Then Kiss Me by Jade C. Jamison

it?”
    She looked at me, her brown eyes earnest.  “Oh, no, I couldn’t.”
    I picked up the unframed canvas.  “Oh, but I can.”  I handed it to her.  “It’s not framed, but…”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Absolutely.   Please…take it.”
    “Oh, my gosh .  I’ll ask my dad to frame it for me.”
    I nodded.  “Great!  Would you like some iced tea or lemonade?”
    “I think I’d love some iced tea.”
    We walked to my kitchen via the living room.  She set the canvas beside her purse on the couch.  “Hey…can I ask you a weird question?”
    “Sure.”
    This would be her payback of sorts.  “What do you think about Scott Wardell ?”
    I was pouring the tea out by pushing the li ttle button on the bottom of the sun tea pitcher, but I made sure to watch her face.  I wanted to be able to read her expression.  But she didn’t freak out or look weird.  She certainly didn’t communicate to me anything like Wendy had.  “Scott?  Well…I’d say he’s kind of hard to read.  He likes to joke a lot, and I don’t always know if he’s joking or totally serious.  But…he seems to be all right, you know?”
    I nodded, handing her the glass of tea.  “Yeah, I thought so, but…”
    Carla raised her eyebrows.  “Don’t tell me.  You have a crush on him and Wendy told you a bunch of stuff you didn’t want to hear.”
    All right.   I hadn’t expected that.  “Yeah…how’d you know?”
    “Well, I might not know Scott, but I do know Wendy.  She’s like that. ”
    But…   “So how’d you know…I have a crush on him?  Is it that obvious?”
    Carla started laughing.  “No…I’ve just seen you two flirting with each other sometimes when I’ve been in the kitchen.  So then, when you asked…I just kind of put two and two together.”
    I didn’t want to pry too much, so I left it at that.  The bottom line…I trusted Carla and believed she had no reason to lie to me.  Wendy, though, was invested and had plenty of reasons to shine me on.  So I let her words go and decided not to worry.
    The next day, David came into work, obviously excited.  “Casey,” he said, “we are going to have the biggest party ever next Saturday night.  You have to be there.”
    “Are you kidding me?  Remember how fucked up I was after your last party?”
    “What if I promise to make sure you don’t do that again?”
    I smiled.  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, buddy.”
    “Still…you have to be there.”
    Honestly, there was no question that I would go…after all, David had said we when he talked about the party, and that told me it was Scott’s party too.  Besides, after the last one, I think he knew that even if I’d be late, I’d show up if I’d promised to.  I’d just have to be smart about drinking.   “All right,” I said, making it sound as if it had been a difficult decision.  “What time?”
    “Whenever you get off of work.   Around five or six…or eleven, whatever.   I’m going to get a keg that morning, so I’ll just need to go home and open the doors.  But you have to be there.”
    “Why?”
    “ ‘Cause everybody will be there.  This is the party you don’t want to miss.”
    So I checked the schedule for the week.  On Saturday, I was scheduled to get off at four.  Unfortunately, I worked the morning shift the next day, so I definitely should go easy on the alcohol.  But I could have fun anyway.
    I didn’t see Scott until Thursday, but when I did, he asked if David had invited me to the party.
    “Yeah,” I said.  “Why?  Don’t you want me to be there?”
    He laughed.  “You figured me out.”  Then he said, “Seriously, do you plan to be there?”
    “Maybe.”   I licked my bottom lip.  “What kind of music will you be playing?”
    “Oh…very good stuff, even by your standards.”   He smirked.
    I grinned back.  “So…David said he was getting a keg, but then yesterday he said BYOB .  So which is it?”
    “Both.  If you