Page 124 of Flirtasaurus
“You too, stud. Hey, uh… were you ever going to tell me you were Dr. Knowles’son?”
“Eh,” he says. “People always figure it out eventually. We have fun watching folks putting the pieces together.”
“Well, your mom gave me quite a peek into her love life with your dad yesterday. Seems like they have one hell of a satisfying—”
“La-la-la… not listening.” He plugs his ears with his fingers. Before he heads into the party, he takes a second to adjust a festive, framed welcome sign with elaborate, swirly letters that sits on the table. “By the way, how do you like this font? The font look good?”
“The font looks great, yes. Nice work, friend.”
“Thanks for taking over. Imma head into the par-tay now.” Then, what can only be described as a saucy look comes over his features before he says, “Put your game face on, girl. You’ve got guests.”
I look up, and suddenly, there he is, standing in the doorway, looking as beautiful as ever. Our eyes lock for a moment before he consciously looks down and starts sauntering toward my table, his smiling sister on his arm.
“You’re here,” I say dumbly.
I don’t mean to ignore Lou. I’m insanely grateful to her for getting him here, but I can’t seem to take my eyes off him.
“Yeah. Lou got an invite through the quarry. She was supposed to attend with her professor, but she had a childcare emergency, so…”
“Too bad,” I say. “For the professor, I mean. And for you, Lou! Not that it’s not great for you to be here with your brother instead! Obviously! I mean, I’m sure you’re thrilled, right? I am! Thrilled, I mean. To see you. I mean that you’re here. That both of you are here! Everyone on staff, and formerly on staff, put in so much work planning tonight. So we all deserve to celebrate.”
I’m babbling like a crazy person.
He glosses right over my inane blathering, and says, “So, do we check in or…?”
“Yes! I mean, no. Because I’ll check you in myself! That’s why I’m sitting here. I obviously know both your names, so no need to tell me that info, of course. Hahaha.”
“Okay,” he says before guiding Lou away from the table and into the exhibit hall.
God, I’m a complete and total mess.
Before they’re out of sight, Lou looks over her shoulder and gives me a knowing wink.
I wish I could be as confident as she appears to be about how this night is going to go. I place my head in my hands, take some deep breaths, then put a bright smile back on my face to greet the rest of our guests.
A half hour later, my shift is over, and the party is in full swing. The room looks absolutely gorgeous. Trix and Monty are standing tall, awash in warm, colorful spotlights tinted green and orange and yellow. There are cocktail tables speckled throughout the huge hall, each with a gorgeous flower arrangement at the center, surrounded by tiny tea light candles. I walk in and try to convince myself that I’m not scanning the room for him, but that’s exactly what I’m doing.
It takes me all of two seconds to find him. Tofeelhim, really. I feel his eyes on me from across the room and turn to locate him in the corner. He’s sitting alone at a cocktail table, sipping a beer. When our gazes meet, he immediately looks away toward the dance floor where Lou and Mabel are dancing and chatting. Say what you want about Mabel, but she makes every person in her presence feel welcome.
I make a vow to myself at that moment that I’ll work harder to get to know her better.
“Ralph!”I hear my dad shout. I can pick out that man’s voice anywhere.
Oh, damn.
I haven’t told my parents that we broke up. Or that we were ever even fully together, for that matter. I haul ass to that side of the room to do inevitable damage control on whatever is about to go down.
Ralph stands up to greet my parents, the class act as always.
I arrive by my mom’s side just in time to hear my dad say, “Heya, kid! Good to see you. How’s the star business going? And how’s the old Vulva holding up?”
“Ken!” my mom admonishes.
“It’s okay,” I soothe her. “He means his car. Long story. Well, not a long story really, just not a relevant story at the moment.”
“Hi, Ken! Sue. Nice to see you both too,” Ralph says as he purposely avoids eye contact with me.
They shake hands, and my dad gives him his classic way-too-intense back clap. Ralph just barely avoids the post smack stumble now that he has some experience with Ken FitzGerald and responds with a smile. “The Volvo is doing great. Got her a full work over like you asked.”
