The Kiss That Launched 1,000 Gifs (16 page)

Finally! He’d made a solid point. It was about time. And since he had a lot of ground to make up for, he decided to follow up with a second point.

“And while we’re on the topic, can we talk about why it’s impossible for women to put a curling iron away when they’re done with it?”

“Because the iron is still hot when you’re done with it,” she said while inexplicably gazing at his lips. “It is literally a fire hazard to pack it up right away.”

Why was she looking at his mouth? Was she thinking what he was thinking while she did it? His mind short circuited and he heard himself say, “Oh. Well. Then that’s reasonable.”

Wait. What was he saying? He couldn’t agree with her on a point that big.

“So, it’s settled,” she said, leaning back in her chair just as clock crept to 4:00. “Keeping both toilet seats down at all times is a compromise both sexes can live with; it’s reasonable to leave irons out to cool, fallout from both whiskers and makeup is inconsiderate; packing and unpacking makeup every time you have to use it at home is an inefficient use of time; women deserve to use more hot water since they are naturally colder anyway; and an hour is a reasonable amount of time for a woman to get ready, even if the man has to wait for her or be late, because both society and her man will be judging her more harshly for her looks once the couple walks out the door.”

Ash had clearly failed his sex for the past two hours. And with fifteen seconds to go before sign off, there was really nothing he could do about it. Yet when Grace smiled his way, he felt his heart pound as if he’d won the day.

Grace leaned into her mic and finished out the show. “We’d like to thank you for tuning in to this very enlightening debate today. News and traffic for your commuter drive home is coming up next. We’ll catch you tomorrow at two and hopefully see you all at the Small Steps fundraiser tomorrow night. Until then, this is Grace—”

“—and Ashton—“

“signing off and hoping the rest of your day is a good one.”

When the playout music kicked in and their mic lights turned off, Jan stepped into the booth. “Grace, you were on fire today! I loved it. What got into you?”

Ash watched Grace’s mouth curve into a Mona Lisa smile. “Phillip.”

The response hit Ash like a beebee gun shot in the chest—an abrupt sting that made him flinch—but didn’t take him down. Across from him, Jan’s face flushed.

“Oh,” Jan muttered, suddenly a little flustered.

Grace looked mortified. “I mean… not
that
. We broke up, but we had a talk afterwards that did me good.”

Time stopped as two words popped out at Ash above all the others: broke up. Grace and Phillip had broken up. That’s what she’d just said, right? He was pretty sure that was exactly what she’d just said, but he needed to hear the words again, just to be sure.

“Wait,” he said. “You two broke up?”

Grace nodded, choosing to look at Jan when she answered. “Yeah. A few days ago, but we’re good now.”

Ash was confused. Were they broken up or were they good now? The two seemed mutually exclusive.

“Well, whatever talk you two had, it worked,” Jan said with a smile. “That episode was money. The website was off the hook and you have over a thousand comments on your Facebook thread for today, so keep it coming!”

Grace sent Ash a competitive look that had his pulse kicking up a notch. “Oh, I will.”

“You had a lucky day,” he baited. “Don’t get too comfortable on that high horse of yours quite yet.”

Grace opened her mouth to retort, but Jan stepped in. “I’m running to a meeting, but I wanted to let you both know that the kiss is definitely on for tomorrow. I spoke with Small Steps about an hour ago, and they say we are long past $1,000.”

“Yessss,” Ash said playfully, bouncing his eyebrows at Grace when she looked over to mock his immaturity.

Jan shook her head, but she had a smile on her face. “I figured it might be worth a quick chat to see where your heads are at. I mean, this is obviously a great opportunity for publicity, but it can also go bad if handled poorly. Have you two talked about how you want to handle this?”

Grace shook her head, sending an unreadable glance his way. “Not yet.”

“But we should,” Ash said, thinking of Jess’s advice. “I mean, the goal is to make something people want to share, right? Something GIF-able… is that a word?”

Jan hesitated for a moment, as if surprised those words came out of Ash’s mouth, then she nodded. “I think that would be ideal, yes.”

When Grace was oddly silent in response, Ash shrugged his shoulders. “I can do that.”

He watched Grace bristle, her competitive streak kicking in. “I can, too.”

Ash grinned. “We should watch the CW tonight and take notes as to how all those couples kiss. Or maybe just look up shipper videos on YouTube and steal the blocking from one of them.”

“Uh, no thanks,” Grace said. “I don’t think market research will be necessary on this one.”

Ash shrugged. “Fine. But just so I stay in your comfort zone, where would you like my hands? Your arms? Your waist? All the way around on your back? Or doing that face-cupping move where I cradle your jaw when I go in? That seems to be on-trend.”

For a brief moment Grace looked uncomfortable. “Any of those is fine. Just keep it PG.”

“The kiss or my hand placement?”

Grace arched a brow at him.

That’s not an answer,
he almost said, but stopped himself. If he gave her room to clarify, it might tie his hands more than he wanted them tied. An ambiguous arched brow was his friend at this point.

“Just keep it light and fun,” Jan said. “Something we can show on the news. I think as long as you both keep that in mind, we’ll be good. And…” She hesitated. “As long as you both feel good about it. If you’re uncomfortable, that will definitely show up on large screen HD TVs.”

This time it was Grace who laughed it off. “It’s just a kiss, Jan. I think Ash and I have both been around that block enough times to be okay in front of a camera.”

Again with suddenly calling him Ash instead of Ashton. It made his stomach churn… in a good way.

Jan looked from Grace to Ash, then back to Grace. “Okay. If you two are good, then I’m good. We just want to keep this a puff piece for us and not a hit piece for the competition.”

“Got it,” Ash said. “No over-exuberance. No deer-in-headlights looks. Something fun and worthy of a hashtag.”

Jan nodded. “Okay. Sounds good.” She started away, then turned back. “Oh, and stop by HR and sign the paperwork that says you’re both consenting adults who won’t sue the station for putting you in this position.”

“I’ll head there now,” Grace said, standing.

“Me, too,” Ash said, his pulse picking up at the thought of taking an otherwise banal trip with her.

“Sounds good,” Jan said, checking her watch. “Gotta run.”

Grace didn’t look at Ash as she grabbed her phone, her body language freezing him out. So Ash said the only thing he could think of to get her attention. “Did you know we have a hashtag?”

She glanced his way, her expression skeptical. “An active one?”

“According to my niece? Yeah.”

She gathered her stuff. “What is it?”

Ash shrugged. “She hasn’t seen fit to share it with me yet. She says if we’re not renewed this Friday, she’ll tell me then.”

Grace let out a little laugh. “A secret hashtag? Why keep it secret? What’s the point?”

He held up his hands. “Hey, I’m new to this whole scene. I just know what I’m told.”

“Well, I’ll be curious to see it when you find out what it is,” she said, her lips pursed thoughtfully. “By the way, how are things looking for you if the show is canceled? Do you have anything lined up?”

“I’ll still have the TV segments,” he said. “Plus, when Layla filled in last Friday, it was for a ‘chemistry test’ to see if I’d be a fit for the morning show. No word yet on how the higher ups liked us, but I’ll be good either way. How about you?”

“I’ll just stop splitting my time between TV and radio,” she said. “Pretty much go back to full-time reporting.”

“That’s good,” he said. “I’m sure the evening news will be glad to have you back.”

“Yeah, if things go that direction, it will be nice to go back to reporting full time.”

There was an awkward beat of silence where they both stood there for a moment.

“Sorry to hear about you and Phillip.” Where had that come from?

Grace tensed. “Yeah. It happened last Thursday, which is why I was kind of… off last Friday.”

“Totally get it. No need to explain.”

She looked at him for several moments and suddenly the air in the room felt thinner. Warmer. There were several steps between them, and Ash’s feet itched with a need to make the distance disappear.

Grace’s brown eyes locked onto his, and he felt a chill run down his spine. “I was thinking…”

“Yeah?” he managed.

“If we only have seven shows left, we should have fun with them, don’t you think?”

He felt a slight panic. “Well, it’s not certain that there are only seven left yet.”

She tilted her head adorably. “Have you been tracking the numbers of the show set to replace us? I’d say it’s pretty certain.”

“We haven’t whipped out our kiss yet,” he teased. “That might turn the tide in our favor.”

She laughed. “No kiss is
that
good, Ash.”

“You just haven’t experienced it yet.”

She actually rolled her eyes as she laughed again. “Okay, big man. If you say so. But what I’m saying is that we should make these last shows really count before we go our separate ways.”

Separate ways?

“What? Are you and I breaking up too if the show gets canceled?”

Grace gave a helpless shrug. “That’s kind of what it comes down to, doesn’t it? If you join the morning show, then you’ll be moved to the first floor and have a whole new schedule.”

“That’s a big
if,
” Ash said. “Like I said, I barely learned about the opportunity on Friday.”

She waved that off. “Not the point, Ash. My point is that I’m coming after you from now on. Today was just the tip of the iceberg, so get ready and be prepared to fire back. Because I don’t go down quietly. I go out with a bang.”

Ash grinned, meeting her determined smile with one of his own. “I can work with that.”

Nothing in Grace’s closet felt right for the fund raiser. Yes, she had plenty of dresses that would do just fine, but Ashton had seen them all before—no, not Ashton—Ash. She was calling him Ash now, because it seemed to knock him off his center a bit. And she liked seeing Ash off balance.

Grace wasn’t stupid. She knew Ash had a bit of a crush on her, but she was also smart enough not to take it personally. Ash flirted with no less than six women at a time. It was his default mode—something Grace had learned quite well the first month she’d worked with him. The man could turn up the flirty heat. That first month with him had been fun. They’d gone head-to-head to the point that had Frank hiding under the desk more than once.

Grace wanted that dynamic back, which was why she’d dropped the news that she was single and shown Ash that the two of them had a deadline. Seven shows… like the old days. It was time to fire back and leave Ash singed, but she could only really do that if he was playing along.

Once and for all, it was time to declare herself the undisputed champion of the Battle of the Sexes, which was why she was on her fifth department store for the evening. She needed a new dress.

If Grace wanted to walk out of tomorrow night with the upper hand, she needed to blow Ash’s mind and then blow him off. She had no doubt that Ash was walking into tomorrow night with the exact same plan. He’d already made it quite clear that he considered his kissing technique to be swoon-worthy, and it was clear that her role in his imagination was to be blown away and drop in line, like so many women had before her.

The man was going to be disappointed.

If Ash’s reaction on the show earlier that day was any indicator, Grace had every advantage tomorrow night. All she’d done was send him a few looks, lick her lips a few times, and take off her jacket. The result? Ash had become barely coherent. He definitely wanted her.