People wanted more food options and, much to my surprise, an adults-only session later in the night, like after ten o’clock. I thought that was a brilliant idea. It would certainly increase profits having the event open a little longer—so long as the extra insurance costs and overhead didn’t negate the increase.
Kayla and I reunited near the apple-bobbing station at the end of the evening as everyone started clearing out. Teams of students from the university swarmed the field to begin tearing down the stations, and Kayla and I pitched in where we could. It took over an hour to take everything down. Once the lawn was clear and the fog dissipated, we had one last task of making a round and collecting any garbage strewn about. Unfortunately, there was a fair amount of it.
“This is the only part about these kinds of events I don’t like,” Kayla muttered as she bent down and picked up litter with one hand to cram it into the bag she held in the other. We both wore plastic gloves. “I don’t understand why people can’t just use garbage cans. Look around. There are half a dozen of them!”
“People are lazy,” I said. “Especially when they’re enjoying themselves. They don’t want to break away from the fun to put garbage in a can. I bet they’re the same people who don’t get out of the pool or lake to pee.”
Kayla glanced up at me. “Eww.”
I snickered. “I’m not wrong.”
“Probably not.” She sighed as she continued picking up garbage.
Other kids pitched in to help, and once the lawn was all clear, I found myself itching for some good old-fashioned adult entertainment. I turned to Kayla as she pulled the flower pins out of her hair. “We should go get a drink.”
Kayla smiled as she tucked the pins in her purse. “A drink, you say? Where would you like to go?”
“Somewhere close by.”
“All the bars around here will be filled with college students. It’s Halloween night.”
“What? Are we not cool enough to party with college students?”
Kayla smirked. “I never said that.”
Kayla and I found a rocking bar not far from campus where we were probably the only people the bouncers let in without checking their ID. It made me feel only slightly too old to be there.
We pushed through the crowd and made our way to the bar, where I ordered us each a cocktail and a shot to get the night started.
Kayla leaned on the bar and looked up at me. “Did you just order a shot?”
I nodded and nudged her shoulder with mine. “I want to dance with you tonight and something tells me we need something to take the edge off.”
The bartender placed two shots in front of us and began making our cocktails. Kayla lifted her shot glass up to the light and peered at it. “Why does it look like candy corn?”
The shot had layers of orange, white, and yellow, just like candy corn. “I thought we should do something Halloween inspired, you know, to stay on trend for the night.”
Kayla grimaced. “I feel like tequila would have been better. Sweet shots are dangerous recipes for hangovers.”
“Don’t be a baby.”
“I’m not a baby,” she said, shooting me a glare. “I’m a princess.”
I laughed. “All right, princess. Pull it together. Bottoms up.”
We tapped our shot glasses together before throwing them back. She was right, of course. The shot was dangerously sweet. It was heavy on my tongue and I swallowed it as quickly as I could, resenting the cream liqueur as it inched its way down my throat.
Kayla shook her head and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she set the shot glass down. “See? Gross.”
“You were right. Mistakes have been made.”
“Nothing we can’t fix.” Kayla caught the bartender’s eye when he set our cocktails down. “Could we please have two shots of tequila?” She pulled a five-dollar bill out of her purse and tucked it in his tip jar. “Thank you.”
Based on the way he hustled to make our drinks, I suspected he didn’t get many tips there. It made sense. Most of the customers were half-broke college students who could hardly afford to buy their own drinks, let alone give away money to the bartender. When our tequila shots were ready and we had our lime wedges in hand, we did our second round of shots.
Kayla’s cheeks puckered as she sucked on the lime. She squeezed one of her eyes closed and let out a soft moan that did things to my man parts.
She put her half-sucked away lime wedge in her shot glass and left it on the bar. We ducked back into the crowd with our cocktails in hand and stood along the edges of the dance floor while we drank. Almost everyone was out in their Halloween costumes. The dance floor was packed with nurses, maids, vampires, fairies, werewolves, and monsters.
“Sometimes, I feel like I missed out by not having the college experience,” Kayla said to me over the music.
“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Not all the time anyway.”
She shrugged. “I think I would have liked it.”
I smiled at the beautiful girl beside me as she sipped her drink and bobbed along to the music contently. “Yes,” I said. “I think you would have liked it too.”
She flashed me a charming smile. “Care to dance, loathsome pirate?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to ask me.”
Kayla giggled and handed me her drink. “Wait here. I just have to use the ladies’ room.”
“I’ll be right
