“Kat, is there something I’m missing here?” I said, both annoyed and stunned at her uncalled-for aggression. “I don’t have an issue here.”
“Good,” she said as she walked past me, the air around her filled with an unspoken insult.
“What. The. Hell,” I mouthed, walking after her.
An hour into the meeting Kat was leading, I got a text.
King of Woo: Hey, beautiful.
Me: Hi.
King of Woo: How’s your day going?
Me: Sucky. Full of suck. A suck fest.
King of Woo: Let me make it better. Plans tonight?
Me: I was just going to watch scar
y movies and pass out candy.
His answering text was the thumbs down emoji.
Me: You have a better plan?
King of Woo: Can you get together a last-minute costume? There’s a pub party tonight. Nothing big, but I would love it if you could come.
Me: I think I can dream something up.
King of Woo: I’ll pick you up at eight.
Me: See you then.
“Abbie?” I met Kat’s icy gaze that led the rest of the room to stare in my direction.
I was being called out like the distracted kid in class, which I was at the moment, but I’d covered her ass enough times to expect the same. I didn’t work for her, and at some point, I might have to make that clearer.
Lucky for me, I was good at multitasking and met her challenge head-on. “We’ll be implementing all of it next quarter along with the new software. It’s clearly outlined,” I reminded her, making her call-out redundant.
She continued the meeting I’d spent hours preparing for—prepping her for.
It was going to be one of those days.
“Okay, woman, I’m here,” Bree called from down the hall. “I don’t have long. I have to get back to work and scan the ca—” her words stopped as she took in my costume.
“What do you think?” I asked, proud of myself for being able to throw together the perfect outfit on such short notice.
“What do I think? Are you serious?” she said, setting her purse down, her scrubs tarnished with a blood stain that I didn’t want the story behind.
Bree looked me over with wild eyes. “This is a date, not a costume contest. Where’s the sexy?”
“Where’s the what? I’m a witch,” I answered, though it was clear with the black silk cape and matching hat I’d managed to swipe last minute from the drugstore.
The Goodwill down the street just so happened to have a pair of black wedge loafers with a buckle on top of them. I’d only paid four dollars for the perfect complement to my costume. I got lucky.
“That nose. Jesus.”
“Hey,” I defended, “it took me an hour to do my makeup. It’s real latex like they use in the movies.”