Page 22 of Turnabout Is Fair Cosplay
“The CliffsNotes version? I should be very careful who I kiss. It could have permanent consequences.”
I snort. Then I cackle. “Are you serious?”
“Her words.”
“Mike.” I put my hands mockingly on his shoulders. “Do we need to talk about where babies come from?”
Mike’s eyes go wide. He looks panicked. “Do babies come from…kissing?” The panic on his face melts away in an instant. “Next, you’re going to tell me that kisses don’t mean anything.” He twists the cap off his bottle of Pellegrino.
“Well, they don’t.”
“Says you.”
“What, one kiss and you’re smitten? Instalove?”
“Sounds like someone has never had a good kiss.”
“And you have?”
“All my kisses are good kisses,” he says smugly before taking a pull of his water.
“All of them toe-curling?”
“I wasn’t going to say it, but…” He shrugs, and I momentarily have to remind myself that the muscles that bunch at his shoulders, however corded and yummy they may look through the sliver of skin I see at his undone collar, are not worth my attention because they belong to an obtuse idiot.
“I don’t believe you,” I say.
Mike takes a lazy sip of his drink. “Why? No Yelp reviews to comb through?”
“You’d be tied down. Off the market.”
His teeth flash. “And you don’t think women have tried?”
I consider, wringing the blanket and slapping it against the sink in concentrated thought. “All one of them?”
He scoffs. “Much more than one.”
“How many? Are we counting animals? I bet you’re really popular with Chihuahuas.” I wish I had a dog. Or a man-size teddy bear to snuggle. “I’m serious. How many?”
Mike straightens. “Do we count work?”
“What?”
“I kiss people at work sometimes.”
“I thought there were laws in San Diego about that.”
“Not like that! I’m an actor.”
“Acting. Is that what you’re calling the escort scene now?”
His smile becomes rakish. “You had to know I do more than staff your brother’s escape room.”
“Let me guess. Children’s birthday parties?”
“I’m in a campus production ofMacbethnext month.”
“And you’re playing one of the witches?”
