"I have no idea what I might need a hand with," Gemma said, shrugging. She gave a shy little smile. "I mean, if you want to come with me, that is."

Steve grinned. "Well, no harm in me coming by to check," he said. "Just in case."

Gemma smiled a bit at that.

"Only as long as I'm not taking you away from anything more important," she said.

"Don't worry about that," Steve said. "There's no Assemble call right now so I'm still free."

"Don't tempt fate that way," Gemma said, grinning a bit. "Alright, then, let's go."

Steve nodded and headed out with her, just walking quietly for now. He wasn't in a hurry after all.

Gemma sighed softly once they were outside. The tower was nice, but it felt good to be out and about again. She also enjoyed just walking with Steve.

Steve stepped back a bit when they got to the shop, staying out of the way. But it was pretty clear that no one had been to the shop in a while.

Gemma unlocked the shop and went inside, gesturing for Steve to follow her. Everything inside was a bit dusty, but as soon as they walked in, a couple of the witch balls hanging in the corners began to glow softly, and Gemma smiled at that.

"Well, looks like there haven't been any problems here," Steve said, glancing around. "That's good, at least."

"I want to check on some of my wards, but that's about all that should need touching up," Gemma said as she turned the proper lights on. She glanced at him as she went over to the counter. "Go ahead and make yourself comfortable, I need to figure out what all's been going on around me while the shop was closed."

Steve chuckled and settled behind the counter, getting some coffee for them. He could entertain himself for a little while without getting into actual trouble.

Probably.

Gemma worked steadily for a little while, going through her logs and making a few phone calls to some of the other stores she knew of. Finally, she hit a stopping point and sighed.

"At least it's still the right time to hire seasonals," she muttered.

Steve rubbed her shoulders a bit. "Is everything at least as it was when you left?" he asked. "No mysteriously vanishing inventory?"

"Yeah," Gemma said, sighing a little at the shoulder rub. "Everything's the way I left it. But tourist season is coming up, so I need to hire some seasonal people, at least, to cover the store when I can't be here, or else my shop isn't going to survive till spring."

"Okay." Steve looked at her. "So what would the seasonal people be doing? Just minding the shop, talking to people, selling things? That sort of thing?"

"Pretty much," Gemma said, nodding. "I keep a log of everything I sell, so it wouldn't be hard for someone to just run the shop for a while."

"I can help out while you have your lessons," Steve offered. "I wouldn't mind."

That made Gemma pause.

"I couldn't ask you to do that," she said. "Really, it's alright, I'll put out an ad for hiring and see about getting some college students in here or something."

"I don't mind," Steve said. "You would probably want to hire a student anyway, but I can cover part of the time, at least. It'll give me something else to do."

"Are you that bored around the tower?" Gemma asked. "I mean, if you really want to, sure, I can hire you part-time, I just have to make sure I have someone else hired at the same time, just in case you get called out."

"I like to keep myself busy," Steve said with a grin. "And it's not like I need the money. Besides, if I can help you out, I'm going to."

Gemma blushed a little at that and smiled.

"That's sweet of you," she said. "It really is."

Steve smiled at that, because it was partially selfish of him, but if it made her happy...

"Do you think you'll move back in here? Or just open up the shop again?"

"I... was planning to, why?" Gemma asked, blinking. "It would take a while to move out and fully cleanse the place, and I mean, it's not a bad apartment, is it?"