“Body paint on my face and upper body.” I told her. “With gummed rubber horns and beard. For below the waist, it’s a body stocking decorated with lots and lots of fake goat hair.” It had taken an hour and a half to put it all on, and I’d paid through the nose for the girl at the costume shop to do the body paint for me. But she’d done it up right--I looked freaking fantastic. Everything but cloven hooves on my feet, I looked like a devil.

“Well, you look freaking fantastic.” Jessie said, yeah, same words, we were that much in synch. “How about me?” She was wearing a princess costume, with the dunce-cap-with-veil on her head. Not that original or well-done, frankly, but as my best friend, she got the sanitized version of my thoughts.

“Pretty as a princess, like always.” I told her.

“Oh, you smooth-talking devil!”

“Bwah-ha-ha-ha!” I gave her my evil laugh.

“But what does your better half think of this get-up?”

“He hasn’t seen it yet.” I admitted. “He’s upstairs doing his own costume. We decided to surprise each other.”

She frowned. “What do you mean? You told me last week that Adam was dressing up like....” Jessie lifted her eyes up. “Well, turn around. Better look surprised.”

I turned, knowing what I was going to see. Adam was coming down the stairs from our bedroom, looking like an angel.

I mean literally like an angel. He had naturally wavy blond hair and pale skin, and he had adorned a rather formidable set of wings held onto his body by a harness that managed to avoid blocking his lovely pectorals, some glitter-dust on his shoulders and upper chest, and a white loincloth wrapped around his waist, all artistic-like. Barefooted.

We had almost a dozen guests at this point, and all of them except for Jessie and two women who were our neighbors and Lesbians, and so eleven male tongues all went “Ooooh!” as he strode down the staircase looking like he was literally coming down from Heaven to be among us, an angelic smile on his angelic face.

And then he got a look at me. The Devil incarnate, in his own home. And his smile slipped away.

“I thought he’d get a kick out of us looking like opposites!” I groaned to Jessie.

Unlike most times, her response was pretty faint. “That’s what you get when you get involved with a religious nut for a boyfriend.” was her unsympathetic appraisal.

“But it’s Halloween!” I protested.

“Good luck, Thad.” she said and moved off toward the punch bowl. What kind of best girlfriend was she, anyway, leaving me alone when my lover was heading at me like this? I just closed my eyes and waited for what I knew was coming.

“So, Thad.” came Adam’s voice just when I’d begun to hope that he was going to let it go. “This is what you chose to wear for Halloween?”

“Yeah.” I settled for saying.

“Did you feel this was appropriate?”

“Oh, come on, Adam!” I groaned. “Half the fun of Halloween is letting yourself act a little crazy. I’m not trying to be the devil, I’m trying to make fun of the devil. That’s what you do at Halloween, laugh at what you fear, mock it, sneer at it.”

“I’m afraid I don’t see it that way.” Adam said.

“Adam, we agreed to host this party and you agreed that we weren’t going to tell anyone what to wear....”

But Adam was walking away.

Jessie was back, and carrying a cup of punch in her hand. “Here you go, sweetie.” she said to me.

I took the cup and sipped it. Not punch. Wine. I gulped it down and said, “What the hell have I done to myself, Jessie?”

“You fell in love, honey.” she said. “And with any relationship, you got to make compromises.”

“I know.” I mourned. “But why is it me always making all the compromises?”

“Well, that’s how it goes when you fall in love with a true believer.” she patted my hand. “Want some more of my special punch?”

“How much you got?” I sighed.

I gave it fifteen minutes (I was busy answering the door for the rest of our guests, anyhow, that and dealing with a few leftover Halloween trick-or-treaters), then sought out Adam. He was replenishing the supply of nacho chips and I waited until he had emptied the bag and then said, “Hey, there, angel, you got anything for an old sinner like me?”

Adam turned around and saw me, a penitent devil, and that smile of his returned. “Always, babe.” he smiled. “And I’m sorry at how I acted. You look terrific.”

“So do you.” I said. Then.... “I can’t figure out how those wings are attached. All I see are those little straps on your shoulders near the armpits....”

“That’s most of it.” Adam bragged. “And for the rest...watch this.” He looked around to make sure the area around us was clear, then he brought his arms around. For most men, this would have been to show his arm muscles, the old fists-clenched, elbows out, biceps and pectorals flexing, usually with a “Grrr!” look on the face. But for Adam....

The wings on his back opened out. That explained part of the costume, for the feathers were some lightweight paperlike substance, but they looked fantastic! And in that muscle-flexing pose he was in.....

I dropped down onto one knee and declared for all and sundry to hear, “I am defeated! I surrender to your greater glory! You are the victor! You are the champion!” I held out both my arms and bowed to his majesty.

Gay men never miss a chance to join in on a scene like this. The other guys began to crowd around and join me in adoration. Adam had to break down laughing, and the whole nasty scenario was done and over with.

When the nonsense finally stopped (you can’t turn it off like a faucet, you know), I got next to Adam and said, “Hey, angel of mine, how about a slow dance, you and me?”

“Can I trust you not to make another scene?” he said, in mock-severity this time.

“Hey, with a face like this, what’s not to trust?” I asked.

A few hand signals to my friend who was by the stereo and we had our slow-dance tune. I wrapped my arms around that angelic figure, sliding one of my hands underneath the wings. I encountered a fair amount of machinery under there, and had to be careful I didn’t knock askew or break any of it, it was all balsa-wood frail. I was glad I hadn’t gone with the wings on my own costume, I could have gotten some bats-wings for it, but decided it was just too much. These white feathered wings looked good on Adam, though.

Moving around that room never felt more natural. Adam was an angel in my arms, and the feel of him aroused the devil in me. I was grinning like a maniac, he was beaming benevolently as always.

I wished this moment could last forever. But moments never do last forever, and neither did this one, for Adam said after a time, “I wish you hadn’t chosen the devil costume.”

“What should I have worn?” I asked him carefully.

“You could have been a prince, or a hero, or an animal.”

“Anything but something creepy?” I clarified.

“You didn’t have to go that way.”

“What should I have worn?” I asked again. “A shepherd’s costume? Or a saint?”

“I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Adam.” I said. “What’s really bothering you?”

“It’s just...you’re dressed like a devil.”

“Yeah.”

“And you look....” Adam trailing off like this, hesitant and uncertain, just wasn’t like him.

“I look evil.” I completed for him.

“No.”

I blinked. “I look like I’m mocking your religion?”

“No.”

“I look....” I foundered for a moment, and gave up. “How do I look?”

He took hold of my head in both hands and pulled me forward, but turning my head, so he could whisper in my ear. “You look so hot!”

“Hot?” I whispered back.

“Sexy. I want you so bad, baby! Just like this, I want to take you upstairs and just do you!” Adam said. “Oh, God! I’m sick, I must be!”

Reassured, I hugged him to me. “This is Halloween. A chance to play with some fantasies, be something you’re not for a few hours. Relax. I don’t think God’s going to hold a little fantasy against you. Especially with the man you love.”

Adam was silent for a moment, while we hugged, then he whispered in my startled ear. “Okay, let’s go!”

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