by Frankie Love
“Yeah, but we were in fourth grade, and I was in a cape that went down to my ankles. Now, I could be a sexy Red Riding Hood.”
“A sexy version of Red Riding Hood?” he asks, laughing. “I can’t really imagine you in a sexy Halloween costume, Lucy.”
I scoff. “What's that supposed to mean? I could totally pull off a sexy Halloween costume.”
“I don't know. I prefer you to be less on the nose about how pretty you are.”
I laugh. “Oh, you think I'm pretty now?” I say, patting my heart.
“You know you're beautiful,” he says, “and besides, you were the chick in our chick magnet costume.”
“But I was dressed up like a chicken. Not sexy,” I say.
He laughs. “Fair enough.”
“Well, what about a video game costume?” I suggest. “We could be Tim and Tom Nook from Animal Crossing.”
Noah looks at me perplexed. “I have no idea what you're talking about.”
I smile. “How long were you on that boat exactly?”
“Too long,” he says. “Being in the Navy was always my dream but I don’t know anymore. Dreams change.”
I twist my long hair into a bun. “For some people, I guess.”
“Your dream never has changed, has it, Luce?”
I shake my head. “Nope. Though if I don't pass this test, I'm not sure I'm going to be the nurse I always imagined. Hey, speaking of video games, what about Mario and Luigi?”
“I thought you wanted a sexy costume?” Noah chuckles. “Maybe we return to an old school costume like the one we wore as kids?”
I cringe. “I don’t know. Our middle school costumes were rough. Do you remember when we tried to pull off bacon and eggs?”
He laughs. “And the following year we went with milk and cookies. We were determined to get the food items to work.”
I shake my head. “They never really hit though, did they?”
Noah laughs. “I think we really hit our stride in high school,” he says.
I can’t stop laughing. “Agreed. The Wayne's World costumes were my favorite, not to mention the Ghostbusters.”
Noah shakes his head. “No way. Senior year, Goose and Maverick. That's where it was at.”
I smile, warm fuzzy feelings in my tummy, and it's not just because of this delicious pumpkin spice latte. It's because the shared history I have with Noah means everything to me. I grew up with my aunt after my parents passed away when I was little. But Noah was my family. He was my one sure thing. Steady, always there for me.
“What?” he says. “You look upset all of a sudden. I thought you loved Top Gun.”
“No,” I say, “I was just thinking about how much I care about you and our friendship.”
“I care about our friendship too, Lucy.”
I smile. “Thanks, Noah. I missed you last year.”
“I'm here now,” he says. He gives my shoulders a squeeze. “Now we can stand here and be sentimental or we can focus. I'm going to channel a costume that's an actual option.”
He gives me a smile that I’ve seen a million times before but this one, damn, it gets me in all the right places. My insides melt and I want to shout how I feel. I want to be Natalia, able to argue her way into Noah’s pants. But I’m not her and never have been and right now we are in Costume Corner and it’s time to get a Halloween getup with my one and only best friend.
“Okay. I can focus,” I tell him, smiling right back. “How about…” I pull out a Stranger Things ensemble. “This?”
“It's a little overdone, isn't it?” he asks.
I nod. “Agreed. We just need something a little bit more creative, like when we were Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh. That was a good costume.”
Noah smiles. “Our first costume.”
“I love that you loved that book so unabashedly,” I say to him. “Most third grade boys wouldn't be so proud of the fact that they were imaginary friends with Christopher Robin.”
“Yes, but as we well know,” Noah says, “I wasn’t most third grade boys.”
“You weren’t, were you?” Sighing I continue to scan the racks. A flapper costume. A Cookie Monster. A cheetah. None of it gives me good vibes.
“So what's it going to be?” he asks. “There are honestly hardly any options.”
I groan. “I’m sorry we came so late. I should have made it a bigger priority. I've just been so stressed about school.”
“Don't apologize,” Noah says, understanding where I'm coming from. “I’m so proud of you, Lucy. You’re going to be an actual nurse. It’s incredible.”
“Speaking of… what about this?” I pull out a nurse costume and doctor scrubs. “We could be a nurse and a doctor?”
“Me, a doctor?” He chuckles. “I don't think so. Besides, you can't wear that.”
I laugh. “Why not?”
He smiles. “Because, Lucy, that is not just a sexy Halloween costume. It's a trashy one. No way.”
“Are you telling me what I can and cannot wear?”
“Maybe,” he says. “But I mean it.”
Irritated at the statement, I bite my bottom lip. “I’m going to try it on,” I say, lifting my eyes and handing him my half-filled coffee cup. “Just give me a sec.”
I carry the costume toward the dressing room knowing that if I want Noah to notice me, I have to turn it up a notch.
Maybe a sexy Halloween costume is just the ticket.
Chapter Three
Noah
The moment she steps into the dressing room, I groan. Fuck, how am I supposed to get from the best friend zone to the you're the love of my life zone?
It's so much easier in the movies.
In real life I can't lose what I have, and that's Lucy. The one person who understands me, who gets me. Doesn’t judge me.
She slept in a sleeping bag at my house every year for her birthday since she was eight. We built a tree house in my backyard, where we held clubhouse meetings, even though we never knew what the club was. We just knew that if we brought a box of Hostess cupcakes and juice boxes with us, after an entire afternoon of playing checkers the world would make sense again. It eased the pain of her losing her parents and my parents getting a divorce.
Those afternoons when we were together, it was like we were rulers of our own little universe. And that was enough; more than enough. It was everything.
I love this girl and I need her to know it because if I don't man up and tell her the truth, I'm scared I'll lose her forever to a guy like Sammy Hammy. A guy who doesn't understand the complicated intricacies of Lucy Calloway's heart, because it is complicated. Don't let the pink sweater confuse you, she's got a dark heart, that girl — the skulls and crossbones are not just for show. She knows what it's like to love and lose, and I don't want her to lose anything else, especially not me, and that's what I'm about to tell her. I need to tell her. Now.
I'm preparing myself to lay it all out there, but then Lucy walks out of the dressing room looking like a goddamn vixen. And it’s over.
“No way,” I say. “You're not wearing that.”
She laughs, hands on her hips. “Oh, really? I'm not wearing this. I think I am wearing this, Noah, like literally right now.”
“Ha,” I say. “No, I mean it, you can't wear that to a Halloween party, especially not Jake's Halloween party.”
“Oh really? Why not? Are you wondering if when you leave again Sammy is gonna be my new best friend?”
“No, I just don't want Sammy or anybody else to see you in this.”
“God, Noah, why not? I think I look good.” She turns in a circle, looking in the floor-length mirror outside the dressing room. The nurse costume barely covers her ass and damn that's dangerous because her ass looks hella cute. Her bare legs are trouble and I see her toenails are painted bright pink. See? Cute as fuck, this girl. I shake my head. “Come on, you know how these guys are. They’re going to harass you and you hate stuff like that.”
She rolls her eyes.
“I'll wear tights. No, actually, thigh-high stockings.”
“Ha-ha.” I say. “Not funny.”
“Since when are you the boss of me, Noah? I think I look good and maybe that's my problem. I think you’re right, Noah. Maybe I have been playing the role of Chewbacca for too long in my life and it's time for me to be Leia. And if you don't want to wear the doctor and nurse costume, we can go your route and you can be some Stormtrooper and I'll be Princess Leia. I'm sure they've got some leather bra thing here.”
“I'm sure they don't,” I say. “And no, you're not wearing a bra and you're not wearing...”
She smiles. “You're right, Noah...” She holds the zipper at the top of her cleavage between her forefinger and her thumb. “I'm not wearing a bra.”
My cock twitches. “Lucy, I mean it, you need to change.”
She groans dramatically. “Oh, God, Noah. You're so juvenile. I bet Natalia would wear this.”
I grimace, not wanting her to know the truth. Natalia would wear this, wants to wear this, in fact. I know because I've seen her in this exact costume, which is the reason we got in such a big damn fight which was the catalyst of our demise. Not that I wanted things to last with her anyways — I was looking for a reason to end things so I could start things with the girl I really loved. But her putting on a nurse costume was just the inciting incident. One look at Natalia in the costume and I knew being with her was wrong. I was in love with another nurse. In love with Lucy.
Lucy storms back into the dressing room. “The problem with you, Noah, is you think you're the boss, but you're not.”
“I don't think I'm the boss,” I say.
“You’re wrong,” she says. “You usually pick everything.”
“I'm really good at picking.”
“Are you? Is that what Natalia would say, or how about Betty, or how about all the other girls you've slept with in town?”
“Why are we talking about the girls I've slept with?” I ask through the curtain.
I hear Lucy changing and just the thought of her without her clothes on, just a curtain between us, has me hard. Fuck. I adjust myself and take a gulp of my coffee as Lucy's butt catches on the curtain, pushing it to the side, and I can see her in her bright pink thong, bending over to reach for her tights.
Fuck, she looks hot. And she wasn't lying, she's not wearing a bra. I can see those perfect tits of hers in the mirror. Her round breasts perky and perfect. When she stands with her tights in hand, her curves make me dazed and goddamn confused. Why am I waiting to pull the trigger when the girl of my dreams is literally right here? She checks off every fucking box on the list. Every last one. Hell, she is the checklist.
I pull the curtain closed and turn around. A moment later, she's out of the dressing room, holding the nurse costume in hand.
“I'm going as a nurse,” she says. “You can go as whatever you want.”
“You're really doing this?” I ask. “You're making a decision without me about our Halloween costumes?”
“Well, you made the decision last year not to come home for Halloween.”
“I didn't make that decision, Lucy, that was my commanding officer's decision and I had no choice. I was out to fucking sea, what did you want me to do?”
Her shoulders fall, the fight leaving her. “I’m sorry, you're right,” she says, shaking her head. “But if you don't like me being the sexy nurse, then you're going to have a real problem with my career choice.”
“What, you're going to be a stripper now?” She gives me a half smile that bolsters my confidence. “But you're not going to dress like that, you're going to wear scrubs and clogs.”
“Maybe,” she says. She bites her bottom lip. “I just don't think it's fair, you telling me what to do.”
“Fine, tell me what to do, what should I wear?”
She scans the costume shop. “Go as a sailor.”
“You want me to go as a sailor?”
“I don't know,” she says. “This is stupid.”
“No, it's not,” I say. “It's our tradition.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I want new traditions,” she says.
“What's that supposed to mean?” I ask.
“It means ...” She shakes her head. “I'm tired. Noah, you've been gone a long time and the whole time I've ...”
“What are you saying?” I say. And even though I wanted this to be a new beginning, it’s starting to feel like the end.
She blinks back what look like tears. “I'm saying things change, people change and maybe... maybe we've changed.”
“Is that what you think?”
She shrugs. “I think I want to be a sexy nurse for Halloween.”
“Then be a sexy nurse, Lucy. I'm not going to tell you what to be or what not to be. I just...” I swallow hard. “I'll just wear the doctor costume.”
“Oh, okay,” she says. Even though she's won the fight, it doesn't look like she's very happy about it. I grab a stethoscope as we walk toward the checkout. As the cashier is ringing up the total, my phone rings.
“It's my commanding officer,” I say, surprised when I see the caller.
“You should take it,” she says. I nod, knowing she's right.
I hand her my wallet. “Pay, I’ve got a bunch of cash,” I tell her.
“You sure?” she asks.
I nod, walking outside to take the call. I turn, looking over my shoulder before I exit, and I see her pull out the cash along with a folded piece of paper.
I swallow, hard. Knowing there's nothing I can do right now to stop her from opening the paper and seeing what it is.
“Petty Officer E4?” my officer says. “You there, son?”
I nod. “I'm here.”
“Good,” he says, “I talked to the detailer. He’ll give you those orders if you reenlist.”
Chapter Four
Lucy
Noah’s acting all cagey as I exit Costume Corner. I hand him the bag with his stupid doctor costume and his wallet. I don't mention the piece of paper I took, the paper titled, Perfect Girl.
I would have read the entire thing, but it’s written in his tiny scrawl and the cashier was dealing with a queue of last-minute shoppers. I didn't want to hold her up. Besides, I have a feeling that when I read this list, I'm going to want to do it in the privacy of my own bedroom, because I'm pretty sure that tears are going to ensue.
It's going to be the confirmation of everything I've ever thought and feared, that I'm not the girl of Noah's dreams, not even a little bit, not even at all.
So, I'm dealing with these conflicting emotions as I stand on the sidewalk with the most handsome guy in the world. He's smiling as he tucks his phone back in his pocket. Only problem is Betty is standing with him. She's clearly just gotten off work, the apron from the coffee shop tucked under her arm.
"So what costume did you guys decide on this year?" she asks. I've known Betty for years. She's a little bit of a gossip, a little bit snarky, and a lot bit beautiful.
This town is just way too small. I swallow, sometimes wishing I could move to some faraway city and start over, but that’s not going to happen. I love my Aunt Marlene, and I'm not leaving her. She’s all I have for family.
And besides, this is where I grew up. It's where I hold all of the memories I have of my parents… and all the memories I have of Noah and me. In my mind's eye, I picture myself settling down in a house on Main Street, most definitely being married, possibly with a picket fence and 2.5 children, and I would decorate the hell out of our porch every Halloween. I would pass out full-size candy bars and wear a costume, my husband next to me in a matching costume. Our dog would be in a costume too.
I swallow, not wanting to think about that fantasy when the reality is Noah is standing here talking to Betty, a little too intimately. It’s hard not to remember junior year of high school when they literally were in on something, like each other. I'm not the jealous type. Honestly, if Noah needs to sow his wild oats, he can have at it. It's not for me to jud
ge. I’m not sexually repressed or anti-sex, I'm anti- having sex with anyone who isn't Noah.
I know. I'm such a cliché.
"So let me see," Betty presses. "What are you wearing this year?"
Noah doesn't say anything, but I proudly pull out my sexy nurse costume. "I even got thigh-high stockings," I say.
Betty takes a bite of the pumpkin muffin in her hand. "Wait, you're going as a sexy nurse?"
"Yeah. Why?" I say blankly, feigning absolute nonchalance.
Internally, I’m both cringing and wondering how the hell I'm going to get the nerve to put on the stockings and this barely booty-covering dress and walk into Jake's party as if it's no big thing. Truth is, it's a huge thing. I'm Chewbacca, remember?
"Well, you're going to look awesome," she says. "I mean, your rack is fantastic and you’re always hiding it.”
I look down at my chest. "Thanks, Betty." I shove the stockings and costume back in the bag and turn to Noah, "Well, on that note, I am off."
"I thought we could get some dinner."
I shake my head. "No, not today. I'm-"
Noah clenches his jaw. "Let me guess, meeting Sammy Hammy? You know, I’m only in town for a few more days. Is this something that can wait until I’m gone?”
Betty twists her lips. "You're dating Charlie Ham?"
"No," I say, "I'm not. He's my study buddy."
Betty uses air quotes. "Right, study buddy. That's so cute."
"Is it?" I say, smirking, “In that case, I better be off to be cute." I roll my eyes in frustration and turn to leave. Noah must register this because a few steps down the sidewalk, he catches me and grabs my hand.
"Wait up," he says. "What's your deal?"
"What do you mean, what's my deal? I'm just a little… depressed."
"Depressed? A few minutes ago you were in Costume Corner playing the part of a sexy vixen I've never met before."
I swallow. "Yeah. Well, it seems like you're in the middle of a conversation with Betty. I don't want to hold you up."
"Betty?" His eyes crinkle in confusion. "What does Betty have to do with us?"
