Beneath that:
Planned Spontaneity:
None
Achieved Spontaneity:
Biscuits
Kissing
Costume
“There’sno such thing asplannedspontaneity,” he informed her.
“Not for normal people,” she agreed.
He turned the page. Every day was a different date. Most were blank. Only Saturdays held the labels “Planned Spontaneity” and “Achieved Spontaneity.”
“You expect me to... schedule moments in which I deviate from my own rules?”
“Baby steps,” she told him. “One per week. It’s like exercising an atrophied limb. You won’t cease being an uptight, rigid sobersides overnight, but with time and practice, perhaps you’ll become marginally more tolerable.”
He cut her a quelling gaze. “Flattering.”
She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Look how much you’ve accomplished, just in one day!”
He re-read the prefilled list. “What do you mean by ‘costume’? I never wear—”
“Ah-ah-ah.” She shook her finger. “An uptight, rigid sobersides might have such limitations, but a spontaneous soul such as yours would never say ‘never.’”
She pulled a mask out of her bag.
He stared at it. “What is that?”
“A mask,” she said helpfully. “It goes on your face.”
“I don’t want it.”
She pulled out another just like it. “Mine matches yours. Isn’t that adorable?”
“Why would I wish to seem adorable?”
“You wouldn’t,” she said. “That’s the entire point.No onewill think it is you behind this mask. We can attend tonight’s masquerade as an anonymous Lord and Lady X.”
“Attend my own party,” he repeated. “Anonymously.”
“Just think of it,” she coaxed. “You can stand next to the refreshment table and administer a forty-question quiz to each guest who selects a shortbread, and no one will ever know the obnoxious Lord X was actually you!”
“It may have advantages,” he admitted.
“One hour,” she said. “If you hate it, you need only whip off the mask and shake the white powder from your hair—”
“Powder myhair?” Julian covered his brown locks protectively with his hands. “It would look gray!”
“It’s a costume,” Miss Thorne enunciated. “Are you really that vain?”
“Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “Extremely vain and deservedly so.”
