Kissing Is the Easy Part

Chapter 34 The perfect moment

"My neighbors won't want to go to a high school party, I can guarantee you," I told her.

"I know, I don't want them there either. We are just acting polite and socially acceptable," she explained patiently. "Do you have a good reputation in the neighborhood? I don't want people slamming their doors in our faces."

"Well, I haven't been torturing pets or setting mailboxes on fire, if that's what you mean."

"Good!" she said brightly. "We have to do everything right, that's all. I don't want your neighbors to hate you after this."

We went about the houses and Flora was all smiles, apologizing about noise level in advance. We assured them that the party would end before midnight and people were very understanding. No one could be unpleasant to Flora when she was on her best behavior, with her perfect manners and chirpy attitude.

When the mission was completed, Flora said there was one last stop. She wanted to say hello to my parents and remind them of the party.

"My parents already know and they are fine with it," I said, but Flora insisted she wanted to talk to them in person. When we were seated in the living room, I finally knew what she was up to.

"Mr. and Mrs. Foster, I'm wondering if you can do me a favor," Flora said shyly. "My parents got free tickets to see this great jazz band at the bar downtown where they will be playing live. I heard they serve amazing prime ribs too. Anyway, it's next Saturday but we are going to throw Linda her party so I can't go."

I couldn't believe Flora had this planned and she didn't even tell me. She was going to ask my parents to leave the house, but she was trying to do it in a tactful way.

"I remember you said you love jazz," she went on. "If you can go for me I'd be really grateful because I don't want these tickets to go to waste."

My parents exchanged a look and laughed.

"Flora, that's generous of you," my mom said.

My dad nodded in agreement. "You went to such great length to get us out of the house, we'd feel rude if we turn you down. But we are not sure leaving this party unattended is the best idea."

Flora made a face. "Busted," she said. "But I wasn't lying about the music and the prime ribs. You have been really kind to me and I want to do something in return, and I thought it'd be nice if you can have a good night out while we occupy your house and cause all the inconveniences. You know, just the two of you. To remind yourselves of how you were when you met in Brussels?"

"It certainly beats sitting in another room covering your ears waiting for the party to be over," I helped to persuade them, thinking it would be better if they thought I was in on this, even though I wasn't sure leaving this party unattended was the best idea either. "We will clean up everything before midnight."

"Sean is really responsible so you can trust him. When you come back you won't even know there has been a party," Flora said. "And of course we will lock all the doors and only leave the living room open to guests." She went on to elaborate on everything she had read about survival tips on throwing a safe party, including notifying the police department in advance, just to show my parents we knew what we were talking about.

I hadn't been totally honest with them about the scale of the party. When I vaguely said we would invite just some of our friends, clearly they didn't know how many of Flora's friends we were talking about. I doubted they would be so understanding if the truth was revealed.

"Well, if you promise to supervise the party and make sure nothing gets out of hand, then I guess we won't be there to interfere," my mom said to me. "A night out by ourselves does sound lovely."