Lily White Lies(59)

“No I tell you, every word is true,” he assured. “Anyway, I’d tell them that there were two rules they had to follow in order for the magic to work. I told them that they had to keep their eyes closed and that they had to count to five before they opened them.”

I handed him the salad bowl and tongs and he began to mix while he relayed his childhood story.

“I’d hold that frog right in front of them and—well, after a bunch of faces—when they’d close their eyes and pucker up, I’d shove that frog back into my pocket and kiss them myself.”

I couldn’t help but laugh aloud. “I can’t imagine you having to steal kisses. If you had told me that the girls used to line up to kiss you, I would have believed you sooner.”

He stared at me for several moments and I thought I caught a glimpse of affection in his gaze but chose to ignore it. It would be foolish to read anything into our situation. I knew that once we returned to our lives in Upper Darby, this weekend would be no more than a fond memory to him.

“Okay, your turn.”

I didn’t have to give any thought to my most embarrassing moment; it had etched itself into my memory forever.

“It was at a college dorm party. A bunch of us would use the campus pool on Wednesday nights... a free swim... just for something different to do. We had invented the pool version of spin the bottle where someone, say a girl, would throw pennies into the pool and then all the guys would jump in to retrieve them. The guy who came up with the most pennies would get to kiss the girl.”

“Sounds like fun.”

I laughed. “Well, it could be. Thing is, you never knew who was going to be kissing you and sometimes it was the guy you least wanted to kiss. Anyway, there was this one guy, Mark Fiorelli; I had the biggest crush on him. It was his turn to throw and I was determined to come up with the most pennies. I had two and saw a third one near the vacuum.” Handing him the salad dressing, I slowly continued, “I guess I got too close to the vacuum and the string from my top got caught...”

“No way!”

I nodded. “I wanted to die right there at the bottom of the pool. When I finally surfaced, I think I was already crying although, thankfully, no one could tell. I saw Cory and Charlotte standing at the edge of the pool. They were just yelling and cheering, ‘You won, Meg. Lay one on him,’ as if it made no difference that I lost my top.”

Looking directly at him, I said, “And I did. In front of everyone, I marched right over to him and I kissed him liked I’d never kissed anyone before. I still don’t know what affected him more, the kiss or the fact that I was naked from the waist up, but I left him speechless. It was so out of character for me to do anything like that.” My tone became more serious, as I said, “I can’t explain it but ever since I’ve known them; Cory and Charlotte have been my strength. They bring out something in me that I can’t seem to find in myself.”

There was a long silence, before he said, “That was actually a nice story. I mean, I can see where it was embarrassing for you, but it was nice. I can’t say that I have any friends that I feel that close to.” His brow furrowed, and he asked, “So, this means that you’ll be forgiving them for the prank they played on you this weekend?”

I nodded. “Right after I pay them back.”



Cory had seen to it that we would have plenty to eat during our stay and after agreeing on spaghetti, Con tended the fire while I fixed dinner.

I felt so at ease with him that there was no lingering embarrassment after telling him one of my most horrifying stories. I didn’t get the feeling that he was laughing at me, which is the first reaction I always expected. Although, giving thought to his story about the frog, I was more certain than before that he had made the whole thing up in a noble attempt to put me at ease. No man who looks like him would ever have to stoop to trickery for a simple kiss. Just looking at him I could see that he had the kind of lips women went crazy over... as they kissed their way up from the base of the throat, pausing at the earlobe, before making their way to...

“Is dinner almost ready?”

The lid to the spaghetti pot made a loud clamor as it hit the floor, bouncing across the linoleum. I quickly bent for the lid to keep him from seeing the blush that raced across my cheeks.

“Uh... I think... just about.”

He laughed. “Hello. Do I know you? You remind me of someone I once met at a street side café.”

I handed him two plates and silverware. “Preoccupied... here, would you set these on the table.”

He gave me a suspicious side-glance, but didn’t question me further. I was thankful for his diplomacy and quickly changed the subject before he could change his mind.