The Kiss

pulled it a bit higher still.
    Eliza blanched. “Did he—”
    “No, he didn’t tell me. He didn’t have to. I can smell it all over you.” He turned away. “You better get going. Now.”
    “You’re a pig.” Yes, that was a lame insult, but she was too shaken up to bother finding a better one.
    “And yet I’m your boyfriend’s best mate. Doesn’t that make you think?” He only caught her eye briefly before facing the other way again.
    Eliza turned on her heel and left, but not before seeing him stick his tongue down the other blonde’s throat.
    She’d never admit it out loud, but Nate had been the reason she’d slept with Greg a week later.
***
    Alan walked her to her dorm and thanked her for the lovely evening.
    Her keys kept evading her fingers as she plundered through her clutch bag. He obviously thought she was giving him some sort of signal, because the moment she found them and turned to say goodnight he leaned in for a kiss.
    No matter how much she’d hoped for that kiss at the beginning of the night, there was no way she’d accept it now. She turned her face to the side, offering him her cheek. Then she pushed the key into the lock and let herself into her room hoping Krista was still up.
    She’d need her best friend’s help if she was to find her mystery-man.
    ***
    Krista took the news as expected.
    She started bouncing and squealing, doing as good a cheerleader impersonation as possible. A nasty fall off the bed didn’t deter her; she got up and resumed her bouncing around the room.
    “Long-ass draught is finally over,” she said, time and again.
    Worried the next fall—or bumping her head into a shelf—might cause her friend irreparable damage, Eliza tried to calm her down. She made every effort to explain that for all she knew she did not have a secret admirer; someone was probably just acting out a dare.
    “Yes, you’re right.” Krista obviously tried to sound serious, but the humongous grin on her lips seemed about to split her freckled face in two. “Was your childhood traumatic, Ms. Green?” she asked in a pompous accent. “Lie down and tell me everything.” Nodding to herself, she mimicked taking notes on her open palm with an invisible pen. “So, you believe there was a dare for someone to kiss you whenever the two of you were in the same room and electricity happened to want some time off? I can see why that would make sense.”
    Eliza rolled her eyes. “No, Krista, but maybe cutting the lights out was part of the dare.”
    Krista nodded. “And maybe someone bought the club, so they could turn the lights on and off for people to kiss you . I mean, that’s more likely than someone secretly having the hots for you, right?” She brushed a red lock of hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear.
    Eliza tried to glare at her, but couldn’t keep a hopeful smile from blossoming on her own lips. “So you think I have an admirer?”
    “ Yes! ” She sounded exasperated. “And it’s so cool! We can—do you think we could get a saliva sample? My uncle Aaron could run tests, and—”
    Eliza just arched an eyebrow.
    “So, that’s a no?”
    “That’s a no.”
    Krista frowned, obviously mulling things over. Eliza had always loved her friend’s analytical nature, and especially the way her entire face lit up when she came up with solutions to problems. “ Eureka ! ” Krista’s dark eyes sparkled.
    “I-what-a?”
    “Not you , ‘eu’— Never mind.” She waved her hand. “I have a plan.”
    Eliza scooched back on the bed until her ass hit the head board, and crossed her legs Yoga style. She placed her hands on her ankles, arched her back, and rolled her head. Then she cracked her knuckles. “Shoot.”
    “Okay. Here goes: we make a list of suspects, and you go out with all of them.”
    “Hmmm…as far as plans go, this one is rather simple,” Eliza said. “The list of suspects exists, but there are a couple of hitches to your plan.” Her friend’s face fell, and she hastened to correct herself. “Your otherwise brilliant plan.”
    Smiling again, Krista motioned with both hands for her to go on. Her excitement was palpable.
    “One, I can’t start asking men out, and two—” She made a face of distaste. “I’ll have to kiss them all to know who’s the one.”
    “You always have to kiss a guy before you know if he’s the one.”
    Eliza couldn’t really disagree with that. “Okay. So how do I go about it?”

Chapter Three

    Bill closed his