Page 75 of Tilly in Technicolor
“No, I—”
“Do it again,” Tilly says, reaching out and fisting her hands in my shirt, pulling me toward her like I have any power toresist. When it comes to Tilly, I’m the tide and she’s the moon; I go wherever she wants me.
If I thought kissing Tilly was great, it’s nothing compared to Tilly kissingme. She presses her body against mine, threading her hands in my hair, waking up a thousand nerve endings in my scalp. Her lips mold against mine, soft and wonderful. I hold her even closer, and the kiss gets deeper. Clumsy. Perfect.
Oh my God, kissing is great. Amazing. Huge fan of kissing. Cannot recommend enough.
Eventually, we become a little less frantic. Taking our time. Memorizing the feel. Because I’m certainly never going to forget this.
If this kiss were a color, it would be a soft, decadent gold pouring from Tilly’s lips and radiating through my veins.
When we kiss to the point that we absolutely have to break for air or become serious asphyxiation risks, I rest my forehead against hers, unable to hide my smile.
“Tilly,” I say, reaching up and tucking some wet strands of hair behind her ear.
“Hmmnnnggg?” she, uh, kind of says, looking up at me, both of us going cross-eyed.
We giggle.
“I, um. Well, I wanted to make it clear that, what you said earlier? I don’t want to forget it. Or pretend it didn’t happen. Because…” I take a deep, shaky breath. “Because I feel the same way for you. Honestly, I feel so much for you, I don’t know that I can actually articulate it like you did but I hope you know that.”
I must have done a decent enough job getting my point across because Tilly’s grin is incandescent.
And then, she kisses me some more.
Chapter 31Alexa, Play “Toxic” by Britney Spears
TILLY
“I maybe kind of had a small idea or something,” I blurt out at the tail end of a Ruhe meeting.
Mona and Amina have been including me in their weekly briefings. I usually don’t have much to add, mainly because I tend to zone out while they’re talking, but I’ve been chewing on a new idea for the past few days and it apparently can’t wait any longer to come out.
“Say it with conviction, darling,” Amina says, shooting me a smile. “Declarative statements.”
I nod a few times, squeezing my toes in my shoes. “Okay. So, uh, Ruhe is special because of your formula, right?” I say turning to Amina. “Like, not only is the polish nontoxic but it’s also eco-friendly? And the bottles are even biodegradable?”
“Only spent eight years of my life getting it right,” Amina says with a beautifully proud smile.
“So, like, why don’t you all talk about that more?” I say. “I feel like you’re missing a huge opportunity here.”
Ollie, Mona, and Amina blink at me.
“No offense, Tilly, but we do,” Mona says, tilting her head. “You haven’t been to any of our buyer meetings, but it’s definitely a point of pride in our pitch.”
“Right, but it could be so much more than that,” I say, leg bouncing. “It’s not a bullet point but theentirepoint.”
“Go on,” Mona says slowly.
“You’ve focused your brand on being for for the modern nail polish wearer, right? Like, your target market is a young person looking to express themselves. Well those are the people who care. Those are the people entering adulthood in the midst of just like, total shit. But theycare.”
More of that blinking.
“Sorry, I’m all over the place.” I blow out a breath, lifting my bangs as I search for words. “What I’m trying to say is, your target market is a generation of people who care about the planet. They care about what goes in their bodies. What goes on them. They care about how they’re sold things and the messaging that goes into it and where their dollar goes and how their products are packaged. They care about those things because theymatter.And your nail polish is aligned with that.”
The silence in the room is overwhelming, but I keep going.
“What it boils down to is that beauty should never be toxic.”
