Chapter 11: By Invitation Only
“Hey, guess what?” Jess said one night over dinner. Without waiting for us to answer, she went on, “I got invited to one of the swankiest Halloween parties around, and I talked the hosts into letting you two come, too!”
Kaitlyn and I had been planning on going to one of the civic events held in a nearby park so we could test the limits on our ability to do magic while wearing the robes. We’d invented several new spells that would look flashy without drawing undue interest on Halloween night, practicing them in Jess’ back yard, and now we were eager to try them out in public.
I nodded to Kaitlyn to let her handle this. She’s better with social things than I am. “That’s really tempting, Jess, but Davie and I already had plans for that night.” Jess’s eyes fell, and Kaitlyn quickly recovered. “Can we be outside sometime that night? I mean, it’s not like a city apartment building or anything, is it?”
“No, the couple made it big in the Dotcom Boom, and they’re now semi-retired out in the exurbs on several acres. Beautiful place; I’ve been twice before, and I was so much hoping to show it off to you two!”
I nodded to Kaitlyn, so she said, “That sounds great!”
“Only thing is,” Jess went on tentatively, “I had to bargain hard to get you into the party. Lots of people want to go to this thing, so I had to sign you up for free massages during. I hope that’s okay?” She’d scrunched her shoulders up a bit by the end of this.
“We’d be happy to,” I put in, “as long as we can get away out into their back yard several times during the night to do the sorts of things we’d planned to do in the park instead.”
“What’re you two planning?” asked Jess curiously.
“We’ve set up a mock wizard battle. It doesn’t much matter to us whether a bunch of strangers’ kids see it or if it’s a bunch of rich adults. We just want to get our show out into the world.”
Jess looked a bit hurt at that, saying only, “Oh.”
Kaitlyn guessed at the cause, soothing, “We’re not trying to exclude you from the battle. The thing is, the battle’s choreographed, and you’ve been busy, so we’ve made it into a kind of two-person dance.”
“How about we have her come in at the end and break it up?” I proposed. “Some line about ‘Stop this fighting,’ blah blah blah.”
That got the two women smiling again, so we planned Jess’ late addition to our battle there at the table.
“So, shall we practice it?” proposed Jess.
“No, we want you to see the show for the first time as everyone else. Just jump in at the cue we’ve given you,” said Kaitlyn. “Santa Rule,” she continued. We then told Jess about our rules of secret-keeping.
“Oh, I’m going to have to bring that up with Vin,” Jess said. “I don’t think he’s keeping any secrets from me, but it’s better to have the rules set down before there’s a problem, don’t you agree?”
Thinking back to the relationship strife we’d had before coming up with those rules, Kaitlyn and I agreed wholeheartedly.
“So, you and Vin…” Kaitlyn prompted. “He’s still coming around, I notice.”
“Oh, it’s all still going well,” Jess said. “We’re planning on him to move in next semester.”
Kaitlyn looked stunned.
Thinking of the third bedroom in Jess’ house, which she’d packed wall-to-wall with high-tech nerd toys, I asked her, “Where would you put him?”
“My room, silly!” Jess chided, as if this was obvious.
Kaitlyn blushed with the realization, but my heart warmed.
“You two are that serious?” Kaitlyn got out.
Jess just looked thoughtful. “I’m not sure. He’s young, and we’re both so busy, we aren’t sure if it’s going to work out yet or not. That’s part of the reason we want to try living together. It’ll be a kind of crucible. If we can get a few months into that without breaking things off, it’ll be a strong sign that this really will work.”
Kaitlyn put her hand on Jess’ while I hoped for the best.