Friday rolled around, the night of Phyllis date with Raphael Caprezio, the "Living Ken Doll" she had backed her car into at the Park 'n Shop. She had spent the entire week trying to think of what to wear. She knew they were going to Cafe Francois, so she decided to just wear what she called "Ol' Reliable," which was a short, sleeveless, little black dress, with matching heels and purse.
Phyllis was at her dresser, brushing her hair. Fluey was laying on his stomach on her bed, watching her.
"How come it takes girls forever to get ready for a date?" he asked. "I always have to leave half an hour before I've planned whenever I take Danalleah to the movies, because she's never ready when I get there."
"I guess that's just one of the mysteries of men and women," Phyllis replied, brushing her hair back behind her ears in order to put on a pair of pearl earrings.
"Did you tell Big D you had a date?" Fluey asked.
"I did," Phyllis replied, as she fastened a single-strand pearl necklace around her neck.
"What'd he say?"
"He didn't say much. He just acknowledged it, and went back to what he was doing before I told him I had a date. Which is what he usually does when I tell him I have a date."
Fluey just nodded. Phyllis finished getting ready just as the doorbell rang. Phyllis went the stairs to answer it. Fluey followed, but at a distance. Instead of going to the front door, he went around to the front hall, and looked out the window. He saw a tall guy with dark brown hair wearing a brown blazer, white shirt, dark blue necktie, gray slacks, and black shoes. He was carrying a small bouquet of what looked like to be a mix of orchids and hibiscuses. Phyllis opened the door, and greeted this guy. Fluey couldn't hear much of the conversation, but he assumed this was Raphael Caprezio. He looked toward the street and saw a red Ferrari parked on the curb.
"The guy's obviously loaded," he said, and he went back to watching the front porch. He saw his sister take the flowers, and then Raphael's arm, and then they walked to his car. Raphael opened the passenger side door first, and Phyllis got in.
"Nice to see that chivalry isn't dead just yet," Fluey commented. "I'll give him points for that."
"What are you doing?" Big D asked, coming into the room. "Spying on your sister?"
"No, not really," Fluey said. "I just wanted to see what this guy looked like."
"What does he look like?"
"He's pretty good looking, and he drives a Ferrari. Probably one of those types that talks about money and stuff like that."
"Hmm. Well, don't wait up for her sitting by the window."
"Sure, chief."
And with that, Fluey went to the den to watch the tube for awhile. Naturally, he wasn't going to wait up for his sister sitting by the window. He was going to wait up for her in the den. He wanted to see how late she was going to come in. Of course, Phyllis (and Big D, for that matter) would probably figure out he was up waiting for Phyllis to come home, but at least Fluey would have an excuse. If she came home after midnight, he could say he was watching The Late Night Fright Fest Double Feature (starring "Count Wolfgang Ammadoggus"). If she came home before midnight, he could always say he was waiting for The Late Night Fright Fest Double Feature to come on (he figured both Phyllis and Big D would buy that. He was always sneaking downstairs at midnight to catch the late night horror flicks, which were mainly just what your author refers to as "schlocky B horror pictures" from the 1950's). Besides which, he could kill time by watching State U's basketball team kick a rival college team's rear ends on State U's TV channel.
Hours passed, and Fluey had (as usual during Fright Fest) fallen asleep sprawled out on the couch with the TV on. It was eleven forty-five, and all that was on the TV was bars and tones (State U cut their broadcast day at eleven pm, unless a sporting event went way into overtime). He woke up when he heard a car pull up in the driveway, and immediately flipped the TV to channel 8. Some detective show or another was wrapping up, and then Fright Fest would come on. He wanted to make sure he had a good excuse for still being up. Of course, he did this in a mad dash, expecting Phyllis to storm into the house and slam the door, but the only door he heard was a couple of car doors, so he had a little time to relax a bit, so it wouldn't look like he had been rushing to change the channel on the TV. After a few minutes, the front door finally opened, and Phyllis walked into the house. She heard the TV, and went into the den.
"What are you still doing up?" she asked. "Were you waiting up for me?"
"No," Fluey said. "The Late Night Fright Fest Double Feature is showing a couple of great ones tonight. Attack of the Fifty Foot Bloodhound from Pluto and I Married a Creature From the Black Lagoon Who Was Dracula's Uncle's Cousin's Sister-In-Law from Planet X."
"I thought I heard the television," Big D said, coming into the room, then he turned to Fluey. "I thought I told you not to wait up for your sister."
"You said not to wait up for her sitting by the window," Fluey said, shrugging. "You never said anything about waiting up for her while watching TV. And I wasn't waiting up for her, chief, I was waiting for Fright Fest to come on."
"You and those late night horror pictures," Big D groaned. Then he turned to Phyllis. "And I take it you had a good night?"
"I did," Phyllis said. "First, we went to Cafe Francois, and we started to get to know each other a little. I found out he's twenty-six, and a stock broker at the Megatropolis Stock Exchange."
"I hope you didn't tell him what line of work you're in," Fluey said.
"No," Phyllis said. "I did say I was a secretary, but I told him I work for my grandfather, who's an insurance agent."
"So where were you all night, anyway?" Fluey asked. "That date of yours started at seven, and you're not back until midnight . . . . . no wait, let me guess. Make Out Point, right?"
"No, it wasn't Make Out Point," Phyllis said, glaring at Fluey.
"Be that as it may, I'd like to know where you were, young lady," Big D said, sounding a little perturbed. Even though Phyllis was twenty-one and a legal adult, he still thought of her as his "little girl," and he didn't like the idea of his "little girl" going to a place called "Make Out Point" on the first date with a guy she only met about a week ago.
"I'm getting to it," Phyllis said. "Anyway, after Cafe Francois, we went for a walk downtown, where all the stores have the huge window displays. We passed a pet store, and I just had to stop and look in the windows. The store had two of them, on separate sides. One had puppies in the window and the other had kittens, and I just couldn't pass without looking at them."
"Shawn, Danalleah, and Multi's sister are the same way," Fluey commented. "Show 'em a cute, fuzzy animal, and they melt. I don't get what it is with some chicks and animals."
"Neither do I," Big D replied, shaking his head. "So is that what you were doing for four hours?"
"No," Phyllis said. "We ended up walking into a park, and took in the scenery for awhile, and then Raphael came up with this crazy idea."
"Make Out Point," Fluey said.
"No!" Phyllis shouted, swatting her brother in the shoulder. "You know the park as a miniature golf course that's open late, and we passed it on our walk. Raphael turned to me and said, 'hey, how about a quick round of mini-golf?' so we played eighteen holes."
"You played mini golf in your little black dress and heels?" Fluey asked, giving his sister a weird look. "Boy, I bet you guys got a lot of strange glances."
"Only a couple," Phyllis said, shrugging. "There weren't too many people there. So, anyway, after mini-golf, we walked by a movie theater, and they were showing Gone with the Wind, so we bought a couple of tickets."
"This wasn't the drive in, was it?" Fluey asked.
"I certainly hope not," Big D said, under his breath.
"Gone with the Wind at a drive in theater?" Phyllis asked. "Fluey, the movie is over three hours! I don't think it'd be popular at a drive in."
"Well, even so," Fluey said, shrugging. "You could probably get some steamy action going in the back of a dark theater."
"Fluey, for Pete's sake, will you please get your mind out of the gutter?" Phyllis shouted. "Nothing happened! After the movie was over, we got back to Raphael's car, and we came back here. He walked me up to the porch, said he had a great time, and that he would call me, and then, he kissed my cheek, and that's all that happened!"
"Okay, okay!" Fluey shouted.
"Now if you two will excuse me, I'm going to bed," Phyllis said. "Goodnight."
And with that, Phyllis went up the stairs to her room.
"I can only hope this doesn't lead to Make Out Point," Big D said. "And I can only hope you don't get any bright ideas about Make Out Point, or the drive in movie theater, either."
"Oh come on, chief!" Fluey shouted. "I was just kidding! Besides, how would you know about stuff like that, anyway?"
"I know what goes through the heads of teenage boys and young adult men. I've been there. I was your age once."
"Heh. I find that hard to believe."
Big D then grabbed the remote control out of Fluey's hand, and turned off the TV.
"Watch it, young man," he warned. "Go to bed."
"All right, all right," Fluey grumbled. "Sheesh, chief, where's your sense of humor?"
Big D didn't answer.
Monday at the office, the date with Raphael was all Phyllis could talk about. She was giving Multi, Coiley, Shawn, FG, and Danalleah the report of her date with Raphael. Fluey was just sitting around, petting Skittles, since he had already heard about the date.
"I never even thought of mini-golf as an idea for a first date," Shawn said.
"It was just so spontaneous," Phyllis said.
"Yeah, Fluey does these spur of the moment things, too," Danalleah said. "Except he's never come up with the concept of mini-golf on a date."
"I'll have to try that idea next time I ask a girl out," Coiley said.
"If you can work up the nerve," Fluey said. Coiley didn't respond.
"Are you going to go out with him again?" Multi asked.
"I might, if he asks," Phyllis said. "He said he'd call me."
"I've heard that one before," FG said. "I don't mean to rain on your parade, Phyllis, but sometimes when a guy says they'll call, they don't. I'm not saying this Raphael guy won't call. I'm just warning you ahead of time."
"I've heard the 'I'll call you' line plenty of times myself, FG," Phyllis said. "I'm not going to get my hopes up."
And with that, the group left the office so Phyllis could get back to work.
"Did you get to meet this guy, Fluey?" Danalleah asked.
"Not yet," Fluey said. "But I did see him."
"What's he look like?" Shawn asked.
"Like a six foot Ken doll," Fluey said. "Seriously, you blend all the major movie heartthrobs together, and they wouldn't be half as good looking as this guy. And he drives a red Ferrari, so he must be rich. I also gave him points for actually ringing the doorbell instead of sitting in his car and honking the horn."
"Yeah, my sister's latest boyfriend does that," Multi said. "Every time Windy has a date with this guy, he sits in his car at the curb, honks the horn, and wakes up my baby brother, and he starts bawling. It drives us all crazy because it takes forever to get Adam back to sleep after we put him to bed!"
"Yeah, and he held the car door open for her, too," Fluey said.
"Nice to see chivalry isn't dead," Shawn said.
"No, it's just been in a coma," Coiley said.
"He sounds like a great guy," Danalleah said.
"I guess," Fluey said, shrugging. "I don't know if they're gonna go out again, but we'll see. All I can say is that this guy is just gonna end up like all the others. I'm actually kind of hoping they'll continue dating. I want to see Big D in action when he chases him off."
"Oh Fluey!" Danalleah groaned, smacking her beau in the shoulder. Fluey merely shrugged.