"Do you have a tie?" Flora asked.

"Yes."

"It's a Michelin three-star restaurant and you can't wear sneakers."

"I know, I know." I never knew the word Michelin could be so intimidating. Before Flora, it was just a chubby little man made out of tires. "It's too late to learn about French wine and cheese, right?"

She smiled. "You can just agree with everything I say."

"Are your parents going to ban me from seeing you if they don't like me?"

I had met Flora's parents briefly in junior year, but that was just a friendly chat in the living room and didn't take very long. This time Flora told me they wanted to meet me properly by taking me out on a fancy dinner. She said they had never requested to meet one of her boyfriends before.

"Who wouldn't like you?" she said airily. "They loved you the last time."

"But that was before the breakup. I'm sure you said a lot of bad things about me in between." I knew Flora told her family about all the relationship trivia too.

She chuckled. "Don't worry, it's all cleared up now."

As we got ready to go, she reached up to adjust my tie for me. Her eyes flicked to my face when she was done and she winked.

They were such pretty hazel eyes. Full of mischief with tales untold, like a magical pond hidden deep in the shadows of the forest. I could stare into them forever. For a millisecond I flash-forwarded to the future and envisioned her straightening my tie before work. That was such a far-fetched but sweet thought, I kept it turning in my head like a candy until it melted.

Flora's parents were the least parent-like figures I'd ever met and it was easier to just see them as Taylor and Alice Morgan, two very glamorous, good-humored adults who gave the impression that it must be great to be them. When Flora was around them, she acted like she was pledging for a cool sorority and they were the leaders she wanted to impress. Her brother Jeremy, the nicer one according to Flora, was there too. He looked like one of those guys that had everything handed to him, and you almost wished you could hate him, but he was so laid-back and cool, you just couldn't.

"You're the first boyfriend I get to meet," Jeremy said, shaking my hand with a friendly smile. The smile disappeared and his tone turned dark. "My dad murdered all the previous ones. One of the bodies is still missing."

"Shut up, Jeremy." Flora glared at him. "I really like Sean. Don't scare him off with your idiocy."

"What happened to the other guy? I like him," her dad asked.

"What guy?" Flora looked flustered. I had never seen her flustered before.

"You know, sweetheart," her mom said. "The lawyer? He always picks you up with his Audi R8 and I thought it's going great! This is just...so soon."

She had the same teasing glint in her eyes as Flora which I didn't miss. I chuckled and her family joined in the laugh, except Flora who pouted. "You're all so annoying. I never dated any lawyers," she turned to me and explained anyway.

"Sweetheart, we're just happy you got back together," her mom said. I was surprised they could talk about our breakup in my presence. At my house it was like sex; we knew it happened but we never mentioned it. She looked at me and smiled. "Flora told us a lot about you. You sound like a good influence on her."

"Thank you, Mrs. Morgan. I think Flora is a good influence on me, too."

"Mrs. Morgan makes me feel like I aged ten years. Please just call me Alice."

The menu came, and they all ordered with a quick glance if they knew it by heart already. Flora's mom-I mean, Alice-asked about a special-made venison which I was sure couldn't be found in print, and the waiter nodded knowingly. I scrutinized over the menu like it was the Da Vinci Code, trying to figure out what some of the words meant. I'd always thought I had a wide enough vocabulary but apparently it fell short in the culinary world.

Taylor and Alice didn't grill me on my family's occupation and what I wanted to do with my life. Nobody brought up the conflict in the Middle East either. They pleasantly talked about the food in front of them.

"Have you been here before?" Taylor asked. "This is our favorite restaurant in the city and we want to show it to you."

"I've never been to a Michelin restaurant before," I said. "It's a great privilege. I really appreciate it."

Alice smiled. "Don't mention it. It's just a restaurant. I really like the lovely tableware, though."

"The waiters are pretty good actors," Jeremy said. "They act like they're genuinely happy with all our dinner choices, although there are only four to choose from. I always have the urge to ask them what would be a not-so-excellent choice."

Apparently there was no such thing as a bad choice because everything I tasted was divine, from the heated bread rolls, to the veal, to the mini glass of parfait to clear the palate. I never knew people could eat like this. A collection of heavenly ingredients could be boiled down to a single drop of sauce, and every bite tasted simple and complex at the same time.

We talked about Jeremy's ice hockey team at Harvard, then Taylor and I chatted about basketball. He used to play too when he studied at Penn. When he asked me about college application, Flora answered for me and described proudly about how well I did at school, as if I got early admission to MIT already. She reminded me of an old lady showing people photographs of her grandson as she boasted about my SAT score.

I told them about some of the engineering schools I was thinking of applying and they nodded in encouragement.

"With your grades it shouldn't be a problem," Jeremy said. "But I've got to tell you there are no hot girls at MIT. I went to some of their fraternity parties and I know this from my own experience. Unless you're into the geeky type that build you their own mechanical dogs."

Jeremy was definitely raised in the same household as Flora, I thought.

"Lucky for me, right?" Flora smiled brightly.

"There are plenty of choices in BU and Wellesley, though," Jeremy said. "That's where I do my hunting."

"You don't need to share that with my boyfriend," Flora said.

Jeremy shrugged. "I'm just saying, you know, just in case. I'll email you the details later." He smiled at me to irritate Flora.

Flora looked at me. "Tell him it's not necessary."

"It's not necessary," I said obediently. "I'll be busy building a mechanical dog to you anyway."

"That's my man." She patted my hand with a pretty smile, then she turned to her brother again. "Don't you get tired of the hunt? You have to take some time to savor the game, you know."

He raised his eyebrows. "Are you kidding me? That's the best part. I took psychology last semester, and we learned about this experiment where there are two groups of monkeys, and in one group, every time they press the button they'll be rewarded with food. In the other group, sometimes there'll be food, but sometimes they get nothing. Guess which of these groups of monkeys are crazily pushing the button all the time?"

I guess I'm simpler than a monkey, I thought. I'd love to be able to control exactly when I wanted my food and how much of it I could get.

"It's the uncertainty of whether I can get food that keeps me motivated," Jeremy said. "By food I mean sex, of course."

If we were talking about sex, then I stuck firmly to my choice.

Flora scoffed. "Jeremy, did taking that psychology course make you realize you have all kinds of psychological problems? Harvard should've done a background check before they admitted you." She turned to her parents. "Hey, by the way, you didn't ask about my SAT score and where I want to apply to."

"Sweetheart, it's not going to ruin my appetite, is it?" Taylor grinned. "I'm really looking forward to dessert."

"You don't need an SAT score to go to college," said Jeremy. "You'll just send the administration office your best feature: your photos."

"Maybe I should pick my 12 greatest hits and make a calendar." Flora didn't even sound sarcastic.

"Yeah. With you, what you see is what you get. There's nothing new to discover past the skin level," Jeremy said with a stereotypical frat boy smirk.

To my surprise everyone laughed, even Flora herself. Maybe that was her family inside joke or something and I should go along with it and smile, but it just felt wrong. At the risk of sounding too serious I said anyway, "I manage to find something new and amazing about Flora every day."

"Me too." Alice nodded. "Is that a new Bulgari bracelet? I also noticed a pair of very unfamiliar-looking Jimmy Choo on your feet when you were walking in."

"Yeah, I bought these after Sean and I broke up, but this is the first time I remember to wear them," Flora acknowledged like we broke up every other day. I cringed every time they mentioned it. "Pretty, right?" She turned her wrist so her mom could admire the serpent's head on her bracelet.

"Well, you're not broken up anymore. I think this would look much better on me," Alice teased.

"My parents wrote me a check and let me buy my way through my heart break," Flora explained to me. "I also bought three pairs of Manolos. Thanks to you I now have a much more presentable wardrobe."

The idea was so bizarre I didn't know how to respond. I needed to have a talk with my parents about parenting skills; my mom only poured me a cup of tea. "That's...alarming. I just learned you have a very good motive to dump me. I should be careful next time you have a shoe-shortage crisis," I said. This whole scenario was just unbelievably weird.

"We only write her a check the first time," Taylor laughed and said, as if it made everything justified. "We don't want you guys pretending to break up every week to blackmail us."

The dessert was served, and just as expected my blood-orange sorbet was out of this world. However, I missed having pineapple smoothie at a cheap ice-cream parlor, with Flora sitting across from me, licking it off her lips and smiling at me. I liked her smile better that way.

Taylor and Alice told us about their recent trip to Brazil over coffee, and they were very good at making their story come to life. It was a joy listening to them. The dinner ended pleasantly after I said my thank-yous, and they shook my hand warmly and welcomed me back into her life.

We parted ways with them afterwards and Flora suggested taking a walk. She slid her hand in the pocket of my coat to hold mine, and we strolled in the evening.

"So, that went well, right?" She beamed at me. "I told you my parents love you."

"Yeah, dinner was great. Your family is really fun," I said and I really meant it, but I couldn't help feeling disturbed at some of the conversations that took place tonight. "Do they tease you about, you know... being pretty a lot?"

She shrugged, and I could see her smile waver. "That's just how they talk. Everyone in my family went to one of the Ivys, and my specialty is as you know it, being beautiful all my life."

I stopped in my track and turned to face her. "You don't mean that."

"Sean, it's no big deal."

"It is a big deal. You're not just beautiful. How can you let yourself believe that?" No wonder she always accused me of being condescending. She had been dealing with this at home and she was just taking it out on me, when she was really upset at her family for not taking her seriously.

She looked away for a while, then she sighed and said, "Let's sit down."

We sat down at the side of the street, on the stairs in front of a random building. Flora let me hold her hand, and after a lot of coaxing, she finally started to talk. "When I was little, Jeremy and Edward could sit in front of a black and white puzzle for ages without standing up. I'd want to help but they always told me to go away. 'You'll mess up', they'd say. I was always bubbly and jumping all over the place, and my parents decided early on that we were going to do different things in life. My brothers both went to private schools and had private tutors, and I went to St. Margaret's in the beginning, but later on they let me go to a public high school. Saves a lot of tuition fee." She smiled her usual thousand-watt smile, but it was so bright it was sad to watch. "Which turned out great because I wouldn't have met you otherwise. I'd end up like Jess and Sarah. They're so desperate."

What's wrong with Jess and Sarah? They were probably both going to end up at Brown. St. Margaret's was a really good school for rich girls.

"My parents are great. They just want me to be happy. They let me buy anything I want, and they never pressure me into going to a top-notch college. They say I can live off them forever."

I always assumed Flora's parents could bribe her way into anywhere she wanted, but it seemed like they were okay with her not going at all.

"But...you want to go to college, right?" She watched so many brainless TV series about it.

"Yeah, but I guess it doesn't matter where I go. My parents will find me a job through their connections and I can make coffee for everyone at the office. I'll flirt with the boss and marry him for money. That's my life plan," she said with a straight face.

"Flora, that's just so wrong."

"I'm kidding. I can marry an engineer too. You're going to make lots of money, right?" The edge of her eyes crinkled up.

"I'm not sure how much an engineer makes, but if you want to eat fries for life I can probably make that happen."

She placed her head on my shoulder. "As long as you're the one feeding me."

We were silent for a while. This conversation was depressing and disappointing on so many levels. Flora was an intelligent person and I knew she could do so much better, but she wanted to act like she was too cool to care. I wished she knew that freedom means having a choice and having the ability to do what her heart desires, yet she was willing to define freedom in the shallowest way possible: my parents let me buy anything I want.

"What about being a fashion editor?" I asked. That was her future career choice.

"That's what dreams are, you know. Dreams are...dreams. Or maybe I'll bump into Anna Wintour on the street and she'll compliment me on my skirt and offer me a job."

There was a reason I'd never brought up the subject of her college choices and grades before. It was a sore topic and I knew she would make nasty remarks about how I was too nerdy and studied too much, and she'd be passive-aggressive and say things like how she was just a brainless cheerleader and not everyone could score eight billion points on the SAT like me. She could afford a tutor if she needed one, and it'd be so much easier if I could just be her boyfriend who flirted and had fun with her.

I didn't even know if we'd stay together after graduation, and judging from the statistics it was pretty unlikely. I knew all this, and I knew I could end this conversation right here by complimenting on her skirt and we would make out and it'd be good, but I just couldn't stop myself from asking this question,

"Can I help you study for the SAT?"

***

When I got back home, my family was gathered in front of the TV watching Millionaire and my dad was doing a good job of getting every question wrong. He had two cans of beer in front of his bulging stomach. My mom had her hair up, held in place with some kind of hair clip and she was wearing a facial mask. Linda was reading a comic book and giggling as always.

"So, was it fun? Your first Michelin experience?" My mom asked. She had trouble speaking because she didn't want to wrinkle her mask.

"Is Jeremy hot? I bet he is, right?" Linda asked.

"You lucked out," my dad said. "Your mom's lasagna was awful tonight. I ate all of it so you won't have to deal with it tomorrow."

My parents really were nowhere as glamorous as Flora's. They didn't work in big glassy offices downtown in expensive suits and they weren't in perfect shape. I was sure they didn't know how to pronounce Béchamel or Beaujolais either. They were more interested in the courses I took every semester and whether Linda was back home when she was supposed to.

I was suddenly thankful that they did the best job they knew how as parents instead of trying to be my best friends. I told them about dinner and how I liked everything, and how cool and interesting her family was, just like Flora herself.

"But I think I like you guys better," I added on an out-of-character impulse.

They all stared at me like I had food poisoning.

"I can't afford to get you a new car," my dad said, "if that's what you're getting at."

"Thanks, dad." I smiled. "I think I already have everything I need.

***