Kiss and Tell 2 by Faith Winslow Page B

quickly, but it was clear that my blunt honesty had alarmed her.
    “What are you interested in, then?” Anthony asked, turning back to look at me. Mom was fading from red to pink, and she was temporarily silent.
    “I don’t know for sure,” I replied. Now it was my turn to have some fun with our conversation. “I guess I want something interesting and dependable—something I won’t lose interest in before it’s even started.”
    The subtext was thick but well veiled. I’m confident Mom had absolutely no idea what my response actually meant.
    “You’re young and inexperienced, Kirby,” Anthony fired back. Mom, again, seemed a bit alarmed. “Maybe your potential employers can sense that about you,” he went on. “Maybe they can tell you don’t know what you want, and they’re reluctant to have you. Maybe they don’t want to stand in your way--or maybe they don’t want to be something that’s just temporary, like a rest stop on your bigger journey.”
    I’m sure Mom didn’t get his underlying message, and I had a hard time deciphering it, too. The way I saw it, Anthony could have been saying a few different things.
    Mom didn’t seem to be handing Mr. Swift’s comments so well. Like his earlier remarks on my name, his words seemed cutting and critical, even though delivered quite coolly. Mom must have thought he really was talking about employers, and she must have interpreted his comments to be reasons why he wouldn’t hire me. Sensing these things, she again tried to change the topic.
    “Thank you so much for your career advice, Mr. Swift,” she said. “I’m sure Kirby will take it to heart…. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I see that my friend Janice has just arrived, and I’ve got to introduce Kirby to her and her family.”
    “Of course,” Anthony said. He was replying to Mom, but his eyes remained locked on me. “It was nice meeting you, Kirby,” he added with a grin.
    “You too, Mr. Swift,” I replied.
    The look on my face was not a happy one.

Chapter 2
     
    When Mom said she wanted to introduce me to Janice and her family, there was some subtext there, too. What she actually meant, even though I didn’t know it at the time, was that she wanted to introduce me to Janice’s son, Willard. As soon as Mom led me away from Anthony toward a collection of three incredibly well-dressed people, I figured out as much and rolled my eyes. In a matter of a few seconds, she’d gone from trying to find me a job to trying to find me a boyfriend, and the transition made me a little queasy.
    “Janice!” Mom exclaimed when she reached her friend. They made small talk for only a few seconds before shifting their focus to making a love connection between me and Willard. They introduced us, mentioned a few things we had in common, and stood back to see if there were any sparks between us. Willard and I were responding well to each other, but there wasn’t anything to it. We both knew that, though neither of our mothers could tell.
    As Willard and I kept talking, Mom and Janice (and Janice’s husband, whose name I can’t remember) retracted from us a bit, obviously with the hope of letting things flourish. As soon as they were off of our backs, Willard leaned in a bit and whispered, “I’m sorry about that. Looks like our moms are trying to fix us up. You’re really hot and really cool, but I’m not really interested.”
    “I feel the same way,” I answered, relieved. “I’m not looking to date right now, but my mom is committed to finding me a boyfriend. Maybe I should be the one apologizing to you.”
    “Maybe,” Willard answered. “Or maybe you should be thanking me? I’ll be your beard if you want. You know, I’ll keep talking to you, and we can pretend we’re hitting it off. That way your mom will leave you alone and not try to push you on every other young guy here.”
    “Oh, Willard,” I chimed back. “That would be awesome.” I’d tried to use London as a beard earlier, but