Lee thought she could appreciate the idea, but didn’t like the idea of being watched. That made sense, especially since the spirits were generally invisible. She’d just be wondering if they were there and if they could see her.

“If we do this, I will make sure you know if they’re there. Otherwise it’ll be like it always is and they’ll definitely keep their distance.”

Lee said she’d feel better once they’d figured out who was responsible for the nullification, ”We will figure it out.” Tarin said, noting that Lee seemed more okay with Tony and that other guy than she had with the thought of spirits helping in general.

“Where did you need to go today? Do you want me to go with you?” Tarin asked quietly, looking down and keeping his arms around her.

Lee nodded when Tarin said that he would make sure she knew any time that the spirits were there. That did make Lee feel better about this part of the situation. Lee knew that there were always spirits around if Tarin wasn't there with his whole 'not letting them near him' thing going on. But this, with them being asked to specifically watch her, felt different.

Did Lee want Tarin to go with her that day? Lee pretty much always did, but that wasn't exactly what he was asking here. "I was going to the bar," Lee replied. "Possibly need to go to the bank after. And I had been thinking of going to Haven, but I think that's now a no."

Lee closed her eyes for a moment. Even though he had offered, even though she had been working on it, it was still difficult to ask for help. Especially for something that a grown woman shouldn't need help with such as simply walking to work.

"Please," Lee ended up saying as she looked up at Tarin again. "But I'm going to be at the bar for a while, and I don't know how long the bank may take, and you have clients to see."

The bar and the bank? Tarin nodded when Lee said those were the things she needed to do. In all honesty Tarin half-expected Lee to say that she didn’t need him. Tarin knew that if Lee did that, he would go along with whatever she wanted. Tarin also knew if Lee did that he’d be the one worrying all afternoon.

This was a predicament.

Lee didn’t say that though. Lee just closed her eyes for a few moments and Tarin watched her as she did so.

Then Lee said please and explained that what she needed to do would take some time. Tarin just nodded and unwrapped his arms from around Lee, pulling his phone from his pocket and tapping out a couple of quick messages.

”There. Now I’ve got the next few hours free. We can see how things are and go from there.”

Things had been busy lately, it wouldn’t hurt a thing if Tarin took an afternoon off.

Tarin didn't say anything when she explained that what she needed to do at the bar would take a while. He didn't say anything, just simply moved his arms from around her.

And immediately pulled his phone out.

As she watched, Tarin tapped away on his phone. Then told her that he now had the next few hours free. Tarin had just actually cancelled appointments without hesitation so that he could walk her to the bar. Even though she had only felt that the adapted was outside of their building.

But that didn't mean the adapted wasn't following, just further away, the catastrophic worrying part of her mind reminded her.

"Thank you, Tarin," Lee said. Part of her felt that it was ridiculous that she needed to have him walk with her. But at the same time, knowing that he was going to be with her, Lee felt much more comfortable and safe about going back out onto the street.

"Should we go now? Or is there something you need to do here first?"

Lee thanked Tarin and he just smiled slightly and shrugged, ”You’re much better company anyway.” he said in his own attempt to lighten the mood a little bit. Dropping his phone back into his pocket Tarin reached back out and took Lee’s hand.

Should they go now, or was there anything he needed to do here? Lee had really been shaken up when she’d arrived at the shop and had just agreed to let Tarin walk her to the bar even though she was completely capable of walking to the bar herself. There was absolutely no way he was going to give Lee a chance to change her mind. Not when she was actually going to let him help.

”Nope. Don’t need to do anything. We can go any time.” he said, already starting to try and think through the problem.

Lee had said that every single morning, no matter when she left the apartment, the adapted had been there. Whoever it was hadn’t followed Lee any of the days. That had to mean that they stayed close by the apartment. It was a place to start. When Lee was ready to talk about it, Tarin had a couple of ideas for how they could start testing the theory.

”I’ve never gotten to see what you do at the bar when you’re not singing or taking the bouncer’s job.”

Tarin thought that she was better company than his clients, did he? Normally she would agree with that. Normally these visits to the shop went very differently than this.

"I'm not sure that's true today," Lee said, smiling slightly as Tarin took her hand. Because this really wasn't anything like their normal meet ups during the day.

But Tarin didn't need to do anything else before they left. "We might as well go, then," Lee said with a slight nod. The sooner they left and the faster she finished her stuff, the fewer clients Tarin was going to have to cancel that day.

Turning to the door, still holding Tarin's hand, Lee shrugged. "Like Kevin's said before, it's really not that interesting or exciting," she explained as they made their way out of the shop. "Mostly inventory, payroll, and reconciling the money. Though, I do need to put a liquor order in for the weekend. You might be interested in how much alcohol I keep on hand for a normal weekend."

”Always.” Tarin said, when Lee suggested that today she wasn’t as good company as dead people and the people who wanted to talk to them.

”There is literally not a single scenario that I can think of where that wouldn’t be true.” and Tarin was being sincere, not trying to flatter or flirt or anything. Spending time with spirits was never pleasant.

Lee could take it as she would, but it was the simple truth.

They headed for the door and Tarin kept Lee’s hand in his until they got outside and he needed to take a second to get the door shut. That accomplished and Lee’s hand reclaimed Tarin started them walking in the direction of the bar.

Lee had pointed out that she did mostly payroll and all of the things associated with running a busy New York establishment. Ordering was interesting though, ”I remember you mentioning that over the 4th of July.” he said when Lee brought up the amount of liquor it would take to get through a single weekend. ”And Kevin is a horrible judge of what is and what isn’t interesting or exciting.” the kid was 13 and absolutely did not understand anything about the nuances of running or helping run a business. Kevin might be intuitive in a lot of ways, this was not one of them.

”I can’t wait to see.” Tarin said, ”I kind of wish we’d done this before, under different circumstances.”

Lee smiled, ducking her head slightly when Tarin said she would always be better company. How could she not when he skinned that sincere as he said it?

It didn't take long for them to get outside and the shop to be locked up. Then they were heading down the street toward the bar.

Lee couldn't help but laugh when Tarin mentioned her son's judgement on what was interesting. Because apparently what Lee described as her job at the bar was of interest to Tarin.

"Did I mention it then?" Lee questioned. It was quite possible. "Matt tends to panic a bit about making sure we have enough on busy long weekends, but any time I try to show him the numbers from previous years that we should have more than enough, his eyes kind of glaze over."

Lee shook her head with a bit of a smile. Her old friend was great at running the bar, but at the same time also sucked at it. "With how he is any time I show him things like that…but his business plan was great when he got the loan to buy the place."

Well good. It didn’t seem like Lee was going to argue or get weird like she did sometimes when Tarin told her things that were simply true for him. In fact, if he had to guess, it seemed like Lee was pretty gratified by what he’d said. Why she’d have ever thought otherwise….Tarin didn’t know.

What was most important though, was that the distinct aura of fear that had surrounded Lee when she got to the shop that day seemed to have dissipated, at least for the time being. They still had a problem to figure out, something was still going on, but they were going to figure it out together. The fact that she had wanted him to help made Tarin feel really good, even if the situation was terrible.

Had she brought up the liquor orders before? ”You did…” he said, ”I can’t remember the context, but I remember you saying for a holiday weekend it was a lot.”

Tarin couldn’t help but empathize with Matt when Lee pointed out that he didn’t love the numbers part of his business. Tarin was wildly glad that his business didn’t require things like inventory. It was the main reason that Tarin was able to manage things on his own and not need someone to help. He liked it that way. Obviously a bar couldn’t operate the same way, but Tarin bet that sometimes Matt wished it did. It was silly of Matt to worry though, with Lee on board the everything would always be taken care of.

Lee seemed skeptical when she spoke that Matt’s business plan had been so good. ”That’s why he has you.” Tarin said simply, ”Some people are idea people, some people are execution people.”

Lee had ordered a lot of alcohol to have on hand for the July 4th weekend that year. But they still hadn't even come close to running out like Matt had kept worrying about.

Lee was the worrier, but that man was almost impossible to make relax when it came to having enough liquor and beer in the bar.

"We did sell a lot this year," Lee confirmed with a bit of a nod as she looked up at Tarin. "More than I had thought we would, and I had already been expecting it to be busier than the previous two years. Still, we didn't come close to running out."

That's why Matt had her? Because he was an idea person and she was an execution person?

"He's also damn lucky to have me, because I never planned to work at the bar," Lee told Tarin. "Shortly after I moved back to New York with Rachel, we went out. Matt practically begged me to manage the bar for him. I guess his old manager had recently quit, and he had an actual vacation coming up in a week. Then I just…never stopped." Lee finished with a shrug.

”Wonder what was different this year?” Tarin said. Had the weather been particularly good? Had word gotten out more about the bar and what it had to offer? Was pop culture functioning in a way that the atmosphere at that particular little bar was more attractive to the patrons of New York than other places?

Tarin didn’t know. It was an interesting thing to think about though…as was the story that Lee told about how she came to work at the bar in the first place.

Of course Matt was damn lucky to have Lee, she was organized, smart, capable, and took her work seriously. Anyone would be lucky to have someone like that on their payroll.

When Lee had moved back to New York, Rachel had gotten her to go out and through a series of fortuitous events, Lee had ended up at the bar and had never left.

”I’ll bet Matt knew exactly what he was doing.” Matt might be over the top, flirtatious, and a bit silly, but he was serious when it came to the bar. Tarin thought back to the night they’d all gone out and how Matt had kept leaving the table to check on things.

“If you weren’t working there, what would you want to do?” Tarin asked, trying to keep Lee distracted so her mind couldn’t wander.

Tarin wasn't sure what might have been different this year with the July 4th holiday. Sure, it wasn't like Lee had done a poll at the time to see if she had been right, but Lee had ideas about what had made it different this year, and as far as she was concerned, the spike in business that weekend proved her right.

"The holiday was a Thursday this year?" Lee offered in explanation. "I'm guessing quite a few people would have taken the Friday off, too. So they had lots of time to party, and still have the whole weekend to recover before work."

The next couple years were going to be quite a bit busier that holiday weekend as well, since it would actually fall on the weekend. But then the 4th would fall early in the week again.

"You know, he probably did," Lee replied with a shake of her head after a moment. "It took a while, but he probably realized I was right about upgrading the security and sound systems when he bought the place. He might have wanted me to work at the bar then, but Kevin was born not long after he got the loan."

What would Lee have wanted to do if she hadn't been working at the bar the last 7 years?

That was something Lee had to actually think about, and she did that as she walked along a short way in silence. She'd simply worked what jobs she was able to get to survive before the shop. Then she'd gone to school in Toronto and helped Rachel open the boutique before ending up at the bar and Haven.

"I'm not entirely sure," Lee admitted after a few more moments. "I seem to have a knack for business, after having a hand in three of them in the city. The training I've done with Quin has been rewarding, but that's not really a job…"

Oh right, it had been a long weekend. Lee was definitely right. Tarin had even done what Lee had said and taken a long weekend. Clients had been out of town or had canceled appointments to do other things so it had made sense for Tarin to do the same.

”That totally makes sense…” he said, definitely appreciative of the intricacies of ordering based on such things, it would be a disaster if a bar ran out of drinks on a busy holiday weekend. Suddenly Tarin understood Matt’s panic and appreciated Lee’s level head even more.

Lee didn’t disagree about Matt knowing what he was doing. In fact, she thought he’d probably planned to bring her on even sooner, but Kevin’s birth had foiled those plans. Of course Lee had thought the security system needed upgrading, but she’d been right about the shop…even if it had been years later.

Tarin’s next question made Lee think and as they walked down the street in comfortable silence he found himself curious what Lee would say. Surely at this point if she wanted to do something else she could.

Starting a business in New York City was no small feat, and Lee had helped three different businesses flourish. It was honestly really impressive. Having a good head for business in a place like this was a vastly underrated skill and Lee had the school and the experience to back up any claim she wanted to make in that area…but was it really what she wanted to do?

Training with Quin had been rewarding. Tarin had to smile a bit at that, Lee had kind of taken the redhead under her wing and the two were training together regularly.

”It’s not an important question,” Tarin said, ”I was just curious.” he wouldn’t be able to answer the question if it were turned around on him. What he was doing was really the only thing he’d ever been kind of good at.

It wasn't an important question, Tarin said after she had kind of not answered it.

"Honestly, I've never really thought about it before," Lee admitted to Tarin after a couple moments of comfortable silence. "I mean, I found out I was good at handling the books for the shop, then later managing our investments and accounts, so it was a practical decision when I went back to school."

"Then just kind of fell into working at the bar, and because he didn't want me to quit when the rift closed, Matt let me start working how I do now. As long as orders and payroll are always on time, it can be as flexible as I need it to be, for Kevin or anything else I want to do. So I really have never thought about what I'd do instead."

Why would she consider another job, especially one that would require strict working hours? Her arrangement with Matt ensured that she made enough for day to day. And while she'd had to draw on her investments interest payments rather than reinvesting it more than she'd wanted the year or had been just her and Kevin in the apartment, she'd been far from going broke.

"Though I guess with Kevin at the mansion now," Lee continued as they turned into the street the bar was on. "I can do some more exploring, see if I find anything I want to do to fill that time."

As Lee continued to explain how she’d gotten where she was today, Tarin smiled just a little bit. This was much better. Lee explained that she’d been good at keeping the books at the shop and Tarin nodded, remembering that the shop on this side of the rift had been around for much longer than the one on his side had been. Bookkeeping, as it were, had gotten much easier in just the last several years. Tarin had gone from keeping records on a laptop to keeping almost everything on his phone. Again, he had to think how much easier it was to manage things without inventory to sell.

This job had been easy enough for Lee, the schedule had worked, and the flexibility had been what she had wanted at the time.

It all made sense. Sometimes you did what you were good at because it made things easier and let you do the things that you wanted to do when you weren’t at work. It was like that for Tarin.

They were nearing the bar now and Lee pointed out that she could do some more exploring and Tarin smiled over at her, ”I think that’s a really cool idea. Not that there’s anything wrong with the bar if that’s what you want to do…besides, can you imagine how hard it’d be to find a replacement for yourself?” It would likely be impossible.

Tarin mused a bit more on the whole subject and shook his head, “I was just thinking that I can’t imagine doing anything else. I don’t particularly love what I do, but I just don’t know that there’s much else out there that I’d be well suited for. You know? “ Tarin had left home so early that he’d never even had a chance to daydream about future careers beyond the ones that kids often came up with. One time he’d told Lee that he’d wanted to be a racecar driver when he was a kid…now he didn’t even have a driver’s license. It was interesting how things changed.

They were at the bar now, and Tarin actually had to step back because he was so used to opening the doors that he realized a second too late he didn’t have keys for this place, ”After you, I guess, I don’t have keys.” he said.