Page 50 of A Very No Strings Halloween
He finally puts his caulk gun down on the counter and rubs his forehead. “You know. When you got up on the table and said that stuff.”
I frown at him. “I wasn’t acting like her. I was…” I get a chill just thinking about it. “I was possessed by her, I guess.”
He smiles and shakes his head at me like I’mmessing with him. But surely he can see from my face that I’m not. “Wait. You swear to me that you weren’t acting last time? You weren’t pretending to be possessed?”
“I swear! What—did you think that was role-play or something?” I guffaw.
He rubs his lips together. “Huh? Noooo. I just thought you were messin’ with me.”
“Oh my God. You thought I did all that for a scene? That I went to Costco to buy a twenty-five-pound bag of salt just to spice things up?”
“Donna, we could put on a Broadway showwith all the costumes we’ve collected over the past couple of years. What’s a bag of salt? All that matters is I thought you were into it and I was really into it too.”
I laugh so hard I snort. “Oh my God! You are such a guy!” I can’t even remember the last time I laughed this hard.
Except that now I’m starting to question what actually happened with that Ouija session. Maybe I did make the message indicator move? Not on purpose, but maybe subconsciously? Maybe I’m just clinging so hard to an old story about getting my heart broken that I’m refusing to move forward and made up a ghost to hold me back? Is Trevor the metaphorical ghost I’m haunted by? I don’t remember lying down on the table at all. It’s like I blacked out for a while. Maybe I was drunker than I thought I was. Maybe I’mso used to role-playing with Billy that I just slipped into RP mode…and unconsciousness. Surely that’s the preferable explanation.
That’s better than owning a haunted house.
I guess?
I can’t stop laughing. This is ridiculous. My goal in life for the past couple of years has been to keep things as uncomplicated as possible outside of work, and now the guy I have role-play sex with is helping me renovate a house that might be haunted, I’m starting to have feelings for him because I’m coaching him on how to date someone else, and I bought a Ouija board because a teenager told me to.
Maybe this is exactly what I need.
I look at Billy’s perplexed face again, and my heart aches a little because one day I might not be able to look at that face at all.
But I’ll worry about that later.
“Well,” I say, wiping away the tear of laughter from one eye, “let’s get this over with.”
“Okay,” he says, washing his hands in the bathroom sink. The water is, thankfully, no longer cranberry red. “I gotta let that caulk dry anyway.”
He helps me set up again. It’s not nighttime yet, so it’s a lot less creepy. Though, I am one hundred percent less tipsy, so now it kind of feels like one more thing to cross off the to-do list for fixing up this house. Kind of. There’sslightly less of a chance I’ll be possessed by a ghost when I’m painting the living room walls.
After I’ve drawn the pentagram and done the space-clearing ritual, Billy and I sit opposite each other at the round table. I place the box of letters in front of him, to the side of the Ouija board.
“I think you should read the letters. Okay? Once we’ve contacted her.Ifwe contact her. Are you good with that?”
He nods. Not exactly apprehensively, but with much less enthusiasm than he usually agrees to things.
“Thank you. I haven’t read them yet, like I said, because I knew they were personal. I have no idea what they say. And there’s a chance I might get possessed again. But whatever happens, just keep reading the letters until you’ve read her all of them. Okay? There are ten in there. They aren’t very long. But I don’t think she’ll move on until she’s heard all of them.”
“What if she takes over your body again and she wants my body?”
“I mean. Resist it.”
He makes a face like I asked him to walk to the moon.
“Have you never said no to a woman who wanted you to make love to them, Wilhelm?” I tease.
“I’ve never said no to a woman who looks like you,Red,” he says softly. “I don’t think I can look into your face and resist you if she tries to kiss me.”
Dammit, Mouth.“Well…that’s really sweet. But she’s Lars’s wife, so…”
He sighs. “Okay, so let’s do this. I’m gonna read some letters out loud. Right on.”
“Yeah.”
