Halloween--Innocently Sexy Fun

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 was 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 much needed night out, 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 attend with my son got me a gift certificate for 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 Murder Mystery Series,
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
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