Page 66 of Kissing is the Easy Part
Chapter Twenty-two
Sean
Three days before the party, Flora asks me to accompany her on an errand run. We sit in her car going over last-minute details. On the day of the event, she’ll take Lindsey on a shopping trip while I oversee the preparations at home. She gives me the rundown once again.
“We start with hit songs the first hour, then the ceiling lights dim and we light up the lanterns. At ten, you give a short speech, thank everyone for coming, talk about how amazing I’ve been, and then we bring out the cake.”
She goes on to describe the flavor and custom toppers, and I try to focus on her words, not on her lips.
“At midnight, we cut the power and send the house into darkness for about two minutes, so we have a Cinderella feel.” She rolls down the car window, and a gust of wind lifts her hair. “The party ends at midnight—except it doesn’t. The lights come back on, and Josie’s band plays for one more hour.”
“Why not move the whole thing up to ten? That way we get the surprise without going too late. These are freshmen.”
She pauses for a moment. “That could work. Okay, ten. Good call.”
“Can you plan my next birthday party too?”
She smiles and leans her head back, letting out a whoosh of breath. “Everything has to beperfect. A party isn’t like your meticulous physics answer sheet. There’s too much room for error,” she warns, holding up her index finger. “If Lindsey’s tears don’t fall in three seconds, I’ll murder you.”
“It’s just a party. We’ll have a good time no matter what.”
“It’s not just a party, it’stheparty. People will refer to it simply asThe Partylong after we graduate. And Lindsey will land right at the top of the social ladder.”
“Okay, okay.” I raise my hands in mock surrender. “I’ll make sure Lindsey cries. If she doesn’t, I’ll pinch her.Hard.”
Satisfied, Flora starts the engine and drives to my street. We make the rounds to all the neighbors and inform them in advance, determined to do this right.
“Should we notify the police department as well?” I ask when we’re back in her car, my tone flat. “In case things get out of hand.”
She rolls her eyes, but there’s laughter in them. Reaching over, she ruffles my hair. “Fear not, my friend. We’ll survive this together.”
As she hurtles through the streets, my thoughts wander. “What we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history,” as Hegel supposedly said. We’re destined to repeat the same mistakes, fight the same arch nemeses, lose the same battles, and fall for the wrong girl twice. She sets my heart ablaze when she lets her creativity run wild, when she flirts with her eyes gleaming, when she gets competitive and slams down her history homework, and when she’s cranky one second and laughing the next. Nothing beats sitting in her car, watching her hair fly all over the place in the wind.
While she steers the wheel, phone calls keep coming in. Speaking into the Bluetooth earpiece, she rattles off instructions—spray-paint the branches white, ditch the multicolor string lights, prep snowflake-shaped cookies.
I go grab us coffee, and when I return, she’s wrapping up by appointing someone head of the cleaning crew. “You sound professional,” I say.
“Let’s see how it turns out. Hey, can we stop at the park? I need to find some ‘flourishing branches’ myself. George has no idea how to set up a white forest.”
We stroll through the park, coffee in hand, chatting as we go. With silent understanding, we stop at the pond in the center. A group of ducks swims under the sunlight. I pick up a pebble at the edge of the water and skip it across the surface. It bounces five times before it veers to the right and sinks.
Flora gasps. “Wow, teach me!”
“Okay. First you have to find a flat, round stone. Flick your wrist and spin it as you throw.”
She bends down and makes her selection. “There must be a cool theory behind this.”
“Suppose there’s no loss of momentum when the stone interacts with the body of water. When it touches the surface, the force pushes the stone up, and it has to overcome its weight. You need to give it the minimum velocity required—” I stop when I catch the spark of amusement in her eyes. “You just can’t resist a chance to summon my inner nerd.” My cheeks flush, and she laughs.
“You have no idea how cute you are.” She throws her stone and it sinks immediately. “Hey, this is harder than it looks, but you make it seem so effortless.”
“I could say the exact same thing about your party planning techniques.”
“Oh, I do what I can.” She tosses her hair in my face and laughs over her shoulder. The sun reflects off her eyes, and there are gold flecks among the amber. “You know I’ll do anything for you, dear Sean.”
It’s early autumn, and the trees are showing the first hints of yellow. The air is cooling but the sun still has warmth, basking her in a pool of gold. When she smiles, it’s like a sudden burst of light. She has the most radiant smile that makes everything else fade—past mistakes, arguments, the breakup, all of it.
In this moment, everything is exactly as it should be.
