Chapter 8
Hayley was annoyed by the fact that when she went online to research Halloween costumes for women all the descriptions included the words “sexy” or “sultry.”
The men’s costumes glaringly did not.
Sexy nurse.
Sultry Egyptian goddess.
Sexy police officer.
Sultry dreamy genie.
It was insulting.
But she didn’t have time to spend ranting on her soapbox because she had to come up with an idea and fast.
Her solution was simple.
Princess Leia.
Not sexy Princess Leia.
Just Princess Leia.
She had a white floor-length dress and a belt that she could tie around it.
She had a pair of white boots from Disco Night at the Masonic Hall last summer.
She had a wig she could fashion with side buns.
And Dustin had a plastic ray gun in his toy collection she could borrow.
Done.
Problem solved.
She wasn’t enthusiastic about going to Mary Leighton’s annual pre-Halloween party that night. She just wanted to stay home and watch TV, but Liddy was adamant that she get out of the house and go and just enjoy herself.
And to insure that Hayley didn’t try to back out with some lame excuse, Liddy and her boyfriend, local attorney Sonny Lipton, who was roughly half Liddy’s age although she would never admit it, showed up to escort her.
Hayley hated the idea of being a third wheel, but Liddy was simply not taking no for an answer.
When she descended the stairs in her Princess Leia costume, Liddy and Sonny applauded warmly.
“See! I knew you’d come up with something great!” Liddy said.
Hayley did a double take.
Liddy was virtually unrecognizable in a strapless minidress with a sweetheart neckline corset top and a gold overskirt with lace trim and panniers and hoops that gave the dress the classic baroque look of full exaggerated hips. Her legs were covered with suggestive white lace thigh highs and she also wore a sky-high powdered white wig and carried an elegant feathered eye mask.
Liddy had obviously embraced the whole “Sexy Marie Antoinette” costume.
It was a getup fit for a queen.
Sonny’s costume was almost as impressive. He was dressed as a pirate in a revealing black lace-up shirt that accentuated his smooth barrel chest, a black pirate captain hat, eye patch, billowy black pants, leather boots, and a deluxe seventeen-inch pirate cutlass.
“You two look fantastic!” Hayley said, feeling as if her last-minute thrown-together Princess Leia costume was uninspired.
“I know! I’ve been searching for the perfect costume for months! Ever since I saw that Sofia Coppola movie about Marie Antoinette on Netflix I’ve been dying to get just the right look,” Liddy said. “And when Sonny showed up at my door dressed as a pirate I nearly fainted.”
“Her favorite sex fantasy is being captured by a pirate so I already had everything in my closet,” Sonny said.
“Not in front of the child, Sonny!”
Dustin, who was lounging on the couch with Leroy and Blueberry sleeping next to him while watching a Vin Diesel movie, suddenly realized and burst out laughing. “Me! She’s talking about me!”
“He’s almost sixteen, Liddy, I think he can handle it,” Hayley said.
“Doesn’t your mother look great, Dustin?” Liddy asked, trying to get Hayley excited about going to the party.
“I like the ray gun,” he said giving her a quick once-over before turning his attention back to his movie.
“That’s because it’s his,” Hayley said to Liddy and Sonny before turning back to Dustin. “Don’t give Leroy and Blueberry any more snacks. They’re getting too fat. Have a good night. I’ll be home early.”
“Not if we have anything to say about it,” Liddy said. “You need to get your mind off you know who.”
“Who?” Hayley asked.
“Dad,” Dustin said, petting the top of Leroy’s head absentmindedly. “She’s talking about Dad.”
“Where is he tonight anyway?” Hayley asked, disappointed he was in Bar Harbor and not spending every free moment with his kids.
“He said he had plans. We’re going to get together tomorrow night. Bye. Have fun,” Dustin said, not taking his eyes off the TV.
After leaving the house, it took ten minutes for Liddy to climb in the back of Sonny’s Mercedes parked out front because of her giant, unwieldy, powdered white wig. She had to crank her head to the side in order to keep it firmly in place and not crush the top of it on the interior roof of the car. Hayley jumped in the passenger’s seat and Sonny drove them to Mary Leighton’s house on Bowles Avenue just a few minutes away.
The party was in full swing when they arrived. A lot of guests had similar ideas. There was an abundance of Avengers and Justice League superheroes and scores of Disney characters that never seemed to go out of style. The hostess, Mary Leighton, was dressed as Maleficent complete with black horns on top of her head and over-the-top white makeup and ruby red lipstick. Music blared and half a dozen people had cleared the middle of the living room to dance to one of Taylor Swift’s hit songs while the rest of the costumed guests had to shout in order to carry on conversations.
“I’ll get us some drinks,” Sonny said, making a beeline for the table with a large punch bowl and stacks of plastic cups.
Hayley and Liddy took in the spectacle before a loud grunting noise caused them to both spin around and find themselves face to face with a prehistoric caveman. His long-haired wig was matted and tangled. He wore a fur pelt over his tall, muscled frame and he carried a big plastic club right out of the Flintstones.
It took Hayley a few seconds before she even recognized him.
“Aaron?”
Aaron snarled and growled some more.
Liddy giggled coquettishly. “Aaron, you look so sexy as a caveman. So manly and powerful.”
“I thought pirates were your sexual fantasy,” Hayley said with a smile.
“What? I have to be limited to just one?”
Aaron playfully bopped Hayley over the head with his plastic club. “Me drag you back to my cave now.”
Hayley laughed.
Liddy fanned herself with her feathered eye mask. “Oh my . . . Is it me or is it suddenly very hot in here?”
“No, it’s you. Definitely you,” Hayley said.
Aaron noticed someone over by the front door. “Excuse me. I just saw a friend of mine come in. I’ll catch up with you later.”
He touched Hayley on the arm and then weaved his way through the crowd. Liddy whipped her head around to see who he was so anxious to talk to but shrugged it off when Aaron shook the hand of a golfing buddy who had just arrived dressed as a vampire.
“I heard he just started seeing someone,” Liddy said, frowning.
“Aaron? That’s nice.”
“It doesn’t bother you?”
“We broke up months ago. No, it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I’m happy for him.”
“Are you sure you’re not just putting on a brave face?”
“No, Liddy. I’m not.”
“Aren’t you the least bit curious to know who it is?”
“Not really.”
“So if I happened to know the name of this new woman in Aaron’s life, you wouldn’t want me to tell you? I mean it’s just a name I’ve heard in passing. I have no proof they’re actually dating . . .”
“No, I don’t want you to tell me.”
Liddy raised her eyebrow, unconvinced.
“I’m serious, Liddy.”
“Okay. I believe you. You’d rather not know.”
“Why? Do you know?”
Liddy grinned. “I knew you would want to know.”
“I don’t. Forget it. It’s none of my business.”
Liddy suddenly gasped.
“What?”
“Turn around.”
Hayley turned her head to see Darth Vader breathing down her neck behind her.
It was a very elaborate costume complete with a black cape and light saber.
“I think he’s come to kidnap Princess Leia and whisk her back to his ship to have his way with her,” Liddy said breathlessly.
“That’s just what she’s hoping will happen. There’s a lot going on inside her head tonight,” Hayley said.
“Dance with me,” Darth Vader said in a deep, distorted voice very similar to the actual movie character.
He placed his black-gloved hand on the small of her back and led her out to the dance floor where they jumped around for the remainder of the Taylor Swift song before it segued into an Adele ballad and Darth Vader pulled her close to him.
She indulged him for a few moments before her curiosity got the best of her.
“Okay, who are you?”
“Darth Vader,” he said, again with the strikingly real Star Wars villain voice.
Hayley reached over and yanked up the mask.
“Danny?”
“Hey, babe,” Danny said, flashing that charming smile, his expressive green eyes twinkling.
“Did Dustin tell you I was coming to the party dressed as Princess Leia?” she demanded to know.
“No. I swear. It’s a complete coincidence. Great minds, you know? What do you think the universe is trying to tell us?”
“It’s telling me I need a drink and you’re an evil space villain bent on destroying the world,” she said pulling away from him and racing over to Sonny who was holding her plastic cup of punch, leaving Danny on the dance floor as a woman in a racy raccoon costume swooped in to take her place and tried to get Darth Vader to dance with her.