Working for Halloween

"Tom! Glad you could make it down." Brad came out of the back.

"Hey Brad, long time, no see." I casually replied.

"Listen, thanks for doing this, I know you were a bit hesitant, but I really needed someone for today." he said. "Come on in the back."

"How come?" I asked following him.

"We've got one of our regional managers coming by today."

As we went through the swinging doors, Anna headed back out front. I smiled quickly, but she didn't even look at me. Not too surprising really, I've never really turned heads. At 5' 6" and 140 pounds. I was definitely not "tall, dark and handsome". "Short, plain and cute", maybe. Sadly, very rarely did girls notice me. Sure, I'd had my share of girlfriends, but they never really stuck around.

"So, you've got an inspection or something?" I asked looking around at all the boxes of costumes, and wigs and make-up.

"Yeah, since I only just took over as manager a few months, they're still keeping tabs on me. They like to make sure I'm following all the protocols." he headed toward a door marked 'Manager'.

"They make you jump through a lot of hoops?"

"Yeah, they're pretty strict, but our sales have been good so far. So they're not too bad. That's why today is so important. I'm really hoping to get them off my back."

"What do you mean?"

He lead me into the office. "They have this 'schedule' that each store is supposed to follow for our 'street greeters'. That's you, by the way."

"I gathered."

"So, today you'll be our..."

He looked confused, then closed his eyes.

"Oh, shit." He sat down at his desk.

"What?"

"I screwed up."

"Why? What happened?"

"Today is supposed to be our sexy pirate girl."

I looked blankly at him for a moment until it settled in. "Ohhh."

"Yeah, what am I supposed to do now?"