"Good night." Amanda said firmly as she put the light out and pulled the door of the boys' bedroom shut. Chuckling to herself, she hurried down the stairs to the kitchen where Dotty was busy picking up the wrappers and shredded paper up off the floor. Phillip's birthday had been a great success, in no small part thanks to a very reliable secret agent man.
"Oh thank you, mother! Having a dozen boys in the house is like having a hurricane blow through!"
"Amanda, do you mind telling me why you felt the need to re-wrap Phillip's present?" Dotty asked, holding up a scrap of the gift paper Lee had used. Amanda froze.
"Ahh… well… you know when I remembered where we'd put those presents, I just ran upstairs to get them but I didn't realise that I had some chocolate frosting on my hands. You remember we'd just put the cake on the table? Well, I got upstairs and grabbed the gifts and wouldn't you know it, ended up leaving a big smear of chocolate frosting on the wrapping paper. Well, you know what you always say, mother! What's the point of wrapping a gift if it doesn't look just perfect?" Amanda paused for breath but resumed talking when her mother looked ready to say something. "I just wanted everything to be perfect for Phillip, after the delay in getting his presents sorted. So I just rewrapped them!"
"That makes sense." Dotty said hesitantly.
"No it doesn't." Amanda whispered to herself. She was starting to think that the reason everyone accepted her rambles wasn't that they agreed with her but just in the hopes she'd stop talking.
"Well, it was a lovely party, dear, but now I'm going up for a bath. I have a romance novel about a chocolate-crazed spy and a school teacher. It's ludicrous but entertaining."
"Alright mother. Good night." Amanda waited until her mother had the water running before reaching for the phone and dialling the familiar phone number. When Lee answered, she ludicrously invited her very own chocolate-crazed spy over for some birthday cake and milk.