Tell Tale Kiss

Chapter Two

Calem didn't know what was happening. One moment he was walking down the street and the next some woman was kissing him in a way that curled his toes and did other things to his body that would be indecent to mention.

He felt on fire as her body pressed against him and her fingers gripped his hair, holding him in place while she tortured him with her kiss. His mind shut down, and his body took over. He dropped his take-out food and started kissing the woman back.

Hell, he may have just found the love of his life and he didn't want to come off like some inexperienced high school kid, so he gave her back all she gave him and more. Calem smiled inwardly when he heard her sigh in bliss, and that's where the fantasy ended.

"What the hell?"

Calem found himself pulled away from his siren and was now face to face with...

Jackson Brewer!

Calem looked down to discover the woman who was kissing him was none other than Evelyn Quinn, the fiancée.

"Oh, shit!"

It was too late. There was no way to avoid what happened next as Jackson's meaty fist hit Calem in the face. Stunned, he staggered backward. Calem could hear the clicks of phone cameras and began to panic, even though his dazed brain wondered: Why do phones make a shutter sound when they don't have a shutter?

Calem struggled to clear his thoughts. Not important, brain! What was important now was that he... what? Should he run? Should he stay? No! Of course, he shouldn't stay. This was a disaster.

Thankfully, Evelyn turned around, and slapped him in the face, drawing all eyes to the couple, and allowing Calem to slip away into the crowd unnoticed. He touched his eye which had already begun to swell. It hurt like hell.

He wondered. Should he go to the emergency room? What if he is being followed? As a tabloid snoop, he knew he'd want to know who the guy was that Evelyn decided to kiss so passionately on the sidewalk, and would take the first opportunity to find out.

Calem ducked down a back alley and a few side streets until he felt certain he was alone, and then hailed a cab to take him back to the office.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" the cabbie wanted to know. "You get mugged or somethin'?"

"Yeah, something like that. Could you just keep your eyes on the road, please? I've already been through enough today. I really don't want to add a car crash to my list."

The cabbie shrugged, like it mattered little to him, and kept driving.

Calem dared a peek at his phone. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad. Social media was blowing up like a fireworks display on the Fourth of July. There were pics, clips, and straight-up videos popping up everywhere of the kiss.

The kiss... What was he thinking? He wasn't thinking. Evelyn made it impossible to think. All he could do was feel. Then he watched as someone made a looped GIF of him getting socked in the face over and over and over again. It looked as painful as it felt.

Calem switched off his phone and threw some bills at the driver to cover his fare. He paid him fifty bucks extra for his sunglasses, which the cabbie happily handed over. Calem slipped the shades on and entered the lobby and made a b-line for the elevator.

He felt a stab of guilt when he pressed the close door button on the intern that was desperate to make it inside while running and trying not to spill the tray of to-go cups he was carrying. Calem, however, was not in the mood to share.

He took off the shades to examine his eye in the mirrored paneling behind him. "So much for today being a good day." He slipped them back into place. The moment Calem stepped off the elevator, Janice was there and up his butt.