Free All Hallows' Hangover by Annie Reed

 
     
     
     
     
    1
     
    Teddy opened one bleary eye to squint at the sunlight streaming in through his living room window.
    Of course. He’d forgotten to close the blinds last night before he passed out on the sofa. Brilliant.
    The early morning light only made the headache jackhammering away inside his skull worse. The city’s usual morning fog would have softened the blow, but no such luck.
    Just how much partying had he done last night anyway?
    He buried his face in the sofa cushion and tried to remember.
    Teddy hadn’t thrown a party since he’d graduated from college. Considering he was pushing thirty, that was a bunch of years ago. But when you’re the only single guy in a group of friends who’d all found “the one,” a guy could get kind of desperate.
    Not desperate in a “hey, I’m the biggest loser in the world, wanna date me?” kind of way. Just desperate enough to take your new roommate’s advice and throw a party.
    On Halloween.
    And let your new roommate invite a bunch of people you’d never met before.
    All Teddy had wanted to do was meet someone he might have a shot at being happy with. A woman who liked him well enough to put up with his quirks. Like the fact he loved watching movies on television but couldn’t stand going to a theater. Or that he thought most sports, and especially football, were highly over-rated. The problem was he’d already been introduced to—and been rejected by—most of the single women his friends and their friends knew.
    So when Teddy’s new roommate wanted to take over the guest list, it had sounded like a great idea. Especially considering he was dating the nicest, prettiest half-elf Teddy had ever met.
    Given the state of his head this morning, Terry wasn’t sure the party had been such a great idea after all. Sure, he’d met new people, but most of them had been in costume so he didn’t even know what they looked like much less remember their names.
    At least he was pretty sure they’d been mostly human. Teddy didn’t have anything against magical creatures. He’d just never been adventurous enough to date anyone magical considering he had zip all in the way of magical ability.
    And good lord did his sofa reek. His aching head was reeling from all the perfumes, colognes, and aftershaves, not to mention all different kinds of wine, beer, scotch, whiskey—and was that pot?— his nose was picking up.
    One of the scents on the cushion tickled the back of his mind like a memory just out of reach. An intriguing scent, like an exotic perfume mixed with wild grasses and some kind of mint. Teddy breathed in deep trying to figure out why this one seemed important.
    Green-gold eyes went with the scent, along with a deep, throaty laugh that was almost a purr.
    Teddy ignored the pain in his head as he chased the name that went with the memory.
    Terri. That was it!
    A tall brunette, absolutely gorgeous, and she’d told him her name was Terri.
    She’d been dressed in a slinky black cat suit complete with fuzzy ears and tail, and a cat’s eye mask that left her full lips delightfully exposed. When she’d introduced herself, she’d handed him a bottle of something alcoholic that bubbled and steamed when he’d opened it, and tasted wonderful when he’d poured them both a glass.
    A little too wonderful, because sometime after that, he’d completely lost his mind.
    Teddy wasn’t exactly a prude, but he’d been voted most likely to never get laid by the rest of the guys in his college dorm.
    It wasn’t that he didn’t like women. He liked them too much. And worse than that (according to his college buddies), he respected them. He never tried to do more than kiss a girl on the first date, always remembered to bring her flowers on the second date, and never assumed that a third date meant she was supposed to put out. He listened while they talked, didn’t mind when they got emotional, and liked how it felt to sit next to them and just hold hands.
    Not that he