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“Damn, Bird, you clean up good,” Phillip said, giving me a lingering once-over as I emerged from my bedroom for the big reveal. I’d already changed my mind twice about going to the party but seeing as I’d bought the costume, I figured I was committed, so here goes nothing.
Jaymee agreed with Phillip, cat-calling me as only a best friend could. “I would totally hit that if I was into girls. And single.” She whistled and waggled her eyebrows. “You make post-apocalyptic look good! Bring on the end of the world, baby!”
I preened, doing a little twirl. The tight skirt barely skimmed my butt cheeks, and my breasts spilled out over the top of the ragged crop top. It was so far outside of my comfort zone that I was practically vibrating with nervous energy, but it felt good, too.
“Are you sure it looks okay?” I asked, needing some more reassurance. “It’s pretty tight, and my ass is hanging out.”
Jaymee was my opposite tonight. She was wearing a sweet, yet super sexy white angel costume that lovingly caressed every curve and left Phillip drooling.
“That’s what makes it perfect,” Jaymee said, hooking her arm through mine. “And now we must pregame.”
Phillip agreed, flashing his vampire teeth and swirling his black cape around with dramatic flare. “Come, my ladies, let us imbibe deeply until we lose our inhibitions and embrace the heathens we truly are!”
I laughed and rolled my eyes as I allowed Jaymee to drag me to the kitchen where a bubbling cauldron of “poisoned” punch awaited.
Phillip poured each of us a drink, and Jaymee lifted her glass in a toast. “Here’s to new beginnings and new dick for my bestie.”
I shook my head, my cheeks burning, but I clinked glasses and poured the sweet punch down my throat. Jaymee put herself through college on her tips from bartending, and the woman could put you on your ass with her mixology skills. I choked as the alcohol hit, my body already warming from the assault, but it tasted amazing. “If the whole scientist gig doesn’t work out for you, you’ll always have a backup gig of mixologist to fall back on.”
“It’s how I plan to retire. Travel the world, picking up gigs in exotic places,” Jaymee quipped.
She might be serious. She might be pulling my leg. You never knew with Jaymee.
We joked around as we finished another round, and then guests started arriving. Everyone knew about Jaymee’s Halloween party. She went all out for her favorite holiday. I’m talking, from decorations to spooky hors d’oeuvres, Jaymee didn’t spare a dime. She liked to get wild, dress up, and get loud.
By ten o’clock, the party was in full swing.
Music blared throughout the house. I felt pretty good, enjoying the attention that being half-naked around a bunch of more half-naked people tended to create. I’d almost forgotten that the entire reason I’d agreed to do this was because Oliver was supposed to be there.
Until I saw him walk through the door.
Oh, God. He was more beautiful now than when he was in college.
No, beautiful wasn’t the appropriate word, handsome— drop-dead gorgeous and highly fuckable — was more like it, and my ovaries were tingling in concert as if to say, let’s have babies together!
I spun around and ran the other way. Maybe I wasn’t ready for this. Or perhaps I wasn’t prepared to dive headfirst into the deepest part of the pool. I should’ve tested the waters with someone less intimidating. Someone like, I searched wildly for an appropriate target, my gaze falling on a guy dressed as a penis-shaped cactus costume, that guy!
I sidled up to the cactus guy with a bright smile. “I love your costume,” I said, doing my best to appear charming, but I think my smile was too wide to be anything more than serial-killer-esque. “Having fun?” I asked, my gaze darting against my will straight back to Oliver.
“Yeah, totally,” the cactus guy answered with a drunken grin. “Whoa, look at you. That’s a badass costume. What are you, like, Tomb Raider or something?”
“Um, no, just some Mad Max chick, you know, like post-apocalyptic-chic or something like that,” I answered, my gaze stubbornly zeroing in on Oliver. We made eye contact, and I immediately returned to the cactus guy, silently imploring him to be more interesting. “So, how do you know Jaymee?”
“Who’s Jaymee?” he asked.
Ugh. The downside to everyone knowing about the Halloween party was that everyone showed up, whether Jaymee knew them or not. “Okay, well, have fun,” I said, starting to move past him, but the crowd in the hallway was too thick to navigate, so I turned back, only to run smack into Oliver with an oof. “Sorry,” I blurted, my cheeks blazing. “It’s really cramped in here.”
“No worries. You’re Birdie Johnson, right?”
He knew my name? Oh, wait, that’s right Phillip and Oliver were friends, which meant he probably knew all about my humiliating break up with Roger. I tried to play it cool. “Yeah, and you’re…remind me again?”
“Oliver Bishop,” he answered with a short smile. “I’m not surprised you don’t remember me. I wasn’t very social in college. Kinda kept to myself.”
Was he insane? He was the hottest guy on campus. Quiet, aloof, and unattainable because he was dating the second hottest person who just happened to be Ursula Gammon, the head sorority sister at Gamma Phi Beta. She was insanely beautiful. It hurt just to look at her. How did they not end up married?
I pretended to recall vaguely, “Yeah, you were dating that sorority girl…what was her name?”
