One Kiss, Two Kiss, Red Kiss, Now You Kiss

by Linda Wisdom

  She shot him a look filled with pity. “And you accuse me of being the dreamer,” she chided him, raising herself up on one elbow. With her tangled hair hanging around her face and ribbons of faint sunlight crossing her body, she presented an alluring picture. “Greg, we made a mistake in going to bed together, and we could have ruined our friendship because of this. We better quit while we’re ahead.”

  He strongly disagreed. “What we just shared is another part of friendship.”

  Jill sat up in bed, stretching her arms high over her head. With her eyes closed, she didn’t see Greg’s intent gaze on her uplifted breasts peeking above the sheet now covering her to the waist.

  What happened? The little man in his brain insisted on knowing. You had the most authentic woman of a lifetime in your bed and you blew it! You’d better do something about it fast!

  I rushed it, he apologized to his conscience. I didn’t see beyond my own desires, and we should have taken it slower. The trouble is, I don’t know if I could have lasted much longer. He flipped the sheet over him and watched Jill slip out of bed and pull on a pair of cream-colored bikini pants and quickly dress. When she finished covering herself up, she sat on the edge of the bed, one arm braced near his hip.

  “Don’t go all masculine ego on me, Greg,” she warned lightly. “Hey, we tried something and it didn’t work. No sweat.”

  “No sweat? Thanks for acting so damned understanding about it.” His voice grated, stung by her careless words.

  Jill’s smile didn’t waver. “At least we’re still friends.”

  She could have been his mother reassuring him that while he might hate his best friend today, everything would be all right tomorrow. He was beginning to think that it might not be too difficult to dislike her. He wouldn’t be held responsible for his actions if she reached over to pat his hand.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a shower,” he said gruffly, watching her with such cold eyes they seemed to freeze her all the way to her spine.

  “You’ll understand what I mean when you think it over,” she assured him, standing up. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Greg remained in bed until he heard the front door quietly close, then he picked up his pillow and threw it against the wall.

  He knew only too well that if the situation had been different, Jill would still be in bed with him and they would be exploring paradise again. He didn’t know why everything had gone wrong. It could have been for any number of reasons. Who knows, maybe their biorhythms were off or their astrological signs were in the wrong house or their auras didn’t match or—but he wasn’t going to give up. He couldn’t believe that what they had shared the night of Jill’s birthday had only been a fluke. He knew they were basically meant for each other. All he had to do was convince Jill of that.

  Jill entered her own apartment and walked into the kitchen. She retrieved a bowl from a cabinet and a spoon and knife from a drawer before taking a covered cake pan from the pantry. A large square of brownie was carefully placed in the bowl, followed by three large scoops of French vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce poured over that.

  “Might as well go all the way,” she murmured. Taking a can of whipped cream out of the refrigerator, she topped the hot fudge with the fluffy white confection and added chopped nuts. Jill set the bowl on the table and sat down to eat every last calorie-filled bite. After her snack she wandered into the bedroom and stripped off her clothes. She entered the bathroom and turned on the shower, waiting a few moments before stepping under the steaming water. She soaped her body automatically and wasn’t sure if the droplets of water covering her cheeks were tears or not.

  Jill was in the midst of her second hot fudge brownie sundae when the downstairs buzzer intruded.

  “Yes?” She spoke into the small intercom, not really caring to see anyone.

  “Let me in.” Evelyne’s voice sounded fuzzy through the speaker.

  Jill pressed the button to release the outside door before returning to the couch and her food. It didn’t take her long to climb the stairs.

  “Um, looks good.” She looked down at the bowl. “Please tell me you have more.”

  “Plenty.” Jill waved her hand toward the kitchen. “Help yourself. No offense, but what are you doing here?” She made sure she had an equal portion of brownie, ice cream, fudge and whipped cream on her spoon before lifting it to her lips.

  Evelyne tapped her lightly on the head. “I knew you would need me.” She disappeared into the kitchen.

  “I don’t want to hear it, Evelyne!” Jill shouted, licking a speck of hot fudge off the back of her spoon. “In fact, I’m getting very tired of your little flashes of insight.”

  “I told you not to let your first impressions disappoint you. Actually, I guess it would be more second impressions than first.” She waltzed out of the kitchen carrying a bowl filled with the rich snack. She dropped into a chair and eyed Jill with that discerning gaze of hers, seeing more than she would let on. “Besides, all I’d have to do is look at the evidence, namely the brownies. At this rate you’ll be three hundred pounds by midnight.” She dipped her spoon into the rich brown and white treat. “Is this that milk chocolate hot fudge from that new gourmet shop?”

  Jill nodded glumly, eating absently. As if coming out of a daze, she turned to Evelyne, as if seeing her for the very first time. “If I ask you to never to warn or advise me about the future again, will you heed my wish?”

  “Of course.” She didn’t appear surprised by the request, but looking down at her dish, couldn’t resist asking, “You did remember to refill your prescription last month, didn’t you?”

  Jill looked confused at first then horror hit her big time. Luckily, relief rolled in along with exasperation at her friend. “I hope that man you intend to marry is cross-eyed.”

  “He’s not,” Evelyne murmured with just a hint of a smile crossing her lips.

  “What?” Jill set her bowl on the coffee table and turned in her seat. “Are you telling me that you’ve already met him?”

  “Kenneth Randolph Salisbury the third.” The dreamy expression in her eyes said it all. “He is so-o-o sexy.”

  Jill shook her head in disbelief. “He sounds as if he belongs to one of the city’s first families.”

  Evelyne shook her head. “He owns an inn outside Sacramento. He’s here to meet with a contractor about building several bungalows on the property. Would you believe he saw me at the restaurant that day and kept returning there in the hope of seeing me again?” Jill couldn’t remember ever seeing Evelyne looking so excited.

  “And naturally you’ve been eating lunch there every day,” Jill commented, at that moment hating anyone who was happy while she felt as if she had joined the dregs of the earth.

  She took another bite of her treat before setting the bowl down. Dressed in a ruby silk top and jeans, with her dark hair piled on top of her head in loose curls, she resembled an exotic jewel. “Maybe a few days. Although you’ll undoubtedly leave out the juicy parts, I’d like to hear what happened between you and Greg.” She wasn’t avid for gossip, only concerned for her friend.

  Jill tucked her amethyst terry robe under her bare feet when she curled them up under her. “You clash horribly with that chair,” she mused, hoping that if she changed the subject, Evelyne would get die idea she didn’t want to talk about Greg. One look at her serene yet stubborn face told her differently. She sighed. “Okay, let’s just say we’re better off friends than lovers.” She was determined not to say any more.

  Evelyne figured out the rest of the story without any problem. “No fireworks, no violins?”

  “Not even one tiny flute.” Jill laughed harshly. “And yet that man kisses as if there’s only one woman for him and you’re it.”

  “You are.” She ignored Jill’s warning glare. “And here I tried to entice him and lost out.”

  Jill stared at Evelyne as if the woman sitting nearby were a perfect stranger instead of someone she had known
for years. “You made a pass at Greg?” she squeaked, tamping down the hot streak of jealousy streaking through her. “When?”

  “Tyler’s barbecue last summer,” Evelyne replied a bit too serenely. “If you remember, Greg and Barbara had just broken up.”

  “Yes.” Jill spoke softly, almost to herself. She remembered the barbecue at a friend’s house only too well. She had gone with Cal, and Greg went alone. Now that she thought about it, she did remember Evelyne and Greg spending a great deal of time together. In fact, Greg had taken her home. “I’m surprised you never told me about it before now,” she said coolly.

  “No woman in her right mind tells even her best friend when she’s been rejected by a good-looking man.”

  Jill suddenly felt much better, yet surprised that Greg had turned down someone as lovely and charming as Evelyne. She certainly had all the qualities he looked for in a woman, so why didn’t he want her? “He turned you down?” She needed the reassurance badly.

  Evelyne nodded. “He said I’m too much like family. Oh, he didn’t hurt my feelings. In fact, I can easily understand what he meant and appreciate the nice way he handled the situation. Greg’s one of a kind, Jill. Grab him fast.”

  “Go home, Evelyne.”

  Evelyne looked around the room. “It would be quite a job tearing out walls and turning the two apartments into one,” she remarked lazily. “But the end product would be worth it.”

  “Evelyne, go home.”

  “You’re very tense, Jill.”

  “And you’re crazy.”

  “Just do yourself a favor and think over how you really feel about Greg,” Evelyne advised. “You might be in for a surprise.”

  Evelyne left an hour later, the friendship still intact. The two women had mentally skirmished before and would again. They didn’t believe in mincing words and would offer their opinions whether wanted or not. Perhaps it was this honesty that kept their friendship solid.

  When Jill settled in to bed, she soon learned she wasn’t in the mood to sleep. She was too busy remembering how Greg had looked in bed that afternoon. Could he have been right—that the timing had been wrong? Maybe they had rushed it too much. For the past few days the tension between them had been so thick it could have been cut with a knife. Neither could keep their eyes off the other, and each time their gazes clashed, the air grew closer between them. With the frustration building between them, there could only have been one conclusion. It was a shame it hadn’t worked out.

  Jill rolled onto her side and plumped her pillow. Funny, deep down she knew that any man she had been with hadn’t compared with Greg, and it was quite easy to figure out why. Greg gave a woman more than his body; he gave her all he had to give of himself. But, her mind asked her, did he do that with every woman or just her?

  “I’m certainly not going to ask his previous lovers for a reference!” Jill shocked herself by speaking her thoughts out loud. She pulled the covers higher, turned the electric blanket up a notch and rolled over again. For one insane moment she thought of indulging in some healthy primal scream therapy.

  The following morning Jill and Greg were just one happy family again.

  “The scene won’t work,” Greg argued when Jill gave him the typed pages of an idea they had discussed earlier.

  “Why not?” she demanded, aware that there was nothing wrong with the scene, only with Greg.

  “The dialogue is too inane,” he said scornfully. “Jill, even kids between the ages of five and ten wouldn’t talk to a gorilla this way. The boy, here doesn’t sound like a normal kid, and Harry sounds as if he just came out of the jungle.”

  Jill’s face brightened. “Of course.” She tapped her forefinger against her lips. “You are so right, Greg. No gorilla should sound as if he grew up in a jungle.”

  Greg gnashed his teeth. He had thought everything would be settled between them by now. If he had read his horoscope yesterday morning, he would have remained in bed all day—alone. How could he have known that the stars had predicted, ‘Dark clouds hover over you today. Beware of initiating new relationships because they could turn on you.’

  “No kidding.” Greg had muttered after reading the prediction. He had then read Jill’s horoscope, to discover hers had been just as gloomy. It had definitely not been their day.

  Jill fiddled with the webbed belt over her purple cotton tunic. “You are really turning into someone I don’t know and don’t like,” she said with sterling clarity. She carefully picked up the papers on Greg’s desk and threw them at him. Determined to act the part of the responsible adult of this team, she lifted her chin and stared at him coolly. “I’ll go through the scene again and see what can be reworked. Of course, as I’m sure you know, perfection shouldn’t be tampered with.” With a haughty toss of her head, she exited the room with Greg’s profane oaths ringing in her ears.

  The tension was back, but this time it wasn’t necessarily the sexual variety; it was a combination of anger, desire and even sorrow that their usually amiable working relationship had taken an abrupt turn.

  One morning Jill overheard Greg talking on the phone to one of his former girlfriends, making a luncheon appointment with her.

  “How quickly we forget,” she murmured, staring at the wall across the room.

  Greg wasn’t too pleased with himself either. While Elaine had been only too happy to see him again, he wasn’t one of the most charming lunch companions.

  “You need to straighten your life out, Greg,” she advised softly when he dropped her off back at her office. “When you know where you’re going, give me a call.” She kissed him on the cheek and stepped out of the car. The tall, red-haired woman didn’t look back as she entered the building.

  “Damn!” He slapped his palm against the steering wheel. “Now she’s even ruining my love life!”

  Greg didn’t return to the office for the rest of the afternoon. He drove over to Golden Gate Park and spent several hours wandering through the aquarium. When he left the building, rain was falling in solid sheets. He wasn’t any happier to discover that his car battery was dead. That meant another delay before he could drive home and change into dry clothes.

  When he finally arrived home he noticed that Jill’s car was gone. Greg frowned, not liking the idea of her out in such bad weather.

  Needing something to do to keep his mind off the woman messing with his head, he decided it might be a good time to do some editing on the current manuscript. It also gave him a good excuse to remain downstairs to see what time Jill came home.

  “She just got out of the hospital,” he muttered, conveniently forgetting that Jill had had her final checkup a week ago and been pronounced fit to resume all activities. “If she suffers a relapse, I won’t become her personal nurse.” He slapped a three-ring binder down so hard on the desk that loose papers flew up and drifted down to the floor.

  Greg took the time to fix himself a sandwich and coffee before returning downstairs with a mug and an insulated coffee decanter. He didn’t work as much as he kept an eye on the clock. By the time he heard the muted whine of the garage door opener, Jill’s Trans Am purring to a stop, the slam of the car door and the garage door closing, Greg noted the time: eleven o’clock. He rapidly sat up in his chair and feigned interest in the paper he held.

  “Hey, you don’t get paid overtime around here.” Jill appeared in the doorway. She shrugged off her tan raincoat to reveal a ragged bright pink sweatshirt over a yellow crop top and gray yoga pants.

  “It must have been some date.” Greg’s eyes were cold chips, his voice cutting.

  “I went to my dance class.” Jill couldn’t understand the reason for his glacial greeting.

  “Dance class! What the hell are you trying to do, kill yourself?” he insisted on knowing. “You’ve had major surgery not all that long ago and you’re out doing things to your body that are impossible!”

  He’s concerned about me, she thought even as she assured him, “I took it easy tonight, but
we have a performance coming up soon and I have a lot of catching up to do.” She gave a half laugh. “My muscles are reminding me that I’m not used to this, so I’m going upstairs to relax in a hot bath. But why are you down here?” she asked curiously.

  Greg shuffled the papers on his desk in order to mask his concern. While part of him wanted to pull her into his arms and carry her upstairs, he also wanted to throttle her for returning to her dancing so soon.

  Jill felt the cold vibrations reaching out to her from across the room and didn’t like it. He was angry at her, while he had spent all afternoon with Elaine! “How was your lunch?” Her tone implied more than just eating food.

  He ignored her pointed remark. “Where are the new pages for Harry working with the elves? Can’t you keep anything where it can be found?”

  Jill’s set features were an indicator of her tightly controlled anger. “Since I don’t keep track of the mess on your desk, I wouldn’t know,” she replied coldly.

  “Damnit, Jill, we have a deadline!” Greg roared, alert to the acid eating through his stomach due to the savage way he was treating her, all because she had gone to a class she had been attending for the past three years. The knowledge didn’t stop him from tearing her to pieces. “Or do you plan to live off your royalties for the rest of your life and let me do the work?”

  Jill’s eyes shot icy spears at Greg’s heart. “Don’t take your temper out on me just because Elaine turned you down for an afternoon fling. That’s what she did, didn’t she?”

  Greg stood there clenching his hands at his sides because if he didn’t he would curl them around Jill’s neck and squeeze. Without a word he turned away and stomped out of the office. Jill sighed and collapsed against the doorjamb. A few moments later she trudged upstairs in anticipation of a long hot bath. Instead she chose the shower, allowing the hot water to pound into her sore muscles. Jill hadn’t over abused her body, but she had worked it harder than she had in many weeks. Standing under the shower, she thought back to her arrival home and Greg’s reaction. She wanted to smile at his affronted features, but the reminder of his rage canceled her tender feelings toward the aggravating man.