Bad Influence (Seven Deadly Sins #2) ✅ Completed

Chapter Four: The Fine Art of Business

The Fine Art of Business

     

After my second shower and wardrobe change, in which I had called Dante every horrible name I could think of (again), I went back into the kitchen and wiped up the mess off the floor. Lucky for me there wasn’t that much to clean since my face and shirt had taken most of the damage. When I was done wiping the floor with a few wet paper towels, I tossed them into the trashcan under the sink and grabbed another cupcake before heading downstairs to the shop floor.

As I came down the wrought iron stairs, I was startled to see Aunt Celeste’s shop was still a mess. So maybe it was wrong of me to expect Dante to have taken care of everything here like he had upstairs, but I’d be a liar if I said I hadn’t expected more of a clean-up effort. The broken store window had been repaired, and most of the glassy debris had been cleared off the floor, but there were still piles of littered junk and broken bric-a-brac everywhere. The couch from the back stock room was still lying in the middle of the floor but it too was covered under a mountain of debris.

I walked around the shop floor and realized most of the “new” junk I was starting at had once filled Aunt Celeste’s apartment to hoarder-like proportions.

I sighed.

What on earth were we going to do with all of it?

“Sell it.” Dante came out from the back stock room carrying a shiny new laptop.

“What?” I asked glaring daggers at him. Maybe if I stared long enough I could actually make him feel bad enough to apologize for throwing his breakfast in my face.

“We’re going to sell this stuff online, make some money, and get it out of here,” he replied. The he gave me a quick once over and snorted as he did his little mind-reading trick, “You can glare at me until your eyeballs fall out, I’m not apologizing.”

“You suck, Dante.”

“Be childish if it makes you feel better…” he started.

“I will,” I interrupted.

Dante continued like I hadn’t spoken, "But I’m a lot older and way smarter than you are. I already told you Lust is an insidious sin. If you want to help the remaining people Celeste cursed and keep your soul out of Hell, you’re going to have to do a better job of staying in control. This isn’t a game anymore.”

“Really, Dante? I guessed I missed that little memo while I was passed out because of your demon half-brother.”

Now it was Dante’s turn to glare, “Are you quite done?”

“With this conversation, absolutely. On the other, no.” I snapped then took a deep breath. I could be mad at Dante all I wanted, but it wouldn’t make Aunt Celeste’s junk disappear any quicker. I took another quick look around – there really was a helluva lot of junk.  “Why can’t we just bring it to the nearest landfill?”

“We can’t,” he replied, moving onto the more pressing issue. He walked over to the broken glass counter and made a space for his laptop.

"And why not?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Because it’ll just come back, that's why.”

“Come back?” I asked, dropping my arms in shock. That was definitely a new one.   

Dante nodded, “Yeah, like in a bad Stephen King novel sort of way. Most of this stuff has some residual magic courtesy of Celeste. If we got rid of it, it’d just come right back to the place Celeste rooted herself into. We have to find an actual buyer, get money for it and then we can get rid of it for good.”