Richard.
And then she saw that there was someone beside him. A female someone. A someone who was holding his hand.
Teddy stopped. She stopped walking, breathing, or thinking. She simply stared at Richard, who laughed at something this mysterious blond woman said as she gazed up at him in adoration. They were dressed as superheroes (Teddy didn’t know which ones), both of them in latex.
Richard looked . . . happy. Certainly not like he missed Teddy. And more than that, he looked the same, not as if he was wasting away without his girlfriend to make him meals or keep his apartment clean.
That was when Teddy realized they were headed right toward her, although luckily they hadn’t seen her. She looked down at herself and remembered that she was one big, bright, eye-catching sexy devil. Richard’s superhero companion looked casually sexy, all “Oh, this? I’m a crime fighter, but being sexy is merely a side effect that I can’t help.” Teddy looked desperate, like she was trying to pick up drunk men who had no imagination.
“Damn it,” she muttered, then ran to a trash can and ducked down. Or, rather, she tried to duck down, but the skintight costume made movement difficult. Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground and watched as they walked past.
She exhaled in relief, then realized that someone was standing beside her.
“We could see you from the window,” Josie said, arms crossed. “Me and Carlos and all the customers. We got worried when you ducked behind a trash can. Everything okay?”
“I saw Richard,” Teddy said. “He . . . he has a new girlfriend.”
“Oh, honey,” Josie said, instantly changing from worry to sympathy. “Come here. I’m gonna hug you even though you were leaning against that disgusting trash can.”
Teddy got up and put an arm around Josie. “His new girlfriend’s a superhero.”
“I’m sure she’s a regular woman just like you.”
“No, I mean, they’re dressed as superheroes,” Teddy said. “And he looked . . . happy.”
Josie sighed as Teddy leaned her head on her shoulder. “Well . . . screw Rick the Dick.”
Teddy started giggling, which then turned into a full-on laugh. “Josie, you have got to stop calling him that.”
“Maybe he’s got to stop being a dick. That’s another solution.”
Teddy wiped her eyes. “I’ve gotta get your mac and cheese.”
“Forget about it. Thinking about Richard killed my appetite.”
Teddy smiled, even though her heart felt a bit bruised. Richard had moved on. She thought he would be lost without her, and it turned out he wasn’t lost at all. He was thriving with his new superhero girlfriend. He was already one half of a new couples costume, while she was a lone sexy devil working at the shop, dreaming small.
Teddy shook herself off as they walked into the store. She smiled at the next customer in line and decided that if Richard could move on, then she could, too.
33
Everett was supposed to meet up with Natalie and Lillian later, but for now he was Gretel’s chaperone for the early hours of HighBall. Their parents might let her travel solo on foot during daylight hours, but they drew the line when there were intoxicated adults in costumes roaming those same streets.
Not that Everett was upset about it. After Gretel’s unexpected outburst the other day at dinner, he was happy to spend time with her and, hopefully, show her that their relationship wasn’t so fragile that it couldn’t survive distance. He was her big brother, and he’d always be there for her.
Gretel was dressed as Totoro from the Hayao Miyazaki film My Neighbor Totoro, and Everett was wearing his red cardigan and holding his Daniel Striped Tiger re-creation in one hand. When Gretel saw him, she’d frowned and said, “Kinda obvious, isn’t it?” She’d spent several evenings turning a gray onesie into Totoro by sewing on ears, eyes, whiskers, and a disturbingly large smile, and she seemed disappointed by the lack of craft involved in his costume. But she wasn’t too embarrassed to be seen with him, so he guessed it was okay.
“So what first? A beer?” Everett asked as they walked down the street.
Gretel gave him an exasperated look. “Have you been to Colossal Toys?”
Everett thought about it. “Not for years. Why?”
“Come on. I go there all the time. I’m basically a regular.” Gretel grabbed his hand and pulled him through a crowd of what Everett initially thought were extremely committed zombies, then realized were drunk dudes splattered in fake blood (at least, he hoped it was fake blood).
The store was crowded, full of people dressed as Rainbow Brite, Pee-wee Herman, Wayne and Garth, and a group of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The pop-culture costumes really congregated in Colossal Toys, apparently.
Gretel jostled her way through the crowd while Everett got distracted by a Fraggle Rock plush toy. “Oh, I need this,” he muttered to himself, grabbing it off the rack. “Gobo, you’re coming home with me, my dude.”
He figured he should probably keep track of Gretel, so he gently nudged his way through the crowd. “Excuse me,” he muttered, then saw Gretel talking animatedly to a devil behind the register. Well, it was a woman dressed as a devil, and as Gretel gestured wildly, Everett realized that he couldn’t take his eyes off her. There was something about her, and yes, part of that something was definitely the fact that her costume was basically a second skin, but there was something else, too. A feeling, even as he watched her smile at Gretel from across the room, that he knew her somehow. A feeling of comfort. Of home.
“I’m very sorry, Pee-wee, but I’m going to need you to move,” Everett said, pushing on the man’s shoulder a bit more forcefully until he finally stepped aside.
“I can’t believe you designed this yourself,” the devil woman was saying. “The ears are especially impressive.”
Gretel beamed back at her. “I watched the movie five times in a row to really study Totoro.”
“Not that it was a chore for her,” Everett broke in. “She loves that movie.”
As the devil woman turned to look at him, the smile fell off her face and her cheeks grew almost as red as her costume.
Gretel sighed. “Teddy, this is Everett St. James, my brother. Everett, this is Teddy Phillips, my friend.” She leaned over to him and whispered, “Don’t be weird.”
“I won’t be,” Everett whispered back, although he knew Teddy could hear everything they were saying.
“This is . . . your brother?” the woman named Teddy asked quietly, giving the question far more gravity than it needed.