'Tis confusion!

ferrety pinata

With Sal in slightly better spirits, we continued decorating Q's place,mainly the living room. Sal went back out to Q's car, and returned with a massive, multi-colored piñata...and a ferret mask. I stared at it in disbelief. "Where did you find a ferret mask?"

Sal looked at me and cracked "That's not a ferret mask. We took a picture of Murr while he was asleep and blew it up to mask size."

I snickered.

"It was actually at Party City," Q's voice called from the other room. "It's national weird animal month or something, so they had a bunch of those things." He walked back into the living room carrying a stack of paper plates.

"Nice. So, what kind of candy did you guys get to fill the piñata?"

Q and Sal looked at each other. "...Crap."

I burst out laughing. "Ok then."

Q pulled his car keys out of his pocket. " I guess we'd better go fix that. Mara, mind tagging along?"

"Not at all."

"Cool."

Sal glanced at his watch. "I'm gonna head out too. I need to pick Barbara up soon. We'll head right back here afterwards."

"Sounds good. James called earlier and said Emily is already with him. Joe's gonna pick them up in a bit and they'll be over too."

"Joe's wife isn't coming?"

"I don't think so," Q replied. "He said she's been working nights this week, but she might be able to come over next week if we do the other party."

"Sweet. I guess we'd better get going then."

We followed Sal outside. He got in his car and drove off. Q and I followed suit.

We stopped at the dollar store and bought bags of Starbursts, Double Bubble gum and Ring Pops. Q also bought two Dr Peppers and handed one off to me in the parking lot. We drove back to his place and resumed the party prep.

Q and I got everything set up before Sal and the rest arrived. We blew up balloons, set out the food, hung the piñata (Q made sure to firmly attach the ferret mask), then flopped onto the couch. Q cracked open one of the bottles of Captain and poured some into his Dr Pepper, then mine. We sat and sipped, enjoying the silence together. Soon the doorbell rang.

Q got up and unlocked the door. Sal walked inside, followed by Barbara. Sal had changed into his panda shirt (I had to stifle a giggle.) Barbara was dressed in a black spaghetti strap tank top, black jeans and black wedge shoes. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and she was wearing pink lipstick. She looked awesome. The way Sal was staring at her, I could tell he was thinking the same.Barbara smiled at me. "Mara, right? It's nice to see you again." "Nice to see you too.You look wonderful."

She smiled. "Thanks!" she dropped her voice."You should have seen how Sal looked when he picked me up..I think he likes it."

"I'm sure he does. Q said Sal seemed super excited about inviting you tonight, so...if he doesn't like what he sees..he's crazy. but seriously. You look amazing."

She smiled again. "I love your hair."

"Thanks. Q said the same thing. I'm glad people seem to like it."

Sal and Q approached us just then. "Who needs a drink?" Q asked, waving a bottle of Coke in front of us. "There's beer in the fridge too, and the Captain."  

"I'd love a drink," I told Q. "I finished that Dr Pepper pretty quickly." He laughed. "Me too. Not that I need to be drinking to enjoy my time with you." he quickly added.