Chapter 241: Ticking One Off The Checkbox

I didn't immediately go home right away, still had some persisting commitments that prevented me from just calling it a day. Some more pressing than others. I left the waffle house and took a quick stroll around the block, when I came around full circle again, I moved onto the next block and circled that one instead.

Got my strength back after all, why not right? Not like I had anything else to better spend all this young adult stamina on anyway. I'm a man of deep thinking, and right then I wanted to think on those commitments.

I know I said I'd go with her, I know I said that it would be no problem, a date's just a date… we're only doing this to rid of us of this devil-cupid contract that's got us bound to each other, this was all being done strictly in the namesake of my survival. 

Purely professional.

Yet how professional was it really, when her feelings for me really were sincere? How professional can it be, when I have to convince her that my feelings for her were just as sincere and true? 

She's a good friend to have, yes… a beautiful woman, no doubt about that. I should consider myself the luckiest guy on this side of the universe, shouldn't I? But what if I wanted to be lucky somewhere else?

What if I wanted to be lucky with someone else?

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like Irene - quite the opposite in fact… after the things we've been through together, after the things we did together, how the hell can one guy stay indifferent after all that shit?

A part of me wants this to happen, that loved that this was happening - then there's another part, a painful part… that had me thinking here, had me walking block after block… wondering…

What would Ash think?

I haven't told her about us at all… I haven't told her about what we needed to, I don't even know if I ever planned to. 

What would she say? How would she react? Would she even care?

If I didn't think this was a big deal to begin with, I would have told her straight already, right? This wasn't a big deal, right? So why aren't I telling her?

I should tell her. Ash should know. 

She has the right to know.

I just… need to find the 'when' is all.

Block four was when I stopped wandering, and instead started searching - jumping from one commitment to the other, I started scoping out clothes stores one after the other. Still need a costume, after all.

Had help this time, lucky for me I had a professional on speed dial. Amanda was more than glad to point me to one of her favorite hunts, even wrote an entire thesis on text as well as to why it was far better if I was to self-made an outfit for my own. 

As if. I got less than twenty-fours till the event. What does she think I am, magic? 

The store she chose was luckily just a hop, skip, and a block away. Guess, I wasn't done wandering just yet.

Once I got there, it was like I've just entered a whole 'nother realm. One lining the halls with headless lifeless models, all adorned in the most bizarre of outfits. You got a noir detective man holding his gun up right next to a frilly, lacy magical girl striking a signature pose. 

Faceless heads brimmed the shelves, wearing wigs of every shape, size, and color. Colored lenses in displays, accessories in baskets, all the while some a theme song from some obscure shows in the '90s blared on the speakers everywhere.

Apparently, the counter was far deep in, so I had to walk like a dozen cornrows before I could ask for directions on where their fantasy lineup was in these mishmash house of genres.

An elegant refined young lady ripped right out of the Victorian Era was the one that kindly pointed me in the right direction with her little parasol. Don't have a fedora to tip back at her, so I settled with just a thank you.

I took a minute to browse through their selections, took one look at the price tags, then suddenly I found myself standing by at the counter again.

"Do you do rent?"

No, they don't do rents.

What you see is what you get… and from what I was seeing… well, um… I don't think I was going to get anything.

Counter again. I think M'lady was getting a bit tired of me.

"Do you have Knights?"

No they don't have Knights. 

This is what happens when you're a last-minute poor party planner guy such as myself. You get left with the grainy crumbs of the unwanted. This convention had completely sold out most of everything.

Most of everything...

A little while later, I was walking out of the store, holding a great 30% off special deal for a jester's outfit swinging in a paper bag in my hand. Bought the hat, bought the robes, the cartoonishly large pair of shoes too… 

She even offered to throw in a makeup set to better look the part if I throw in another thirty dollars their way. I reassured her that my face was plenty genuine already. 

Once I finally got back home, I found once again a statue-Adalia waiting for me behind a swing of the door. I'm starting to think the whole sunlight thing was one big phony - this girl's sleep schedule is as consistent as my day-to-day schedule, I swear.

I set the paper bag aside, noting the lack of pointed ears and emerald eyes anywhere in the vicinity. 

"Ash left already?" I asked the obvious.

Adalia didn't answer that one, guess even she realized how undeserving of an answer that question was.

"It's only nine in the morning… doesn't she leave a little later than that, usually?"

That, the silent Matriarch deemed it worth commenting on. "To compensate… for her absence tomorrow…" 

I nodded. "I see."

Though we could have had that talk now… that 'when' now. Guess that'll have to wait a little while longer.

"Can… I… come too...?" Adalia spoke up again, eyeing the bag to my side.

Come? Must have heard about the convention first from Ash. Perfect timing, was about to inform her about it anyway.

I blinked, staring momentarily at her staring. "I don't see why not… but I really didn't expect you'd want to, considering…"

She tilted her head. "Con...sidering…?"

"It's during the day, it's crowded, it's hot, it's noisy…" I ticked them off one by one with my fingers. "I don't think I have enough fingers for this, actually."

"But you'll… be there…" Adalia replied at once. "So… it'll be… fine, right?"

I drew my head back. "Because I'm there, it'll be fine? I'm not the solution to everything, you know."

"No…" She nodded her head, agreeing wholeheartedly. "But you'll… make it better…"

Huh… I don't, okay then…

"Welp, you've already dressed for the part anyway, so..." I raised my hands, offered a smile. "Okay, I'll have Amanda squeeze you a spot on the list." 

Adalia returned the smile… or at least I think she did, she rarely ever strays from that blank face.

"Just don't tell your sister, alright?"

"I… won't…"

Alright, that's one commitment committed on. Two more to go…

I'll see you tonight, Ria.

We have lots to discuss. Hope you learned how to woo a Succubus at some point in your life… cause I'm gonna need your help with this one.

It's time for the love detective to jump into the fray again.