Page 74 of The Frog Prince
He combs through my hair, pushing my long bangs off my face. “You’re just a baby.” He pulls me down to sit on his lap.
I’m so bare on the inside right now, so much like Brian’s apartment, that I let him touch me, let him look at me. It’s hard living alone, hard trying to know what to do all the time.
Then he clasps my face between his hands, and kisses me. The kiss starts out tentative and slow and then morphs into something else completely, and yet I’m frozen on the inside, unsure how to respond. The kiss feels so new and different, and I’m not sure what to think, or feel.
Suddenly with a little twist, I pull away from Brian and jump to my feet. “Wow.”
Brian stands up. “I didn’t scare you, did I?” he asks, and he’s suddenly touching the back of my head, a very gentle touch, and it’s such a contrast to the intensity of his kiss.
“No.” But I blink back tears.
“Because I really like you, Holly. You’re a very special woman.”
Woman.Woman!When did I become a woman? I still feel like a girl.
It’s sprinkling outside when I step from his building. The streets are damp and dark, and my hair and skin soon feel equally cool and damp.
Brian waits with me on the curb until we manage to flag down a cab. “I can take you home,” he says for the third time in as many minutes.
“I don’t want you to lose your parking spot,” I reply as the taxi pulls up.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” he says, putting me into the back of the cab and bending low to kiss me good-bye, a light peck on the lips.
As the taxi pulls away, I touch my mouth with the back of my hand. I’m not wiping away the kiss, but it feels odd. Brian’s the first man I’ve wanted to kiss since Jean-Marc, but kissing him wasn’t what I thought it’d be. When I kissed him, I didn’t feel like me. But that’s silly. A kiss is just a kiss… or is it?
There’s so much talk about kissing. Everyone (at least on TV) does it You see them at the park, lying on the grass even after a rain, kissing as though there were no tomorrow, and it appears easy, kissing. But I have to tell you, kissing baffles me. It’s a complete mystery.
A kiss either works for me or it doesn’t. There’s no in-between, and I can rarely be convinced that a kiss is good if my instincts are telling me otherwise.
The problem is, I didn’t feel anything when Brian kissed me, but I did like him. Idolike him. Maybe I just need more time.
*
The next dayat work, David calls an all-company meeting, one of the first in weeks. He’s got theChroniclearticle up on the wall in the boardroom, and his expression is closed, impossible to read.
Once everyone is seated around the table, he walks to the door, pushes it closed, and turns to face us. “This,” he says, pointing to the paper on the wall, “is amazing. This is what we do. This is what we’re about. Positive. Supportive. Professional. Relationships.”
David glances at Tessa. “You and your team are to be commended. I don’t know how you got the paper to run the feature above a write-up about the Leather and Lace Ball, but it’s fantastic. The phone has been ringing all morning.” He nods at Tessa. “Do you want to share the good news with everyone?”
Tessa is wearing a hot-pink turtleneck that clashes brilliantly with her spiky red hair. She blushes, her freckles dark against the pink of her skin. “The ball has sold out. The event has been completely underwritten.”
David smacks his hands together. “Which means the Hospice Foundation should clear at least 2.1 million dollars.” He grins. “At least. Amazing work, team.”
Everyone in the boardroom claps, and Josh whistles and Tessa smiles, but Olivia is barely clapping. I think her fingers might have touched twice, and she’s not smiling. She’s looking at me.
Straight at me.
And her eyes are hard, brutally hard, and I inhale swiftly, my blood chilling.
We leave the boardroom, and I think Olivia is going to call a team meeting of her own, but she doesn’t. She disappears into her office and closes the door. I grab the phone, dial Brian’s number.
“Did you hear the news?” I say. “The ball’s sold out—the tickets are gone and we picked up all new corporate sponsorship. The Hospice Foundation will raise more money this year than ever before.”
“Fantastic.” He’s pleased, too, really pleased. “We’ve got to go celebrate again.”
I remember last night’s kiss and think I’m not ready for another one of those, but I also want to bask in the glory of the ball’s success a little longer. “Okay. When?”
“Tonight.”