Free The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash Page A

and we can finally lose him.
    â€œAha!” Devin says as he looks up triumphantly from the booklet. “I’ve found the perfect thing.” He looks Roxana, Felicia, and then me up and down and grins.
    â€œNot more speed dating, is it?” I ask.
    â€œNope. It’s a costume contest. Starting at two thirty. And I think you, Felicia, and Roxana should enter.”

Chapter 10
Dressed for
Success
    WE WOLF DOWN SOME HOT dogs and pretzels, and then Casey easily and wisely begs off the costume contest, since he has a stringent schedule to adhere to. I consider going off with him. But then I see that Roxana and Felicia seem game to get whisked off by Devin and I decide not to risk leaving them alone again.
    So I reluctantly acquiesce. I like my costume, but I know full well it’s not creative enough to win anything. Anyway, that wasn’t the point when I came up with it (the point was to impress Roxana . . . obviously). There’s no way Felicia is going to win anything as one of the dozens of Wonder Women here. I glance over at Roxana and the perfect bandit’smask she’s painted over her eyes. Maybe she has a chance, I think. But the truth is, people can get pretty elaborate here.
    Case in point: we get stuck behind someone who’s wearing giant eight-foot-tall wings and is having a pretty hard time maneuvering through the crowds. As we follow him at a snail’s pace, it eventually becomes clear that he’s headed to the same room we are.
    It’s one of the bigger conference rooms, similar in size to the speed dating one. But this one is filled with seemingly every instance of spandex, feather, glitter, cardboard, chrome, and sequin that the con has. It’s hard to know where to look.
    A Dalek and a few Doctors (two twelfths, one tenth, and one fourth) are to my right. I count at least two almost complete sets of X-Men. Stormtroopers and Reys stand guard throughout the room. Dozens of soldiers wearing white pants and tall, strappy boots herald the Attack on Titan congregation. Wildly colored wigs assure that the rest of the manga crowd is appropriately represented. A headless horseman towers at least two feet above everybody in the room. It’s pure madness.
    â€œGraham! Look who the judges are,” Roxana says, and I turn to where she’s pointing. I see some reality star that I think is a Real Housekeeper or something, and then an obnoxious stand-up comedian I don’t much care for. I’m confused until the Housewife sits down and her voluminous hair reveals the small, bearded guy behind her.
    â€œEmmett Shah!” I grin. He’s one of my favorite writers, and I hadn’t realized he was going to be here.
    â€œOh, excuse me! I need to get my friends on there.” Devin is motioning to a staffer who’s walking around with a clipboard, getting everyone who wants to participate in the contest to sign up.
    â€œSure thing.” The staffer smiles at him as she hands the clipboard over. Devin asks both Felicia and Roxana to spell their last names before turning to me. “And your last name?”
    I look down at my clothing. “It’s okay. I really don’t think my costume is good enough for this.”
    â€œSure it is,” Devin says at the same time that Roxana chimes in with, “Of course it is.” They look at each other and grin like coconspirators. Great.
    â€œHis last name is Posner. P-o-s-n-e-r ,” Roxana supplies to Devin, who fills it in.
    â€œAll of you need to show off your work,” Devin says as he nods.
    â€œDefinitely. And you can meet Emmett Shah, Graham!” Roxana exclaims. The girl does speak the truth.
    Well, the one good thing to come out of this is that we soon get separated from uncostumed Devin as we’re whisked into lines for each of our categories. Felicia gets sent to the Superheroes line, while Roxana and I end up in the Sci-Fi line. There are also lines for Anime/Manga,