The Free Pass

Chapter 63

Shawn

I spent the first hour of the party giving people tours of our home as they arrived. I was really proud of our new place and couldn't get over how beautifully Mal had decorated it. She had a knack for color combinations. I'd always leaned towards neutral colors in my decor, but what she did with this blue color that she'd fallen in love with was amazing.

I made sure that the bar was well stocked throughout the night. We hadn't hired anyone like we had for my birthday. I'd bought tons of every type of liquor along with a huge variety of mixers. Mallory had found a recipe online for a red berry punch that was made with vodka. She'd frozen water in surgical gloves and the ice hands were floating in the punch bowl.

The dining room table was filled with a variety of chips, veggies, and hot and cold dips. There were also dozens of Halloween cupcakes from the bakery we'd used for our birthdays.

I was drinking ginger and rye tonight. I planned on drinking quite a bit since I hadn't in ages. My sexy wife was drinking, too.

I had a hard time taking my eyes off Mal. I'd never really seen her like this. It's not that I didn't find her sexy every minute of every day, because I did. This was a different kind of sexy. It was naughty. I'd see her across the room and we'd make eye contact and I'd feel a jolt of electricity surge through my body. I had to push thoughts about what we'd be doing later tonight out of my head.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out. Aaliyah had texted me that she'd seen several pics of our party on social media and that Gracie was sound asleep. I wasn't surprised pics had gotten out since that tended to happen. I sent her a boomerang of my face to show off my fangs. She sent me a video of her rolling her eyes.

"You having fun?" Mallory asked me as she snaked an arm around my waist.

"I am. How about you? I saw you talking to my friends."

She laughed. "They were telling me the most fascinating stories about you. I really hope I don't drink so much that I forget them tomorrow."

"Great. Just keep in mind that they are definitely exaggerating and possibly lying outright," I said.

"So you never kept a picture of Emma Watson under your mattress that you used for inspiration when you wanted to-"

"Stop right there. Yes, maybe that's true. I had such a crush on her."

"Well shit. I should have dressed up like Hermione Granger tonight if I really wanted to turn you on," she teased.

"Next year."

"Deal. But you have to dress up as Ron."

I chuckled. "Why do I think we're getting dangerously close to having kinky cosplay sex, baby?"

She shrugged. "We're married. We can do whatever we want as long as we're both happy about it."

"Jesus. This is one reason I love you so much. I'm going to fix you another drink and then I'm finding Kris and Vera so that I can get some dirt on you. I'm dying to know which celebrity you used in your fantasies."

"You mean other than you?"

"Ha ha. You didn't even know who I was when we met. Nice try, though," I said.

"Sorry I wasn't a fan girl. I am now, though. That's what counts," she said.

"You should just tell me who you were hot for to save me the time of grilling your friends."

"Fine. But you can't laugh."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Now I'm intrigued."

"Jim from The Office. John Krasinski."

"Huh. That's not what I was expecting," I said.

"No? Funny guys are a big turn on for me."

Suddenly I was overcome with insecurity that maybe I wasn't funny enough. I'd been called goofy a million times, but was that the same as funny? Maybe I needed to up my comedic game.

Mal smirked at me. "God you're transparent. I can literally see you wondering if I think you're funny."

"Do you?"

"You have your moments. It's not so much that you are funny in the telling jokes way; it's more about how goofy and uninhibited you are when we're alone. I love it."

See? Goofy. I guess I'd take it if she liked it that much.

"We should probably mingle," I suggested.

The condo was pretty packed and there were several people I wanted to catch up with. Two of the guys in my band were here. I wanted to run the delayed tour idea by them. Andrew was here, too, so if he was part of that discussion, then all the better.

A couple hours later, the party dwindled down to just our closest friends. Mallory had ditched her high heels long ago, but now she'd lost one of her devil horns, too. She was pretty fucking drunk.

"Shawn," she said as she pulled me down the hall towards our bedroom, "I want you."

This was the third time tonight she'd tried to get me to mess around. Given what had happened the night we'd met, I guess I should not have been surprised she was a horny drunk. It was still kind of a shock to see her like this.

"There are a dozen of our friends in the living room, babe. I think they'll notice if we take off for an hour," I said stopping her outside our bedroom door.

"It doesn't have to take an hour," she said as she smacked my butt.

"True, but you're a bit too drunk right now. You should call it quits for the night and maybe later, when the party is over, we can fool around."

She pouted. "You don't want me?"

"Oh, Mal...I always want you. But this isn't a good time. Let's go back to the living room and just chill out for a while. Okay?"

I couldn't believe that I was being the rational one in this situation. Maybe it was because I wasn't that drunk. I'd gotten caught up in quite a few conversations that held my interest for so long that I'd forgotten about drinking. I'd had an eye on Mallory all night and she'd kept up with Kris and Vera with the drinks. The difference was that they hadn't spent the last year not drinking. Mal had zero tolerance.

I leaned in and gave my wife a long kiss. "You okay? Or do you want to go to sleep?"

"I'm great! I really want a cupcake."

This was probably a good idea. She could use some food. I took her hand and brought her to the dining room.

"This is going to be a lot to clean up," she muttered as she surveyed all the half empty bowls and platters of food.

Leave it to her to think of that even when she was shit-faced.

"We're not cleaning up until tomorrow. What flavor cupcake do you want?" I asked.

"I want one of the spider kind. They are spooky."

I picked up a cupcake with a spider on top and handed it to her. I smiled as I watched her devour it. I handed her a napkin to clean her mouth when she was done.

We went into the living room. I sat on the floor and leaned against the wall. Mal sat between my legs and leaned back into my chest. Before long I heard her softly snoring.