Chance Encounters
Chapter 51
oOoOo
Stephanie's POV
Holding hands we came downstairs, feeling refreshed after that fabulous early afternoon delight, which included a refreshing and invigorating shower session, and started setting up the refreshments. Sangria was a must, especially for this celebration, some champagne, a variety of beers and the mixers and other liquors especially whiskey, vodka, rum and tequila. We prepared multiple bowls with cut up strawberries, mint leaves, wedges of lemons and limes, slices of lime as the required garnishes, and a special bowl of salt along with the necessary large pitchers for making margaritas and mojitos. I was having fun opening up the paper parasols for the cocktails. From experience I knew the guys were excellent cocktail makers and the bar was well-equipped with all the necessary accoutrements.
There was an ample supply of ice, with some imaginative coolers, à la coffins with the mandatory skeleton sitting in his ice bath. Another skeleton was in a small dinghy, complete with oars, with his pirate hat on askew, pearl necklaces around his neck, sitting in the ice and fake silver coins and gold doubloons, guarding the beers with his cutlass. Dry ice was carefully handled and stored ready to be placed inside some of the pumpkins and of course in the sangria and other spots for added ambience. Special gloves for safety was a must. The Chillisticks were in the cooler with the dry ice pellets. The taller guys had liberally adorned the deck and patio ceiling and posts with lots of cobwebs and spiders and suspended bats just hovering above us.
Tables were set to the side and we had hired some couches and those tall bar tables, and a cane peacock chair, which was most essential. Skulls and plastic creepy crawlies adorned the table tops, and the side tables for the food and drinks, with centipedes or spiders crawling from an eye hole or nose opening. I shivered delightedly.
In preparation for this event, my favourite celebration of the year, as you know, I had "volun-told" the guys to carve some pumpkin heads in preparation during the week. In fact, I made it their passport of entry, a plate of finger food and a carved pumpkin or two. They all got into the spirit of things. I was so excited. Some brought in a cluster of little ones, and, not to be outdone, Zip and Zero made an entire family of evil pumpkins. They must have been busy pumpkins in creating that evil brood. What a fantastic array there was, absolutely perfect for the candles, lights and dry ice. Randomly arranging them around the patio on the paving, on a bench or down the steps, with some hay bales, added to the effect. Of course, the pumpkins near the hay bales had those little fake candles in them, which flickered as if they were real flames. The only real candles were for the small cluster of pumpkins on the side table. All the others had little strands of LED lights or the fake candles. The guys had done a mighty job with the lighting. I couldn't wait to see how it would look as it got dark.
Ella and Shorty prepared a lot of the food, which was being delivered later this afternoon with one of the Rangeman vans. Shorty had been baking with Ella in her huge mega kitchen at Rangeman. They'd had a great time with all the food planning, shopping and prepping all this week. But, the guys surprised me with some creative snacks, like dead man's fingers, mini cauldrons ("Don't tell them they are mini quiches," Woody chuckled,), swamp cakes, spiders, (shiver) both sweet and savoury, Bloody Mary syringes, eyeballs and black jelly shots, and so many more. I sampled the firm Galliano jelly (jello) cubes, and the others too ... grenadine and crème de menthe. Oh my God. I am going to roll out of here after tonight. Or probably need to be carried out of here. I might be a bit legless. Chilled foods went into the refrigerators. Everyone then took a break for a while before changing into their obligatory costumes. Upstairs rooms in all the villas were made available for that. No one was expected to drive home tonight. They knew the routine since we have done it before.
In a counter challenge, last night, Manny had us making cute little Sugar Skulls, in lieu of el Día de los Muertos, since he had Mexican and Puerto Rican family connections. Because the sugar skulls would take at least 24 hours in total to make, allowing for drying time overnight, we did it over two nights, well, evenings. It was like a little cottage industry, or as the guys preferred, an assembly line. First the mixing and then the shapes. They were not little or bite-sized by any means. It was so much fun to make and press the mixture into the moulds, just like Grandma and I used to do with chocolate Easter eggs. And then, the following evening, the fun part of joining the front and back and decorating them! Who knew that these guys could make such delicate sweets with their big hands? The sugar skulls were more for display than eating, but certainly did look edible, but much bigger than a mouthful.
I saw a little pack of four sugar skull moulds on the kitchen bench.
"What are these for? They look cute."
"Ah, Chica. We knew you would be interested in these," Hector crooned. "Close your eyes. And listen to this … chocolate brownies … chocolate sugar skull brownies," he teased as he used an alluring voice.
"Oh! That sounds yum! Are you going to make them for tomorrow?" I asked eagerly, licking my lips. Carlos gave a little groan, his eyes focused on my lips, making me chew my lip without realising I had done it.
"Sh, Carlos. Later," I promised, giving him a shoulder nudge and a giggle. Do Vixens giggle? Sure, they do!
Waiting expectantly and indulgently, two gorgeous pairs of brown eyes smiled at me.
"No. We are not. But we," his arms indicated me as well inclusively, "we are going to make them now. Together."
"Oh. Really? You reckon I can. I never had a chance to get any good at baking."
"Well, tonight's the night."
Manny then showed a little YouTube video from his laptop. Damn. That looked so easy and so much fun. I grinned.
"I'm in. Let's do it."
And the ingredients along with the baking tray, bowl and spatula suddenly appeared on the bench. Before long, the delicious aroma of brownies baking filled the kitchen. Mm-mm. Once the tray had been turned out, and rested a bit, I dusted the (thinner than usual) brownie slab with icing sugar. So easy. We each took it in turn to press the coloured moulds onto the upturned large flat brownie bake. Each mould was a different face with the characteristic designs for sugar skulls. After making a second batch, and a third, we decided to hide them, after we sampled the left-over bits from the cut outs. Oh my God! I love brownies! But they were almost like cookies. These were so cute. And yummy. And, easy to make. But we all looked a bit dusty, in a white icing sugar kind of way. Somehow, we seemed to have sprinkled liberal amounts, not just solely on the benchtop and the brownies, but on each other! Damn! I might have to help Carlos clean himself up. Perhaps, lick it off first …
"Babe? You've got that naughty far away look again." He smiled wickedly. He knows me too well.
"Carlos? You eat brownies?"
His eyebrows wiggled suggestively in that oh so very subtle manner he has, with a sly sexy grin.
"So … not a temple night?"
"I'll worship at your temple tonight," he whispered into my neck with a little after nip on my ear lobe.
Holy shit! I just about fell off my stool. I know Hector and Manny knew what that was about since they chuckled. But then, I saw Hector's eyebrows do the same to Manny, causing him to moan. My turn to chuckle.
"Okay. Let's clean up this blizzard."
Between the four of us, we quickly vacuumed the floor, wiped the bench tops, and placed the rest of the dishes and utensils in the dishwasher. After switching it on, we hurriedly disappeared to our respective villas. Easy for Carlos and I. We were already there, racing upstairs. And, it certainly was a temple night. Oh, lucky me!
While the plain sugar skulls had dried overnight, last night, Cal and Tiny were lynched into helping us with decorating said sugar skulls, not the hidden brownies.
"Seriously?" Cal asked frowning.
"Cool!" Tiny was all for it. "Come on cuz, show us your flair, just like that flamin' skull dude on your forehead!"
"Yeah, but no flames! We stick to patterns, just like that video showed," I warned him with a firm glare, but half smiling. I saw that sneaky wink from my Carlos. Hmm …
Manny had some ideas for decorating tips on his laptop as well as some A4 sized print offs positioned onto a whiteboard with little magnetic strips to hold them in place. So, after watching another little YouTube clip for inspiration, we got busy. Hector and Manny showed us how easy it was to join the two halves together to make a complete skull. Manny deftly showed his technique to leave a neat, almost invisible join.
"Don't panic about any spaces. When we do the patterns, you can use the piping to decorate and hide it nicely."
But, he insisted that we practise the piping procedure first, before he would let us near any of his precious sugar skulls. It was a wise suggestion especially in using the piping bags, just plain white frosting for practising. It was a simple technique but we did practise making different patterns and designs until we felt confident enough to progress to the real thing. Manny admitted he had thought about buying the colours already prepared in tubes, but this was so much better. Besides, we needed more as we soon found out.
Quickly preparing the first real and flavoured batch of mixture, Manny handed out the bowls ready for each of us to put into a piping bag. Standing or sitting, we concentrated on the task at hand attempting the various patterns.
"Oops. Sorry, Babe."
I eyed Carlos suspiciously. I deadpanned to my shoulder and back to his mischievous eyes.
"Yeah, right. You just got a bit carried away."
I smirked back at him. There will be payback. He had "practised" some dots on my bare shoulder, three very quickly, neatly above my rose tattoo. He grinned as he admired his "accidental" handiwork.
Tsk. Shaking my head, like a mother chastising her child, I let it go, for now. We smiled. It set the pace for what was to come, later.
Sitting around the long island bench in our kitchen, we got busy for the real deal, a beer within reach, with music playing from the speakers by the sink from one of my play lists. We mixed another batch of the almond flavoured royal icing, the frosting, portioning them into the little bowls for a variety of colours ready for piping our designs. Each of us had a colour. You can guess which colour Carlos chose. Black, of course. I had blue, of course. Red, yellow, blue, green and purple made the set complete. To be safe, we mixed another batch of the frosting. We decided orange would also be good and another black, as that colour would be in demand, especially for the hollow eyes. In this way, there would always be a spare couple of piping bags on standby, so I added pink to another bowl. After the initial bouts of deep silent concentration while we first practised the designs and patterns, we focused on the decorating, humming, and singing choruses while we worked. We made surprisingly little mess, unlike the mini blizzard that had settled in with all the powdered sugar last night.
However, as we progressed, somehow there was frosting on my arms and some on my face, as they … okay, we each stole a moment to decorate one another. I'd like to think of it as practising our designs, you know, before committing them to the sugar skulls. It seemed like I had a few colourful frosting tattoos.
Yesterday was such a fun day. It gives me a warm buzz thinking about how the atmosphere changed so suddenly from fun and creative, to sexy and lusty. Madre Dios! Aye-yai-yai!
(Fanning myself here.)
We had just completed the decorating and were tidying up and admiring our handiwork. And, wouldn't you know it. There he was. A sugar skull with a flaming skull frosting tattoo on his ample forehead. I did wonder why Carlos had suddenly gone a bit quiet. He had been using a toothpick for the flames of course. Pretty impressive, all of them were. We had made over two dozen.
"Oopsie. Now look at that. Tsk. I missed my sugar skull completely," I remarked innocently after accidentally-on-purpose decorating Carlos' nose. He didn't try to stop me, but then he looked at me with that sexy predatory gleam that I love, slowly and deliberately checking out my decorated shoulder, arm, hand and face.
"Babe. I might have to take you upstairs and clean you up, you know," Carlos' voice husked deeply.
Oh my! It was his bedroom voice.
Manny laughed out loud. At the same time, Hector licked the frosting heart from Manny's cheek, which stilled him from his mirth, turning to look into the deep dark eyes of his husband.
"Mm, almond flavour is good. You need some help cleaning up too, mi querido?" Hector waggled his eyebrows suggestively not the least bit subtle about it. Manny replied seductively, "Si, mi amor."
I was grinning happily at my two friends when Carlos squeezed a line of frosting down my neck, much to my amazement. I was mesmerised as he slowly made a pink squiggly line onto my index finger, grinning hungrily.
"Si. Mm-mm, almond flavour is just nice …" he murmured as he licked my finger, before taking it entirely into his mouth and nibbling the end of said fingertip. He then leaned over and slowly licked up my neck in a rare display of PDA, his lips lingering and nibbling. Lordy, Lordy!
That was it. I shuddered in delight and ran for the stairs with Carlos hot on my heels. He swiftly scooped me up and over his shoulder, with me shrieking victoriously. Hector and Manny disappeared too, considering I was a bit distracted to see, but I knew very well what was about to happen there.
"Don't even think about it, Tiny!" we heard from the kitchen followed by a bellowing laugh.
"It's alright. We'll just clean up the rest here while you guys get freaky!"
Sigh. That was such a fun, interesting and sexy evening. See, food again, well, frosting is food. And Carlos needed cleaning up, too! I licked him and he's mine. I licked him even where there was no frosting.
Anyway, back to the present. The guys had made an extensive music selection for partying, dancing and those in-between moments for special announcements. Atmosphere, check; music, check; decorations, check; drinks and ice, check; food, big check; pumpkins galore, check; spiders and webs galore, check; skulls and skeletons everywhere, check; lighting, check. The checklist was comprehensive. They had made an inventory and, like a military exercise, they made sure that every contingency was covered.
I think they were very excited in creating a graveyard on the back lawn by the pool, with a few skeletal hands reaching out of the ground with some strategic lighting for tonight directed at them. The tombstones made it so authentic. The scarecrow skeleton in the herb garden was going to glow in dark. Twinkling party lights and tiki torches were set up around the pool to reflect the light in the water, adding further to the ambience. And some dry ice coming down the waterfall for that added eeriness will be the pièce de résistance. The stage was set.
Once again Tank arranged the Hummer limos, so everyone could let loose. Most were staying the night, but even for the morning after, we did not want anyone caught for DUI.
We decided to close the gates to the Den, so only vehicles with a fob pass could enter, and to avoid any trick or treaters who might linger along the Den driveway and entrance. As much as I loved the kids coming to the door in all their cute and crazy costumes, this was an adult occasion and we would be out the back, celebrating a number of special occasions. October is my favourite month with my birthday, Halloween and now also another special day. It was barely three weeks ago. It actually feels much longer after all the dramas since then. We also wanted to celebrate with our Den family, our Rangeman family, especially after all the extra excitement with crazies, the shooting and the gang rivalry with those bounties on our heads. My Merry Men had really done so much to keep me, us, safe. Carlos and Tank said, "It's just part of what we do." So, matter of fact, so humble.
I was so excited about this evening. Everything was falling into place. Everyone pitched in and helped with the entire process.
oOoOo
TBC
Oh boy! More to come.