Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 95019 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95019 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“I’d rather you not.”
I need to be more careful with my goddamn words because I don’t really care whether or not he wants me to be honest. “Even if you don’t want me to be honest, here it is: I think this is what’s getting in your way. If you felt confident about kissing, maybe you’d feel like you could hit on Angie or another girl because you’d know you have the skills to back it up with.”
He breaks eye contact. “I can’t say you’re entirely wrong.”
“I feel like I’m not even a little bit wrong.”
He shoots me another dirty look. He’s full of those tonight. But we might’ve hit onto his core issue around flirting, which is a win in my book.
“If it’s only kissing, that’s something we can work on,” I tell him.
“If you think you’re getting Gisele back so we can kiss, you are dead wrong.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you, man. Or Gisele, for that matter, because wouldn’t that suck to team her up with someone who can’t even kiss?” I’m hoping the joke will lighten the mood.
It doesn’t.
I start to reach for him to rest my hand on his shoulder, but thinking about how he reacted before, I stop myself. As he notices, I say, “See? I can learn.”
He snickers, which makes me feel some relief, like I’ve broken through whatever barrier he was keeping between us.
“I’m not gonna bring another girl into this because with where you’re at, that’s too much.”
“Okay…” he drags out. “So you have some other plan for how to deal with me being a shit kisser?”
I take a breath, accepting this isn’t gonna be an easy job, but someone’s gotta do it. “You’re gonna kiss me.”
Seems like the obvious solution, but his eyes widen, and he jumps up from the bed, as though the suggestion meant I was about to lunge at him and force a smooch on his lips.
“The hell is this weird shit?” he asks.
“What? How is that weird?”
“How is that not weird?”
“We’re in frats. You had to have kissed guys before.”
“No, I haven’t. You have?”
He can’t be serious.
“You never played spin the bottle and it wound up on a guy? Or had a TaskFrat challenge where you had to kiss?”
“I don’t play spin the bottle for obvious reasons.”
Mmmm. That tracks. If I sucked at kissing, guess I’d avoid situations where I had to do just that.
“I should have figured that one out on my own.”
Maybe he’s right. I could just be an idiot. I sure am acting like one tonight.
“Well,” I go on, “having kissed guys before, I can tell you it’s not a big deal. And it’ll help me see where you’re at. Kissing can be taught. It’s a skill like anything else. And I don’t know if you think you need references, but I’m pretty damn good at it.”
Marty’s shoulders relax before he searches around the room, as though the walls are gonna start making fun of him for even considering the idea. He runs his hand through his hair. “If this is a trick…” he says, the threat in his tone.
“No trick.”
I guess it’s a little bit of a trick since I’m helping him so I won’t wind up on probation, but the kissing itself is not a trick.
“You know this is a weird-ass idea, right?” he says.
“Seems practical to me. What, you got some kind of queerphobia that makes you worried about kissing a dude?”
“Ash and Lance are my best buds, so you know that’s not it.”
“Oh, is this I have a queer friend, so I’m not queerphobic?” I tease.
“That’s not how I meant it. I’m just—”
“I’m giving you hell. Get your ass over here and plant one on me. And I’ll give you instructions. We can work on it.”
He scratches at his arm, clearly thinking it over, which is better than where things started. “Maybe we should call it a night.”
He doesn’t want to do this, and I get it, but I need to get through to him if there’s even a chance of helping him get over this. “One time when I was a kid, I was really struggling with my throw, so Dad got me down to the park every day. And I didn’t want to because I thought it was embarrassing and that it wouldn’t do any good because I was crap at it, but we kept drilling away, and you know what happened?”
“It worked?”
“Exactly.”
“I don’t like what this implies about how much we’ll have to do this.”
“Sit on this bed,” I instruct, my tone letting him know I won’t back down until he caves.
He eyes me uneasily before settling beside me again, which is a relief because a minute ago I thought he was gonna rush out of his room.
But despite how pushy I’m being, I also don’t want to push him too far before he’s ready. “Mart, you can do this. I won’t judge you or tell anyone about what we do…or how bad of a kisser you are.” At his look, I add, “Sorry again. Hey, words aren’t really my thing. Let’s do this. Come on. Give it to me.”