Chapter 12 #2
I take a step forward and put a hand on his face. His eyes jerk down to mine for half a second before they are back scanning the room and the people in here.
“Cormac,” I call for him softly, “Cormac, look at me.”
He does, and his whole body trembles as if just the effort to do that is too much.
“I’m right here. Nothing is going to happen. No one is going to say anything to you out of the ordinary. I’ll protect you. There’s nothing to fear here. Just costumes and candy. You’re safe with me. I promise you.”
He nods once, jerkily.
“Breathe for me.” I take an exaggerated deep breath in followed by an equally exaggerated one out. Cormac follows along with me, and after three deep breaths, he’s trembling less and some of the tension has released from his shoulders.
I grab hold of his hand and walk further into the store. I don’t want to just run out; now that we’re here, I can at least prove to him that not every experience is bad.
We end up in the novelty section of the store. There are a few selections for couple costumes: peanut butter and jelly, plug and socket, salt and pepper.
“What the hell is that?” Cormac grumbles from behind me. His face is down, and he’s keeping his body turned so people can’t see the burned side of his face. I want him to stand tall, but right now I’m not going to criticize him. I know this is hard.
I look at the costume he is talking about. It’s a large inflatable poodle. “You wanna be a prize puppy for Halloween. I think you could pull it off.” I smile up at him. He squints his eyes at me but doesn’t even crack a smirk.
Imagine that, this large beast of a man in a pink and white poodle costume. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.
I pull him away from that section of the store. There is a spot with all the automatic displays and statues.
I look over my shoulder at him. “Prepare yourself, things over here may jump or scream. They are programmed to try and scare people. It’s part of the fun. Okay?” I wait for him to give me his approval in the form of a head nod before I take another step forward.
As if on cue, the second I make my way into the section, a witch explodes upward from a seated position, cackling with flashing green eyes. I yelp and jump back into Cormac’s chest. He grunts but keeps me steady.
So much for being the brave one of the two of us. I stick my tongue out at the silly witch before I stick up my middle finger.
I’m surprised when I hear Cormac chuckle lightly behind me.
He’s relaxing. I’m getting through.
I want to jump and clap in victory, but the last thing I want to do is make a big deal.
A group of young girls, maybe college age, comes walking from the other direction, and Cormac turns his body even more to keep from being in their sight line.
“You know, you think everyone is going to be so scared of you, but I’m more than sure that any one of these women is going to want to take you for a ride.”
“What?” he asks.
I turn to face him. “Cormac, you’re hot. Sexy. Gorgeous. A catch. Wet dream material. In the old days or in smaller towns, the women may be a little skittish, but in big cities like this the women are way more forward. I’m the one who should be on the lookout, not you.”
He opens his mouth a few times as if he wants to disparage what I’ve just said, but nothing comes out.
We continue walking through the statue section of the store, and as I’m moving, Cormac stops, forcing me to stop right along with him.
He’s focused on a large gravestone-like statue; it’s obviously for decoration.
It’s nearly five feet tall. It’s supposed to look like cracked marble, though I can tell it’s a cardboard-foam mix.
There are snakes and spiders crawling over the door, and in the main large crack in the middle is a disfigured man trying to crawl his way out.
Fake blood leaks from its mouth and head.
His eyes are black and his mouth is open in a permanent scream.
Definitely not for children, but Cormac seems captivated by it.
The statue itself is a little too gruesome for me, but I’m not going to stop him from browsing.
“Do I just…” Cormac clears his throat, the nervous tension still present in his words, but he’s doing his best to work through it. “Do I just pick it up and walk it to the checkout line?”
“You want this? Really?” My voice goes up a notch. I didn’t expect to do any real shopping today, but I’m all for it.
“It’s interesting.” He shrugs.
“I think this is just the display, but they should have more in the back.” I look down at the small plaque posted on the floor right in front of the statue. Three hundred and fifty dollars for this.
I come from money, but I’ve always had a budget. Spending nearly four hundred dollars on a statue is a shock to me.
“Um… you realize how much this costs, right?” I lean back and whisper. I don’t want to embarrass him.
His eyes drop down to the price tag. “Okay.” His brow furrows as he turns to look at me, confused as to why I would be making a big deal about the price.
I laugh and shake my head. “Okay, if you say so.” I put a hand up and wave to one of the workers, requesting that they come over.
A woman with streaked purple hair makes her way to us.
Her face is devoid of any emotion until she gets a better look at Cormac.
Cormac tenses behind me, but I don’t let him move.
He needs to see that the judgment may come, but it won’t break him.
And it may not even be the judgment he is expecting.
The employee scans Cormac’s body and facial features slowly, her gaze moving up and down. Even though her mouth barely moves, I see her mouth the words, “Yes, please.”
Annoyance squeezes its way into my body. She has yet to look in my direction.
I snap my fingers once in her face to get her out of her daze, and she suddenly jerks her eyes to me.
“Sorry. Yes, how can I help you?” Her cheeks flush with blush as she tries to stay focused on me, but every few seconds they dart over to Cormac.
“We would like this. Do we just take the floor version, or do you have to get it from the back?”
“Oh, we have to get a boxed one from the back. I’ll bring it to the counter to wait for you.” She smiles at me before looking back to Cormac. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
I step forward. Only Cormac’s hold on my hand keeps me from getting any closer to the woman’s face. “No, we’re fine,” I snap at her.
I storm off in the other direction, determined to get away from that woman before I end up in jail.
“Why’d you do that?” Cormac asks.
“Why?” I hiss at him. When I realize that he has that confused look on his face, I scoff. “You really didn’t see it, did you? That woman was hitting on you.”
“No, she wasn’t. She was trying to make a sale.”
“She already made the sale, and typically when a man and woman are in a store that is not hardware-based, it’s the woman doing the shopping. Her eyes were only for you.” I smirk petulantly up at Cormac.
He looks from me and back over to the woman who is still standing by the statue, staring at Cormac.
“If you stare at her any longer, you’re going to have your first public fight with your wife.” I grumble as I angrily push and pull some costumes on the rack in front of me.
“Oh… um… no… I wasn’t. She’s not…” Cormac is at a loss for words, and even though I want to stay mad, I just can’t.
I pull out a nearly identical replica of a Little Mermaid costume, equipped with mermaid fin and red hair, and show it to Cormac. He screws up his face and shakes his head. Apparently, he’s not a fan.
I slide the costume back and make my way to the female Freddy Krueger costume.
“That’s a bit much.”
It is. The costume has the bloody claw, the hat. But instead of the regular sweater and pants, it’s a crop-top striped sweater material and a skirt short enough I’d never be able to sit down.
“Yeah, too much.” I put it back and make my way to the more modest costumes.
There is a dark green fairy costume. Very high end. With wings and a crown of flowers. Honestly, the dress itself looks like it could be worn to a gala event and not just as a Halloween costume.
“That one.” Cormac leans down and whispers in my ear. His voice makes me shudder. I know we just had sex in the car, but I swear I could tackle him to the ground right now and have my way with him.
I grab the one in my size, not before trying to check for a price.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t know how much it is. I don’t want to spend too much.”
“You aren’t going to spend anything. Don’t disrespect me like that.”
I look up at him, and his mouth is set in a hard line.
“Even if you are using your money, this is only a costume, and these pop-up shops are known for overcharging. At least they do back home. I don’t want you to—”
He cuts me off, grabbing the costume I have my fingers on and placing it against my chest. “I’ve got it. Don’t worry about how much it costs.”
There’s no arguing with him. I simply sigh and playfully roll my eyes at him.
At some point, I’m going to have to ask him exactly how much money we have as a married couple.
I know my father sent some as a dowry of sorts, but it wasn’t more than a couple of thousand dollars. At least that is what I overheard.
I pull us to the male section of the store. It’s much smaller but still has a wide enough selection. I pick up a Ghostface mask and show it to him, but as he slides it on I snatch it back off. Not that it’s too scary, but it covers his whole face. That’ll never do.
On the other side is a red and black, gem-encrusted Phantom of the Opera mask.
I grab hold of it and show it to him. This time when he slides it on, it only covers the side of his face with the scar.
It’s beautiful, but I hate that he would want to cover that part of his face.
He’s already spent so much time hiding what happened to him from the world, I don’t want him to have to cover it up anymore.
I shake my head and screw my face up before asking for the mask back.
The next item I pick up for him is a pair of metal, expertly crafted horns. They are a black, shiny metal and are actually pretty large. I slide them onto his head.
He looks like a demon with his just-fucked hair and the scruffy but well-kept beard. Like a monster searching for his prey. Perfect.
“This one.”
He shrugs and pulls the horns off his head. He turns around before I do and bumps into another woman who is standing just behind us.
“Holy fuck.” The lady gasps as her eyes scan his body before they get to his face, where she actually has the nerve to bite down on her lip sexily and say, “Oh my God.”
Fuck this.
I step in front of Cormac. “Keep staring at my man like that, and I’ll make sure you meet your God sooner than later.”
She backs up, clearly sensing the threat.
I grab hold of Cormac, moving with a purpose to the checkout. “Let’s get out of here before I kill someone.”
This time there’s no disguising the deep laugh that comes out of him. His booming voice causes all the women in the store to look in his direction.
On the way to the cash register I pick up four bags of fun-sized candy. I don’t even look at which ones they are. It’s ten dollars a bag, and they are heavy. I still haven’t broached the subject of allowing trick-or-treaters up for Halloween, but I’m hoping I can get Cormac on board.
When we get to the cash register with our things, the same employee who helped us with the statue is checking us out. She’s flustered and keeps making mistakes. She can’t keep her eyes off Cormac.
“For the love of Christ.” I grumble, tapping my foot, suddenly thinking this was not such a very good idea.
Cormac notices my uneasiness, and I look back at him. When he sees the annoyance all over my face, he starts to laugh again. A laugh that changes his whole face. The joy piercing those dark eyes and making him seem lighter.
I want to be mad, but I can’t. It’s not every day I can watch the broken man that I’ve grown accustomed to change into a different person piece by piece.