Chapter 4

Maddy’s Pub was on the first floor of a two-story brick building with a flat roof sealed with tar and painted silver. It faced a busy two-way road overlooking the town’s wharf. The weekend before Halloween, the parking lot was full, with people parking as far away as the shipping container that Cole’s punch had caved in.

When he pulled in, the bar looked like it was on the second floor, not the first. Orange and purple lighting framed each large window on the upper level as spooky dance music pulsed just quietly enough not to get a noise complaint. Cole pulled up his truck and parked in the last remaining employee parking spot. He had painted his face white, except for a red triangle that started at his forehead and extended to the corners of his jawline. He pulled a large square of cardboard from the truck bed. The placard was painted green and at the bottom read “Fenway Park,” with the numbers one through nine painted along the bottom edge. A strip of yellow painter's tape ran vertically along the far right side. He hung the cardboard around his neck using a bungee cord and hopped up the metal staircase to the second floor.

As he pulled the metal door open and stepped inside, he was blasted with music and the pungent odor of cannabis. Maddy’s apartment took up the entire second floor. In the corner, a partitioned space housed her kitchenette and bathroom, with her bed above it, protected by guardrails. The rest of her apartment was one big space with wood flooring, thick white-painted brick walls, and horror movie posters hung on them. The attendees were a mix of city hipsters and older neighborhood folks Maddy invited to keep them from calling the cops.

Cole craned his neck to look around, then smiled and pointed at Maddy. She wore a costume that made her look like Little Red Riding Hood at the Renaissance Faire. The only shocking bit was that a wolf’s head was biting her neck, and her white shirt was drenched in dried fake blood.

She grabbed two beers from a cooler, snaked through the crowd, and did her best to hug Cole over the large cardboard. “Trick or treat! What the hell are you supposed to be dressed up as?”

Cole looked at himself and stretched out his arms. “I’m the Green Monster. I was sure you’d get it.”

Maddy raised her lips in a puckered frown and shrugged. “Just because I have sports playing on the screens downstairs doesn’t mean I follow sports. Here, have a pumpkin ale. I can’t sell them at the bar.”

He twisted the cap off. “I have a feeling you’re telling me to BYOB.”

She patted his cheek. “There you go. See, I knew you could learn new things. Now go out and mingle with the crowd. I’m far too busy entertaining to talk to someone like you, especially since we talk every day. I want you to find a girlfriend.”

“I’ll do my best.”

She flicked a finger on the cardboard. “Next year, wear a handsome pirate costume. These homemade jobs aren’t doing you any favors. Ryan! Oh my God, thank you for dressing like that!” Maddy threw her arms up and hugged the next person walking in, dressed as a wolf missing its head.

Cole sipped his beer and winced as he swallowed. He looked around the party and saw that the corner where people were dancing was a little less packed. The crowd was so thick that Cole had to walk sideways in his costume to push through the throng of partygoers, drawing looks from men and women alike.

When he reached his destination, he lifted his beer to his lips and stared out at the river and the motorboats tied to the pilings sticking out of the water. He always hated parties, with their loud music and the back-and-forth yelling that passed for conversation. If he wanted the guts to talk to one of the girls at the party, he would need to drink at least two more pumpkin ales. A few groups of girls in skimpy costumes danced on the floor, glancing at the tallest men as if to beckon them over.

Cole felt a tap on the shoulder. He spun around to look, whacking whoever it was with the cardboard. A girl flinched and stepped back. She wore a blonde wig and a cheap black-and-green Aphelia costume, nothing more than the same-colored design painted over a spandex bodysuit. Her amethyst eyes were framed behind a black eye mask which he wanted to pluck from her face.

Cole winced and said, “Damn, I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “I should have warned you I was walking up to you. I think you won a prize for the least convenient costume.” She smirked and put a hand on her shapely hip. “I’m Tina. What’s your name?”

He slid a hand out from under the costume and offered it. “I’m Cole. It’s nice to meet you.”

Tina shook his hand. A thousand little prickles ran along his fingers, then flashed over his body. Cole dismissed the sensation as static discharge. The cheap spandex of her suit strained over her every curve, as if one sharp movement would tear at the seams.

“Maddy’s never told me she personally knows superheroes,” Cole said. “Is there some supervillain hiding out here?”

Her purple eyes widened, but she quickly relaxed them and smirked. “Yeah, the Chaos Commandoes really love the lobster rolls they sell at the shack. In truth, I think I have two degrees of separation from the hostess, a friend of a friend. If you asked me, I couldn’t tell you.”

He raised his beer. “I wouldn’t worry. She's cool as long as you’re chill.”

Tina shot an eye back into the crowd. “I was wondering if you could do me a favor. There’s a creep over there who pinched my ass.”

Cole frowned. “Who is it? That tall guy dressed like a zombie? Do you want me to go talk to him?”

Tina put an arm on the green cardboard. “No need for that. I’m just thinking that if you show me a little interest, he might back off. I know men are a little self-conscious, but would you please dance with me?”

He jiggled his costume. “I really can’t dance with this thing on.”

Her hand shot out and popped the bungee hook off one side of the sign. “Right, let me get that for you. Now you can pretend you’re Triangle Man or something with that face paint.”

Cole gripped the cardboard with his free hand as it slid down his front and set it against the wall. The same tingling coursed through his arm as she pulled him onto the dance floor. He was the only man out there. Expecting the usual dance, stepping left and right to the beat while sipping his beer, he widened his eyes when Tina took his hands and placed them on the small of her back.

She draped her arms over his shoulders and whispered, “There, I feel safer already. Thank you.”

His throat started to dry as she moved closer and her thighs pressed up against his. The music pumping through his ears was mostly eighties hits remixed into electronic dance music. The tingling radiated from every point where their bodies touched. Tina moved easily to the beat, her face too close for him to focus on.

Cole’s chest tensed as his heartbeat raced. Her fragrance carried tones of incense and cloves, and his head swam. Her fingertips inched towards the back of his neck, and he shuddered as he felt her fingernails scratch the base of his skull.

As they danced, he placed his beer on a side table as the couple rotated past. He shut his eyes tight as his brain weighed the risk. His hands slipped free of her for a moment before snaking under her black cape and sliding lower down her back. The cheap fabric of her suit was so thin he could feel her yielding flesh as if she were nude.

Tina pressed herself closer until their bodies touched from chest to pelvis. Her full, round breasts felt like heaven against him. Cole could feel the confidence well up in himself as his hands lowered to clamp around her ass, invisible to the rest of the partygoers.

She whispered in his ear. “I love it when a man can take a fucking hint. You and I are going to have a lot of fun tonight.”

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