Halloween Night Celebration
Stephanie Plum sighed and looked at the clock. It was her favorite day of the year (Halloween), and Joe had promised to take her out to the corn maze that was only open through the end of the night. Stephanie had been looking forward to it since she heard about it. She could have gone with Lula and Connie the weekend before, but Joe swore up and down that he would take her out for dinner and to the maze. She was really looking forward to going on a real date with Joe, since it seemed that all they ever did was eat pizza, watch hockey, and have sex.
She got up, eventually deciding that she might as well change into some sweatpants and put in her trusty favorite movie, Ghostbusters. She almost jumped when she heard someone knock on her door. She realized that it couldn't be a psycho… they always broke in. She walked over and opened the door. There were three kids standing there, all dressed in cute outfits, chanting "Trick-or-treat!" happily. Steph felt her heart drop a bit.
"I'm so sorry," she said. "I don't have any candy. I wasn't going to be here today." The kids just frowned at her and walked away. Great, now she really felt great. She got stood up and just disappointed three kids. Who knew how many others she would end up disappointing that night. She went back into her apartment and started, finding Ranger sitting on her couch.
"Looking a little crazy, Babe," he said, tipping his lips in an almost smile.
"That's so freaking spooky!" Steph exclaimed. "How do you do that?" Ranger smirked at her.
"I walked right past you, Babe. You were staring aimlessly in the hallway. You really need to be more aware of your surroundings." Steph waved her hand dismissively at him.
"So, what's up? Don't tell me I have to do a distraction tonight," she said, frowning at him. "Do you think I never have plans?"
"Babe." She scowled at him, but she could tell she was amusing him. "No job. Just thought you might want to go to a haunted house before they close."
"That sounds great. They don't close 'til the witching hour, so we should have plenty of time," Steph said, finally feeling slightly more cheerful. She quickly went to change, before rejoining Ranger. They headed out to the nearest haunted house.
"It looks really eerie," Steph said, looking at the old Victorian style house. Ranger smirked slightly, guiding her up to the house. He paid the teenager who was working there; he was obviously dressed up for the holiday, with white make-up, a black cape, and dressed in all black. "He looked so ghastly," Steph whispered when they were safely past him.
"Babe," Ranger said, looking down at her. She shrugged uneasily.
"Just because I love this stuff doesn't mean it doesn't freak me out sometimes," Steph told him in a quick whisper.
"I'll protect you," he said, keeping his hand on the small of her back. Steph smiled up at him as they meandered through the haunted house. Steph quickly found out that it wasn't as scary when you had 6 feet of heavily muscled hot man next to you. The workers didn't even try to scare them; in fact, she thought Ranger scared them! She noticed Ranger smirking definitely throughout the journey, and Steph elbowed him in the stomach.
"That's not nice, Ranger," she whispered to him. He laughed quietly as they exited the haunted house, and Steph was surprised.
"Babe, you having fun?" he asked, looking down at her. She nodded. "Good. Up for going to a bar?" She tried to raise an eyebrow at him.
"Are you sure you aren't taking me to a distraction? This isn't exactly distraction attire," she said, looking down at her knit top and jeans. Ranger shook his head.
"Just thought it would be interesting." Steph nodded to him. He gifted her with a real smile, and they got back into the Porsche and headed toward a bar.
Steph wasn't expecting the party-like festivities in the bar. The lights were flashing and the area was packed. With Ranger, though, she got through to the bar easily and ordered a Corona with lime. When the light hit the other side of the room, Steph caught sight of something that made her blood boil. She immediately set out for the other side of the room. Ranger looked to see what she had seen, smirked, and leaned against the wall, ready to watch the show.
"Morelli?" Steph shrieked as she got near him. He turned in shock to look at her.
"Cupcake, what are you doing here? You know Wes, the new officer, right?" he checked, nodding to the man he was with. Steph glared at him. "What's up, Cupcake?" he asked, finally noticing that she wasn't happy.
"We were supposed to have dinner and go to the corn maze tonight. I've been looking forward to it for a month. You didn't even call, you jackass! Have you been here the entire time?" she yelled, her face getting red.
"Man, Cupcake, I forgot. I'm sorry. I'll buy you some pizza tomorrow," Morelli said, grinning at her.
"No, you won't. I guess I know that I'm not really that important to you, now, right? Just forget it, Morelli. We're over," she said.
"Cupcake! Steph!" he yelled after her as she slowly went back to Ranger. When Morelli saw who she was with, he fell silent and his jaw locked. Steph just stopped in front of Ranger and looked up at him.
"Take me home?" she asked. Ranger nodded, before leading her out to his car. When she got in, she just stared aimlessly out the window. Finally she looked at Ranger.
"He just forgot about me," she said. Ranger glanced over at her. "How could he love me if he could just forget about me that easily?" she asked. Her voice started to sound weak and shaky.
"Babe," Ranger started. He didn't know where he was going with this, for once, and Ranger was feeling very uneasy. Steph just shrugged.
"It'll be okay. It ended kind of boring, though, huh? I'm sure that people would expect a huge fight, maybe something getting blown up." Ranger quirked his lips at that, and she smiled at him. "Thanks for making my Halloween fun, Ranger," she said, as they arrived at her apartment.
"We could do it again sometime," Ranger said.
"Haunted houses? Sure, next Halloween," Steph said.
"I meant the us hanging out not in a work-related thing," he said. Steph was shocked. Ranger sounded uneasy and wasn't speaking in monosyllables or one-word sentences. Ranger kept looking at her face shyly.
"Yeah. We could do it again," she said softly. "I'd like that." He nodded, before going inside and checking out her apartment.
"Next Saturday?" he asked as he was leaving.
"Sure," Steph said uneasily. He flashed his 1000 watt smile at her, before kissing her briefly.
"Night Babe."