convince me that the perfect distance between us should at all times be approximately ten feet, and at no cost should any parts of our bodies—especially our lips—break that rule.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind this is the direction he’s headed toward, and I need to derail him. The two weeks since that kiss have given both of us the chance to think things through and get used to the possibility of there being a new dynamic between us. Or at least that’s what I’ve been doing. I have no idea what’s been going on in Kai’s head. I’m going to find out soon, though.
Kai is distracted the whole way home, so he doesn’t seem to notice the unnecessary extra turns I take here and there and the fact that I manage to stretch the usual fifteen-minute car ride to a whopping thirty-three minutes by driving at the pace of a snail and slowing down before every traffic light to give it the opportunity to turn red before I reach it. There are a lot of horns blaring, and by the time I park the car in my spot, I’ve seen enough raised fingers to tide me over for the rest of the year, but I don’t give a fuck. This conversation matters, and I need to be ready for it.
We get inside the apartment. The tension in the air is unmistakable as we both head to our respective rooms to change. I grab two bottles of beer from the fridge and hand one to Kai, who’s already sitting on the couch by the time I get back from the kitchen.
“So,” I say as I settle in next to him. “You wanted to talk.”
He nods, but instead of getting straight to business, he fiddles with the label of the bottle.
“Yeah,” he finally says. “It’s about the”—he waves his hand between us—“you know. The thing. That happened.”
“The kiss,” I supply helpfully.
Kai, who’s in the middle of taking a sip, starts coughing.
“Yes,” he finally manages to squeeze out.
“What about it?” I ask calmly.
“I just wanted to make sure that we’re on the same page.”
“And what page is that, exactly?”
He lets out a slightly annoyed-sounding breath, like he can’t believe he has to spell it out for me.
“That-it-was-a-mistake-that-shall-never-be-talked-about-again,” he says so quickly that it sounds like one very long word. “In fact, I don’t think we’ve put enough emphasis on the last part. In the spirit of never mentioning the… you-know-what again, let’s forget this night ever even happened.”
Well, here we go. I now know what he’s thinking, and where he stands, and the only thing left to do is… completely change his mind. This should be fun.
“Oh, that page,” I say. “In that case it would appear that we’re, in fact, not on the same page.”
Kai just stares at me. “Okay,” he says after a few moments of silence. “I’m going to ask this just once. Are you shitting me?”
“No, I don’t think I am.”
“Why would you want to keep bringing”—he looks around like he’s afraid somebody might hear him and whispers—“the kiss up?”
“Well, I thought about it. Considered the issue from all angles, if you will,” I say. “And I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t want to forget that kiss.”
Kai’s jaw twitches as he takes a deep breath and gives me a tight-lipped smile. “Just out of curiosity, have you always been so difficult?”
“It might just be that we’ve never really fundamentally disagreed on anything before,” I suggest.
“That’s a good point. We usually agree on most things,” Kai says with forced pleasantness that looks suspiciously like he’s ready to murder me.
“Indeed,” I agree with a smile and a nod.
At least one of us is being nice and civil about this whole thing.
“If you think about it, this is our first real disagreement. Maybe we should, I don’t know, kiss and make up?” I suggest.
“We’re not going to kiss again,” Kai says.
Ah well, it was worth a shot.
“In fact—” Kai starts to say.
“Is this because I’m a terrible kisser?” I interrupt.
Kai looks completely baffled. “What? No!”
It’s difficult to hide my smile. “Just checking.”
“You weren’t sure?”
“Tastes vary. It seemed like the most plausible explanation as to why you would be so adamantly against repeating the hottest kiss of my life.”
Kai’s mouth has dropped open. “You can’t just… say something like that,” he sputters.
“By something like that, you mean the truth? You’d prefer not to hear about how much I liked the feel of your lips against mine?”
“Yes. No.” He