They ordered salad with light dressing and pasta with tomato sauce

They ordered salad with light dressing and pasta with tomato sauce, no meat, no wine, no bread. Nora had tanned for the seventh time, Luther for the tenth, and as they sipped their sparkling water they admired their weathered looks and chuckled at all the pale faces around them. One of Luther's grandmothers had been half-Italian, and his Mediterranean genes were proving quite conducive to tanning. He was several shades darker than Nora, and his friends were noticing. He couldn't have cared less. By now, everybody knew they were headed for the islands.
"It's starting now," Nora said, looking at her watch.
Luther looked at his. Seven P.M.
The Christmas parade was launched every year from Veteran's Park, in midtown. With floats and fire trucks and marching bands, it never changed. Santa always brought up the rear in a sleigh built by the Rotarians and escorted by eight fat Shriners on mini-bikes. The parade looped through the west side and came close to Hemlock. Every year for the past eighteen,fake uggs boots, the Kranks and their neighbors had camped along the parade route and made an event out of it. It was a festive evening, one Luther and Nora wished to avoid this year.
Hemlock would be wild with kids and carolers and who knew what else. Probably bicycle gangs chanting "Free Frosty" and little terrorists planting signs on their front lawn.
"How was the firm's Christmas dinner?" Nora asked.
"Sounded like the usual. Same room, same waiters, same tenderloin, same soufflé. Slader said Stanley got drunk as a skunk during cocktails."
"I've never seen him sober during cocktails."
"He made the same speech-great effort, billings up, we'll knock 'em dead next year, Wiley & Beck is Family, thanks to all. That sort of stuff. I'm glad we missed it."
"Anybody else skip it?"
"Slader said Maupin from auditing was a no-show."
"I wonder what Jayne wore,Discount UGG Boots?"
"I'll ask Slader. I'm sure he took notes."
Their salads arrived and they gawked at the baby spinach like famine refugees. But they slowly and properly applied the dressing, a little salt and pepper, then began eating as if they were completely disinterested in food.
The Island Princess served nonstop food. Luther planned to eat until he popped.
At a table not far away, a pretty young lady with dark hair was eating with her date,moncler jackets men. Nora saw her and laid down her fork.
"Do you think she's okay, Luther?" Luther glanced around the room and said, "Who?"
"Blair."
He finished chewing and pondered the question that she now asked only three times a day,UGG Clerance. "She's fine, Nora. She's having a great time."
"Is she safe?" Another standard question, posed as if Luther should know for certain whether their daughter was safe or not at that precise moment.
"The Peace Corps hasn't lost a volunteer in thirty years. Yes, trust me, they're very careful, Nora. Now eat."
She pushed her greens around, took a bite, lost interest. Luther wiped his plate clean and honed in on hers. "You gonna eat that?" he asked.
She swapped plates, and in a flash Luther had cleaned the second one. The pasta arrived and she guarded her bowl. After a few measured bites, she stopped suddenly, her fork halfway to her face. Then she laid it down again and said, "I forgot."