A group of four teenage girls stood in front of them, all dressed to attract male attention, all seemingly giggling into cell phones that looked permanently attached to their ears rather than talking to each other. Or maybe they were talking to each other and their cell phone friends at the same time, Catherine mused, since they seemed to be babbling without stopping to breathe.
A young couple behind her indulged in occasional demonstrations of passion that would have been more appropriate in the back seat of their car. Two men in their late twenties to early thirties were eyeing the teenage girls and talking too loudly about topics presumably chosen to make them sound young and “cool,” but in Catherine’s opinion only made them rather pathetic. But what did she know? Scientists weren’t exactly known for their “coolness” quotients.
Speaking of cool…she glanced up at Mike again. She needed to remind herself again why she was here. The encouraging smile he aimed at her provided a partial explanation.
Eventually, of course, they arrived at the head of the line. Catherine was less than thrilled to discover that the teenage girls and the groping couple would be included in their tour group. An exotic-looking young woman in a long, hooded black robe and very pale foundation paired with smoky, dark eye shadow and bloodred lipstick introduced herself as their guide, “Almyra.”
Stifling a sigh, Catherine tried to work up some enthusiasm for what was to come. She found some encouragement in reminding herself that she loved community theater and believed very strongly in supporting local artists. Even if she found the next few minutes boring or silly, that should make it more worthwhile for her.
She just hoped the teenagers around them wouldn’t try to outscream each other, leaving her with a pounding headache when this was over.
“Are you okay, Catherine? You’re still a little pale.”
She took another deep swallow of margarita and attempted a smile. “I’m fine. Really.”
“Glad to hear it.” Mike had been doing a pretty fair job of stifling a grin ever since they had left the haunted house a half hour earlier. As if sensing that she could use a little liquid reinforcement, he had brought her straight to a popular music bar. The place was crowded and noisy and rather smoky, but at least no gruesome monsters lurked beneath the tables, ready to leap out at her and scare the stuffing out of her.
The repressed smile tugged at the corners of Mike’s mouth. “So now you can say that you have finally visited a haunted house.”
She nodded and took another drink.
A quick laugh escaped him. “I have to admit you handled it well. Those silly girls with us were screaming and carrying on all the way through the place, while you didn’t make a peep. I thought you were just sort of bored by it all—until we got back outside and I saw that you were almost as white as the ghosts who howled at us inside.”
“It was a little…unnerving in there,” she admitted, suppressing a shudder. It had been so dark, with creepy music and sound effects and dry-ice fog drifting around them. And even though she had known the assorted ghosts and goblins had all been volunteers in gory latex costumes, she had still almost jumped out of her boots every time one of them popped out of the darkness and shrieked at her.
“Well, yeah. That was the point. Sometimes it’s kind of fun to be scared, you know? That’s why horror movies and roller coasters are so popular.”
“I hate horror movies. And you would have to hold a gun to my temple to get me on a roller coaster.”
“So you didn’t have any fun at the haunted house?”
She was being ungracious, she realized abruptly. Mike had paid for her ticket, thought he was providing her with an experience she had missed in her youth, and all she had done was disparage the experience.
“It was interesting,” she conceded in an attempt at diplomacy. “Something I had never done before.”
She was tempted to add that she would have been perfectly content to live out the remainder of her life without ever experiencing that particular pleasure, but that would have been discourteous again.
“It was pretty funny when that vampire dude swooped
down from the ceiling, wasn’t it? I thought that little blonde in our tour group was going to wet her pants.”
Because she had come dangerously close to that reaction herself, Catherine could only smile weakly and say, “Yes. That was…amusing.”
And to think that she had always taken such pride in her honesty.
“So I guess this means you don’t want to go to the horror movie marathon with me Halloween night?”
“Gee, I would—but I’m washing my cat that night.”
Her drawled joke seemed to please him. Laughing, he said, “Could I talk you into doing that little chore some other time and going to a party with me, instead?”
“A party?”
He nodded. “My sister Laurie’s throwing a party and she pretty much expects me to be there. I’d really like it if you would go with me.”
“Is it a costume party?”
“Well, sure. It’s Halloween.”