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ONE

MICKEY

Laughter and happy chatter filled the cool night air as I walked the block from Red’s Restaurant to The Striped Maple Irish pub. The earlier evening crowd of trick-or-treating families had pretty much cleared out, and now the costumed adults moved from business to business to collect freebies.

At Red’s, we’d had a steady stream of costumed families wanting our samples of Mabel’s Mint Chocolate Milkshake all evening. By the time I’d clocked out ten minutes ago, there were fewer families and more adults. A handful had even tipped the contents of their flasks into their milkshakes.

I approached the bustling pub behind a handful of people in cheerleader costumes. Live music and raucous laughter spilled out when they opened the door. I entered, tensing at the crowded space. The Striped Maple was always a popular spot in our small town, but it was even more so on Halloween.

“Nice Bob Ross costume, Mickey. Going to do some painting tonight?”

I turned toward the voice and saw Rory, one of the pub’s owners, carrying a box of beer bottles.

He wore a Ghostbuster uniform, complete with a proton pack.

He’d bought the pub not long ago with the other two members of his throuple, Adrian and Zach.

Rory had been a few years ahead of me in school, but I’d gotten to know him through the Maplewood business community when they’d taken over The Striped Maple.

I laughed. “Unfortunately, the best I can do is a stick figure. Despite the jeans strangling my legs, it’s nice to get out of the diner uniform for a while.” I hadn’t worn so much denim since I was a kid and thought the Canadian tuxedo was the height of fashion.

Rory laughed. “Your friends are at your usual spot. Make sure you try the Smashed Scarecrow. It’s a maple-bourbon cocktail Conall whipped up.”

“Thanks for the tip. Have a good one.”

Rory nodded and hustled the beer over to the bar.

My head bobbed to the live band playing a Prince cover as I scanned the bar. Working at the diner sucked up most of my social battery, and I usually saved the rest for Dungeons and Dragons nights with my friends.

As I approached the bar, I looked for familiar faces.

Instead, I saw a guy in a blond mullet wig, black-rimmed glasses, and a flannel shirt.

I smiled at the Garth costume. I’d always had a soft spot for Wayne’s World because it was one of the few adult movies my parents had let me watch with them as a kid.

I had a fuzzy memory of watching it and sharing a bowl of popcorn with my brother.

It was one of my fondest memories of us before he passed away decades ago.

I was so lost in my memories that I didn’t realize Garth had returned my smile.

It lit up his whole face, and my heart skipped a beat under his full attention.

I hadn’t felt those flutters deep in my belly in a long time.

The ones sparked from a single look that had no rhyme or reason to exist. A current pulsed under my skin.

Usually those jolts came after conversation and flirting, but this was a rare exception.

There was something familiar about his warm smile, but I couldn’t place it.

Movement behind Garth caught my eye, and I spotted my friend Jason waving me over from where he stood next to his boyfriend Bellamy. I waved at them, took one more look at Garth, then headed toward my friends.

I was fortunate to have remained tight with the same group since we graduated fifteen years ago.

Then again, we’d all stayed in Maplewood after high school, so odds were we’d stay great friends.

Even when I’d commuted to college in a nearby town, they’d remained my core group instead of me finding new people.

Now, our group had doubled in size, with everyone having paired up this year: Jason hooking up with his brother’s hockey rival; Finn falling for the famous musician who’d come to town to help at a music festival; Alex connecting with the new firefighter in town; Sam finding their person with their students’ dad; and Andre connecting with Ethan, another high school friend and hockey player.

Unfortunately, Andre and Ethan spent most of their time on the other side of the country.

Then there was me. Dumped by my last boyfriend three months ago, which was becoming an uncomfortable pattern.

Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled for my friends and our growing group of misfits, but it was hard not to feel lonely when smothered by all this honeymoon-phase lovey-doveyness when I couldn’t get anyone to stick around beyond a few months.

Finn, Alex, Sam, and their partners had commandeered a dart board, per usual. We changed the rules each time, but it was always fun. After greeting them, I joined Jason and Bellamy at a standing pub table.

“Love the costumes,” I said, laughing. Bellamy wore his own professional hockey jersey and held a hockey stick. Jason wore his younger brother Ryland’s jersey.

“I couldn’t let Burlington be the only one represented tonight. Gotta represent Columbus too.” Jason winked at me when Bellamy nudged him playfully. “Digging the Bob Ross look. I haven’t seen you with this much hair for, what, ten years?” Jason patted my synthetic brown curls.

“You had curls?” Bellamy asked.

He’d only known me with close-cropped hair. “I used to have hair past my shoulders, but I got tired of it in college.”

Bellamy’s eyes widened. “I gotta see a photo of that.”

“Jason hasn’t busted the high school yearbooks out yet? Two words: Bieber hair.”

Bellamy gasped and mimed clutching his pearls. “The horror.”

Jason wrapped his arm around Bellamy’s neck and pulled him close, kissing the side of his head. “You’d still think I was hot.”

As Bellamy gagged, my heart seized. I wanted to find that type of connection, but I knew it wasn’t in the cards for me. Relationships and running Red’s didn’t mix. My parents had proven that years ago, and my getting dumped in each new relationship didn’t convince me otherwise.

“Want a drink? We still have part of a pitcher left.” Jason picked up the pitcher of Doctor Light from the local Hop Doctor Brewery.

“Yeah, thanks.”

While Jason filled my glass and finished the pitcher by topping off his and Bellamy’s, my attention drifted back to Garth.

“See someone you know?” Jason turned in the direction I looked.

“I don’t think I do. The guy in the Garth getup, blond mullet. You know him?”

Bellamy turned too. I hoped Garth didn’t feel our eyes on the back of his head.

“Don’t think so. You going to talk to him?”

I shook my head. “Just thought he looked vaguely familiar.” Which was sort of true, but it was hard not to feel that way about most people in town after living in Maplewood my entire life.

“Is that Brandon over there?”

My head snapped in the direction Jason gestured toward. Sure enough, my last boyfriend wore a baseball uniform that looked painted on while standing next to some annoyingly tall and handsome guy.

Wait a damn minute.

“That’s his coworker!”

I fucking knew it.

“The guy you were worried about?”

I ground my teeth. “Yes.” Turning away, I took several long chugs of my drink and appreciated Jason’s supportive squeeze of my shoulder.

That breakup had stung more than usual because I’d foolishly thought we might last longer than my other relationships, but I’d been wrong. Again.

At that moment—Brandon looked in our direction and caught me watching. The smug smile got under my skin.

Bellamy narrowed his eyes at Brandon. “You know, you could show him you don’t care.”

“How?” I asked.

“Find someone to hook up with. Or at least flirt with.”

Jason nodded. “Bellamy might be onto something.”

Once again, I looked over at Garth, who was still sitting alone at the bar, probably waiting for a date. It couldn’t hurt to swap a few sentences with him while ordering a new pitcher. I could smile and flirt a little, and if Brandon saw it, all the better.