Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I loved
dressing up as a kid and going trick-or-treating. As a college student
and later as a young adult I loved dressing up and going to The Castro
for their out-of-control street party. When I had my son I loved
dressing him up and taking him to one Halloween event after another (I
still love that part). But it wasn't until right after filing for
divorce years ago that Halloween became a right of passage for me.
It
was maybe a week before Halloween and about a month after my husband
had moved out that I found myself sitting at Starbucks with my friend
Brenda. I was so stressed and drained from the hell that I had been
living through for the last year. I confessed to her that what I
really wanted was to just go out and date and have fun again.
She just lit up. "Really!" She exclaimed. "Oh, I'm so glad to hear
you say that! There's a Halloween party this Saturday and lots of
single guys will be there. You're coming with me and I'm taking you to
Camouflage right now to buy you a costume."
Okay,
so a couple things you should know in order to appreciate the
significance of this offer. One is that she wasn't just offering to
help ease me back into the world of dating but she also was letting me
know that she wasn't going to allow the financial mess my ex had left
me with be a hindrance. The other is that Camouflage is the real store
that I would later base Dena's fictional shop,
Guilty Pleasures, on. Yes, Camouflage sells Halloween costumes but they are not innocent.
And
considering what had been going on in my life it really was what the
doctor ordered. We left Starbucks right then and there and when we
walked in the door of Camouflage I spotted the owner, Joan, who happens
to be a friend of my mother (my mother isn't exactly puritanical
herself). She greeted me and then I explained exactly what I was doing
there. "I'm going through a divorce," I said, "and this weekend I'll
be attending a party as a single woman for the first time in years. I
need a costume but if it requires a matching thong it's too short."
Joan
actually kept the store open an extra hour for me so I could find the
perfect costume that didn't require matching underwear. In the end we
ended up with a nurse's costume along with a pair of white
stripper-shoes. Despite its kitsch factor the dress and shoes were
pretty high quality and cost Brenda well over $100. But she insisted
that was the one I should wear and while stubbornly refusing to listen
to my protests she bought it for me.
The next day I told my
friend Shawn all about it. Shawn was elated and she insisted that she
use her skills as a professional make-up artist to give me a make-over
right before the party.
As it turns out the party was fantastic. For the first time in years I
was the belle of the ball and I did meet someone there who I dated for
several months (with the understanding that we were just having fun
which is EXACTLY what I had been looking for).
But it's not the men who I met that night who made that Halloween
special. It was my friends. Brenda who invested money in giving me a
fun night, Joan, who stayed at work late just so I could get my
costume, Shawn who took time out of her extremely hectic schedule to
make me look fabulously-vampy, and of course my mother who offered to
take my son overnight, they are the ones who I always think of when I
recall that night. A few weeks later the mom's group I used to go to
with my son got me a gift certificate to Victoria Secret because they
knew I was broke and missed shopping there. These women were there for
me in all the most important girly ways. I don't know how I would have
gotten through that time without them.
So now every Halloween I put on something sexy and go out with my
friends. They are the ones who have made my favorite holiday truly
spectacular.
Kyra Davis
Bestselling author of
The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
And So Much For My Happy Ending
Order LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com Indiebound today!