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Marco’s eyes glittered as he took in the sight of me. “I’ll admit that it fits you nicely,” he said. “And that you look good in a suit. But not like this.” He dragged his gaze all the way up to my hair, reaching out a hand to comb his fingers through it. “I miss your hair. I liked your red hair. A lot.”

“I’ve always liked it, too,” I said. “Even if it does take a lot of maintenance.”

“Is this your natural color?” Marco continued to play with my hair. I didn’t hate it.

“Close to it,” I said. “It’s a little darker than my natural color, but I think that’s because I put the brown dye on over the red.”

“Please tell me this is wash-out dye,” Marco said.

“Sorry.” I lowered my head a little, wishing I hadn’t made any of the drastic changes that had felt like such a good idea a few days ago.

“Can you put it back the way it was?” Marco asked, a hint of demand in his voice that sent my blood pumping.

“Um.” I winced. “Probably not right away. I normally have to bleach my hair before applying the red color to get it to stand out, and since I’ve already done that a few times, it would damage the⁠—”

Before I could finish the explanation, Marco grabbed my face, lifted to his toes, and slammed his mouth over mine. The kiss took me completely by surprise, and for a second, it felt like the floor was spiraling out from under me. I flailed my arms before anchoring myself by grabbing Marco’s waist.

“Whoa!” one of the teenagers gasped.

“Aaw, they’re so sweet,” the girl next to him said.

I regained enough of my senses to realize we had an audience. Not only that, as we kissed, the musicians switched to playing a few celebratory chords, and some of the audience members clapped.

“Wait, wait!” Marco said, rocking back with a laugh. “Hold your applause. We haven’t sorted everything out yet.” He promptly ignored everyone else and looked dead into my eyes. “I don’t want you to change who you are for me. Not one thing. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. You’re the most interesting person I’ve ever met. Not this person, but the real you.” He made a gesture that took in all of me.

“The real me is a weirdo,” I reminded him.

Someone off to the side made a scoffing sound.

Marco ignored him. “And you think I’m not?” he asked.

“Of course not,” I said. “You’re an intelligent, driven, creative business owner who takes on amazing projects, the shop and your house, and who succeeds at everything he tries.”

“You think that?” Marco asked, genuinely surprised. “Because I don’t succeed at everything.”

I sent him a doubtful look.

“I haven’t succeeded at getting people in Glenside to like me,” he went on.

“What are you talking about?” I was so taken aback by his question that I smirked at him, which was probably the wrong expression, especially with my face. “People definitely like you.”

“Then explain why I feel like I don’t quite fit in around here.” Marco’s question was firm, but he was teasing me on some level.

“You haven’t been here very long,” I pointed out. “Me, on the other hand. I’ve lived here my entire life. I know what it feels like to not fit in. What you’ve got going on isn’t that.”

“Please tell me you’re not having a competition with me about who’s the biggest weirdo in Glenside,” Marco said, resting his hands on his waist and grinning fondly up at me.

“Uh, for the record,” Todd Driver spoke up from one of the tables of people watching us like we were the official Halloween entertainment, “I like both of you.”

“So do I,” Ellie, his wife, agreed.

“Almost everyone likes you,” Todd said. “Although you’re creeping me out with that Halloween costume.” He nodded at my suit.

“Yeah, really spooky, Bastian,” Ellie agreed, wrinkling her nose playfully. “I’m going to have nightmares for a week.”

“It’s just—” I abandoned my defense of dressing like a vanilla and turned back to Marco. “You really like weird me more than normal me?”

“I like you,” Marco said, stepping closer to me again and resting the palm of his hand over my beating heart. “And yes, I want to be with you. Formally. As a couple. I think it’s what Josaiah wants, too,” he added with a suddenly excited look. “He left us a message back at the house.”