by T.A. Grey

All she thought about when they weren’t around each other and all she thought about when they were together was kissing him. She’d imagined it a thousand different ways from where it would happen: at the beach, his house, her bedroom, a party, the library where she worked part-time, the garage where he worked, or maybe while out for a walk, at a fast-food joint eating Cuban sandwiches.

Well, it did happen. The kiss. It wasn’t a weekend or a Friday night like she’d thought in one of her thousand fantasies. In fact, everything about the kiss had broken all her assumptions. It happened in his car. It started slow. Very slow. It’d left her breathless, wide-eyed and stunned.

“You know, Franny…” he'd said to her one day.

She’d turned to him, wide-eyed with hopeful youth. “Yes?”

His strong chest lifted and expand as he took a deep breath. “That’s some pretty lip gloss.”

“Huh? Oh.” She touched her lips where the sticky substance rubbed onto her finger. “It’s cherry.”

When she looked back at him, he’d leaned closer, mouth closed and a serious expression on his face, one that made it difficult for her to breathe.

“I really wanna kiss you, Franny…”

So, what did she do?

Something stupid. Something wrong. Something she really, really shouldn’t have done. Something that would mess up her life for a long time.

She’d clutched her purse to her lap and stuttered a response.“I-I have to get to work.” And then she’d abruptly exited his car—not bothering to close the car door—and went to work.

It would be three weeks before she went out with him again. This time everything was harder: having a conversation, saying hello, simplylooking at him. What did she say after leaving him hanging there? Did she want him to kiss her? Of course! That was never the question. the question was: could she handle being kissed by a boy like Mac and could she survive in time to go to university?

Life lessons were always hard and this one was the hardest she’d ever had to endure. Harder than LSATS and shitty professors who hated her for having boobs. This lesson was harder than all that, because it’d tested her emotions.

The kiss did come. Yes, indeed it did. And that was only the beginning. The start to a complicated, nasty mess that ruined a life-long friendship and crippled her emotionally for a long time.

But now it was many years after the fact. She was a defense attorney at a profitable law firm in Miami. She was even working towards making partner.

Fran “Franny” Devonshire hated many things at the age of thirty-five. She hated people who let their dogs poo in other people’s yards, she hated cooking because she’d rather be doing anything else, she hated high heels because they killed her feet, she hated goldfish (don’t ask why), and she hated her childhood friend, the boy who kissed her, MacKenzie “Mac” MacLean.

Which is why when Fran stepped into the office at Superior Protective Services for her appointment on a pressing matter, she didn’t expect to see Mac MacLean there. And, judging by his expression, he was just as stunned to see her.

“Shit…” he said.

Releasing a pent-up breath, all she could do was agree. “You can say that again.”

And he did.