“You guess?”
“I know that I’m working tonight, but it’s still a Halloween party, and she is not here,” Jax said.
“Should I be worried? You two are my favorite queer couple. I like seeing someone I know monogamous and happy.”
“We’ve been together for a long time. It’s just, I don’t know. It sounds ridiculously cliché, but I think we’ve grown apart. She’s just not interested in spending time with me. A strange thing to say about someone you live with, but there it is.”
Kate got up off her stool and flung an arm around her friend. “I get it! Back in my twenties, I lived with a girl for almost three years. The first couple of years were amazing, and then she decided to go back to school, and she made new friends, and the next thing I knew, I realized we only spent time together in bed—and most of that was us sleeping.”
“Thanks, Kate.”
“Maybe you two just need to, ah, prioritize your relationship and shit.”
“Spoken like someone who’s happily single.”
“Aye, Matey!”
Jax mimed like they were going to take Kate’s beer away. “I think you need to be cut off.”
“You are the crankiest vampire I’ve ever met.”
Jax rolled their eyes. “I’ve gotta get back behind the bar. I’ll talk to you later. Have fun texting with your secret friend.”
Kate wagged her eyebrows and pulled her phone back out. Should she ask herself why she was on her phone in the middle of the Halloween party she looked forward to every year? Wasthat the behavior of someone who wanted to be single? She frowned.
Hannah had texted her back. She’d walk the plank for Kate. That was a good one. Now she needed to come up with a sexy witch innuendo.
Kate began typing “I think you’ve put a spell on me,” then she thought better of it. That was the sort of thing you said in a Halloween card to your girlfriend. She sipped her beer and kept thinking about what to say while the crowd was doing the monster mash around her.
“Okay, I think I got it,” she mumbled.
Kate
Wanna come over and show me if you’re a good witch or a wicked witch?
Because she knew she was going to have a few beers, she’d taken a ride share over to Hop’s Heaven. But it was only a ten-minute walk to her house, if Hannah could come over, she’d run home. She snorted. The bird would probably fall off as she ran. Well, she could just leave it with Jax at the bar. She stared at her phone as the band started playing “Zombie” by the Cranberries. Kate nodded in time with the music. They were really good. She looked over at the line for the bathroom, and it was six sexy witches deep.
She checked to see if Hannah had responded while she was counting the women in line for the bathroom. Three dots were still bubbling.
Kate tapped her boot against the bar. She scrolled up to look again at Hannah’s picture. She wanted nothing more than to help her out of that soft sweater she was wearing. Kate inhaled as if she could smell Hannah through the phone. She hoped Hannah was wearing fishnet stockings; she’d take them off with her teeth.
Finally, a text appeared.
Hannah
I would, but I’m babysitting until at least eleven.
Kate deflated. She needed to be at the shop early to move all the fall items to the clearance area and put out the Christmas merchandise. Then again, she could sleep next year.
Kate
If I get to take you out of that costume, I don’t care how late it is.
Hannah
Well, blow me down, Captain Kate.
Kate
