open the door for her, and while she slides in, I inhale her scent. “Mmmmmm.”
She flashes me a grin as she sits back.
As soon as my arse hits the leather seat and I shut the door, one of Nathaniel’s friend’s mothers knocks on my window, insisting Nikki and I leave and to let her take Nathaniel trick or treating plus a sleepover.
After a few, “are you sures?” I agree.
I roll up the window, and Nikki asks, “Are we really leaving him?”
“Not just yet.” I laugh because I can already tell any of my ‘frustrations’ that may come with my… personality will easily be erased by her evident care for him.
It’s more than obvious that when our story began, her comment about me having a son delivered in a way—in which from anyone else would have turned me away—was exactly as I suspected. She was more concerned with a possible breakup and being hurt from not only that kind of loss, but a more compound one, because of him.
There will be no such loss, like the leaves on the trees that line the streets, I am falling, and unlike the leaves, it is for the second time in my life. Therefore, I am not afraid, not when love is the prize.
“What?” she asks as I stare at her.
“You’re beautiful.”
“Now adding clown face to the ever-growing list of role play costumes I have been daydreaming about wearing for you.”
“Whatever you bring to my bed, just remember I know what’s underneath it all, and that’s more than enough for me.”
Her mouth opens in an O shape, and I wink. “Right?”
She smiles. “Let’s go. We have an adult party to attend. Jenny and Bobby have a sitter. It’s going to be one heck of a night.”
Squeezing her hand, we drive up to the house on the block, where Nathaniel and his crew have just arrived. Again, I lower my window, but this time yell for Nathaniel. He runs over and is happy about the change in plans, thank Jesus.
Our car ride to the bar is filled with Halloween themed music. Nikki says it’s Spotify’s “Crazy Good Spooky playlist,” and I try not to laugh out loud at her child-like excitement. It’s not hard to hold it back because I know that it was sparked by whatever happened at the pumpkin patch with her and Nathaniel. The change, lucky for me… insurmountable.
The bar is jam-packed, and it’s only 8:30 p.m. Luckily, I’ve hired extra bartenders for the night, and even a few kids who Sally listed would likely be available and want to earn the extra money for the holidays. Most attend community college close by. They will be safely driving anyone drunk back to their own homes. This means I get my woman all night long.
We drink, laugh, and dance to 80’s music on the packed floor. I haven’t danced in years, and it is just like riding a bike. I find my moves easily.
Nikki and Jenny don’t leave the floor even once, and watching her dance is making me wish for time away so that I can get her into bed.
I am pretty sure Jenny will be a permanent fixture in our lives, which is good. Jenny and Bobby remind me of Hope and my relationship, playful. For the past few years, I’d been looking for that same thing. The reality is, I’d changed. Be it for better or worse. It is what it is. I now realize how quickly you can lose it, so wasting time for any of us would be just that, a waste.
As the night comes closer to an end, my drunk little clown gets much more clingy, and fuck if I don’t love it.
Looking around as we dance to a slow song, I see everyone’s eyes on us as they have been all night, but nothing negative. In fact, it seems that most of the people in town are happy, constantly raising glasses to the two of us.
By one in the morning, Nikki is shot and begging to go upstairs. Everything seems to be fine, so we do just that.
“I need a minute or ten,” she says as she walks toward the stairs. Walking up them, holding the railing, she calls back to me, “Could you get me some water? Motrin? A do-over where I didn’t drink my face off all night? Don’t come up until I call for you, okay?”
“The first two I can manage,” I say, making sure she gets to the landing before leaving the