Jessa James - Kiss Me Again

But our friendship came under strain as disaster after disaster hit us like unrelenting waves. As if our teenage years weren’t bad enough, we had to deal with death, betrayal and then a marriage we just hadn’t seen coming.

Lucy left home not long after when my mom and her dad announced that they were getting married. My dad left my mom when I was just a kid. We hadn’t heard from him in years. We were better off without him, but it had been so tough when he left. Lucy had been there for me through everything, let me cry on her shoulder, kept me in school, and made sure I didn’t let my grades slip. I’d tried to do the same for her when her mother got cancer. It was the toughest time of all our lives; we were all so close, did everything together, and shared so much love between our two little families. Joanna, Lucy’s mom, had made my mom and Tom promise to keep the families together. They had tried to do what she had wanted, and it had cost them Lucy, who just couldn’t accept that her dad had moved on so quickly, or that my mom could betray her best friend.

I tried so hard to reason with her, but that made me as guilty as them in her eyes. She didn’t want to hear anything that she didn’t agree with. And then she was gone, and I lost the best friend and most wonderful girl in the world. Considering the miles Tom and I had covered between us and the college campuses we had visited, I had to agree with Callie. I probably wouldn’t find her again.

And even if I did there was still the fact she was my stepsister to get past. Sure, we weren’t related by blood or anything, but way too many people would think it was wrong, and she probably would too. Maybe she never felt the same about me anyway. I always dreamed our friendship could become more, but something always seemed to get in the way.

“Earth to Cole? Anyone home? Sorry honey, I didn’t mean to sound so cruel,” Callie touched a slender hand to my arm, her nails as always perfectly manicured in a bright scarlet shade that shone and twinkled in the light. This little touch always amused me, as she never wore any other makeup, just her trademark talons that clicked loudly as she typed at record speed.

“No, you’re right. I need to move on. But what have you brought me here for? You guys don’t normally bring me in on all the goings-on at Glitch. Clearly you don’t want my advice on whether I think this is a good idea or not.”

A cheesy grin spread all over Jake’s moon-shaped face. “Well, we were wondering if you had time to do the coding for the app? I am snowed under with the updates to all the games, Callie is up to her ears with those odd girly recipe games and coupon apps and things she deals with,” Jake admitted.

They often threw me the odd coding job when they were snowed under. I had to admit I was grateful. They paid me well and it meant I had managed to make it through college and a year into law school without any student loans to pay off. Considering our family didn’t have much money to spare it had been a real godsend.

“Way to diminish some of the most successful apps we have on the books Jake,” Callie tried to look huffy, but only succeeded in grinning as idiotically as Jake.

They waited for my answer, both staring at me intently. Obviously, they were truly excited, and that usually bode well for them and their bank accounts. Their first project together, a search app for on-campus societies at UCLA, had been so popular that every university had requested they do one for them. They had dropped out, and never looked back – except to make sure I wasn’t floundering without them.

I considered the offer, trying to figure out if I could work it into my upcoming busy schedule. Callie’s nails tapped impatiently upon the table.

“Well, I do have my internship starting at the DA’s office in a few weeks, but I could probably have the bulk of it done for you by then, depending on how complex you need it,” I said and smiled.

They simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief – they had both been holding their breath for my response. They raised their beer glasses for a toast.

“To ‘Wooed and Won’ – it’s going to make us all filthy rich!” Callie cried happily. “Cheers!” We clinked the glasses loudly and drank deeply. Jake indicated to the bartender to bring another round of shots and it wasn’t long before we were all drunk as skunks.

“Hey Jake, you entering the eating contest?” the bartender asked as he brought another pitcher of beer to the table.

“Eating contest? Show me where and when!” Jake exclaimed enthusiastically, rising from his chair and almost falling straight back down. He just about managed to maintain his composure as we giggled and he headed off toward the stage.

“Oh poor baby, he thinks it’s going to be an all-you-can-eat thing,” Callie said, concern in her tinkling, mocking girly voice. “He will never manage to eat half the stuff on this list.” She was reading the flyer the bartender had left. I took it from her.

“You underestimate him Callie. I’ve seen him devour things that have made better men cry. There’s nothing on here he can’t get down. He’ll be fine.”

Callie looked at me, and I could swear I saw her eyes narrow. One of her eyebrows arched up and a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. That couldn’t be a good, I thought.

“Want to bet on it Kent?”

“Oh, really now?”

“Come on, put your money where Jake’s mouth is,” she chuckled.

“Why not, a nice friendly bet? Jake will not let me down when it comes to food.”

“Let’s choose some stakes shall we? If you win, what do you want from me?”

“That you do your impression of Tina Turner, on this table, tonight, in front of everyone,” I said, thinking of the one thing that would freak her out the most. She gulped nervously but rallied pretty quickly.

“Okay, I want you to be the first person to sign up to the app once the site is up and running, and I want you to date at least one girl from the site a week for a whole month.”

Now it was my turn to gulp. That was a pretty big stake.

“That’s not very fair…” I grumbled. “If I win you only have to be embarrassed for a max of five minutes, but if I lose I’ll have four night’s worth of torture to contend with!”

“Chicken?” she asked as she poked her tongue out. “Hey, think of it as you’d be doing us a favor. The girls who sign up will be ecstatic to get a date with you Cole. The feedback from them could be amazing for us. And you never know, you might even find the woman of your adult dreams, not just your childhood ones.”

“Fine! Sure, why not.” I crossed my fingers under the table and prayed I would not regret it.

2

“You did what?!” I yelled as Alison just grinned at me inanely. “How could you do something so stupid? I am not lonely. I do not need you to try and fix me up with your hairdresser’s sister’s cousin. And I certainly do not need you to put my details into an app like ‘Wooed and Won.’ I mean, what a ridiculous name. What do they know about how to match anybody in real life? I bet they end up pairing me with some physics nerd who couldn’t get a date if his life depended on it. That app is probably full of cheating husbands and the kind of guys that nobody would go near with a ten-foot pole!”

“Take a breath before you pass out, you’re turning purple! They don’t do the matching on this one. I know how fussy you are, and I’ve given up on pairing you off with anyone, but this might be cool. You browse the site, and you see what interests you,” she teased me, clearly not moved one bit by my outburst.

She wasn’t even trying to control her laughter. That just made me want to throttle her even more. Alison is great, really. She’s my best friend and I adore her, but sometimes she gets these crazy ideas in her head. Most people would just shove them to one side, but no, my kooky and cute buddy just has to act on them.