“Good morning.” Ever waved at Taylor and Logan, closing the door behind him.

  “Hello ding dong ditcher,” Taylor said, narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips.

  “Wait, wait.” Logan put his hands out. “You said that he abandoned you and Mystique–”

  “Zoe.” Ever interjected.

  “Right, right. Zoe.” Logan crossed his arms. “Were you pressing people’s doorbells and running away?”

  Ever glanced at Taylor, who was mirroring her uncle. He sighed, pulled out one of the customer chairs and turned it towards them.

  “I was not doing that,” he said while sitting down, “and Taylor knows very well I wasn’t.” He too crossed his arms.

  Logan turned to his niece. “But you said–”

  “I know what I said, Unc!” Taylor barked, rolling her eyes. “What I meant is that Ever ditched us while Zoe and I went ding donging.”

  “I had to leave. It was an urgent matter.” He looked straight at Taylor, trying to create a connection with her mind. *I had to help the ghost of a boy who wanted to Trick or Treat.* Unsurprisingly, there was no reception.

  “The guy’s allowed to leave if he had something important to attend to, Tayzer. Ooh, I've been waiting for this call all morning.” He put his coat on and went outside, fiddling with his headset. He pointed at one, then the other. “Behave, you two.”

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  “There were ghosts everywhere when we went Trick of Treating last week,” Ever said in a hushed tone, eyes on Logan through the window. “Real ones. There was a boy I had to help.”

  “Yeah, I figured as much.”

  “So why did you make such a big deal out of it?”

  “Just cause.” She shrugged innocently. The first customer of the day came in; Ever put the chair back and joined Taylor in the serving area. Now that the festivities were over, business seemed to revert to the crawl that it had been over the last couple months.

  “Actually you know what, I am annoyed at you.” She crossed her arms again. “It got super awkward between me and Zoe. I tried starting a conversation with her a few times. Her work, her amazing Halloween outfit, you…” she peeled off the topics on her fingers. “She just didn’t want to talk to me. What did I ever do to her?”

  “Well it might have been because of your Halloween outfit.”

  “Wait.” She took a half step towards him. “What was wrong with my Halloween outfit?”

  Oh curses. Ever backed up until he was against the wall. Her hand shot out like a chameleon’s tongue, grabbing him by the top of his apron, just as Logan came back in. Their boss threw his hands up in mock frustration.

  “What did I just say?”

  “Ever said that Zoe wasn’t talking to me because of my Halloween outfit,” Taylor said. “And now he won’t tell me what was wrong with it.”

  Ever looked helplessly at his boss. *Can you tell her, please?* Thankfully, Ever saw the flicker of understanding in Logan’s eyes.

  “Tayzer,” Logan began slowly. He walked in, steepling his fingers. “Don’t you think your outfit was a bit… revealing?”

  “What?” Her voice was quiet and dangerous. “So I can’t feel hot once in a while?”

  “No, it’s not that–”

  She let go of Ever’s apron, swept past the two men and stormed out of the ice cream shop.