The Kiss That Launched 1,000 Gifs

by Sheralyn Pratt

  Grace let out a laugh she hoped sounded real. “And did you watch the news last night, Ash?”

  “It’s still on my DVR,” he said. “I’ll get to it.”

  “I’ll bet,” she laughed.

  “You could always come over and watch it with me on the couch,” he teased, even though his eyes stayed cold. “I’ll put the thermostat up to 68 just for you.”

  “Sounds freezing.”

  “Oh, I think you’ll be warm enough.”

  Grace forced out a laugh as she tried to get a read on Ash. This wasn’t the happy-go-lucky guy she was used to dealing with, day-in and day-out. He was saying all the right words, but he was suddenly very cold. She didn’t like it.

  “But first things first,” Ash said, before her non-answer could become awkward. “I bet you have the same question in your inbox that I do: Was that kiss as good as it looked last night?”

  “I don’t know,” Grace said. “I haven’t watched it yet.”

  “Me neither,” he admitted. “Why do you think that is?”

  He was expecting her to lie or say something evasive. Grace could see it in Ash’s eye and it irked, so she decided two could play hardball.

  “Because I haven’t bounced back from the real deal yet, and we need to work together,” she said, looking Ash right in the eye. “I don’t know how the kiss looked, but I can tell you the real deal was probably way better. At least that’s my excuse for not watching it. What’s yours, Ash?”

  Ball’s in your court, Ice Prince.

  “Same,” he said, sounding peppy. “It was great kissing you.”

  Her heart hammered at the words, both happy to hear them and shocked that he would say them.

  “I won’t lie and say it wasn’t on my bucket list. It totally was,” he added with a wink that was more for the webcam than it was for her. “But I also think it’s important not to blow something a coworker did for charity out of proportion. So while I am happy to report that you are indeed a great kisser, it’s probably best for me not to watch that kiss on a loop.”

  It was weird how such nice words felt like such a hard slap, but Grace tried to keep the ball rolling. “So how do we answer our listeners then? Was it as good as it looked?”

  He shrugged. “I’m fine with your answer that it was better than it looked. Works for me.”

  “Final answer?”

  He grinned, the ice almost melting from his eyes. “Final answer. Now, tell me, what else is on our docket today? What topic is at the top of the queue?”

  Grace glanced at her monitor and cleared her throat. “Well, the most up-voted question of the day is: Was there tongue?”

  Ash laughed. “Well, I wasn’t planning on it, but then Grace—”

  “Me?” she objected.

  “Yes, you!”

  Had she? Grace honestly couldn’t remember. It was like trying to remember a car accident. Everything seemed to happen at once, outside of time.

  “Okay,” she agreed. “Maybe me.”

  “Totally you,” he teased. “I had every intention of being a gentleman.”

  “And you were.”

  “Thank you,” he said with a bit of a huff. “Given the circumstances, I think I gave it a Grade-A effort.”

  “Well, I definitely give you an A on that dip you did at the end,” she said, still watching his eyes for signs of defrost. “That was a legit dancing dip. Great form.”

  “Ah, now you’re just sucking up.”

  “Not at all,” she said. “You can add that to your list of moves you’ve got down.”

  “Sure,” he said, eyes all ice again even as he somehow kept his voice playful. “I’ll whip it out on my next date. I’m sure she’ll love it.”

  Now that was just passive aggressive. It was also the moment Grace realized they had to get off the topic of the kiss, and quickly.

  “You have my personal guarantee on that,” she said, buying time as she glanced down the list of topics until she hit #13. “Which ties in to one of our other hot topics for the day: Why do men think partner dancing is gay?”

  Ash nodded his head thoughtfully. “That is a good question.”

  “And one you’ll have to take the lead on,” Grace said with a smile. “In my culture, all the men dance—and dance well. I think dancing with a woman is one of the straightest things a man can do.”

  “Are you forgetting sports?” Ash challenged.

  Grace shook her head. “As you’ve pointed out hundreds of times, most women don’t care about sports like men do. Sports impress other men way more than they impress women. So to that end, I’ll say that there’s nothing more gay than a man obsessed with being good at sports. If anyone’s sexuality should be questioned, it should be his—not the man with a woman in his arms.”

  And with that, the phone lines lit up. Grace breathed a sigh of relief that the next two hours might not be unbearable after all.

  “Solid show,” Frank said when news and traffic took over. “Head over to my office for a quick meeting with management.”

  Ash took a breath and put his stress toy down. It was time for the meeting. The meeting.

  Would the show go on? They’d all know within the next ten minutes, although Ash had already sent a prayer up for cancellation. He couldn’t do this anymore.

  While Grace gathered her things, Ash left the room and headed down to the meeting without her. For once he wouldn’t be the last one out of or into a room. Small victories. Once he reached Frank’s office, he shook hands with Dave and Steve, who both kept their poker faces on as they greeted him. When Frank came in right behind Ash, Ash took a seat and let the other men make the small talk while they all waited for Grace. Ash was all talked out for the day. He just wanted the meeting to be over so he could go home for the weekend and chill. He needed a little time to regroup.

  Something had died in him as he watched Grace walk away from him the night before. He stood there rocked to his core, and it finally hit him: she didn’t feel the same. She wasn’t rocked. She wasn’t even fazed. She was… professional. For two years, Ash had imagined that Phillip was the only thing that stood between him and Grace. If she was single, the two of them would launch into the stratosphere.

  Well, Grace was now single and they’d actually kissed, but she hadn’t even blinked before heading back to work and dismissing herself to go be with her friend. Grace hadn’t left Ash to be with Phillip. She’d left him because she wanted to.

  The problem wasn’t Phillip. It was Ash. Grace had made it very clear that she wasn’t interested. Period.

  Grace walked into the room a moment later, her smile bright as she shook hands with Dave and Steve before taking a seat.

  “First off,” Dave said, taking lead of the meeting. “I want to take my hat off to both of you for last night. That video of you two has been picked up by news outlets all day long, and the list still keeps growing. Huff Post, People, The Guardian, and it even hit Australia in time to make one of their morning shows. As it turns out, news organizations find your stunt fascinating. We only showed five seconds of it on our station, but everyone else is showing the whole clip, which resulted in over 5,000 more people tuning in online today. That’s great!”

  “Glad to hear it,” Grace said with a smile.

  “Good news,” Ash agreed diplomatically.

  Dave nodded, but didn’t smile. “And while this is a great bump, I think we all know that’s exactly what it is: an anomaly. But it does put the two of you in a position to go out while you’re flaming hot. As my wife says, better too soon than too late.”

  Why in the world would a wife always say that to her husband? Ash thought, before putting the thought to the side. Frank and Grace weren’t saying anything, so Ash stepped up.

  “So what you’re saying is that this is the end of the road for us?”

  “Yes,” Dave said. “This is a business, and we have to follow the numbers. But the good news is that you all still have full-time jobs doing what you love.” He loo
ked at Grace first. “Grace, Erik was elated to get this news. He can’t wait to have you back on the beat full time. And Frank? We already have a new show lined up for you.” At last he looked Ash’s way. “Ashton, that audition you did with Layla last Friday was great. Your chemistry was off the charts according to all our focus groups, so we’re going to be formally offering you a position on The Morning Show with Layla and Bill. You’ll be a great fit.”

  “Thanks,” Ash said, finding a smile. “I appreciate it.”

  “And we hope you accept,” Dave said. “But we’ll hammer all that out later. What Steve and I are here to say is that we really appreciate how you’ve delivered these past two years, and the cancellation of your show has nothing to do with perceived job performance. The new show that will be replacing yours simply targets a broader demographic with a stronger revenue potential. And more money means more job security for all of us.”

  “Well, we’re glad you’ve been pleased with our work,” Frank said, standing and reaching out his hand to shake theirs. “I can honestly say that it’s been a pleasure to do the show with these two. They’re great.”

  “Good to hear,” Dave said shaking his hand and Ash stood to do the same. So did Grace. Dave and Steve shook everyone’s hands and that was that. “I’ll look forward to your last week of shows.”

  “Me, too,” Ash said, stepping back. “Only five more, is that right?”

  Dave nodded his head solemnly. “Yep. Five more, and then you’ll be moving over to your new responsibilities, although there may be some doubling up next week. We’ll play it by ear.”

  “Sounds good,” Ash said before catching Frank’s look for him to hang back as their bosses excused themselves.

  When it was just the three of them in the room, Frank looked at Grace and then Ash. “I guess none of us are totally surprised by this.”

  “No,” Grace said, while Ash gave a simple shake of his head.

  “Still,” Frank said. “It’s not the news I wanted to hear. You two are great to work with.”

  “Thanks,” Grace said. “I’ll miss working with you, Frank.”

  Ash shrugged. “And since I’m keeping one foot in the radio door at the moment, I’ll hang on to the hope that you might step in as producer for The Morning Show.”

  Frank laughed. “Oh, please don’t wish that on me. I have no desire to get up at 3:00 every morning.”

  “There is that,” Ash laughed, but at the moment he was too numb to care about an early call time. He just wanted to get out of there. “I think I’ll be heading out,” he said, looking at Frank, not Grace. “I’ll catch the two of you on Monday.”

  Then he was out the door.

  Grace closed her media player with a forceful click on her mouse button. Layla and Ash had “chemistry off the charts”?

  Please!

  Grace had just finished listening to Ash and Layla’s Friday broadcast for the second time in a row, and “chemistry” wasn’t the word she’d used to describe the dynamics between them. Layla had opinions, sure. She had brought some fire, but not a ton of fuel to back up her foot stomping.

  Anyone who knew Ash at all would see that he’d played tee-ball with Layla for two hours, not hardball. He’d flirted and teased and even guided Layla through making some of the points she didn’t have quite nailed down. Then he’d stood back and handed her the point.

  How was that “off the charts” chemistry? It was pandering. It was reinforcing the idea that men understood issues better than women did. Men liked Layla because she was proof that smart, educated women still needed men to think.

  It made Grace want to puke.

  Grace showed up and went toe-to-toe with Ash every day. Together she and Ash had become the highest-rated local afternoon show in the market. Last night they’d staged a kiss that went internationally viral overnight, and Ash and Layla were the ones with the off-the-charts chemistry?

  How in the world had Dave stood up there in Frank’s office and said all those things about Layla and Ash with a straight face? And why had neither Frank nor Ash stood up for Grace? She deserved a shout out, at a minimum. But nope.

  Then Ash had just left. Not even a goodbye or a look in the eye. Just gone.

  Seriously, what was his deal?

  A text popped up on Grace’s phone. It was Esme. Want to go dancing tonight?

  No, Grace typed back. I’m pouting.

  K. Let me know if you change your mind.

  Will do.

  Grace paused before throwing her phone to the side and opened Instagram instead. She didn’t follow Layla, but it was probably past time that she checked out the woman’s feed.

  When Grace pressed Follow, she noted that she had 6,000 more followers than Layla and felt a moment of vindication as she started scrolling through the pictures. There were a lot of morning show antics and selfies with listeners. Grace scrolled through them all, easily seeing Ash as one of the group. The casual clothes, the crazy antics, the utter lack of decorum. It was all Ash’s speed.

  Grace didn’t admit to herself that she was looking for a certain picture until her finger stopped scrolling and centered it. It was a picture taken seven days ago with Layla sitting in Grace’s chair. She and Ash were cheek-to-cheek and smiling like two best friends on a dream vacation.

  So excited! the caption read. I’ve wanted to work with @TheOtherAshton for years, and today’s my lucky day! We’re broadcasting LIVE today, from 2-4. Check us out!

  They looked good together, Grace thought with a hint of annoyance. Not hot, per se. The caption under the photo would never say Radio’s Sexiest Couple. A more likely caption would be Hey, we just bought a Subaru! They looked friendly, sure, but not “off the charts.”

  Grace, on the other hand, had received over 3,000 emails that day alone indicating that if Grace wanted to see the personification of sizzling then she could go to any search engine and type in her and Ashton’s names. And she had no doubt what she would see was sizzling, because she had lived it.

  Heavens above, she had lived it and had relived that kiss countless times in the past 22 hours. That kiss had been gentle… and seamless… and sensual… and so right that her brain couldn’t even remember it objectively. She remembered what she’d felt, but not what was done or who had done what.

  All that was a disconcerting blur.

  The temptation to finally watch the video bubbled up for the millionth time. The longer she went without watching it, the sillier avoiding the video seemed. Everyone else had seen it. Why not her?

  Before Grace could second-guess herself, she grabbed her laptop and opened up YouTube. When she searched for videos of her and Ashton posted in the last 24 hours, dozens of videos came up. At a glance, Grace could tell that they were different videos taken from various angles in the crowd, but the title of one of the videos caught her attention. #Fossy Finally Locks Lips! NSFW (COMPILATION VIDEO)

  #Fossy? Like Bob Fossy? That made no sense, but it was the first link Grace clicked.

  It had been a while since Ash had played fifth wheel on a Friday night. If he’d had his way, Ash would have taken his wheel and turned it into a unicycle for the night.

  Everyone lost when you moped on public. Segregating yourself away from the happy people while licking your wounds was a public service—or at least a way to maintain one’s dignity while bouncing back. But it was a move Ash’s friends weren’t having on their watch. Dragging Ash to a house party was their way of trying to keep his spirits up. But Ash would have been better off staring at a wall back home.

  Women…

  Allegedly they were the more sensitive of the sexes. Yeah, sure. Ash would like to see the data that supported that conclusion. In his experience, when it came to affairs of the heart, women were emotional assassins. Their hot was hotter, their cold was infinitely colder, and their aim was laser sharp.

  And at the moment, Ash had a harpoon made of ice skewered through his heart.

  It was his own fault. He could own that. He’
d been optimistic about how things would go after kissing Grace. He’d allowed himself to believe that a Thursday night kiss would turn into a Friday night date, and that Friday night date would turn into fate.

  Not so.

  Grace hadn’t even let him get half way to asking her out on a date. So now, instead of sitting across the table of a fine restaurant with her, he was sitting on a friend’s front porch watching the sprinklers water the lawn across the street.

  As it turned out, his hopes for the night—not to mention the rest of his life—had been wildly optimistic.

  “Do I have to have my own personal storm cloud over my head to sit here, or is anyone allowed?”

  Ash looked up and saw Jess standing over him with a bottle in each hand. She held one out his direction, and he took it.

  “It’s your porch,” he said, scooting over to make room on the porch swing. On the other side of the window Ash could hear Abe, Brad, and Brad’s date playing Rock Band in the living room. Brad’s date—Ash really should learn her name—was doing her best Lady Gaga.

  Jess eased in next to him, not saying anything for several moments. “So I’m guessing that things didn’t play out how you were hoping last night?”

  Ash took a sip. “Nope.”

  “Well, then that chick is stupid,” Jess said.

  Ash held his bottle out her way. “I’ll drink to that.”

  She clinked their bottles together, and they both took a pull.

  “For what it’s worth, it looked like a stellar kiss,” Jess said. “And Grace was totally into it. I don’t care what she said afterwards. Body language like that doesn’t lie.”

  “If you say so,” Ash said, staring straight ahead.

  “Oh, I know so,” Jess said. “But still, if she wants to pretend a kiss like that means nothing to her, then that’s on her.”

  Ash sighed, spinning the bottle between his fingers. “I’ve got to let go of what I feel for her. I know that. I just don’t know how.” He sent Jess a glance. “We have five more shows before we call it quits, and I don’t want to end on a low note.”