“Where’s my nephew? River’s with your parents?” Tallie asked.
“Yes! He’s a dinosaur. They took him trick-or-treating with his cousins. He’s so cute you’ll die. I’ll show you a million pictures later. Go, go! Put the cake down, get some food! Crush a cup of wine! Enjoy the night! Happy Halloween! Find me later!” Zora said, exclamation-pointing at them.
*
As soon as they got into the kitchen, Tallie put the cake with the rest of the food. Emmett was next to her smelling deliciously woodsy, looking up and around at what he could see of the house from where he stood. “Want to do a tour first? Probably the easiest way to find Lionel anyway.”
“Okay,” Emmett agreed. She saw him eye the champagne.
“Sure you feel okay having one?” Tallie asked, holding up a small green bottle and a fun, twisty straw for him.
“Thank you.”
“Me, too,” she said, getting one for herself. “And if we want, we can sleep here. A lot of people stay over…if they drink too much is what I mean…” She stopped, conflicted. Emmett wasn’t her client, and she wasn’t responsible for him. He was a grown man; he could have a drink. He could handle it, she’d seen him. But she also knew how fragile his headspace had been on Thursday evening. Okay. She decided to press Pause on taking mental therapy notes about him for the night, and they’d have one drink—two at most.
“Got it,” he said.
She spotted one of her clients across the room dressed as Wednesday Addams. She and her clients had a rule of ignoring one another whenever they crossed paths in public. Tallie always felt like a spy when she did it. They made eye contact and looked away. Clark, Tallie Clark. Tallie watched her when she wasn’t looking, attempting to see if she was with the man she’d shown Tallie a photo of, the man she discussed with a pinched red face every therapy session. And she was. Of course she was.
Tallie turned and bumped into a friend from college; they’d recently reconnected in barre class.
“Hey, girl. You look cute. Are your legs still sore from Tuesday’s class? Mine are! Is that normal? Who are you dressed up as?” her friend asked, rapid-fire. Happily buzzed.
“Scully. From The X-Files. You’re Bella Swan?” Tallie asked after taking in the brunette wig, brown jacket, backpack, and long gray cabled mittens she was wearing. “That’s your Edward?” Tallie asked after looking behind her and finding a bloody-fanged vampire in a gray peacoat with the collar popped. He was talking to a guy dressed as the poop emoji.
“Yes, it is. And whoa, I saw Nicodemus Tate around here somewhere! His name is so great… like some kind of prince or something. No, a king! Nicodemus Tate,” her friend said, letting Nico’s name linger on her tongue for a moment before glancing around wildly like a chicken. “He asked if I’d seen you. You guys aren’t dating again, right? Oh. Shit. Sorry,” she said to Emmett.
“You’re fine.” Tallie put her hand on her shoulder. “No, Nico and I aren’t dating. But this is Emmett, my Mulder,” she said. Tallie had felt a twitch of something hearing Nico’s name and knowing he was in the house—like she was a guitar and someone had flicked one of her strings.
“Gotcha. Whew. Girl, Emmett’s cute,” her friend said, holding her hand to her mouth and whispering the last part although on no planet would Emmett not be able to hear her. “Nice to meet you, Emmett. It’s good to see you both. Maybe I’ll text you tomorrow and let you know if my legs are still sore. Maybe she broke us. She kicked our ass. That’s still sore, too!” she said, waving at them before rejoining her vampire love.
“Okay, are you overwhelmed?” Tallie asked Emmett when they were alone.
“I’m enjoying myself.”
“Perfect,” she said, opening her bottle of champagne, slipping in the straw. Emmett skipped the straw but opened his bottle and drank from it. She took his hand again, happy this was a new habit they’d sunk their teeth into.
*
Tallie and Emmett walked down the hallway and up the stairs, taking their time, stepping aside for a jockey in neon carrying a near-life-size cardboard horse cutout, a man in a three-piece pumpkin suit, and a Little Bo-Peep, complete with shepherd’s crook and her two costumed sheep. Tallie pointed to the photos on Lionel’s wide cream-colored wall, drinking and describing them to Emmett.
Lionel, Zora, and River backed by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic, Lake Michigan. River bundled up in a teddy-bear costume. Lionel holding baby River up, up, up in the infinity pool water. Zora, ready-to-pop pregnant with River.