The Kiss That Launched 1,000 Gifs

by Sheralyn Pratt

  A lame, safe kiss. That’s what.

  “Hey, Ash,” a female voice said from behind him.

  Ash turned and spotted Jess, one of the few exes he was still friends with. They’d dated about a year back. Briefly. But Jess had been quick to read the tea leaves with him and shut them down before he made it past first base. In retrospect, Ash was glad they never really went anywhere, since she was now with Abe, one of his teammates. The fact that he and Jess weren’t true exes made Ash’s Tuesdays and Saturdays a whole lot easier.

  He sent Jess his best version of a smile. “Hey, there.”

  She smiled and wiggled her phone. “Got the text and donated.”

  Did everyone he knew get a text? What was going on?

  “Who is sending out all of these texts?” he asked, fighting the urge to reach for her phone.

  “According to my phone, it was you.” She took in his look of confusion and tilted her head. “You’re saying you didn’t send it?”

  “No,” he said, his thoughts shifting to his niece. He’d dropped by Fawn’s house before heading to practice and Megan had asked to see his phone. Now he knew why. “But I think you just told me who did it.”

  Jess smiled. “Sounds like you have a solid wingman in your corner.”

  “Solid wingman… ambitious niece. Tomato, tomatoe,” he muttered.

  Jess came and sat next to him. “Oh, don’t act so put out, Ash. It’s pretty much the worst-kept secret ever that you have a crush on your cohost. I think that became pretty clear to the volleyball community when you traded in Thursday night volleyball practices for Latin ballroom lessons.”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Dancing is a good skill… and good exercise.”

  Jess leaned in, nudging her shoulder against his. “Latin dancing, Ash. That’s very specific. And care to remind me who competed in Latin dancing in college?”

  Grace had. Anyone who read her bio knew that.

  “Fine,” he said, giving up the fight. What was the point of denying it anymore? Yes, he had denied it when Jess had asked him point blank last year. She hadn’t believed him, but he had denied it. He hadn’t been ready to admit it back then, but now he was running out of time. He needed straight talk. “Will you answer me something, oh generous donor?”

  “At your service,” Jess said with a smile.

  “Let’s say that, hypothetically, you had to kiss a coworker for charity.”

  “Hypothetically?” she teased.

  “Yes. Hypothetically. And let’s say that hypothetically you—as a woman—have never given your coworker any reason to believe that you want this charitable kiss to be any more than an obligatory pressing together of lips.”

  Jess gave him a once over. “Look at you, Ash. You’re nervous. How cute.”

  He felt his face blush slightly. “Look, I just don’t want to overstep and piss Grace off, okay? I mean, I can see everything going wrong no matter which way I play it, so I’m asking you—a sage female—how should I play this?”

  Jess chewed her lips as she considered the question. “So you want to go all in while still giving yourself an out?”

  Ash nodded. “Yeah. Especially since she has a boyfriend.”

  “Ah, that does complicate things,” Jess agreed. “But, boyfriend or not, she won’t want this kiss to be awkward either. We all have our pride, Ash. Plus, I can promise she’s as curious as you are about what kind of chemistry the two of you will have. She’s human, after all.”

  Of course Grace was human, but hearing Jess say it filled Ash with renewed hope. Of course Grace wanted the kiss to be good. Who wanted a gross kiss?

  Jess paused to take a thoughtful breath. “I would just keep things light and be upfront about the fact that you plan to give everyone who donated a show. Grace seems pretty savvy. I think she’ll roll with that.” Jess winked at him. “Then give it all you’ve got.”

  A slow smile curved Ash’s lips. “You are devious.”

  She shrugged, standing and brushing off her shorts. “Most women are.”

  Ash laughed. “But you’re serious? You think she’ll be good with an all-in approach?”

  Jess considered that. “I would say no tongue. Don’t bridge that gap unless you’re following her lead, but yeah.” She winked again. “Give her all you got and see if she still has a boyfriend when you’re done.”

  Ash laughed. “Oh, they’ve been together for three years. I don’t think he’s going anywhere.”

  “Three years with no ring on her hand?” Jess asked, her lips pursing skeptically. “I dunno. Smells fishy to me. The timing might be right for someone like you to step in and shake things up.”

  Then Jess left him with that food for thought.

  What in the world had gotten into Grace? The woman was… was… was…

  Vocabulary wasn’t Ash’s forte at the moment. All he knew was that he couldn’t think when Grace’s dark eyes were looking at him like… what, exactly? It wasn’t a flirtatious look per se. Although he was certain she was licking her lips more often than usual, and this was certainly the first time in a long time she’d gone sleeveless in the booth. It was normally too cold for her. But today she was showing some skin. Arms. Shoulders. Collarbones. A wisp of cleavage.

  It was all Ash could do to keep his eyes up. But then he thought of the kiss and Jess’s advice—keep it casual, but give Grace a heads up that he planned on making the kiss something worth posting.

  They owed it to their fans. They owed it to the station. They owed it to the charity. If they were going to kiss, they needed to make it good… for the children!

  That was logical. Right?

  “You seriously have nothing to say on the matter?” Grace asked into her mic, her tone more than a little impatient… as if she was repeating herself. Maybe she was. Ash honestly couldn’t say. His eyes dropped to her full lips with their sheen of lip gloss, trying to remember what she’d just said. He drew a blank.

  He was bombing. Grace had dominated him on all the talking points that day. In the back of his mind, he knew that for certain, and yet the rest of his brain was quite content.

  Bathrooms. They were talking about bathroom etiquette for men vs. women. The toilet seat, shave clippings, messy counters, yada yada. It was well-trodden territory, and Ash had succumbed to the female point of view long ago. Growing up with no brothers had pretty much made adapting to estrogen-induced whims a survival skill. That said, Ash was supposed to be a voice for men, not necessarily for himself. He needed to step things up.

  He cleared his throat, picking up the conversation from the last spot he remembered: toilet seats. “Look, the way my family dealt with the toilet seat thing was to put both lids down each time. That way everyone had to move at least one lid up to use the toilet and put it down after they were done. Equal treatment for all. Problem solved. But the dirty counters? There’s no way you can tell me scattered makeup is less annoying than whiskers from shaving.”

  “Hair clippings versus product in little containers, Ash? There is seriously no comparison.”

  Ash? Since when did Grace call him Ash? Well, since yesterday. He knew that. But why the change? It was playing with his mind a little bit.

  “They’re totally the same,” he countered. “I don’t want all the powders from your makeup on me anymore than you want my random whisker remnants on you. It’s like the toilet seat compromise. If one of us needs to clean up every time, we both do. You put your makeup away and wipe down every time, and I clean up my whiskers. Fair’s fair.”

  Finally! He’d made a solid point. It was about time. And since he had a lot of ground to make up for, he decided to follow up with a second point.

  “And while we’re on the topic, can we talk about why it’s impossible for women to put a curling iron away when they’re done with it?”

  “Because the iron is still hot when you’re done with it,” she said while inexplicably gazing at his lips. “It is literally a fire hazard to pack it up right away.”


  Why was she looking at his mouth? Was she thinking what he was thinking while she did it? His mind short circuited and he heard himself say, “Oh. Well. Then that’s reasonable.”

  Wait. What was he saying? He couldn’t agree with her on a point that big.

  “So, it’s settled,” she said, leaning back in her chair just as clock crept to 4:00. “Keeping both toilet seats down at all times is a compromise both sexes can live with; it’s reasonable to leave irons out to cool, fallout from both whiskers and makeup is inconsiderate; packing and unpacking makeup every time you have to use it at home is an inefficient use of time; women deserve to use more hot water since they are naturally colder anyway; and an hour is a reasonable amount of time for a woman to get ready, even if the man has to wait for her or be late, because both society and her man will be judging her more harshly for her looks once the couple walks out the door.”

  Ash had clearly failed his sex for the past two hours. And with fifteen seconds to go before sign off, there was really nothing he could do about it. Yet when Grace smiled his way, he felt his heart pound as if he’d won the day.

  Grace leaned into her mic and finished out the show. “We’d like to thank you for tuning in to this very enlightening debate today. News and traffic for your commuter drive home is coming up next. We’ll catch you tomorrow at two and hopefully see you all at the Small Steps fundraiser tomorrow night. Until then, this is Grace—”

  “—and Ashton—“

  “signing off and hoping the rest of your day is a good one.”

  When the playout music kicked in and their mic lights turned off, Jan stepped into the booth. “Grace, you were on fire today! I loved it. What got into you?”

  Ash watched Grace’s mouth curve into a Mona Lisa smile. “Phillip.”

  The response hit Ash like a beebee gun shot in the chest—an abrupt sting that made him flinch—but didn’t take him down. Across from him, Jan’s face flushed.

  “Oh,” Jan muttered, suddenly a little flustered.

  Grace looked mortified. “I mean… not that. We broke up, but we had a talk afterwards that did me good.”

  Time stopped as two words popped out at Ash above all the others: broke up. Grace and Phillip had broken up. That’s what she’d just said, right? He was pretty sure that was exactly what she’d just said, but he needed to hear the words again, just to be sure.

  “Wait,” he said. “You two broke up?”

  Grace nodded, choosing to look at Jan when she answered. “Yeah. A few days ago, but we’re good now.”

  Ash was confused. Were they broken up or were they good now? The two seemed mutually exclusive.

  “Well, whatever talk you two had, it worked,” Jan said with a smile. “That episode was money. The website was off the hook and you have over a thousand comments on your Facebook thread for today, so keep it coming!”

  Grace sent Ash a competitive look that had his pulse kicking up a notch. “Oh, I will.”

  “You had a lucky day,” he baited. “Don’t get too comfortable on that high horse of yours quite yet.”

  Grace opened her mouth to retort, but Jan stepped in. “I’m running to a meeting, but I wanted to let you both know that the kiss is definitely on for tomorrow. I spoke with Small Steps about an hour ago, and they say we are long past $1,000.”

  “Yessss,” Ash said playfully, bouncing his eyebrows at Grace when she looked over to mock his immaturity.

  Jan shook her head, but she had a smile on her face. “I figured it might be worth a quick chat to see where your heads are at. I mean, this is obviously a great opportunity for publicity, but it can also go bad if handled poorly. Have you two talked about how you want to handle this?”

  Grace shook her head, sending an unreadable glance his way. “Not yet.”

  “But we should,” Ash said, thinking of Jess’s advice. “I mean, the goal is to make something people want to share, right? Something GIF-able… is that a word?”

  Jan hesitated for a moment, as if surprised those words came out of Ash’s mouth, then she nodded. “I think that would be ideal, yes.”

  When Grace was oddly silent in response, Ash shrugged his shoulders. “I can do that.”

  He watched Grace bristle, her competitive streak kicking in. “I can, too.”

  Ash grinned. “We should watch the CW tonight and take notes as to how all those couples kiss. Or maybe just look up shipper videos on YouTube and steal the blocking from one of them.”

  “Uh, no thanks,” Grace said. “I don’t think market research will be necessary on this one.”

  Ash shrugged. “Fine. But just so I stay in your comfort zone, where would you like my hands? Your arms? Your waist? All the way around on your back? Or doing that face-cupping move where I cradle your jaw when I go in? That seems to be on-trend.”

  For a brief moment Grace looked uncomfortable. “Any of those is fine. Just keep it PG.”

  “The kiss or my hand placement?”

  Grace arched a brow at him.

  That’s not an answer, he almost said, but stopped himself. If he gave her room to clarify, it might tie his hands more than he wanted them tied. An ambiguous arched brow was his friend at this point.

  “Just keep it light and fun,” Jan said. “Something we can show on the news. I think as long as you both keep that in mind, we’ll be good. And…” She hesitated. “As long as you both feel good about it. If you’re uncomfortable, that will definitely show up on large screen HD TVs.”

  This time it was Grace who laughed it off. “It’s just a kiss, Jan. I think Ash and I have both been around that block enough times to be okay in front of a camera.”

  Again with suddenly calling him Ash instead of Ashton. It made his stomach churn… in a good way.

  Jan looked from Grace to Ash, then back to Grace. “Okay. If you two are good, then I’m good. We just want to keep this a puff piece for us and not a hit piece for the competition.”

  “Got it,” Ash said. “No over-exuberance. No deer-in-headlights looks. Something fun and worthy of a hashtag.”

  Jan nodded. “Okay. Sounds good.” She started away, then turned back. “Oh, and stop by HR and sign the paperwork that says you’re both consenting adults who won’t sue the station for putting you in this position.”

  “I’ll head there now,” Grace said, standing.

  “Me, too,” Ash said, his pulse picking up at the thought of taking an otherwise banal trip with her.

  “Sounds good,” Jan said, checking her watch. “Gotta run.”

  Grace didn’t look at Ash as she grabbed her phone, her body language freezing him out. So Ash said the only thing he could think of to get her attention. “Did you know we have a hashtag?”

  She glanced his way, her expression skeptical. “An active one?”

  “According to my niece? Yeah.”

  She gathered her stuff. “What is it?”

  Ash shrugged. “She hasn’t seen fit to share it with me yet. She says if we’re not renewed this Friday, she’ll tell me then.”

  Grace let out a little laugh. “A secret hashtag? Why keep it secret? What’s the point?”

  He held up his hands. “Hey, I’m new to this whole scene. I just know what I’m told.”

  “Well, I’ll be curious to see it when you find out what it is,” she said, her lips pursed thoughtfully. “By the way, how are things looking for you if the show is canceled? Do you have anything lined up?”

  “I’ll still have the TV segments,” he said. “Plus, when Layla filled in last Friday, it was for a ‘chemistry test’ to see if I’d be a fit for the morning show. No word yet on how the higher ups liked us, but I’ll be good either way. How about you?”

  “I’ll just stop splitting my time between TV and radio,” she said. “Pretty much go back to full-time reporting.”

  “That’s good,” he said. “I’m sure the evening news will be glad to have you back.”

  “Yeah, if things go that direction, it will be nice to go back to repor
ting full time.”

  There was an awkward beat of silence where they both stood there for a moment.

  “Sorry to hear about you and Phillip.” Where had that come from?

  Grace tensed. “Yeah. It happened last Thursday, which is why I was kind of… off last Friday.”

  “Totally get it. No need to explain.”

  She looked at him for several moments and suddenly the air in the room felt thinner. Warmer. There were several steps between them, and Ash’s feet itched with a need to make the distance disappear.

  Grace’s brown eyes locked onto his, and he felt a chill run down his spine. “I was thinking…”

  “Yeah?” he managed.

  “If we only have seven shows left, we should have fun with them, don’t you think?”

  He felt a slight panic. “Well, it’s not certain that there are only seven left yet.”

  She tilted her head adorably. “Have you been tracking the numbers of the show set to replace us? I’d say it’s pretty certain.”

  “We haven’t whipped out our kiss yet,” he teased. “That might turn the tide in our favor.”

  She laughed. “No kiss is that good, Ash.”

  “You just haven’t experienced it yet.”

  She actually rolled her eyes as she laughed again. “Okay, big man. If you say so. But what I’m saying is that we should make these last shows really count before we go our separate ways.”

  Separate ways?

  “What? Are you and I breaking up too if the show gets canceled?”

  Grace gave a helpless shrug. “That’s kind of what it comes down to, doesn’t it? If you join the morning show, then you’ll be moved to the first floor and have a whole new schedule.”

  “That’s a big if,” Ash said. “Like I said, I barely learned about the opportunity on Friday.”

  She waved that off. “Not the point, Ash. My point is that I’m coming after you from now on. Today was just the tip of the iceberg, so get ready and be prepared to fire back. Because I don’t go down quietly. I go out with a bang.”

  Ash grinned, meeting her determined smile with one of his own. “I can work with that.”