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“That one’s reserved for someone else. I already checked the name tag.”
Hector looked around the overly crowded store. Zoe was running around with a plastic sword, doing battle moves in front of a mirror. They still had a week till Halloween. He could go to another store, but he didn’t feel like traipsing around town while there was a perfectly good collection of costumes to choose from right here.
He passed two Spidermans, one Captain America, and a ghost before he found Zoe.
“Zoe, they’re all out of Wonder Woman costumes. Let’s find you another costume, okay?”
She shook her head, her blonde curls swaying from the left to the right. “Nope.”
He stood there waiting, thinking of what to do, when he found her doing the exact same thing.
A woman with a pile of costumes draped over her arm looked at him indulgently. “My boy insisted on becoming Black Panther,” she told him. “I’ve been racing across town all day. This is the third shop we’ve visited. I’m so glad we found this place.”
Zoe gave him a hopeful look. He knew what it meant.
“Fine. Let’s go.” He scooped her up and took her outside.
“I’m going to be Wonder Woman!” she squealed in his ear.
He really hoped she was. He dropped her in the side car and made sure he tucked her in nice and safe.
He sent Mary a message that they were gonna be a bit late, explaining what happened. She wished him luck and sent him a winky emoji. He rolled his eyes. How difficult could it be to find one Halloween costume for a tiny human?
The answer was: fucking difficult, near impossible.
Who knew it would be this difficult to negotiate with a six-year-old? By the time they had left the third store, Hector had promised Zoe all kinds of stuff if she would just pick out another costume. He’d even upped the ante by offering her chocolate caramel cake before dinner, for a whole week. Mary never had to know. It would be their little secret. The munchkin just shook her head and said, “Nope.”
They were in the fourth store and still no Wonder Woman costume in sight. By now, he was ready to sacrifice a goat to any deity, just to get that costume.
He nudged Zoe toward a rack of pink princess dresses, hoping she’d fall in love with one of them. Instead, she ran off to a section with pirate costumes.
His shoulders slumped. Honestly, he’d reached the point that he didn’t care if she wanted to walk around like a cucumber.
This shop was the largest one so far, but it still felt small and suffocating to him. It was filled with people doing their holiday shopping and he was starting to feel antsy. Waves of heat rolled over his body, and he had to watch his every step. One wrong move and he would step on a kid. He’d almost accidentally bumped into a tiny Hulk just minutes ago. The kid had growled at him and told him he “made Hulk mad.”
Finally, he found a free sales clerk.
“Look, um, Cathy,” he said, after a look at the woman’s nametag. “I really need a Wonder Woman costume for my kid. So, what can you do for me?” He smiled and tried to look non-threatening.
Her eyes went to his scars and then trailed to his tattoos. She practically licked her lips and bent over the counter, showing him cleavage.
“You know, I think I can help you out,” she all but purred.
He leaned over to her. “Do tell.”
She glanced over at Zoe, who was having a sword fight with Aquaman.
“I don’t have a Wonder Woman costume and you won’t find any if you haven’t reserved one. It’s an extremely popular outfit, with the movie out and all. But what if I can convince that little girl to wear a different costume?”
Oh, he liked the sound of that.
“You do that, and I’ll owe you.”
“Oh, I like you owing me,” Cathy said, followed by a wink. “What will you do for me if I get it done?”
“The best date of your life,” he promised, not feeling sorry for misleading her. He could pawn her off to Achilles or Walker. Maybe even Cortez, if his girl had dumped him again.
“Deal.” She sauntered over to Zoe, who was standing next to a pile of tridents.