Found the beginnings of this when I was cleaning out; started writing it in August 2014. At least I finished it in time for this Halloween.
Happy Halloween 2003
Friday, October 31, 2003
3344 Oak Hills Drive was decked out in its finest Halloween attire. Cobwebs (fake, of course, for no real cobweb stood a chance with the ever vigilant Tony around) and scary jack-o-lanterns were arrayed on the front porch of the house. A skeleton dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, complete with an empty bottle of rum, was seated on the bench. He would greet each group of trick-or-treaters with a, "yo ho, me hearties!" Tony was especially proud of himself for rigging that up. He was also proud that they had the soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean continuously playing on speakers hidden in the bushes. A black flag with a skull and crossbones on it waved proudly in the cool forlorn October breeze, announcing to all that here there be pirates.
Angela had come home early from work as she didn't want to miss any part of the festivities. She did her best to keep out of Tony's way, but, as always, felt like more of a hindrance than a help to Tony in the kitchen. He was putting the finishing touches on a pumpkin shaped cake he was making to take to an adults only party at the Hildreth's later that night. To keep Angela out of his hair, he gave her the task of opening the bags of trick or treat candy and pouring them into a bowl. He hoped this wasn't beyond her culinary capabilities. He figured he (and Angela's clothes) were safe because there was no meat grinder involved.
Angela was almost finished when a plaintive, "mom, can you come help me with my make-up?" was heard from the front staircase.
"Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd hear from my 10 year old son," Tony said, shaking his head.
"Coming, honey;" Angela shouted to her overwhelmed pirate, then to her husband said, "duty calls."
"None too soon," Tony thought. He had no other ideas on how to distract her from the cake once she'd finished the candy transferring busy work, so he was more than willing to send her upstairs. The cake was almost complete, he just had to place a few more pieces of candy corn to represent teeth in the jack-o-lantern's mouth and he could move on to the next task on the Halloween countdown checklist. However before he could do that, he had to kick his wife out of the kitchen, she wasn't leaving as quickly as he thought she would. He was close to throwing himself in front of his masterpiece to protect it because in Angela's eyes he could see the gleam that only appeared when she was coveting something (usually him.)
"Robert's waiting," he prompted, desperately trying to get that look out of Angela's eyes.
Angela simply answered, "I know." She'd finished the candy task, so Tony could only wonder at what was still keeping her in the kitchen. She couldn't possibly think she'd be allowed an early sample of the cake, could she?
Tony was half-correct, she was coveting the cake; but in addition to the cake, she was coveting her husband. The cake was perfectly rounded and as much as she wanted to deny it, the cake only reminded her of her husband's perfectly rounded tush. To that end, on her way out of the kitchen she sidled up to her husband, gave him a peck on the cheek with a simultaneous pat on his behind then said, "I see you used the perfect model for your pumpkin." She gave her shocked husband a sly grin as she left the kitchen.
Tony stood alone, his innocent looking cake not looking quite so innocent anymore. Had his formerly staid wife just done what he thought she did? He couldn't quite believe it, but he couldn't dwell on it as there was a Halloween schedule to adhere to, so he shook his head and finished decorating. Once his cake was finished, he cleaned up the mess Angela had made, brought the candy filled bowl into the living room, and went upstairs to change into the first of two Halloween costumes he'd be wearing this evening.
Fairfield, being Fairfield, deemed that trick-or-treating could only take place between 5 pm and 8 pm.
Robert, being 10, declared himself too old to be taken trick or treating by his parents, he was going with a bunch of friends. A parley had been declared and a settlement was reached. It was a difficult moment in parenthood to not go out with Robert, but they decided that as long as one parent of the group accompanied the roving band of Captain Jack Sparrows (for it was certain that no one was dressing up as anything else this year) Robert could go out with his friends. Tony and Angela would stay home and answer the door in their best pirate finery.
At precisely 4:30 pm Tony played his traditional call to arms Halloween song: This is Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas. As always, it brought Angela and Robert downstairs both singing along with the song. The three of them convened at the bottom of the staircase.
"Final Halloween inspection!" Tony, now dressed as poor and humble sword maker, Will Turner, said.
Robert, dressed as a miniature Captain Jack Sparrow complete with stick on beard and mustache and a lot of loving mother carefully applied eyeliner stood at mock attention. Angela made a lovely Elizabeth Swann in a colonial style dress. As with Tony, this would also the first of two Halloween costumes she would be wearing tonight.
Tony led the troops through their paces, first stopping at the desk near the front door, "candy in special Halloween only black and orange bowl?"
"Check!" Two voices answered him as they confirmed that the candy was indeed there in its appropriate bowl.
"Cursed pirates gold in treasure chest?"
"Check!" They answered again as they looked in the special "treasure chest" made out of a cooler that had been placed next to the front door. The Micelli household was going to be very popular once it got out that they were handing out replicas of cursed pirate gold coins in addition to candy.
"Trick or treat plunder bag for Jack Sparrow at the ready?" Tony asked.
"Captain!" Two exasperated voices answered him.
"Fine, trick or treat plunder bag for Captain Jack Sparrow ready?" Tony amended.
Captain Jack proudly held up his soon to be filled bag.
"Oh boy, oh boy; you know what it's time for now?" Tony could hardly contain his glee.
"Pictures!" Angela answered, equally as gleeful.
Tony picked up the camera from the coffee table and started snapping away. Every pose he could possibly think of was captured. He took pictures of Robert alone, he took pictures of Angela alone, he took pictures of Robert and Angela together, he took both silly and serious (as serious as Halloween could be, that is) pictures. Angela then took pictures of Tony and Robert together. The pictures in the camera paled in comparison to the pictures she was committing to her heart. One pose with Tony and Robert sitting on the couch, their arms around each other and smiling was one scene that she tucked away to cherish forever. Robert insisted on taking a picture or two of his parents and they happily posed arm in arm, then in a departure from any scene in the movie, Tony and Angela posed with "Will" kissing "Elizabeth" on the cheek. Then he kissed her hair; then he kneeled down and kissed her hand. Robert was tiring of all the kissing poses so he finally said, "eeeuuww, kissing," and whether he believed what he said or not, it was enough to bring Tony and Angela back to the reality of Halloween. Tony accepted the camera back from his son, set the timer and took a series of pictures with all three of them. His favorite turned out the be the picture he took of them posed around the skeleton on the front porch. While they were on the porch, Robert's fellow Captain Jacks and their chaperone arrived.
"Argh!" the pirates greeted each other.
"Be ye ready, Captain Jack?" Their chaperone, Mr. Machin, also dressed in pirate finery, asked.
"Aye!" Robert readily answered. He waved to his parents as he started to walk away.
"Wait a minute!" Tony yelled.
Robert froze, he hoped his parents weren't going to do anything embarrassing like want to kiss him goodbye, he'd never live that down. To his amazement, they didn't embarrass him, instead they went into the house, Tony ringing the doorbell on the way in. Tony even went so far as to close the door behind him. It didn't stay shut for long and when Tony opened it again, he feigned surprise and said, "look Miss Swann, trick or treaters!" "Miss Swann" dutifully handed Tony the bowl of candy and while he passed out the treats, she picked up some pieces of cursed pirates' gold and distributed them to the boys. A chorus of, "thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Micelli!" from the surprisingly well-mannered pirates completed the first round of Halloween fun.
As they left the Micelli threshold and made their way to the next house on their cruise through the neighborhood the pirates started singing, "yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!" Tony and Angela watched them go, Tony still holding the candy bowl, but his other arm was around Angela's waist. She leaned into him and put her arms around him. Once the boys were across the street, Tony shut the door and put the candy bowl on the desk to await the next group of costumed children.
"So, what's next on your checklist?" Angela asked rather flirtatiously.
The next item on the checklist was to turn off the living room lights for a spookier effect but Tony was mentally removing that item from the list. A few other options presented themselves; they were going to have to be saved until later, much later in the night after he and Angela were in bed. He wasn't sure how he was going to make it through the evening, never before had Halloween revealed itself to be a romantic holiday, but tonight Angela was turning up the romance and he wasn't sure how he was going to focus on answering the doorbell if she kept this up. The option of turning out the porch lights and skipping the candy giving crossed his mind, but he didn't want to disappoint all the trick or treaters. He reminded himself that he'd kept his hands off his wife for seven years, he could certainly manage a few more hours.
Angela saw a look in Tony's eyes, if she didn't know better, she'd call it fear. It wasn't though, she knew it was the look of a man who was going to have to delay gratification. She gave silent thanks that she had purchased this costume, not just rented it. This way they would have the costume to play with whenever they wanted. Trouble was, she wanted to play now. Tony wasn't the only one who was going to have to delay gratification.
"You make a dashing Will Turner," Angela said in a far more sultry tone than she'd meant to use. She was hoping to give her husband a simple compliment, but as always, the tension between them could not be denied.
"Thanks, you make an enchanting Elizabeth Swann," he said, all the while still reminding himself to keep his hands off his wife. It would be difficult as most of her hair was swept up, exposing her skin, just the way he liked it. A couple of long ringlets cascaded down her beautiful neck. Tony ached to entwine his fingers in those ringlets while he kissed the most tender spots of Angela's of aforementioned beautiful neck; but instead he called on his well-honed discipline and moved away from Angela.
The tension in the room was intensified even more as Tony's Halloween mix started playing the next song, a song recorded by his old buddy, Frank Sinatra:
Those fingers in my hair
That sly come hither stare
Strips my conscience bare
It's witchcraft
Tony and Angela stood at opposite ends of the couch, both trying to keep those "come hither stares" off their faces, but the costumes and Frank were too potent a combination to be denied.
"Fortunately there's no such thing as Halloween mistletoe," Angela joked in desperation.
"Who needs mistletoe?" Tony said, giving in to the atmosphere and crossing over to his wife. Taking her in his arms, he dropped the chaste kissing of earlier and kissed her firmly on the mouth. There was one brain cell left functioning to wonder what he could use next year to create his own Halloween mistletoe.
And I've got no defense for it
That heat is too intense for it...
Frank sang on as Tony and Angela lost themselves in the newly discovered pleasure of Halloween romance. Tony allowed himself the indulgence of giving in to his fantasies concerning those ringlets and Angela's neck.
It's such an ancient pitch
But one that I'd never switch...
Ding dong
The doorbell permeated their passionate kissing, reminding them that they had responsibilities tonight.
They pulled away from each other, both still breathing heavily. Angela knew Elizabeth wasn't exaggerating when she said she couldn't breathe in this dress. She wasn't even wearing a corset and she couldn't catch her breath.
Tony collected his wits and ran to the door and opened it. "Trick or treat!" yelled the happy kids, completely unaware that they had interrupted someone else's treat. Tony shoved some candy in the open bags of the kids standing there, not even registering what they were dressed as. Angela finally got her breathing under control and fulfilled her duties as well, throwing a piece of pirates' gold into each bag. The kids said thank you and went on their way, a little confused as to why Mr. Micelli was wearing lipstick, but that question faded from their minds as they focused on candy gathering.
Tony shut the front door and leaned against it. "Do you think we got that out of our systems?"
As always, they were of like mind, "I'm not sure, maybe we should turn off the porch lights for a little while."
"That would be selfish of us, Angela."
"Let's be selfish!" Angela's mind yelled, but she didn't give voice to that thought. They couldn't turn the porch lights out; everyone in the neighborhood knew they were prepared to give out candy, suddenly taking themselves out of the fun was bound to cause talk. The talk itself wouldn't bother Angela so much as the gossip would be true; they would have turned off the porch lights to have their own fun, but she didn't want the talk to get back to Robert in any way. This was a moment of parental sacrifice.
With some trepidation Angela asked, "did you put Moondance in the Halloween mix?"
Tony gave her a: "do you even have to ask that question?" look before answering, "yes, and Ella Fitzgerald's Night and Day; and That Old Black Magic done by Louis Prima and Keely Smith as well."
Angela visibly swallowed, the pounding beat of Night and Day was intoxicating even when their senses weren't already heightened. Choosing to ignore Ella, Angela twisted the lyrics of Witchcraft and said, "we don't need Mr. Sinatra 'rousing any needs in us.'"
Tony continued referencing the song and didn't miss a beat as he said, "yes, indeed." As he moved away from the door, he realized that it was easier to have kept his hands off Angela for seven years when he had rarely had his hands on her, than it was to keep his hands off his beloved wife of 12 years.
"Um, Tony..." his beloved wife said with some hesitation.
"Yeah?"
Angela touched her mouth, she didn't dare touch his, as it would only lead them to more Halloween romance, "you have lipstick on you," she said softly.
"Great." Tony walked over to the mirror and wiped the lipstick off his face while Angela went over and turned off the music.
Fortunately for them the doorbell kept ringing almost continuously until 8 pm, making them too busy to get busy.
At precisely 8:45 pm Tony came downstairs now dressed in a nice suit, carrying a fedora and a trench coat. Per the checklist, he'd already put the cake in the car, so now all he had to do was await Angela's appearance. Mona, staying home to take care of Robert and have her own Halloween party, sat on the couch going through her grandson's Halloween candy hoard.
"Is the little pirate through pillaging and plundering?" she asked.
"He wanted to stay up and show you his costume, but he's out like a light."
"Good, Harold is on his way over and I plan to corrupt him."
"You're certainly dressed for it."
"What are you dressed as?" she asked, for his own outfit was so nondescript.
"Bogie," he said in an imitation of said person.
"Bogie?" She looked him up and down, not seeing, or hearing, any resemblance.
Tony put on the hat and trench coat, "in all the gin joints in all the world she had to walk into mine...play it, Sam."
"Casablanca? I thought you two were fans of The Way We Were."
"We are, but we couldn't decide which one of us should be Barbra Streisand," he joked.
Mona smirked, "well, you have the better pipes for it."
Tony smirked back, "thanks. Seriously, we felt Bogie and Ingrid would be easier for non-cinephiles to identify." There was another, more personal, reason too, but Tony wasn't sharing that with his mother-in-law.
Angela came downstairs, dressed in an early 40's suit and hat, also carrying a trench coat. Seeing her mother in her "costume" only made her roll her eyes. "A short red dress, red fishnets, and a cape? Devil horns? A little cliché for you, Mother, isn't it? After all, it's Halloween, you're supposed to dress up as something you're not."
"When you've already achieved perfection, why tamper with it?" Mona sighed as she lounged back.
"So you can be tampered with?" Tony said.
"I should certainly hope so," Mona
Angela changed the subject, "I promised Robert he could wear his costume again tomorrow so you could see it. He was so cute trying to stay awake when I was taking off his make-up," she sighed.
"C'mon, Angela, we have a party to get to," Tony tried to drag Angela away from her maternal sentimentality
"We have plenty of time, Tony, and Robert was just so cute..."
"Fine, fine, I promise to be wowed tomorrow," Mona had had enough of Angela's sentimentality too. She then changed the subject, "who are you dressed as?"
"Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca," Angela said with an "isn't that obvious?" tone in her voice.
"Ingrid," Mona repeated, her mind pulling threads from the distant past and trying to weave them together.
"What's wrong with Ingrid?" Angela demanded.
"Nothing," Mona answered, still trying to put her finger on what her daughter and son-in-law were up to, "Ingrid," she repeated, still wondering why that name rang a bell that had nothing to do with the movie star.
"Yes Mother, Ingrid Bergman starred in Casablanca," Angela agreed as if she were agreeing to the sun being yellow.
Tony had the door open for Angela and they were almost safely on their way when the threads finally came together and the penny that had been in the back of Mona's mind for so long finally dropped. She jumped up from the couch and accused, "Ingrid!" while pointing at Angela.
Tony and Angela froze in fear, and not normal Halloween fear – they'd kept this secret precious to themselves for almost 20 years. They didn't want to share it now.
"You're Ingrid from Make-Out Rock!" Mona said, almost jumping up and down with joy for having figured out the truth.
"Kissing Rock!" Angela still vehemently insisted, stamping her foot.
Tony and Angela exchanged a "we're busted" look.
"Ha!" Mona's eyes gleamed triumphantly. "I knew it! I knew there was something you weren't telling us all those years ago. Now tell me what really happened in that motel room."
Angela crossed her arms, "Mother..."
"What?"
"We have a party to go to," Angela tried to get away from her mother, but this excuse sounded feeble to her own ears, she knew her mother would never accept it.
Mona didn't even think about accepting that excuse. "Stalling tactics will not work, I will get the truth out of you, so you might as well just spill it now."
"Nothing happened in that motel room," Angela stated.
"Liar. I'm waiting."
Seeing the truth in her words, Tony decided it was time to try and save his wife, "we enacted a scene from It Happened One Night," hoping that would be the end of Mona's nosy inquisition.
No such luck.
"Hmm, obviously it wasn't the final scene, there would have been a permanent change in your relationship if you had." Mentally discarding her most cherished idea of Tony and Angela having actually consummated their attraction that night, Mona threaded her fingers together, wondering how quickly she could get the truth out of these two.
Angela, her arms still folded, now rolled her eyes, "mother."
Mona continued to study them, her mind racing with new possibilities concerning this intriguing night, "so which scene did you enact that night?"
"Mother, the party...," Angela feebly tried again.
"They can wait."
"Mother, it was a long time ago, the details are hazy."
"Angela, stop trying to lie to me. The more you deny, the more I'll know something important did happen. You remember every detail of that night," her mother diagnosed correctly.
The only way out was through, "fine. It was raining, we were soaked. We were stuck in a lousy motel room. We did what Claudette and Clark did and put a blanket up between our beds. The ceiling fell in and we got into an argument. Come to think of it, we got into more than one argument, or maybe it was just one long argument," Angela said, hoping that those details would satisfy her mother. She knew that wasn't likely, but it was the only hope she had. Angela conveniently left out the fact that the ceiling collapse ruined her bed, Tony wisely kept his mouth shut about that fact also.
"Your own "Wall of Jericho" barrier between your attraction combined with sublimation. Very interesting. Alone together, trying to smother your true feelings by arguing. Sounds like you two." Mona was directly on target tonight.
Throwing her hands in the air, Angela protested; far too much, "we were not sublimating anything! We wanted to give each other some privacy!" She knew her mother would not buy that answer either, she wasn't even buying it herself. She'd started that argument; over the years she'd wondered if she'd started it on purpose. Tony's voice had sounded so sweet when remembering their kiss, it was drawing her closer to him. She had to do something to disrupt the thoughts that had been running through her head, so she picked Tony talking about the stopwatch and it worked. It hadn't been a conscious choice on her part; just self-preservation. The argument proved to be just what she needed to cool off her thoughts about the near-naked man in the other bed. Poor Tony never really knew what hit him; he had been reminiscing so happily when all of a sudden he had been confronted by an angry Angela...or Ingrid, he was never really sure which one was mad at him; probably both.
"Sure, you weren't sublimating anything," Mona let her daughter know that she was indeed not buying her daughter's protesting. "So you sat in a lousy motel room, with no ceiling, in wet clothes, arguing..."
"We weren't wearing clothes," Angela blurted out, trying to get the facts straight, then cringing when she realized what she'd said.
Mona's face lit up brighter than 10,000 Christmas trees, for once in her life she wished she had more than two eyebrows so she could raise all of them. As it was, "what were you wearing?" was the question she didn't even have to voice.
Angela sighed, "we were drenched, our clothes were soaked. I changed into a sheet and Tony wore a towel until the manager brought us a pair of pajamas."
Mona honed in on one fact, "just one pair of pajamas? You shared pjs? How sweet. Who got the top?"
That one hit a little too close to a joke Tony had made at the time, but he wasn't going to share that with his mother-in-law, "funny, Mona," was his way of trying to deflect her.
"You could have at least dried each other off," she suggested helpfully. Angela rolled her eyes and shook her head more heavily than she ever had in her life.
"Now why didn't we think of that at the time," Tony offered as a joke, but it seemed that neither Mona nor Angela was in a mood for jokes. Angela glared at him and Tony went back to butting out of this mother daughter conversation, regretting the fact that he really hadn't thought of it at the time, it could have been fun. Dangerous, but fun. He checked out of the conversation for a few moments while he fantasized about drying Angela off.
"So you were stuck in this room with nothing to do; you didn't even watch tv?" Mona asked, wondering why they didn't sublimate in their usual way.
"No!" they said in unison. Angela almost visibly shuddered at the memory of trying to ignore what had been on tv. Tony was rather uncomfortable at the memory as well, plus he was angry that his drying fantasy had been interrupted.
Mona was fascinated by that answer. "No tv? Why not?"
"Lousy reception, the rain knocked out a lot of stations, there really wasn't anything to watch." Angela rushed through the reasons. The last part had been the truth at least.
Putting two and two together, Mona had her answer as to why tv was not an option. She decided to try another tactic, she smiled and said, "it's all right, dear," she patted her daughter's forearm, "you go to your party, I'll just sit here making up my own scenarios for what really happened."
They were beat and they knew it.
"So let's start at the beginning, when did you figure out it was you two at Make-Out Rock?" Mona started her questioning.
"I'm not telling you anything if you don't stop calling it that," her daughter insisted.
"A rose by any other name...," Mona answered.
Angela looked at her husband, he only shrugged in response, he couldn't answer this question for her because in all the years since then, he'd never thought to ask her exactly when she realized the truth.
"I figured it out at Kissing Rock," she emphasized the word "kissing" just to annoy her mother. I didn't want to tell Tony. In fact, I had decided I was never going to tell Tony."
"You weren't ever going to tell me?" he repeated back in surprise.
"What would have been the point? That kiss was ancient history even 20 years ago. We weren't going to pursue a relationship at that time, so it wasn't important."
"It wasn't important? Our first kiss wasn't important? How can you say that, Angela?"
"Tony, I don't mean that the kiss wasn't important, you know from all the things I said that night that it was. I just mean that it wasn't important to us...to know it was us...at the time."
The phrases "'all the things I said' and 'at that time'," intrigued Mona, but she filed them away for future pestering and wisely kept her mouth shut.
"The thought of us together never crossed your mind?" Tony asked.
Angela was still being evasive, "a lot of things crossed my mind."
"I'll bet they did," Mona quipped, eating this up. They were giving her answers without her even having to ask. "She was just in denial, Tony."
"I was not!"
"See, she's still in denial," Mona said.
Angela gritted her teeth. "There was nothing to be in denial about, Mother."
"You're lying again. You were terrified that I was right and there was a great force pulling you together," Mona said.
"Nooo..."
"Face it, you two were crazy about each other even then," Mona would not be dissuaded from this.
"C'mon Mona, we were not. We cared about each other, sure...," Tony attempted to deflect.
This only caused Mona to start questioning him, "how did you feel when she told you the truth?"
Tony hadn't expected Mona to come after him. He stammered, "I don't know, Mone, it was a long time ago. Who remembers?"
"I see you've taken up lying too," she responded.
"Fine, I guess I was surprised more than anything. I mean what are the odds that the girl I kissed at camp grew up to be my boss? It's kind of crazy if you think about it. The whole situation was...weird." He looked to his wife and quickly added, "weird in a good way, of course."
"So did you like her or did you like like her?" Mona played her juvenile card, but she really wanted an answer.
Angela watched all this with her arms crossed, inwardly fuming. It was time for her to step in and protect her husband's privacy, "enough, Mother. You've had your fun."
"Oh, I'm sure I'll have more fun after Harold arrives; but until then I have another question for you. If you weren't going to tell Tony the truth, why did you change your mind?"
Angela had gone from fuming to flustered. She hadn't thought about this night in a very long time and all of a sudden her mother was bringing her back to not only the insecure woman she'd been, but the insecure 13 year old as well. She didn't care for the feeling, at all. She looked everywhere in the room she could, except at her mother and her husband, "I don't know...," she trailed off. There was no way for her to answer this without her mother starting to crow. She'd told him out of pride, pure and simple. Tony was going on and on about how wonderful Ingrid had been and she'd wanted her due, but if she told her mother the truth she'd hold it over her head for the rest of her life.
"I'm waiting," her mother prompted.
"I just felt I was being deceptive and that the truth needed to be told." There, that was close enough to the truth, and it kept Tony's fond reminiscing over Ingrid private to the two of them.
Mona half-accepted this half-truth, but didn't pursue as she was turning into an attorney cross examining two hostile witnesses and had another line of questioning she wished to purse, "wasn't this not long after your birthday kiss in the kitchen?"
"One had nothing to do with the other," Angela pointed out, "and we were drunk," she added as though that excused everything.
"For two people not attracted to each other, you sure did a lot of kissing," Mona noted.
"Two kisses in 20 years are not a lot," Angela protested.
"For you two it's comparable to the number stars in the heavens; and proof that you were meant to be together," Mona said.
Angela had had enough, "fine Mother, we were meant to be together, and we are. Are there any more questions?"
"Of course."
Angela silently berated herself for even asking.
"You've been awfully silent. What are you thinking about, lover boy?"
"Me?" Tony desperately tried back out of this.
"You see any other lover boys around here?"
Tony tried to keep the grin off his face, he really did, but the memories were just too good.
Divide and conquer, this was definitely the tactic to use with these two, "spill it, Bogie."
"I wasn't thinking about anything." No, not a thing, no memories of Angela looking sexy in a fitted sheet were crossing his mind at all. Nope, nothing to see there. Nope, nope; not a woman who still managed to look elegant with messed up hair and wearing a frumpy "dress."
"You can't hide a grin like that from me," Mona said, correctly.
Tony was in a very serious dilemma, if he said anything it could be construed as betraying his wife, but in the end he knew that Mona would find out what was causing this grin anyway, so he was only delaying the inevitable by keeping quiet. In the end, loyalty to his wife won out, "sorry Mona, what happened that night is between me and...Ingrid," he smiled.
Tony's grin made Angela grin, but her thoughts were tending more toward Tony's attempt at ballet and the way she couldn't take her eyes off the way the towel he wore moved when he tried to perform his ballet moves. She was human, she couldn't help but notice the good looking mostly naked man in the room with her; and he did look good wearing nothing but that towel. The last drops of rainwater had still glistened on his muscles somehow making them look even more magnificent than usual. The thought of licking off those raindrops was one that she wouldn't let herself entertain. His hair had been drenched by the weather, giving him a deliciously tousled look that she pined to run her fingers through. There was one lock that had dropped into the center of his forehead, she'd ached to brush back into place with the backs of her fingers. She'd been reminded of that childhood rhyme, "there was a little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good; she was very, very good, and when she was bad, she was horrid." It hadn't taken much imagination for Angela to turn that girl into a man and wonder just how good he could be. Now that she knew just how good he could be, her grin grew even wider.
The memories continued to return to both Tony and Angela; the desire, the arguing, the caring. They looked at each other and smiled, just smiled. There were no undertones, no sublimated desire, just happiness at how much their relationship had changed that night. They'd joked, they'd fought; they'd both been secretly thrilled to find out it was the other that night at Kissing Rock. They'd learned so much about each other, and themselves. They built on their already solid foundation of friendship, stayed strong and didn't take their relationship to a place it wasn't ready to go. It was a difficult decision at the time, but the risk of losing what they had was too great, and neither was willing to sacrifice what they had. At the time Angela had still been a little off center from that birthday kiss, even though it had happened over a month before. It tantalized her, almost taunted her with the thought of more kisses. That, combined with the fact that she had missed him (and Sam) so much while they on vacation showed her that there was potential with Tony. Potential that she was too scared to act on at the time; but had been beautifully fulfilled over the ensuing years.
Her mother's prognostication about the kismet between them had in the end been proven correct, but she was not going to give her mother the satisfaction of bringing that up and acknowledging it. The argument saved them from taking steps that could have led to disaster. It was a way to distance herself from Tony and the truth, a truth that was even then so real for them that it terrified them. It was no wonder it took another six years for them to get together.
Mona was watching this silent communication between them with glee. Her lips turned up slowly from one end of her mouth to the other, giving her a very evil grin to match her devil costume.
"What?" Angela asked warily.
"Oh nothing; shoo, go on to your party."
"Mona," Tony warned.
Mona's grin retreated to a smile, "I was just considering who to call first: Sam or Jonathan."
Angela crossed one arm over her waist, rested her other elbow on top of it and dropped her head into her hand.
Mona looked at her watch, "hmm, 2 am in London, Jonathan will be sleeping. I'm sure he won't mind being woken up for this news," she started to walk to the phone.
"Mother," was the exasperated response emanating from under Angela's hand, calling her mother's bluff.
"Fine, fine," Mona acquiesced.
"Thank you," Angela took her hand away from her face.
"I'll call Sam first, she'll be thrilled to know she was right about you two all along."
Angela turned to walk out the door, knowing further protest was futile.
"Someday the two of you will admit there was a great force bringing you together; me!" Mona yelled after her.
Angela stopped and turned around, "yes, mother, I'm sure you sent me to camp so that I would meet Tony."
"I sent you to camp hoping you would meet boys; so it worked."
Angela had had enough, "good night, Mother," This time she did make it out the door.
"Good night...Ingrid," her mother teased.
Mona could hear her daughter's strangled scream in response even after Tony shut the door behind them.
Mona just continued to grin, this was definitely the best Halloween ever, and Harold hadn't even arrived yet.
Later that evening, after the party and after they had dispatched their babysitter (and her boyfriend) Tony and Angela enjoyed the peacefulness that reigned after the Halloween revelries were over. They were in the kitchen, cleaning up the remains of the pumpkin cake and the candy. Tony took one look at the empty cake platter and smiled a mischievous smile. Remembering Angela's earlier commentary on the dessert, he said, "you certainly enjoyed the cake tonight."
If there was such a thing as an innocent grin, Angela mastered it, "I have no idea what you're talking about." It just so happened that Angela's hand slipped down and caressed Tony's derriere. Tony raised his eyebrows, silently questioning this action. "Just another example of the force of gravity," Angela answered, still managing to sound completely innocent.
Neither could keep up the pretense and both collapsed in laughter.
"Angela, I have a confession to make," he said after composing himself.
"Oh?" Angela crossed her arms, waiting to hear what he had to say.
"I peeked over that blanket we put up between the beds, you know, "the Wall of Jericho" while you were changing," Tony admitted, after all these years.
"You did? How dare you!" she teased, then waited a moment and confessed, "I peeked over at you too."
"Angela! I'm shocked! But thrilled," he raised his eyebrows a couple of times in mock surprise.
They shared a quick kiss before leaving the kitchen. Tony pushed the door into the living room open and made room for Angela to pass through before him. As she walked he whispered in her ear, "kissing's even better now that I don't have to worry about cutting my lip on your braces anymore."
"You said it was worth it," she said in mock anger.
"Oh, it was; it was."
Angela smiled a beatific smile. "Poor baby, come here, I'll kiss your old boo-boo and make it better." If Tony felt being cut was worth it when he was 11, he was even more grateful for the battle wound now. A little tender loving care made everything all better. The living room was dark and quiet; Mona certainly had no need for lights and Tony didn't bother to turn any on when he and Angela arrived home. They eventually broke apart from their healing kiss and Angela rested her head on Tony's shoulder. They stood there, just holding each other, lost in each other and in fond memories.
Although they were both eager to continue the fun started by their Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner alter egos earlier this evening, Tony had one more item to cross off his mental list, a surprise for Angela. Tony momentarily broke away from Angela, picked up the remote and music started playing. He then took his wife in his arms and started to dance. Tony had been waiting for this moment all night and the even brighter smile on Angela's face was the perfect reward for his patience. When Dooley Wilson started to sing, Tony also sang:
You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss
Dooley sang the rest solo as Angela decided to test the kiss theory.
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
And when two lovers woo
They still say, "I love you"
They stopped dancing. The intense love they saw in each other's eyes was underscored by them simultaneously whispering, "I love you." Coming together for another kiss, their lips had barely touched when the lights flicked on. Mona had come in through the kitchen, her timing was impeccable, for her anyway, not so much for Tony and Angela.
Mona was just as surprised to see them as they were to see her. "I'd have thought you two would be upstairs playing out your Ingrid fantasies by now."
"I'd have thought you'd be playing out your...whatever fantasies...you'd be playing out by now," her startled daughter sputtered.
"I sent Harold home, he was boring me. But what could you expect from a guy who shows up wearing a "This is my Halloween costume" t-shirt as his costume? The guy had no imagination so I came down to raid Robert's candy stash." Mona looked around the room, noticing the dark and the music. Silently, she approved, to that end she took her leave. Sacrificing her desire for candy to her daughter's happiness, she said, "I can raid the kid's candy tomorrow, good night." She wasn't going to leave without one more good zinger though. As she placed her hand on the door to the kitchen she grinned and said, "oh, by the way, Sam was thrilled to hear she was right about you two all along." She smiled even more broadly as she pushed the door and sweetly dripped, "good night, you two," as she passed through.
"Good night," they answered in unison. The slightly swinging door was their only response.
"You want to make sure she isn't hiding in the kitchen with a stop watch?" Tony asked pragmatically.
Angela raised her eyebrows, "shh, she may still be in the kitchen." Paranoid Angela silently walked over to the door and pushed the door into the kitchen. The room was empty, her mother wasn't hanging around to in an attempt to eavesdrop on them. Relieved, Angela let go of the door and walked back to Tony, "she doesn't know anything about a stop watch," she said, then warned, "and she isn't going to know anything about a stop watch, or the fact that we wound up in the same bed," thereby telling him not to even think about spilling any more details about Kissing Rock or the night in the motel room to her mother. Angela had nothing to worry about; they managed to keep their secrets and both of them wanted to keep it that way.
"Sure wouldn't mind breaking that 57 seconds record," Tony suggested.
Angela smiled and it can be said that the 57 seconds record was well and truly broken. After breaking their record, Tony started reminiscing about the most important decision they made that night in the motel room, "you were right, things are...were, pretty good between us the way they aren't...weren't."
"Yes they were; and are," Angela agreed
"Hey Angela, how did you really feel when you realized it was us?
"Terrified, but I thought if I just didn't mention it, it wouldn't become a problem. I also felt...alone. All of a sudden I had a secret. It was...lonely." This admission surprised even Angela.
"Lonely?" Tony asked.
"Yes, in that instant something changed about that memory. Even though I hadn't thought about it in years, suddenly that memory wasn't just an abstract pair of kids; it was you and me, except there was no current you and me. I guess that made me a little sad."
"I'm sorry, honey," Tony stroked his wife's arm.
Angela came back from being lost in the memory, "there's nothing to be sorry about; there is a 'you and me' now," she smiled, but then her anger from the time welled up, "but you kept going on and on about Ingrid in the motel room, and I felt the secret demanding to be told. I was jealous of myself...the way you so obviously wanted Ingrid's company above mine..."
"Whoa, wait a minute, being in your company is always first in my book."
"Thanks, hon; but you were salivating so gleefully over Ingrid that I wanted to take you down a peg with the truth. Not one of my most shining moments, and it actually wasn't easy to tell you.
"Angela, I was just trying to defuse a tense situation with the Ingrid joking, that's all. If I had even the slightest notion that she was you...you were her? Doesn't matter; either way, I was just trying to distract myself from how good you looked in that sheet."
"You thought I looked good in a sheet?" she asked, surprised at the revelation.
Tony grinned, "heck, yeah, you looked fantastic."
Angela was touched, she felt she looked terrible that night, but obviously Tony felt otherwise, "thanks Tony. You looked good in that towel too." It was true, he did look good in that towel.
He grinned and said, "thanks, hon." Halloween was not only turning into a night for romance, but a night for honesty as well.
"Tony, how did you really feel after I told you the truth?"
"More shocked than I'd ever been in my life. For a second I thought you said you were Ingrid just to play a trick on me; see how I'd react and all that, but I saw the truth in your eyes. Then I realized how lucky I was that it turned out that my best friend was also someone I shared a wonderful memory with. Then I got scared."
"Scared?" Angela was surprised, she thought she'd been the only scared person in that motel room that night.
"I wasn't sure how I was going to keep my hands off you."
"Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if we had just decided to see how good things could have been between us 'the way they weren't'."
He gave the same correct answer he gave all those years ago, "they would have been great, but we made the right decision."
"You really think so?" Angela asked for confirmation.
"I have to think so, if I didn't I'd have years of lost romance to regret. "
"Me too." A short burst of melancholy overcame Angela; but it quickly turned to laughter.
"What?" her husband asked, suddenly afraid she was going to bring up an embarrassing moment from the motel room.
"I'm glad you're not a monk," she said.
Now in on the joke, Tony laughed, "me too, Angela, me too."
They kissed again, then went upstairs where the Wall of Jericho came down, and stayed down.