Giulia got the keys to her new home in September: a two-room apartment in the Porta Romana area, with creaky parquet in front of the window and a living room that, upon closer inspection, seemed made just for filling up with people.

Her friends had been asking her about a housewarming party for weeks. She kept putting it off: first she didn't have a sofa, then curtains, then courage. Until one Monday evening, in the WhatsApp group, Davide simply wrote: "Halloween falls on a Friday. No more excuses." And Giulia replied with a pumpkin.

The first thing she did was count. Eighteen people, twenty with the usual ones who bring someone along at the last minute. Everything else came from that number: how much space to clear in the living room, how many chairs were needed (not many, they would be standing), how much food to prepare. Then she sent the invitation, just three lines: Friday the 31st, from nine o'clock, black dress code. The costume was optional, black was not.

The problem was time. That Friday Giulia worked until six, the kitchen was about the size of a closet, and the fridge barely had room for her. Her plan B was chips, a supermarket pumpkin, and a few candles. She wasn't convinced by it at all.

It was Sara, her colleague from the next desk, who sent her the link to Deluxy's Halloween House Party: cake, champagne, and balloons, delivered to her home on the day and at the time she chose. Giulia looked at it once and realized it was the party she had in mind, only already ready.

She chose the Luxury version: the three-tiered Happy Halloween cake for 20 servings, with ghosts, bats, pumpkins, and spiderwebs in fondant, two bottles of champagne served chilled in ice buckets, black and orange helium balloons, the ones to scatter on the floor, and the sign to hang on the wall. For the living room table she added the Floral Pumpkin, with sunflowers, red roses, and blue thistles, to place in the center among the plates. On the card she had a single line written: "Welcome to the new home. Enter at your own risk".

She decided the rest in one evening, with one rule: a few things, done well. She kept the chandelier off and lit candles and the lamp next to the sofa, because at Halloween low light makes up half the atmosphere. She prepared two cutting boards and a pot of pumpkin soup to serve in mugs. Davide offered to handle the playlist, and for once no one argued.

On Friday at seven, the valet arrived, in a suit and white gloves. In ten minutes the living room was another room: the black and orange balloons rose to the ceiling, the ones on the floor rolled into the hallway, the sign was hung above the sofa, and the champagne was waiting in the ice on the entrance table. Giulia sat for a moment on the armrest to look. There were two hours until the guests arrived, and she was already ready.

The first ones arrived at nine-fifteen, dressed in black as promised. Marta was Wednesday Addams, Davide a vampire with a cape bought the day before. After ten minutes the balloons on the floor had already become a game: someone kicked them, someone tripped over them, everyone laughed.

At midnight Giulia also turned off the lamp and entered the living room with the cake and the lit candles. For a moment there was silence, the good kind. Then the two bottles were opened together and eighteen glasses were raised toward her: "To the new home".

Not even a slice of cake was left. The pumpkin remained on the table until mid-November, and anyone who stopped by to visit asked where it came from.

The next morning, among the glasses to wash, Giulia found an orange balloon still attached to the ceiling. She left it there. Meanwhile, in the WhatsApp group, Davide had already written: "Next year at your place again."

This year Halloween falls on a Saturday. And the party is at her place again.