Page 57 of Sack

“Thanks, bro.”

“Aw, stay. The party’s just getting started.” Sam glanced at her friend when she made a discreet, hand-cutting motion across her neck. Wide-eyed, she looked back at Colt and said, “Er…”

Colt tried not to chuckle. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m going to head out. Have a nice night.” Then he turned to Isabel. “Nice meeting you.”

“Yeah, same.”

Colt mentally filled in the “not” for her.

The drive didn’t take long, and Colt arrived home by eleven. Still early for a Friday, but tired after a long week of practice, all he did was take a shower before getting into bed.

He texted Ivy. Not expecting a response, he wasn’t surprised when he didn’t get one.

But that didn’t stop him from staring at his screen, waiting.

Ivy

Standing arm-in-arm with her friends, Ivy admired them all in the mirror and decided if one of them didn’t win the costume contest that year, she would protest. Everyone lookedthatfabulous.

Jessica was the most beautiful in Queen Amidala’s billowy, pastel-colored villa dress and she’d even managed to style her hair perfectly. Chrystal was the most unrecognizable in an elaborate blue and white headpiece that covered her blonde hair and with her face painted a burnt-orange accented with an intricate white design. Tina just looked badass dressed in another warrior outfit—this time gray—complete with a long, wooden staff. But she—in her opinion—looked the sexiest. Her bikini top smooshed her boobs, creating an almost indecent amount of cleavage and left her midriff bare. And the silky skirt had two side slits clear up to her hips. The choker collar around her neck with its attached chain had Ivy looking straight from the movie.

“Well, girls,” Crystal eyed each one of them in the mirror. “Are we ready to go flaunt our awesomeness?”

Everyone agreed, and the giggling quartet made their way down to the convention hall.

First up on the schedule was a meet and greet complete with refreshments. Next would come photo opts and autograph signings. Then last, the costume contest with the chance to win a one-on-one class the next day with an industry makeup artist and one-thousand dollars’ worth of makeup and prosthetics. A prize that would be awesome to win. Though looking around the hall, she found her chances of that happening dwindling as she spied some fantastic outfits. And she might look sexy as hell, but there were at least ten other women that she saw in her same outfit, who looked just as fabulous.

“Hey, can we get a photo with you?” a man dressed as Han Solo asked. A Luke Skywalker look-alike stood at his side.

“Sure.” Ivy smiled.

They stood on either side of her, both draping an arm around her shoulders. Their friend, dressed as Lando, snapped their picture.

“Oh, wait.” Ivy fished her phone from the small of her back and opened her camera. “Can you take a photo with my phone, too?”

“Sure.” The guy took her phone and held it up. “Say Wookie.”

They all laughed, and he snapped the picture.

“Thanks.” Ivy took her phone back.

“So, what are you doing after the contest?” Lando flashed a nice smile.

“There’s a sneak-peek screening at nine that my girlfriends and I are excited about, but we’re not sure if we’ll be able to get in. It’s first-come, first-serve and as you can see, the turnout this year is massive.”

“We’ll be at the Fantom Studio exhibit. Maybe catch up with us if you don’t make it in.”

Ivy thought back to her last Starfighter rendezvous and felt her cheeks flame. “I’ll let my girlfriends know. Thanks.”

“Name’s Chris by the way.” He held out his hand.

“Ivy.” She gave his hand a curt shake then quickly extracted her hand from his.

“Are you here until Sunday?”

Ivy scanned the crowd, looking for the familiar face of one of her friends. While Chris seemed nice, she didn’t want to give him the wrong idea by chatting for too long.

“Yep,” she said distractedly. “Don’t want to miss the guys from Supernatural.” Thankfully, she spotted Crystal. Or she thought it was. Really, one headdressed-orange-face person looked just like another. “Oh, I see my friend. I better catch her while I can. It was nice meeting you” she threw over her shoulder as she darted around him and hurried away.

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