Kissing Frogs

by Kim Deister

  I knew I should trust Finn and talk to him about it, but I didn’t know how. He told me all the time that he loved me without a doubt in his head. It made me feel like an ass, knowing that I questioned it. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt his feelings.

  One afternoon, I was bent over my table, finally putting the finishing touches on the last of Chloe’s pieces, when Finn came in with Luna and scared the hell out of me. With my usual gracefulness, I dropped the bracelet and it skittered across the wood floor. He squatted down and scooped it into his hand while I tried to avoid having a heart attack right then and there.

  “This is beautiful, love. Is this for your show?”

  “Nope. It's for Chloe, the custom job I got just before you decided to vacate your terrarium. Wanna see the rest?”

  I covered my worktable with a big black velvet cloth and laid each of the five pieces on it. They were all in silver with moonstones and raw amethysts. A choker-style necklace lay in the center, the star of the collection. That one had taken me hours to make. The tiny strands of silver wove together into nests that held chunks of amethyst in tiny cages. It looked so delicate that even the smallest of breezes could damage it, but it was strong. It had to be because the moonstone that hung from the center was immense. It was perfect, shimmering with hints of rainbow sparks. From the bottom of it hung yet another stone, a small amethyst half-geode on a thin silver wire.

  The same stones were in the entire set. A pair of long, dangling earrings. Two rings, one set with a polished amethyst and the other with a moonstone, both ringed in the other stone. Finn held the last piece in his hand, a gorgeous cuff bracelet with the stones set on a natural, brown leather band.

  “Cassidy, these are truly beautiful. You are talented. Did you go to school for this?”

  “Nope. Creative writing and literature. Needless to say, my parents weren't thrilled with my career choice. My mother still isn’t.”

  “Well, she should be. These are exceptional. Your client should be proud to wear them.”

  I blushed at his words. Other than Grandma Fi and Taylor, no one close to me paid much attention to what I did, not even Mac, not really. “Thanks. I hope she likes them. She’s picking them up in a little while, which reminds me… I need to get them ready for her.”

  I folded the pieces into the velvet cloth, zigzagging the fabric between each piece before laying it carefully in a canvas tote I grabbed off the counter behind me. After gathering a bunch of packing materials out of the cabinet, I put them carefully on top of the jewelry. I was just about to pick it up to go downstairs when Finn surprised me by picking it up himself. I was about to lead the way when he laid a few pages torn from his sketchbook facedown on my worktable, holding them in place with his hand when I tried to turn them over.

  “What are these?” I tried to tug them out of his hand.

  “They’re for you, love. But not now. Look at them later, after you’re done with Chloe.” He let go of them long enough to pull a basket on top of them, hiding his handwriting scrawled on the back. “No peeking until then.”

  I scowled, but I did as he asked and left them behind as I led the way downstairs. He set the canvas tote on the dining room table and then it was time for him to go to work. “I’ll be back later, love. Don’t work too hard and good luck with Chloe.” A smoldering kiss and he was gone.

  After he left, I laid Chloe’s pieces out across the dining table and gave them a last look. These five pieces represented a lot of work and I was proud of them. I could only hope Chloe loved them as much as I did. Finn had only been gone a few minutes when I heard the sound of an engine. Glancing outside the window, I saw Chloe's car pulling to a stop in the driveway. Luna went crazy, racing in circles in front of the door when I got there.

  “Shush, fur ball. Have some manners,” I admonished her. For once, she listened to me and sat down. They were rare, but sometimes she had her moments of obedience.

  Chloe stood outside my front door when I opened it, looking as gorgeous as ever. I was painfully aware of my own haphazard pile of hair held in place by a pair of mismatched chopsticks. She looked like she was about to head to a country club lunch with the ladies. I stood in front of her in leggings and a too big t-shirt I had reconned from an old Pink Floyd shirt of my dad’s. A fashionista I was not. Too late to worry about it now.

  “Hi, Chloe,” I said brightly. “Your pieces are ready and waiting. Would you like to come in?”

  “I would hope so, since I paid for that to be the case.” Her voice was snippy as she answered. She swept by with an imperious sniff.

  Well, I thought, someone’s a bit bitchy today. Last time we met, she’d been a little weird, but she had at least been polite. Not so much today. Whatever. As long as I get paid…

  Feeling as if I should at least attempt to be cordial, I offered her some tea, but she refused. As we walked into the dining room where her pieces were waiting, she seemed to be looking for something, or someone. She was even weirder than she had been the last time I’d seen her. I sensed that her mood made her want to say something negative as I showed her the jewelry, but she didn’t. She just looked at them with a lame attempt at enthusiasm before pulling out her checkbook. I took it and, suddenly, I was several thousand dollars richer. I was relieved when she left and I escaped back upstairs to work.

  The collection had grown since the day I drew the designs in my sketchbook. I loved some of the drawings so much that I framed them and hung them on the walls of my studio. I knew that these pieces would be some of the best work I'd ever done. Finn had been good for me in more ways than one. He and his terrariums were my inspiration and you could see it in the pieces that were already finished. The colors of his froggy skin were in every one of the new pieces.

  I hooked my phone up to the speakers and music poured through the room. Settling myself on my stool, I reached for the pages Finn left me, tugging them out from under the basket and flipping them over. It was full of frog-themed designs, bigger and bolder than my own. They were amazing. Sleep was overrated, especially if it meant sacrificing these pieces. Thick leather cuffs with stones and studs, embossed with different designs. Chunky, silver rings that would be as perfect for the fingers of a man as a woman. He even designed some necklaces that were anything but delicate and dainty.

  At the bottom of the last page was a tiny doodle of a cartoon froggy Finn sitting on a branch. A sign hung from it that read “turn me over.” I followed cartoon Finn’s directions and found a note.

  Cassidy…

  Just a few things I came up with. They are yours to do with as you wish.

  Love,

  Captain Finn

  I had no willpower. I couldn’t wait to work on his designs. I put aside everything else I’d been doing and dove in. The hours flew by and I worked like a maniac. I finished the cuffs and the earrings he designed, but the rings took forever. It took a long time to soften the sterling silver and mold it into bands. The studio felt like a furnace with the heat of the blowtorch.

  I’d finished one and now it hung suspended on a wooden dowel balanced between two yoga blocks. Its band held a silver frog on a lily pad that reached almost to my first knuckle, its eyes bright blue crystals. I bent over the second ring, this one without a lily pad. I willed my hand not to shake as I set the second green stone into the eye. When it was finally in place, I slid it onto the dowel next to the other. They were gorgeous, if I said so myself.

  I turned back around to find Finn leaning against my worktable, a steaming bowl of phở sitting in front of him. As always, he took my breath away. But no matter how good he looked, the smell of the phở won my attention. I was starving. This guy's a keeper.

  “You are my hero,” I said. I gave him a lingering kissing before ditching him for sustenance. “How did you know? What time is it anyway?”

  “A little after midnight. I figured you’d get so caught up in working that you’d forget to eat.”

  “You’d be right. But I’ve been produ
ctive, so it’s okay.”

  “So, I see. I checked it out while you were doing whatever you were doing back there,” he said, gesturing to the counter behind me.

  “Setting stones in the eyes of two of the rings. The glue that holds them in place takes forever to cure, so I wanted to get it done before quitting for the day.”

  “Can I look?”

  I waved a hand and busied myself with my soup, wondering if he would notice the color of the stones.

  “These are beautiful,” Finn said with admiration. “The one with the lily pad has blue stones, like my eyes. The other one has green.” He paused for a moment, examining them both before turning back to me. “Like yours? Are these for us, Cassidy?” His voice was husky, sending chills down my spine and a flush over my face.

  “They didn’t start out that way, but… I don't know. Just felt like they should be. What do you think? The green one is for you and the blue one is for me.”

  He didn’t answer me with words, instead scooping me off the stool and into his arms. His kiss was all the answer I needed.

  Hiding the truth about Finn quickly became a problem. I hadn’t really been a social butterfly over the last year or so, but it had gotten worse and people noticed. Between that and the rumors about my erratic behavior, things were becoming awkward fast.

  A girls’ lunch with my mother and sister ended up being a giant mistake on my part. After days of phone calls from both of them, accusing me of becoming a hermit, I finally gave into the nagging. It was a nightmare. By the time it was over, I almost missed Operation Marry Cassidy. The two of them could make even the most hardened of criminals crumble under their combined interrogation. They didn’t get the whole story out of me, but they got more than I had intended.

  And neither of them were happy about it. I wasn’t sure what they were more annoyed about… the fact that they didn’t choose the guy or the fact that, from what they’d heard through the grapevine, Finn was another bad boy. One thing was for sure, however. They were seriously annoyed that they had to hear about him through the rumor mill. I didn’t really blame them for that one, but what could I do? The only good thing was that my nose had finally healed, so at least there was no added ammunition for them.

  I was fairly high on Taylor’s shit list, too. Her dad had gotten to her before I did. There are few sins greater than that, letting her father know something, anything, before her. Worse, Mark knew him and she didn’t, even if he hadn’t known our connection. It didn’t help that we’d gone to dinner and I still hadn’t said anything. She didn’t get mad often and, even when she did, it was rarely at me. Fortunately, she didn’t do grudges and she got over it, for the most part. It became a challenge, calling me every day with her latest theory. What she didn’t know was that she got it right the first time, a lame joke about kissing frogs.

  But now time had run out. It was time to tell everyone about Finn. I had procrastinated long enough. Kyra had been home for a few days and I invented an epic case of the flu to avoid her. My mom and Mac were suspicious, to say the least, and Taylor’s latest theory involved alien abduction and uncomfortable probing. I couldn’t put it off any longer and I knew it.

  Even with everything else going on, I spent a long time planning the conversation. I figured it meant all the difference between freedom and incarceration of some type for both Finn and I. However, nothing I came up with sounded like anything less than certifiable, which is exactly why I kept putting it off.

  Grandma Fi finally got sick of my procrastination and took matters into her own hands. She called me and requested our presence for lunch. And, once again, she proved that knew me well. She told me nothing of her true intentions until she had me trapped in her kitchen. She had invited everyone over, including Taylor and Mark.

  So, that's where I found myself on Saturday, sitting nervously in her kitchen trying not to throw up. Taylor and Mark were already there and she sat next to me, watching me curiously. She was dying to know the truth about Finn, now ensconced in the corner with her husband talking hockey. But, being the best friend that she was, she didn’t, somehow knowing that she needed to be patient.

  I ate and drank my emotions while I waited. Finally, I heard the sound of my parents’ car in the driveway, my sister’s SUV right behind them. While I was happy to see my family, I wasn’t looking forward to this. I felt like I’d gone back in time, waiting to get in trouble for some indiscretion.

  I knew Taylor and Mark would have open minds and so would Kyra, but I harbored no such illusions about Mac or Mom. And Tom and Dad? I was on the fence about them. Counting Grandma, that was four for Finn and I, two against, and two that could go either way. Not the best of odds.

  I wanted to run away when Grandma Fi dragged me to answer the front door with her. The sudden squeeze around my arm told me she knew I was on the verge of fleeing and that she'd drag me back kicking and screaming. So, I dutifully followed her to meet my doom.

  Finn stayed in the kitchen with Taylor and Mark, leaving Grandma Fi and I to greet our family. I heard them setting the table as I huddled in the doorway with Grandma Fi, trying to make myself invisible. The air was cold and she wrapped us both in her pashmina while we waited.

  The SUV had just come to a stop when the back door flew open and out flew Kyra. She almost took Grandma Fiona and me out when she threw herself at us with love and hugs and wet kisses. Mac and my mom followed Kyra at a much more dignified pace. Behind them trundled Tom and my dad, both of them weighed down with bags bearing French logos. Gifts! I didn’t care how old I was. Gifts made everything better, maybe even this.

  After hugs and kisses, we were all ushered by Grandma Fiona out of the foyer and into the kitchen. I trailed behind them, wondering if I could escape without anyone noticing. But what would be the point? Grandma Fi would chase me down and drag me back by a twisted ear and that pain wasn’t worth it.

  I forced myself to follow them to the kitchen, hanging back while Grandma Fi introduced Finn. There were a lot of raised eyebrows and suspicious looks. The correlation between Finn the Man and Finn the Frog didn't go unnoticed. But in her usual matriarchal way, she waved away the questions before they were even asked. Instead, she made everyone sit at the table like civilized people as she served the requisite goodies.

  Stage One… The Presentation of the Unbelievable. I practiced this conversation for days, trying to find the right words to explain Finn. When I failed, I prayed to anyone that would listen that I would find the words in the moment. But now that the time had come, I completely lost the ability to communicate, to even form a single word. Every time I opened my mouth to start, I stuttered strings of nonsense words.

  Grandma Fi let out an exasperated sigh. It was clear that she had no confidence in my ability to get it together, so she launched into it. She handled it in her usual no-nonsense way. Somehow, she managed to make the entire situation seem reasonable, at least to some of us.

  It was an impressive skill, one that Grandma Fi attributed to her ethnically superior Irish gift of blarney. The woman could convince Satan himself to buy a condo in Antarctica if she put her mind to it. But this was a unique set of circumstances and not everyone was satisfied with her explanations.

  So far, the reactions were exactly what I guessed. Kyra, despite losing her frog, was thrilled. Finn had called it right. She was beside herself with joy at the romantic notion of fairies, curses, pirates, and true love. The fact that we’d already bought her another frog was icing on the cake. She didn’t seem mad at all about our deception. And just as I had anticipated, Taylor and Mark were as open-minded as ever and accepted it all with barely a pause, either. The fact that Mark already knew Finn and was bromancing with him helped, too. Even Dad and Tom accepted it with a lot less skepticism than I expected. Their only real concern was my happiness. The odds had swung in my favor and I smiled at them gratefully. But Mom and Mac were not even close to accepting our story, no matter what I or Grandma Fi said.

  Stage Two… The G
rilling. Kyra was lucky. She got to escape that interrogation. Once Mac snapped out of her shock, she ordered Kyra upstairs. Her tone of voice squashed any argument her daughter might have had and it filled me with dread. And Kyra wasn't the only one ordered to leave. The moment her granddaughter fled the kitchen, my mother demanded Finn leave, too, in a voice that floored me. Stubborn as my mother could be, it was an uncharacteristically rude move. Mac backed her up with a glare that could stop lava in its tracks.

  “Sit down, Finneas.”

  Grandma Fiona’s voice invited no dissension. Finn had barely begun to move, but he settled back into his chair. All eyes turned to my grandmother, who was angrier than I’d ever seen. For a moment, I thought she was going to give into her fiery Irish temper. I waited for her to twist my mother’s ear and deliver a smack to the back of Mac’s head. Part of me hoped she would, but, instead, she leveled a rather heated glare that had both of them gulping. It was petty, but I enjoyed their discomfort.

  “You two will not act that way in my house,” she hissed. My mother opened her mouth to retort, but Grandma Fi shut her down before she had the chance to utter a word. “Hush. You will not show disrespect in my house. This is my house and my rules. You don’t like it? Leave. Or… you could both grow up and have an adult conversation with Cassidy and Finn."