It's difficult to find the way everything fits into place once it's broken, even if a surgeon gives you a pretty significant first push. Alexia's recovery is progressing with hope. Her knee is responding well to rehabilitation, but she doesn't feel...
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The sense of ridicule is something really important to maintain. It is strongly recommended to keep it in a little corner of the brain where it doesn't bother much but can be heard clearly when needed, preventing you from saying something too direct to your crush, singing outside the shower, or writing an internet fanfic about a beautiful girl who doesn't know you exist.
I pondered it deeply when I saw myself reflected in the beer tap at the bar, filled with water droplets from condensation that I wiped away with my hand to get a better view of the mess.
"Come on, it's not that horrible," my friend Irene looked at me from one of the high stools, trying to hold back her laughter.
I gave her a sarcastic look.
I was wearing a huge witch hat and a long coat. As if that weren't enough, Maite, who had the luck of dressing up as a ghost, found it amusing to make me clean the entire floor of the bar to complete the outfit with a worn-out broom.
Irene had agreed to come to the bar for a couple of hours to make my moment of absolute embarrassment as less traumatic as possible. However, to make it clear who was feeling uncomfortable and who wasn't, she had chosen the Halloween costume that had helped her get the most sexual attention in her life and that suited her perfectly: a blood-covered nurse.
"You think it's not that horrible? I've been hearing jokes all afternoon about whether I'm going to eat people or if I've cast a spell on the drinks," I complained.
"That's funny," she warned with a raised index finger while finishing pouring the beer I had ordered. "Besides, you love Halloween, dressing up, and all that nonsense. You always make us wear matching costumes."
"Well, I don't see you dressed as a cat."
"Hmm... Actually, a black cat costume would have suited me perfectly," she teased. I rolled my eyes and placed the glass in front of her. "You didn't cast any spell on it, right?"
"Idiot," I spat.
I turned around, intending to put the enormous hat on one of the refrigerators and relieve my neck from the weight and the embarrassment. It was the first themed party at the bar. Fernando had spent the week distributing posters and thinking of offers that wouldn't bleed his wallet too much.
"This is a success!" Speaking of the devil. After proudly surveying the full tables and customers dancing with drinks in hand, he noticed me. "Mia, the hat."
"Is it really necessary?" I asked.
"It's the most important thing," he warned. Irene chuckled under her breath. "Now, do you see the table I placed in the back of the bar?" I nodded. He left a cardboard box filled with things in my hands. "I want you to go there and fill it with cobwebs, cardboard pumpkins, and all that stuff. The DJ is about to arrive."
Without saying anything else, Fernando went off to do what he always did, absolutely nothing. He sat on one of the stools and poured himself a drink to celebrate his successful management. I took a deep breath and gave my friend a meaningful look.
