he was out of mustard again.
“That was fantastic.”
The table in the Hardware Store, which was actually a speakeasy bar, shuddered. The squeak of a padded chair sliding back ground on Raj’s teeth, but he didn’t look up until a drink nearly landed on his pages. “Careful.” He tried to protect his work, but a man only laughed.
“What are you doing back here? The celebration’s happening at the bar.
” Logan, his business partner in the Heartbreak Hotel haunt and overnight experience, slapped the table for good measure.
When Raj didn’t respond, he swung back to look at where a mess of other locals gathered around the main bar.
“The whole committee is up there, along with the council members we need to get on our good side,” Logan chided him. “Go and introduce yourself before they’re too drunk to remember their own names.”
“I will,” Raj said as every fiber of his being cringed.
If he wanted to work with people, he wouldn’t have spent a decade and a half hiding in a tiny room making realistic blood splatter across IMAX screens.
Why did he think this was a good idea? Just uproot his entire life halfway across the country because he fell down a Wikipedia hole and found the Halloween town of America.
Only exciting people would take out all their life savings and invest in a haunted attraction that required rebuilding an abandoned hotel from the twenties.
No one ever called Raj exciting.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out what went wrong with the mechanism.”
“Man, stop stressing. The float was great. Everyone loved it. We’re in.”
“The bats didn’t circle the turrets. There was no thumping under the false floorboards we spent hours getting in. Oh, and the music cues were an entire second off. I’m jotting it all down so I can troubleshoot later.”
“Why?” Logan was the kind of man who didn’t understand the meaning of the word trouble.
It wasn’t that he was conceited or vapid.
He’d just been blessed with the kind of incredible luck that kept him from suffering true failure.
His life was lived on the escalator up. Raj hoped that at least some of that pixie dust would spill onto him.
“I don’t want to forget it.”
“Man, the parade’s over. Well, that one.
This town does like five or something. I don’t know.
” He slurped up his straw so loudly people pivoted in their encompassing armchairs to watch.
Once they caught his sun-kissed locks and electric blue eyes, all was forgiven.
Hence, the power of Logan. “We did what we needed to do. We’re good. ”
“For this year. But what about next?”
“We’ll fix it then.”
Raj laughed at the idea of leaving a problem. Not for a day or two, but an entire year. That would eat through his brain like acid in a soufflé until he was a drooling vegetable. Oh, right, get more squash with the broccoli.
His notebook slammed closed, and Raj stared up at Logan standing over him. “This is for the haunt, okay. You need to go buddy up with…him.” He pointed to the man who’d called Raj “Chowder.”
Raj pursed his lips at the thought. “Why?”
“‘Cause that’s the mayor.” Logan started to push Raj across the floor toward the party. “And if we get an in with him, we should be able to snag those last few permits.”
“Permits?” Raj turned on Logan in an instant. “We open in a week. How do we not have all the necessary permits?”
“It’s no big deal. Just the fire marshal’s giving us the runaround. Schmooze. You do know how to do that, right? Big Hollywood guy that you are.”
Hollywood guy. Right. Schmoozing at parties. Like people would let a VFX artist anywhere near the glitzy red carpets. The studios probably feared they’d turn feral and bite the actors who’d suddenly get a craving to use Blackmagic Fusion.
Raj skidded on his heels toward a group of people engaged in that time-honored tradition of not wanting anyone else to join in their conversation. Voices chuckled, and the man in the middle said, “That’s not my grandmother. That’s my vampire.”
Everyone broke into raucous laughter at what must have been a great joke.
Having only caught the punchline, Raj gave a little chuckle.
The group started to open, and he caught who was delighting everyone with his sharp repartee.
Adam Stein held a glass of something amber with the air of an heiress about to cut down every hanger-on with just his tongue.
Raj’s cheeks burned at the intensity. Fear and embarrassment that Raj was about to be his next target circled around him.
It was also disturbingly hot. A dressing down from that lithe man in the impeccable suit… You’re here for a job, not to browse. Focus.
“You made quite the impression at the parade, Mr Choudhary.” Adam lifted his glass and eyebrow with the impact of a gunshot to the chest.
This is stupid. I’m a grown man. He’s not even my type.
With a care, Adam swept his sharply parted hair to the side, and his gray eyes gleamed like a river of mercury under the bar lights. Okay, fine. He’s maybe my type. And they’re all waiting for me to talk. What was the topic again? The parade.
“Not as big as yours,” Raj said. He’d only taken a few quick glances back at the royal throne and the pumpkin man on it, but Adam had looked like a king, no doubt.
Raj put on a smile to back up his compliment when everyone went stone silent. They were glancing back at Adam, then zeroing in on him. Oh no, what’d I say now? Am I looking at them too much? Not enough?
A good dozen or so emotions flipped across Adam’s face. He circled his finger around the rim of his glass, then he smiled. “Ha. Good thing I landed on my gourd, huh?”
“Your gourd!” A woman in a cloud of perfume laughed and smacked Adam on the back. He winced hard at first, but tried to play it off like it was a joke.
Oh, darn. Right. He fell off his float as the throne fell. Raj remembered that. Sort of. His float had been driving away when it happened. By the time he’d noticed, people had already helped Adam back onto his seat. Though he’d held the flattened pumpkin head in his lap the rest of the route.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean your fall. I was only—” Raj started to explain when Adam swept him up. He didn’t just stand close, but took his arm.
“It was a delight to see one of my masks in the parade. And on one of the best floats, too, no less.”
“One of…?” The woman from the parade setup snorted under her breath. Adam glared at her, and she didn’t flinch.
“Oh, was I not supposed to wear it? I just, I thought it was perfect for the day. With the sun and the colors.” Great going, Raj. First big introduction in town, and you’ve managed to break every unspoken rule.
“Don’t be silly,” Adam laughed at him. “They’re meant to be shown off. Thus, everyone in the crowd knows where they too can get their own one-of-a-kind Halloween mask. It’s the best store in town.”
Raj hadn’t meant to buy anything that afternoon.
He’d just heard about the store when he got into town and had had some time to kill before the parade.
But the second he’d seen that mask that seemed to break all the laws of physics he’d learned in college, he had to have it.
Getting to meet the owner was a nice perk.
“It’s a really beautiful mask. All of them are.”
“Thank you. And everyone else can see them on October first, per usual,” Adam called to the bar that didn’t seem too interested in his announcement. “Now. What’s this I hear about a haunt in Anoka?”
“Ah. I guess the cat’s out of the bag,” Raj said, nervously scratching at the back of his head. “Who keeps putting cats in bags anyway? That’s inhumane. And going to cause blood loss once the cat’s out.”
Adam stared at him, and Raj gulped. He forgot the topic again. “My haunt. Yes. I bought the old Rushford Hotel and am transforming it into both a classic haunt and an overnight experience.”
“Overnight…? What does that mean?” Adam asked.
“My boy.” The winds shifted as a man in a straw hat rushed over. He had not only the shape but the countenance of a melting snowman. Adam smiled at him, but his focus was on Raj. “That float of yours was something else. Real Hollywood magic, eh?”
“Um, I suppose. Scrim’s been used in plays for hundreds of years. And the projections are—”
The man slapped Raj on the back. “Can we expect even better at your haunted hotel?”
“I certainly hope so.” Raj kept nodding as he looked around the group. At the edge, he spotted Logan, who gave him two thumbs up.
“Hope is the best we can hope for,” the man said with a snort. “It looks like Angie’s trying to steal my seat. If you’ll excuse me.”
The man bustled off to protect his chair, and Adam used that moment to slip in closer to Raj. “You’ve impressed Mayor Gunderson.”
“Really?” Was that who he needed to talk to about permits?
“Anoka takes Halloween seriously. Very seriously. Every street corner is decorated with vintage cats, witches, and devils. Though, it’s funny.” Adam placed a finger in front of his lips, and he gazed up at the heavens.
“What is?”
“It’s never had a haunted attraction last the season.”
That was also why Raj got the idea to try one here. He thought it a good business decision, but watching Adam’s smile twist did the same to Raj’s intestines. What did he miss? Oh no, was this already cursed?
“But I’m sure you’ll be the first to make it work,” Adam said, giving him a thumbs up. “Not just a haunt, but an experience. What’s that all about?”
“Given that it’s a hotel, I thought why not make the hauntings last all night and offer rooms to—”
“Chowdery!” Mayor Gunderson shouted over him.
“Choudhary,” Raj said without a second thought. Then he caught Logan face-palming. “Chowdery’s fine.”
“Our Halloween committee’s meeting tomorrow. Why don’t you come?”
“Really?” Raj squeaked.