\u201cNice costume!\u201d The words flung themselves at me, punctuated\nwith mocking laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was not a costume party. I was not in costume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was these children in their colorful suits and paisley\nprints and patterns stacked on top of patterns who were in costume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow do you do it?\u201d I asked the only person in the room even\nnear my age, though she had at least another century on me. Probably quite a\nfew more if her stories about helping Cleopatra smuggle herself into Caesar\u2019s\nboudoir in a carpet were true. Still, even if it were true, she was closer to\nme in age than these children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo what?\u201d Her voice was sultry and low and I knew she had\nto be high to resist all of this temptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKeep up with all of the latest fashions?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy, sweetheart.\u201d She pointed out a girl a few feet\naway from her that had a similar build to her. \u201cTomorrow, I\u2019ll be wearing\nthat.\u201d She left me to approach the girl and with a single brush of her hand the\ngirl acted as if they were bosom friends. In the morning she would turn up\nnaked and dead and my friend would have her new outfit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The idea of wearing another man\u2019s clothing didn\u2019t sit well\nwith me. Who knows what they\u2019d gotten up to in that, or the last time they\u2019d\nwashed it. And that didn\u2019t even take into account that I was a messy eater. It\nwas fine when all of the suit jackets were dark and the blood soaked in and hid\nthe stain. But blood on that pale blue would pop and no amount of careful\nlaundering would remove the stain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There had to be another way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
***<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sun had only just set when I let myself into the trailer\nof my dearest friend of the past three years. He\u2019d invited me in once after it\nhad been assigned to him for his personal use for the duration of the movie.\nWith that carte blanche invitation, I made myself at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReady for dinner?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I made a show of going out to eat with my friend, even\nthough I didn\u2019t need to consume food. I could still appreciate the flavor and a\nnice, juicy steak managed to assuage the worst of the hunger cramps when I\u2019d\ngone without a true feed for too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have to help me.\u201d He sounded desperate which was odd\nfor my typically suave friend. \u201cI have a date tomorrow and I don\u2019t know what to\nwear!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I kind of did a half gesture at myself, dressed in fashions\nthat hadn\u2019t been in style in decades and were starting to show their age. A\nsuit was a suit, or at least it had been up until this decade. \u201cAnd you want my\nadvice?\u201d Except, that was an idea. \u201cYou should hire someone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSomeone to dress you. A stylist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I could see him rolling the thought around on his tongue,\nconsidering it. \u201cWhere do I find one?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t know. As far as I was aware, they didn\u2019t exist.\n\u201c\u2026put an ad in the papers?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So he did. Most of the people who showed up expected him to\nbe physically infirm, unable to dress himself, but after several weeks of\ninterviews, he finally selected someone and every time he showed up for an\nawards show, he talked about how much he loved his personal stylist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And soon, everyone in Hollywood had one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And as soon as everyone famous had one, I hired one for\nmyself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I nearly fired her on her first day when she put me in a\npaisley print shirt under a salmon suit jacket, but\u2026 when I walked into the\nclub and had my choice of dance partners that night, I realized it was worth\nit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least I didn\u2019t have to look at myself in the mirror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cNice costume!\u201d The words flung themselves at me, punctuated with mocking laughter. This was not a costume party. I was not in costume. It was these children in their colorful suits and paisley prints and patterns stacked on top of patterns who were in costume. \u201cHow do you do it?\u201d I asked the only person […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[792,1004],"class_list":["post-11130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-origin-story","tag-short-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}