“Maybe I should undo one more button?”

Lola cocks an eyebrow at me as she takes a swig of her vanilla vodka cocktail.

I’m supposed to be helping her with her costume, but I’m just dispensing advice that subsequently gets ignored. “That depends. Are you trying to be a sexy cop or a slutty cop?”

The question is facetious and meant to point out that maybe undoing the top two buttons of her tight navy-blue shirt would be sufficient.

“It’s Halloween, Dani. This is the time of year where slutty wins over sexy.”

She pops the third button and pulls the top of the shirt back, exposing half of her breasts in the process. With no bra under the Lycra shirt, it’s approaching scandalous. Lucky for her she’s got a badge pinned on so that only one nipple can be seen poking out.

The Mi Alpha Alphas have a long-standing tradition for Halloween. Every year we do a haunted house, with proceeds going to the Oak Ridge Children’s Hospital. A committee of MAA sisters finds a suitable house, and we transform it into the spookiest, creepiest place imaginable.

Each MAA girl gets a room and is tasked with coming up with a theme to transform it into something scary, and we’re given full rein to be as creative as we want. Other college students pay to come into the house, then go from room to room being frightened by us. Around campus, we’re called the Halloween Honeys throughout the month of October.

“How’s the back look?” Lola asks, turning around. I see the bottom half of both of her butt cheeks because the tight shorts just don’t cover very much.

“I can see your ass, plain as day.”

“Perfect,” she says with a deviant smile.

This year’s house is an old Victorian place known locally as the Shackleford Mansion. The Shacklefords died a few year ago and the house sat vacant until Stacy’s parents bought it over the summer. They were kind enough to hold off on the scheduled renovations until after Halloween, so we’re able to use it in its existing creepy state, with the Shacklefords’ old furniture and belongings still in it.

Lola’s room has been transformed into a jail cell, with wooden “steel bars” painted black. There’s a sparse bed and fake rats around the floor. Some of the cobwebs are real. With only a single dim lightbulb to illuminate it, it’s pretty scary.

Of course, the MAA girls thought it would be hilarious for me to be Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons from Game of Thrones. The fact that it might remind me of Kal and I being known as the couple from the series didn’t seem to occur to them. I took the challenge and I’ll be the Dragon Queen every night for the next two weeks.

My room has been made over into a Dragon Queen’s lair, a fake cave with gray tarps made to look like rock walls. The best part of all is the giant dragon head I convinced the school’s Robotics Challenge Team to make for me. Now I have a big-ass dragon head with glowing red eyes that breathes dry-ice smoke (but only because the Oak Ridge Fire Department nixed their plan for actual flames). It’s a pretty cool effect because people will walk into the room not noticing the dragon, whose mouth is closed. Suddenly his eyes will light up and his mouth springs open, and out comes the billowing smoke.

“Now here’s what I suggest for you, Queen Daenerys,” Lola says as she eyes me up and down. Lola is bratty and can be overly bossy, but she’s also a lot of fun at times. “Definitely ditch the bra.”

I’m not exactly the kind of girl you’d call daring by nature. Some girls are, which is great for them. Lola has a bit of an exhibitionistic streak, so her costume’s abundance of exposed cleavage makes her happy. As for me, I’m wearing four items of clothing: a chainmail halter top, a skimpy little chainmail skirt, chainmail forearm bracers and a pair of knee-high leather boots with leather strapping circling them. Oh, and I have a fake sword to go with it all.

“The panties, too. Don’t worry, you can’t really see through the chainmail in the dark.”

“The bra and panties are the only things keeping me from feeling completely exposed, so they’re staying on.”

“It looks silly,” Lola says, snapping my bra strap. “It ruins the effect.”

Because I’ve already had two vanilla vodkas myself, we end up compromising in a way that feels more like Lola won. Specifically, I agree to wear pasties made from tan felt and taped to my boobs. When I check myself in the mirror, I have to say Lola was right. It looks sexier and less silly. Thank God my big breasts are firm enough to stand up on their own. The panties are traded in for a tan thong. I do feel exposed, but as she pointed out, the entire house is pretty dark.

An hour before the haunted house opens to the public, we gather in the large living room on the ground floor. Even this room looks creepy, with its old peeling wallpaper and worn-out painted woodwork.

The other Mi Alpha Alphas have such great costumes and are equally sexy and/or scary. Alyssa is a Brazen Angel, Samantha’s a Curvy Cougar, Marissa’s a Dirty Devil, Casey’s a Naughty Nurse, and Tillie is a Wicked Witch. Katie's a Kinky Kitten, Ava's the cutest French Maid ever, Sadie is Little Red Riding Hood, Maddie’s a Naughty Schoolgirl, Lexi’s a Dirty Dancer, Cadence is a Sexy Football Player, and Abby, MAA’s resident stoner, is Bob Marley. Jeanie will be selling tickets at the door dressed as Marilyn Monroe.

Everyone is buzzing with excitement, ready to have fun. The other girls tease me about all my exposed skin, even though most of them are showing just as much. I guess they’re not used to seeing it on me.

“Is everyone ready to go?” Stacy shouts.

“YES!” comes the group response.

“Everybody to their places,” Stacy orders, and we all giggle as we scramble to our respective rooms.

By the time we’re in our third hour of scaring people, I’m a little drunk and having a great time.

Hell, we’re all a little drunk and having a great time. Except Candace, of course, who as usual is more than a little drunk.

And I have to give Lola credit, it’s kind of awesome watching the guys who into my room and lose their composure because they think I’m naked under this chainmail. I’ve gotten hit on a few times, too. I probably should be taking their numbers, because my social life could sure use a boost after the dreadful summer I had.

The only real work involved is occasionally dropping a chunk of dry ice from the cooler into the tub inside the dragon’s head. The robotics does all the rest, and I just welcome the guests to the Dragon Queen’s Lair and talk to them in character as Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons. It’s all good fun, and I love seeing these guys try to act all cool talking to me in my chainmail, then jump out of their skin when the dragon head comes to life.

By midnight things are beginning to calm down a little. I leave my room for a few minutes to quickly check on the other girls, sticking my head in their rooms to see how they’re doing. Everybody seems to be having an amazing time. I rush back to my room so I won’t miss any guests.

When I walk into the Dragon Queen’s Lair, I see a giant man in the middle of the room. He’s wearing brown distressed leather pants and boots, with a giant black leather cummerbund-looking thing around his waist and bunches of leather straps around his forearms.

I recognize him immediately as Khal Drogo, Daenerys’s husband from Game of Thrones. He’s got dark eye shadow and a beard with a long, braided goatee. His super-long hair is also braided, and the braids of both his hair and goatee are gathered occasionally and tied with little gold ribbons. And of course, he’s shirtless, with multiple dark stripes painted on from his biceps running back over his shoulders on both sides, just like on the show.

The costume is so dead-on perfect I can’t do anything but stand rooted in place, staring.

“Khaleesi.”

I know that deep voice.

Shit. What do I do?

“Kal, what are you doing here?”

His answer comes quickly.

“I have traveled from Vaes Dothrak to find you, Khaleesi.”

My heart starts to hurt all over again and I rapidly find myself growing angry.

“This isn’t funny. At all. Why are you here?”

“Because you are the Moon of My Life. That is all I know and all I need to know. I won’t rest until you are mine once more.”

I glare at him, then say, “Get the fuck out. Now.”

“Okay,” he says, no longer in character. “I’m here because I needed to see you again.”

“You just now decided you need to see me?” I don’t even know what I’m arguing here, but I do know I need to stay pissed off at Kal until I can get him out of this room and this house. I can’t afford to go soft on him and give him a second chance, no matter how much I miss him.

“It’s not like I could call you or drop by the Mi Alpha Alpha house. You’ve kind of shut me out, you know? So I decided to lay low and wait for the right opportunity.”

“And here you are. You thought you could just stroll back into my life after what happened?”

“What did happen, Dani? We were getting along spectacularly, and then you suddenly dumped me without an explanation.”

This is too much. He can’t possibly have not figured it out by now.

“You know exactly what happened, Kal. You may be an asshole, but you’re not stupid.”

In the dark, though, it kind of looks like he’s sincerely confused.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Seriously, I need to know why you broke up with me so suddenly.”

I have to remind myself that this man is an asshole.

“Get out of my room before I scream.”

Just then a couple of guys appear in the doorway, smiling when they see Kal and me in costumes.

“That’s awesome,” one of them says.

“Sorry, this room is out of order,” Kal says, shutting the door on them.

He flips the light switch before turning back around to face me, then stops short when he sees my costume in the brighter light.

“Holy shit,” he mumbles, his eyes roaming over my body for a second. Then he apparently realizes he’s not allowed to ogle me anymore and quickly averts his eyes.

“I deserve a reason, Dani.”

“You don’t deserve shit.”

“We were fine—better than fine, in fact, we were perfect—then suddenly we weren’t. You said you decided we weren’t a good fit, but never said why. Whether I deserve it or not, I would still like to know why you changed your mind about me.”

I’m so angry that I’m breathing hard, and I can feel my breasts rise and fall with each breath. Kal must be fighting a battle to keep from looking. I know that because I’m having to force myself not to look at his bare chest and thighs.

I’m angry at him, and I’m angry at myself for this weird sexual response I’m feeling to his presence. I decide in the heat of the moment to confront him about his abhorrent behavior.

“I saw her, Kal.”

He stares blankly. “Saw who?”

“Tall, curly black hair? Huge tits? Any of this ring a bell?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“I never went to my parents’ house that weekend. I got off the train at Bracken Point and took the next one back to Oak Ridge so we could talk about our future together.” Those last two words come out sounding nasty and full of spite.

His hands go palms up and he slowly shakes his head. For fuck’s sake, do I have to spell it out for him?

“I went to your place and saw her run out of your room, ass-naked. She passed me in the hallway, and a minute later ran back into your room and your bed.”

“There has to be a mistake. I have no idea who this woman is. Maybe you saw her coming out of someone else’s room and thought it was mine.”

I have the urgent desire to punch him, but I know I’ll just hurt myself.

“You’re an asshole to try and make me think this is somehow my fault.”

A light seems to go off in his head and he says, “Wait a minute, I know what probably happened. I sometimes loaned that room to friends who didn’t have a place to take their girls. It was probably one of them in the room that night.”

“Seriously, Kal? You honestly expect me to believe that bullshit story?”

“Dani, I swear to you I haven’t even thought of being with another woman since I met you.”

“So you went all summer without getting laid? Right.”

He takes a deep breath. “I didn’t want any other women. I still don’t. There’s only you.”

I want to believe him, but then again, I don’t. These last few months have been hell on me as I tried to recover from the pain he caused.

“Well I can’t believe that, Kal. I can’t believe any of what you’re saying. I saw that woman with my own eyes, giggly as fuck when she ran out of your bedroom on a night when you thought I was safely out of town.”

“This is all a mistake, I swear.”

“Be a man this time, Kal. Leave this place and go back to your grad school. Don’t come back to Oak Ridge. I don’t want to see you again. Ever.”

“I can’t do that. I’m going to grad school here. I decided to get my MBA from Oak Ridge.”

I’m shocked by the revelation. I had assumed he’d get an offer from the other schools he’d applied to.

“I could have gone to Penn State or NYU,” he explains, “but I wanted to be near you. I decided having us was more important.”

“There is no us, Kal.”

“If you give me a chance, there is. I can prove to you that I never—”

“NO!” Oops. I didn’t mean that to be a scream, but it’s too late now. “You’re not the right man for me, Kal. I don’t want a man who has to explain away naked women in his bedroom. I want a real man, one who would walk through fire to win my heart.”

“Dani, please listen to me.”

“No. I’m done with this conversation. I’m done with you. Get out of my life and don’t come back this time. You’re not a man, you’re a boy who doesn’t know what the fuck he wants.”

He lowers his shoulders as he seems to sense defeat. After staring into my eyes for the longest time, he heads to the door.

In the hallway, he turns back toward me and looks me in the eye as he slips back into his Khal Drogo character.

“You are the Moon of My Life. That is all I know and all I need to know. We are not done yet.”

Then he’s gone. I stand perfectly still for a minute, wondering if this actually happened. We were done, it was over. Why did he have to come back? Why couldn’t he have just left it alone?

I run off down the hallway to find Samantha or Brinly or Lola or anyone who can comfort me.