Page 21 of Don't Scare Me, My Love

He narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about? Why are you looking at me like that?” He stepped toward me, presenting his face as if he wanted me to look closer. “Is there something wrong with my face?”

“No—“

“Let me see…” He brought his fingers to his right eye and, without hesitation, grabbed his eyeball and pulled it out.

My head jerked into my shoulders as I jumped back a foot, squealing.

Jason squeezed his right eyelid shut as he looked at the flat prosthetic in his hand. "Looks good to me." He grinned devilishly as his gaze shifted to me. "Did you just flinch?"

“You won. That was… unexpected,” I replied. “And impressive. Well played.”

Jason couldn’t hold back his laughter anymore. “Sorry. It’s the best trick I have.” He turned around to put the prosthetic back in his eye socket. “Halloween is one of the few times I enjoywearing my prosthesis. It feels more like a costume than an eye patch. I hope it didn’t gross you out too much.”

He had no idea. “Is it weird that I loved it?”

“Yes. But I shouldn’t say anything since I was the one who used it to scare you. And just a heads up, I might do it again today. I know it’s morbid, but this is the only day I feel comfortable showing myself like this.”

“So… I get to watch you do it more often today?”

“Oh, you can bet your sweet ass on it,” he said, turning toward the gas station.

The day couldn’t have started any better.

Saturday morning wasn’t asquiet as the rest of the week. I had barely made Jason’s coffee when Jack showed up with six dozen donuts—twice as many as we usually get. He was so pressed for time that he even refused his usual cappuccino because he didn’t want to wait a minute.

Seeing him rush out to gas up his truck, I took it upon myself to whip up a cappuccino and bring it to him.

His face was both grateful and annoyed. “You’re just like Jason,” he said as I handed it to him after he put the nozzle back into the pump.

“That’s why he’s my Ghoulfriend tonight.”

“I knew you two were perfect for each other,” he said and hopped into his car. “See you at the bonfire.”

Not knowing what he was talking about, I watched him drive away. I went back inside, but it was almost as if fate didn't want me to ask Jason about it. First, he got a phone call that lasted almost twenty minutes. By the time he was done, there was a line behind the register that went all the way outside. WhileI was ringing them up, Jason was making coffee and handing out donut orders, only to be whisked away by another twenty-minute phone call.

An hour later, I finally had figured out why the day was so busy, thanks to a guy in his fifties with a tow truck that had a giant pumpkin on the back. He told me that the only time people flooded Seastone was on Halloween. The town threw an enormous bonfire in the woods to attract tourists. It had been a tradition for generations, but it had died down until five years ago when a group of Seastonians brought it back.

It was now clear that Jason would take me there for our Halloween date.

The next hours were filled with almost everyone in town getting coffee and snacks, more hectic phone calls coming in for Jason, and kids in costumes with their slightly distraught parents, mostly stopping to use our restrooms.

It was stressful, but Jason and I were so coordinated that everything went smoothly. We switched positions after lunch, and,damn,was that a good decision because watching Jason interact with the kids and teenagers became my highlight of the day. We had a bowl of free candy for every kid (and kid at heart) who washed their hands after using the restroom. Every time someone picked up a piece of candy, he made all sorts of funny faces that the kids loved to imitate, much to the dismay of their parents. The main attraction was his eye. He would often do the trick of rotating his left eye while the prosthetic in his right eye remained still. Some of the teenagers weren’t impressed with that, so he performed the same trick as he had done with me earlier—which scared them all.

It was amazing to watch him do it over and over again, and I could barely contain my laughter. I couldn’t believe I was going on a date with this man, who was just as much of a freak as I was.

When the clock struck three—the announced end of my shift—the gas station was so busy that I couldn’t in good conscience leave Jason alone. Even though he protested at first, I stayed and worked with him until things slowed down at half past six.

We took a short breather, and when Stan finally came in to take over, Jason told me to use the fifteen minutes until seven to freshen up while he finished our shift.

When I steppedout the back door, it looked exactly the same as it did before our shift—the trees standing like guards behind the gas station, watching over our cars in the dark. I held the door open for Jason and closed it behind him after he had stepped through, waving a last goodbye to Stan.

For a moment, we stood under the floodlight above the door, our shadows stretching all the way to our cars.

“You ready?” he asked, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

“How do we do this?” I asked. “I assume you’re going to take me to the bonfire. Do you want to drive ahead, and I will follow you? Or can I invite you to be your driver for the night as a thank you for taking me?”

“Who said I’d take you to the bonfire?”

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