“Are you ready for this?”
“Bring it on.” I took the bagel he handed me. “This better be worth the calories.”
I took a big bite and did my best to not clap my hands. It was, in fact, the best bagel I’d ever had.
“It’s official, I’ll never fit in my ballet outfits if I keep eating these.” I took another bite. “Maybe it’s worth it.”
We all laughed. Everyone dug in, happily eating in silence. I finished my last bite then leaned back.
“Holy cow, that was so good but so filling.” I tossed my napkin on the table. “We need to walk this off. What’s next?”
“Costume shopping. Did you think of any ideas,” Cota gathered all our garbage, “or are we going to wing it?”
“What is ‘wing it’?”
“See what happens, go with the flow, like that,” he said. “We can go for a walk in Central Park after costumes.”
“OK, let’s go wing it.”
Bond had Charlie drop us at the first costume shop. We climbed out one by one, but the guys didn’t follow us inside.
“Hey, why aren’t you coming in? You did agree to get a costume.” I put my hands on my hips. “Let’s go.”
“You go ahead. We’ll look later.” Bond leaned against the car.
“If you don’t come in and look, then I’ll pick your costume.”
“That’s fine, you can pick.” Bond put his sunglasses on. “I’m busy being the bodyguard.”
I stared at them for a minute. Charlie had received a phone call so I couldn’t give him a hard time, and Bond wasn’t budging. I turned and followed Cota into the store. We spent about fifteen minutes looking through the racks of costumes, but nothing really appealed to me. I peeked out the window to see the guys laughing about something.
“Cota, I think we should show them how good costumes work.”
“What do you have in mind?” He stepped closer to me.
“See these bum costumes? Let’s put them on then stumble down the sidewalk.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him. “You wanna try it?”
“I wanna try it, but I don’t think they’ll be fooled by bums this clean.” He ran his hand over the costumes. “Here, these are more natural.”
“What is that?”
“One is a hippie and the other is a maintenance man.” He held them both up. “Which one do you want?”
“I think you will look good as the one you called hippie, so I’ll be the maintenance man.”
“Hold on a minute, I see the perfect costumes.” He waved for me to follow him. “Which one do you wanna be?”
“What are they?”
“This is just not right. How do you not know Big Bird and Cookie Monster?” He scoffed. “I think I have to be Big Bird”
“Cookie Monster?” This would be a perfect costume for Charlie.” I laughed.“I don’t think we would get him in it, but it is fitting.”
“You’re right it is better for him. Okay let’s stay with the maintenance man but instead of the maintenance man let’s pick something else.” He put big bird back. “Should we ask Charlie about Cookie Monster or just buy it?”
“I was thinking it might not be good because he is supposed to be protection. How can he do that in this big fuzzy costume?” I said. “Keep the maintenance man but I’ll be that and I need taller shoes.”
“That should be fun and so you know no one is getting into the party without security clearance. There will be a lot of big names there.” Cota carried the costume to the counter with the other stuff. “Hey if he doesn’t like it I can always wear it to another party.”