Her Halloween Treat

“No...no, it really isn’t good. Ben works at Oahu Air. He’s one of the VPs there. Luckily not of my department. He commutes from LA. Couple weeks in Honolulu. Couple weeks in LA. He says he hates LA, and I believed him, but I like LA so I thought I’d visit him there. A surprise. Happy surprise? No. Not happy surprise.”

“What happened?”

“I went to his house and rang the bell, and his wife opened the door.”

“Fuck.”

“My sentiments exactly. Two years. We dated two years. Nobody at work knew he was married. He kept it a secret for whatever reason. Probably so he could date in Hawaii, which he did. We were together two years before I figured out he was married. And I didn’t even figure it out. It had to be shoved down my throat.” She took a ragged breath. “So...as you can imagine, I’m feeling pretty stupid.”

“You shouldn’t feel stupid. Sounds like he had his game down pat.”

“Nobody at work knew. Not even my friend Kira, who worked with him in the LA office. Kira told me that the best way to get over one guy is to get under another.”

“It’s a sound theory, really.”

“When I got here I was on the phone with her. And I told her you were cute, and she told me to sleep with you. I told her to mind her own business. She’s not good at that part. As you saw. Again, sorry. That was awkward.”

“You’re having a bad week. It’s okay.”

“You know, Dillon never liked Ben. I thought it was because Dillon’s never met him. Ben would never come back to visit home with me. He’d only see me in Honolulu. Dillon must have known something was off. I should have known. That should have been a bright red flag in my face.”

“Do you remember what you said to me when Cassie dumped me my senior year? It made me feel a lot better.”

“I said something?”

“You said something.”

“What did I say?”

“You said, ‘Forget it. Wanna go see Batman Begins with us?’”

“That’s it? That’s the big thing I said to you?”

“It wasn’t a big thing. It was a little thing. It made me feel normal again, going to see a movie with you and Dillon. It made me remember that life goes on and that’s a good thing.”

“And it was a good movie.”

“Fucking A it was.”

“So you think we should watch a Batman movie?”

“No.”

“What should we do, then?” she asked.

He put his glass of wine down and moved his plate out of the way.

Then he moved her plate out of the way.

Then he leaned across the bar and kissed her lightly on the lips.

Joey’s eyes widened as he pulled back.

“I should have asked if I could do that before I did that,” he said.

“You can do that.”

“I already did it.”

“You can do it again.”

Chris leaned in again, kissed her again. By the time that kiss was done, she had her smile back.

“And again,” she said.

“Are you sure? This is a little weird.” Chris winced. He was even cute wincing and that was cute.

“Weird? Why?”

“Because I wanted to do this ten years ago. And then I didn’t think about it for, oh, nine years and six months or so. And now...here I am doing it. High school me is freaking out.”

“What about grown-up you?”

“He’s freaking out, too. But in a much cooler way. Like, so cool you can’t even tell.”

“I can tell,” she said.

“How?” The corners of his eyes crinkled a little when he smiled.

“Because I’m freaking out and I’m projecting.”

“You’re prettier than you were in high school, and in high school you were perfect.”

“You’re prettier than you were in high school, too.”

“And?”

“And...”

“I didn’t look perfect in high school?”

“You wore a chain wallet.”

“So there was a lot of room for improvement.”

“You improved. You definitely improved.” She leaned forward and kissed him back.

He deepened the kiss subtly and gently, but she felt the change. The first kiss had been tentative and sweet, the second kiss playful and now this third kiss...this third kiss was something else entirely.