Love Lessons

She bit her lower lip for a moment before asking, “What are you going to wear?”

He shrugged. “I haven’t really thought much about it yet. Last year I went as a handheld video game.”

Intrigued despite herself, she asked, “How did you manage that?”

“Oh, you know. Big fake control buttons surrounding a fake screen painted on a sweatshirt. I drew video game characters on the screen, and taped a couple of big fake batteries to my back. Clipped a little CD player loaded with video game sounds to my belt. Covered my head with one of those sheer black hoods you can see through from the inside but not so much from the outside. It turned out pretty good—though everyone thought it was real funny to keep poking my ‘buttons.’ I ended up with a few bruises on my ribs by the end of the evening.”

“It sounds very creative. I’ve never been very clever at that sort of thing.”

He shrugged. “Heck, you can wear a tiara and call yourself a princess. It isn’t a contest.”

She wasn’t good at parties. Business functions such as the one she had attended with Bill, sure. She was used to those. But a costume party with strangers—one of whom was the stunning and vivacious redhead who had drawn so much attention at the restaurant? Totally different story.

Every instinct told her she would be more comfortable declining the invitation. But wasn’t comfortable a word she had recently begun to chafe against? Hadn’t she become increasingly dissatisfied with her predictable ruts and vowed to make some changes, even if it meant challenging herself occasionally?

And did she really want to turn down a chance to spend another evening with Mike?

“Okay,” she said after drawing a deep breath. “It could be fun.”

“Trust me,” he said with a smile, picking up his mug of beer. “It will be great.”

Which was pretty much what he had said about the haunted house experience, she couldn’t help remembering.

“Just promise me no one at the party will leap down at me from the ceiling and try to suck my blood.”

He grinned even more broadly. “I’m pretty sure none of the other party guests will try anything like that. As for me—well, I’ll try to restrain myself, but you do have a very tempting neck.”

She lifted a hand automatically to her throat, thinking that maybe she should have worn a turtleneck tonight.

They spent quite a while in the River Market district, a revitalized section of downtown Little Rock that ran alongside the Arkansas River. Lined with bars, restaurants and music venues, shops, art galleries and museums, including the Clinton Presidential Center, and with a large sports-and-concert arena on the North Little Rock side of the river, the area had become a popular destination for tourists in the daytime and local barhoppers and music lovers in the evenings.

Catherine hadn’t spent much time there herself except during the summer months when she often dropped by early on Saturday mornings for fresh produce from the bustling farmer’s market. Still, she enjoyed her evening there with Mike.

Mike walked her to the door when he finally took her home. “I had a great time here with you this evening. Sorry about scaring you so badly in the haunted house.”

“I wasn’t actually scared,” she said, feeling the need to defend herself. “I knew I was in no danger. As I said, it was simply an unnerving experience.”

“Then I’m sorry you were unnerved.”

“And I’m sorry I didn’t enjoy it more,” she said with a sigh. “I know you expected to have more fun there. I didn’t mean to throw a wet blanket on your evening.”

“Hey, don’t apologize. So haunted houses and horror movies aren’t your thing. No big deal.”

She was glad he didn’t seem to be offended by her lack of enthusiasm for his choice of entertainment. And she hoped the Halloween party wouldn’t turn out to be another event that they would have to write off as “not her thing.” She couldn’t exactly say she was looking forward to it, since it made her vaguely uncomfortable to think about it. But she wasn’t actively dreading it, either. After all, she would be attending with Mike.

“Look at it this way,” Mike advised with a grin. “October’s almost over—and Halloween with it. The next set of holidays are much more peaceful.”

She didn’t really expect to still be seeing Mike socially when the next set of holidays rolled around, of course. As different as they were—and this evening had been full of signs pointing to that conclusion—it was highly unlikely that anything long-term would develop between them. But in the meantime, she might as well take advantage of the opportunity to enliven her dull life with a few new experiences.

She put her hand on the doorknob. “Norman’s probably wondering where I am.”

She wouldn’t ask him in. It was entirely too soon to be sending signals she wasn’t ready to follow up on.

His smile never wavered, so maybe he hadn’t expected an invitation. “Maybe I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“You have my cell phone number if I’m not home.”

“Oh? Do you have plans?” he asked casually.