Page 21 of A Hot Sauce Halloween

She hovers over Charlotte for a moment longer. “Ugh, such a cutie! I want one…”

Again, Charlotte basks in her adorable glory as she digs through her candy.

Monica walks off into the crowd and I flinch at Tommy’s sudden presence in her spot.

“Look at that,” he says, nodding across the room. “Look at that guy.”

I follow his stare toward Monica. She hands the martini to a man by the wall and sips on her cherry bomb.

“What is it?” Tommy asks. “What does that guy have that I don’t?”

I look at the man dressed in black jeans and a leather jacket. I shrug. “I don’t know.”

Tommy stares at them for another few seconds, then his eyes twitch in thought. “Maybe I’m not darkenough,” he says.

“Dark?” I ask.

“Yeah, dark.”

“You’ve lost me, Tommy.”

“I’m boring,” he says, waving at his Hawaiian shirt. “What you see is what you get. I have no hidden past. No secret skeletons in my hamper. I started working in my father’s bar when I was seventeen and never left.” He glares at them again. “That guy looks loaded with darkness. You know what I need?”

“A nap?” I joke.

“A criminal record.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.” He nods quickly. “Vincent has a criminal record. You have a criminal record. Dark men on the path of light and redemption. Former rogues who’ve changed for their women! Panties dissolve over stuff like that.” He chews on his lip. “I need to commit a crime.”

“Yeah,” I sigh, “don’t do that.”

“Monica wants a bad boy,” he says. “I can be a bad boy.”

“Or you can buy her flowers,” I suggest.

He scoffs. “A woman as sophisticated as Monica would never be swayed by something as common as flora.”

“Tommy…” I lay a hand on his shoulder. “How about you sleep on this, eh?”

“How does identity theft work?” he asks, leaning in.

“I’m not answering that.”

He raps his knuckles twice on the bar. “No, you’re right. I should be a lone wolf. She’d like that more.”

I exhale. “Please don’t do… whatever it is you’re thinking of doing, all right? Please.”

“I have to go,” he says as he walks away.

“No, Tommy…”

I give up as my phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull my arm through my taco shell to get at my phone, letting him wander off into the crowd. If I’m lucky, he’ll chicken out or pass out or accidentally trip and get knocked out until morning.

I read the screen. The police department?

“Hello?” I answer, raising my voice to hear over the crowd.

---