They could’ve met in a more pleasant setting, like prison or… hell.
I would rather slam my head against the wall a concussion-worthy number of times if that meant I could be anywhere else tonight. It’s bad enough that I’m at a soiree, but the fact that I got dragged into cohosting one?
Lord, take me now.
After debriefing my “memories” theory with Kayla and telling her my parents’ love story, she insisted that we needed to go to the soiree. “This is even more powerful than any fruit basket, Nika,” she urged. “This is your parents’ meet-cute.”
A big part of me was hoping that Dani would turn me down and say I was too late in RSVPing for the soiree. Unfortunately, she wasthrilled. When I subtly asked for the soiree details, she quickly added me to her soiree-planning spreadsheet. My email inbox is now full of notifications of Dani tagging me to check on this, follow up on that.
Another hassle of this whole experience is convincing everyone in my life that I’m interested in this thing. When Auntie Baby mentioned that I was cohosting the soiree, she had to keep repeating the line to my family.
“Annikawantedto host?” Ma asked for the billionth time.
And Achi followed up with, “She wanted to hang out with boys?”
“Yes.” I smiled through my teeth. “Yay, boys.”
On the bright side, I didn’t need to worry about how I’d getmy parents to be in the same soiree. Ma wanted to witness me “cohosting” with her own two eyes and volunteered to take care of the food. There are more pastries in this soiree than in our Christmas noche buena spread.
This all leads me here—getting stuck in Seph’s living room and taking orders from Dani all night.
Dani assigned Seph and me to be in charge of welcoming guests and handing out stickers to use for name tags. While Seph King, pro-flirter, is busy mingling with all my classmates, Kayla and I are using Dani’s stickers to name different furniture.
I place a sticker on the snack table and write,Steve.
Pa listens closely while Kayla and I discuss what name suits the couch. “Aren’t you supposed to be making friends at a soiree?”
I gesture to the snack table. “Haven’t you met Steve?”
The whole room gets interrupted when Dani calls for everyone to pay attention. She stands in the center of the room and makes sure to wave at each person before speaking. “As class president, I’m all about unity and camaraderie. It’s so nice to see the sister and brother schools—Saint Agnes and Saint Francis—come together.”
When Dani asked if I wanted to deliver a welcoming speech as the cohost, it took me a while to process that she wasn’t joking. I insisted that she should have the honor as our one and only class president.
“Before we start the games and mingling, we wanted to open the night with a soiree success story,” Dani says, and waves for Julia and Sean to take the floor.
Julia then goes on with her story on how she and Sean first met at a soiree at the start of the school year. On that fateful night, the two of them locked eyes from across the room and spent the whole evening talking about their shared love ofK-pop and horoscopes. In her words, “He’s the Cancer that my Pisces has been looking for.”
It reminds me of Dr. Derrick’s love story with the moon.
Julia ends her whole speech with a pitch about how a soiree is a great way to find a prom date, or maybe something more *wink* *wink*.
My take: Things like soirees only benefit those like Julia, the ones already highly likely to get over-the-top promposals. Someone who’s awkward with guys isn’t going to magically turn into a boy whisperer if you stick them in a roomful of guys. It’s an excuse for those who are already pros at flirting to keep flirting, and leaves those who are awkward to stay awkward.
Hence Kayla and me, awkward non–boy whisperers, standing by Steve the table next to my ghost father. Seph keeps trying to make eye contact with me all night, but I refuse to engage. I’m still pissed at him for hiding Ma’s wedding dress fitting from me.
“Can you please tell me what’s in the backpack?” I ask Kayla again. The only reason why Kayla was allowed to go to a soiree was because both Auntie Baby and Ma were here. Still, Auntie Grace gave Kayla the condition that she could only go if she promised to do homework right after. Based on the giant backpack Kayla arrived with, it’s like she brought all her school supplies with her.
“Since we wanted to remember your parents’ love story, I thought this would help…” Kayla unzips her bag and reveals a shoebox stuffed inside. She lifts the lid and it’s filled to the brim with folded pieces of paper.
“I thought getting some love notes would help kickstart Auntie Beth’s memory,” Kayla says. “True or false. This type of romantic gesture always works in the movies. ThinkThe Notebook,To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before…”
I unfold one of the papers and Pa reads the note. “Dear Beth, My love for you is like my body… undying.”
Pa’s face almost goes pale again after looking at more notes.
My personal favorite:Dear Beth, Ten years have passed and you haven’t aged a day. Dying didn’t make me age too.
“I don’t think your mom would find these romantic,” Pa says, stating the obvious.
