“I want to go.”
There’s ruffling coming from her phone. I’m not sure if Liliana is aware of how deep our relationship has developed, but she must know we’re not just friends. Either from Grant telling her—after I told him—or through Rosalie sharing the news. I bet Liliana’s just pretending not to hear us.
“It’s going to be a lot of people.” Fingers twist themselves into my hair, massaging my scalp and making me sigh.
Spending the entire night like this would be a dream. But I don’t know when else I’d be able to see my girl in a setting so tailored to her, and with our friends there to ease the nerves of being in such a crowd.
Staying in with her would be amazing, but I can’t pass up this opportunity.
“I’ll be fine. I want to see you dancing and lighting up the room. I bet it’s beautiful.”
“Oh my gosh you two are sickening.” Liliana breaks through the phone speaker, and we all laugh.
“Baby,” Grant’s voice appears on the other side. “We’re just as bad.”
“Yeah, but not with our friends in earshot.”
“You called me, Lil!”
The two girls start mindlessly bickering, with Grant’s words barely making it out of the rubble.
“Are you coming, Locke?”
There’s an optimistic tone. My older brother, who, months ago, barely knew me and didn’t want any relationship with me, is hoping I’ll tag along. There are layers now as to why I should put myself in a room of sweaty, loud, half-drunk partygoers. All those layers consist of seeing my favorite people happy.
“Yeah, I’m going.”
“Great!” My brother cheers and I smile. “It’s super last minute so it’s cool if you guys don’t have a costume. Derek is wearing one of his old baseball jerseys and I’m wearing an apron.”
“Justan apron.” Liliana clarifies, giggling.
“Are you guys going to wear a couple costume?” Rosalie asks. Light pink tint dusts her cheeks and there’s sparkle glistening in her eye. Couple costumes are the exact sort of thing she’d secretly save a folder of on her favorite social media app, and obsess over whenever the Halloween season starts up.
I mentally hit myself atop the head. Of course, she’d want to do a couple costume. Even if we were sitting here doing nothing together, I should’ve thought that far, at least.
I want to be the best version of hers. I want to give her whatever she wants, and whatever makes her happy, because no one makes me feel seen like she does. The least I can do is bring her the joy she deserves.
While I’m thinking up last-minute costumes we can put together, Liliana is answering her question.
“It’s kind of hard to match with a chef.” Grant mumbles in the background that it’s not so difficult when “Liliana is a whole meal,”but she ignores him. “I’m just going to wear the angel dress I keep on hand.”
I almost question why she has a Halloween costume prepared in the back of her closet, but it dies on my tongue. That’s as Liliana-coded as it gets.
“Fuck, I broke my devil horns while moving and I never bought a new pair.”
Rosie pouts, and my need to fix it for her is instant. Offer to go out and get her a replacement right now and not have her worry about it. Stronger than that, though, is my confidence that she’d want to dress up together, as a couple.
“We can find something from our closets to make a couple costume.”
Her worried expression morphs into excitement.
“Really?!” She bounces on the balls of her feet, and everything feels right in the world. My life consists of many shortcomings, but my care for her will never be one of them.
Standing, I hold my hand out and nod towards her bedroom. “Yeah. Let’s go look at what you have.”
After Liliana gives us the time and meeting place—and I reassure Rosalie two and a half hours is enough time to get ready—we’re standing in front of her opened closet. Everything spilling out feels so Rosie. Warm tones, cozy sweaters, and a few scandalous pieces that are going to haunt me in the middle of the night.
She’s pushing hangers back and forth, sighing. “I can’t believe I forgot to replace those devil horns. I’m a devil literally every year.”
