He led her over to the laptop and opened up Jo’s email. “Look. Archer Hunt Junior. He emailed Jo. We’ve got two weeks. Archer gave her two weeks’ notice. The bookstore is closing. I was trying to save it. I didn’t know the shoes were fake. I thought I could sell them; I could flip them and get Jo the money to invest back into the payroll. At least, buy some more time. I don’t know. I swear to God, I was trying to help. I wasn’t trying to make a quick buck. I mean, I was, but not for myself.”

Daniella watched Eli. As far as bullshit stories went, it was not a good one. Daniella had to hope that if Eli was going to lie, he would have the decency to tell a better lie. But it all seemed so improbable to begin with.

Eli could tell Daniella was softening to his arguments, though. “Look. Just look at the email.”

“Eli, we are not supposed to touch the laptop. That’s like literally the only rule Jo has. She says not to touch her laptop or her vape pens, but she knows we find her vape pens, so all we literally have to do is not touch her laptop. What is wrong with you?”

But Daniella looked over Eli’s shoulder as he clicked through and opened up the message.

Wild Nights Bookstore and lot—is under consideration with the West Garden Property Group …

Daniella didn’t grab an errant box or the edge of the desk. It wasn’t enough to support her. She sat down, directly on the floor. When that wasn’t enough, she lay all the way down. “Holy shit.”

“I don’t know what to do, Danny.”

Daniella stared. “You don’t know what to do, but you did know how to steal nine thousand dollars of the bookstore’s money?”

“Please, please, please don’t go shouting it everywhere. I have to figure out what I’m going to do to get us out of this mess. I promise I will tell Jo once I figure out what I am supposed to do here.”

Daniella watched Eli wring his hands. He was staring at all of those boxes. All the evidence of his poor decision-making. He was responsible, all right.

It was just that he had been trying, and that counted for something for Daniella, too.

Daniella stood up, grabbed the nearest box, and began stacking. “Give me a hand with this, will you?”

“What good will that do?” Eli was positively despondent. He looked like a vision of sad Romantic poetry about mortality and the fragility of humanity come to life. Morose, ready for tragedy to strike him at any time. He was slumped, and he was desperate.

Daniella was ready to take any action to keep him from breaking like that.