Truth or Dare: A Sweet Romantic Comedy Collection Read online

  He’s had girlfriends through college. I dated around too. We’re finally both single, back in the same city, and setting up our adult lives. Pretty soon, one of us will end up in a serious relationship.

  And once that happens, we will never be together.

  I picture a tall athletic blonde on his arm, stroking his chest and flicking back her hair with a giggle at one of his jokes. We’re at a party, and a shiny ring is sitting on her wedding ring finger.

  The image lights a fire in my stomach, and all of my thoughts evaporate. No more thinking. No more nerves.

  I tug on his hands and lean over the steam to meet his lips. Maybe the heat is getting to my head? Everything is fuzzy. I drag my hands through his damp hair and press my lips on his, testing the proverbial waters.

  He responds. His nose nuzzles my cheek and he sucks on my bottom lip in a way that makes me want to scream.

  He grips the back of my neck and the two of us moan, in unison. No teeth clashing. No fumbling.

  This kiss is steamy. The bubbles lick at our heated bodies as we lose ourselves in the moment. I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve actually done it, if those walls have come crashing down, when I lose my footing and crash to the bottom of the hot tub.

  The jets blast my face, pushing me back to the surface, as a pair of strong hands lift me by my arms.

  “Are you okay?” Cameron’s worried face comes into view and I blink water out of my eyes. “I’m––I’m fine,” I splutter. I want to say, “Where were we?” and get back to kissing, but Cameron lets go of me and backs away, settling on the other side of the tub again.

  He rubs his mouth with the back of his hand and I can’t decide if he’s disgusted or just deep in thought.

  “Everything okay?” I ask, my stomach knotting. Cameron’s face breaks into a smile and he looks at me again.

  “Fine… We both forgot to set up the camera.”

  My face falls. If that’s his first thought after that kiss, then I’m not out of the friendzone. What the heck is it going to take to get out? What is this friendship box made of? Iron steel?

  If I want Cameron to be mine, it’s going to take more than one short steamy kiss.

  Cameron

  There are a million reasons why I shouldn’t be with Holly. Her rich parents expect her to be with someone established, successful and, - most importantly - rich.

  In addition to that, she wants to travel the world shooting movies, walking on red carpets, and telling funny stories on late-night TV shows.

  I want to stay in the city teaching kids how to use acting to build their confidence the way I did when I was in school.

  I've spent so many years pretending; I don’t even know who the real Cameron is.

  During the whole of middle school, I was the kid with a stutter. The other kids laughed at me, so I avoided any opportunity to speak or stand in the spotlight. Drawing attention put me in the firing line for more ridicule.

  Then I met my first love, drama. I found it when my older brother starred in an amateur production of Macbeth at the local theatre. At home, Howie was an introverted dweeb; moody and seriously lacking in vocabulary. But in Macbeth, he was bold, loud and delivered those complex lines like a true Shakespearian actor. His transformation impressed me. So I tried it out too.

  When I stepped on the stage for the first time, all I could see was blinding light. Everyone in the audience disappeared. It was amazing. I felt free.

  If it wasn’t for drama, I never would have worked out how to be cool. I created this persona with the help of John Travolta’s movies and just ran with it. I acted cool and chilled out, even though beneath the surface, I was a bundle of nerves.

  Then I met Holly; this vibrant, bubbly blonde who laughs heartily at toilet jokes and chows down a hamburger without commenting on her waistline. She has confidence seeping out of her pores.

  She is a star that lights up my whole life.

  I had a crush on her throughout high school, and the summer before we started college I almost asked her out. Almost.

  Michelle’s experiment… Does she think we’d kiss and then put everything aside and get together?

  Life isn’t that simple.

  But the taste of her berry lip gloss is still on my tongue and I’m pretty sure I can still feel the press of her pouty lips against mine.

  She's looking at me now with a deep frown, and there's a little line forming between her brows. She looks at me like that when I'm in trouble. Like the time I ate the last donut at Michelle’s party.

  Right now I can’t work out what I’ve done wrong.

  “Right,” I say, standing up with a splash. “I’ll set everything up.”

  I go to my phone, but Holly grabs my arm and points to her sopping wet hair and the trails of mascara running down her face. “I can’t do this looking like a drowned rat.”

  She doesn’t look like a drowned rat. Not with her button nose and pinchable cheeks. Rats have pointy features.

  Still, she’s right. I force a laugh.

  “Here, let me help you.” I thrust my hand in the water and shower her face.

  “Are you kidding me right now?” Holly gargles, rubbing her eyes. She pulls her hands away from her face and blinks at me.

  “Hey, you haven’t got black stuff on your cheeks anymore,” I point out. Holly huffs and rubs off the last of the smudged make up around her eyes. Seeing her all disgruntled and dripping wet grips my heart. I edge closer, licking my lips, and I can’t help looking at hers. I’m jealous of the water droplets clinging to her bottom lip, making it glisten like something out of a cartoon.

  Her big eyes go wide as I settle next to her.

  “What are you doing?” she blurts. My jaw clenches at her response, but she’s so adorable, it pulls me in like a moth to the flame.

  There are a million reasons why I shouldn’t kiss Holly, and yet right now I can’t think of a single one. Instead, I cup the back of her neck and make the move.

  She starts, her lips rigid, but then she melts like butter underneath my feathery touch. I brush my lips over hers, closing my eyes to magnify the sensations. She drapes her hands over my shoulders and kisses me back.

  Kissing Holly lights up a fire inside of me. She’s like an addiction. The more I taste, the more I want. There will never be a time when it feels natural to stop. I lift her up and pull her onto my lap, then I wrap my arms around her body and squeeze her like she’s my very own teddy bear. I want to snuggle her. Kiss her. Swing her around in my arms and squeeze every part of her to check she’s real and this isn’t a dream.

  She tears her mouth from mine and her face is flaming red.

  “I should get changed. Meet me in the living room?”

  Then she leaps out of the tub like a cat, but not fast enough for me to miss the fuzzy patch on the bathing suit over her butt. She wraps herself in the old giraffe towel and practically gallops along the path back to the house.

  Bewildered by her response, I drag a hand through my hair and grin like a fool.

  If I wasn’t sure about my real feelings before, they’ve become inexplicably clear now. I don’t just like Holly. I crave her in a way I never thought possible.

  Holly

  It takes thirty minutes in a hot shower for my breathing to return to normal. I finally stumble out, my skin red and blotchy and ears ringing as I try to process what happened in the hot tub.

  Cameron came onto me. He kissed me.

  The heat of his stare burns in my memory and every atom in my body is having a party. I dry off my hair, keeping my eyes closed and replaying every second in my head.

  He knew the camera hadn’t been set up. So what he did wasn’t an act. Unless he was just warming up for the real thing?

  Cameron likes method acting. But surely his racing pulse thumping against my forearms couldn't have been fake. And how can he make his baby blues so dark with desire? Not to mention the way he held me like I was the most precious thing in the world.

  I
squeal with excitement, hoping the screeching hairdryer drowns out the sound.

  Cameron James kissed me.

  And we have to do it again at least once––for the dare.

  This day just might be the best day of my life.

  As if she picked up on my excitement via radio frequency or something, Katia calls me.

  “How’s it going?” she asks. I know she's trying to sound nonchalant, but her words come out too fast to fool me.

  “It’s been… um,” I say, struggling to string a line of words together.

  “Have you recorded the kiss, yet?” Katia asks, pressing for more details. I hum to myself. “Not exactly.”

  “Uh-oh, still haven’t summoned the courage to kiss him yet?” Katia asks, sounding worried.

  I grin and brush my tingling lips with my fingertips. “Oh, no that’s not been the problem.”

  Katia gasps, then a loud whisper pricks up my ears. “What is it? What did she say?”

  “Is that Michelle?” I ask. Even in a whisper, I can recognize that voice anywhere.

  “Yeah, she’s here,” Katie says. Michelle demands to know more. So I take a deep breath and spill. I tell them everything. From the awkward teeth-knocker moment just before we went to bed to falling headfirst into the tub during our steamy kiss.

  “And he knew the camera wasn’t set up, but he came over and kissed me again anyway,” I finish. Katia and Michelle hum in unison.

  “Interesting,” Michelle says.

  “Very interesting,” Katia adds. I roll my eyes, picking up the smile in their voices. It’s not like me to over-analyze every little thing. That’s Michelle’s quirk.

  But with Cameron, I can’t help it. First, I think he’s just focused on getting the dare finished. I mean, he backed off after our first smooch in the hot tub. But then he came back.

  Why?

  This hot/cold behavior is making me dizzy.

  “Well, Jonah said Cameron talks about you in his sleep, always has,” Michelle says. My breath hitches at the revelation. Jonah and Cameron were roommates in college and now share an apartment on the east side of the city.

  “What does he say?” I ask, my curiosity piqued.

  “Jonah isn’t the type of guy to offer specifics,” Michelle quips back. I look at the ceiling with a huff. It’s true. I’m amazed Michelle even got that sliver of information from Jonah.

  Is it a surprise I’ve always been on Cameron’s mind? I guess not. We’re close. Maybe he just dreams about me doing something dumb like falling over or eating too many corn dogs at a baseball game?

  Or, maybe he secretly feels the same way about me? Maybe he longs for us to be something more than the platonic thing we’ve got going on.

  I snort at the thought. Well, there’s nothing platonic about kissing Cameron.

  “What if this dare changes things between us and there’s no going back?” I worry aloud.

  “That’s kinda the idea, right?” Michelle says, echoing my thoughts from last night. I look at the phone in my hand, chewing my lip. Recording a kiss is fun. I was 100% committed and focused on that part of the dare, but I'm only just coming around to the part about putting our kiss online.

  “Girls, what happens after we upload the video to the internet?” My mind conjures up pictures of my folks hitting play, and the barrage of questions that will follow.

  Are you dating Cameron?

  Are you two getting married?

  Should we call his parents?

  My folks like Cameron and they know his parents. But will that stop my dad from wanting to rip his throat out when he sees a video of him giving me mouth to mouth for the whole world to see? Unlikely.

  “There will be consequences to this dare,” Michelle says, and my thoughts shatter like glass. “But the idea of these challenges is to push us all out of our comfort zone and become comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

  “Wait. Are you counting on all of us choosing a dare?” Katia cuts in.

  “Come on, nobody picks truth,” Michelle scoffs.

  I smile at my phone, listening to my two besties bickering with each other.

  “Then why bother even calling it truth or dare? Why not just give all of us challenges?”

  “Because where’s the fun in that? Besides, remember all those summer nights playing truth or dare in high school? Now we’re all back from college, I thought it would be fun to recapture the good old days…”

  “Honestly, I don’t think any of us want to relive those days.”

  A soft knock on the door interrupts the call and I look up.

  “Hey Holly, did you fall asleep? You’ve been in there for hours,” Cameron says, his voice muffled.

  I end the call quickly, jump to my feet, and look around the darkened room, only just noticing that it's now night-time.

  I throw the door open and Cameron is leaning against the doorframe with a smile on his face.

  “Sorry,” I blurt. “I was on the phone.”

  Cameron stands upright and crosses his arms across his broad chest. “Ah, is Michelle checking up on us?”

  I can’t help smiling back. My stomach lets out a rumble. “Are you hungry?” I ask. Breakfast feels like days ago.

  Cameron points at me with a grin.

  “Way ahead of you, I ordered Chinese.”

  The two of us sit on the couch with the TV on, eating our Chinese food.

  “I didn’t realize I was starving,” I say, leaning back after I've devoured every last bit of my chow mein.

  The spices warm my soul and I close my eyes.

  “That’s what I love about you,” Cameron says, and my eyes fly open. I catch the look of mild horror on his face before he settles back into a casual smirk. It’s not the first time he’s told me he loves me. But now we’ve kissed, it takes on a much less platonic meaning.

  “Go on…?” I press. He shuffles away from me and places his empty pot on the coffee table. “Well,” he says, wiping his mouth. “You’re not like a normal girl.”

  I raise a brow at him, unimpressed by the vague sentiment.

  “Girl?” I say, exchanging my empty Chinese box for a drink.

  Just how long does it take for a girl to be recognized as a woman these days?

  When she’s thirty-five?

  Or maybe not until she’s picking up her first pension check?

  Cameron smirks at me like I broadcasted my thoughts across the room. “You’ll always be that girl in drama class to me.”

  And just like that, my irritation dissolves. I smile back.

  We sit in silence, and Cameron doesn't elaborate on his point. But I don’t care. We sit goo-goo-eyed next to each other, totally at ease in each other’s company.

  Then our phones vibrate in unison. We both reach for them on the coffee table.

  “Ah, it’s from Michelle,” Cameron says. I gulp as I look down at my phone to read the text.

  You’ve got one hour to post a sizzling makeout video online. Forfeit the dare and suffer the consequences – M.

  Cameron

  They say ‘time flies when you’re having fun’, but how did we get here so fast? We have less than an hour before our deadline.

  I thought this dare would be simple.

  Set up the camera. Make out with my best friend. Upload to the internet, and done.

  I also thought that kissing Holly would help remind me that what we have is completely platonic. That our kisses would be like most of the others I'd done onstage; sterile, mechanical.

  But the more I think about it, the hungrier I am to take Holly in my arms and kiss her until we both run out of breath. Maybe even longer, if that’s possible.

  “I’m gonna go clean up,” Holly says. I clear up the empty containers from the coffee table and prop my phone up on a stack of books.

  Holly returns just as I’ve completed setting up the scene.

  “You opened the curtains?” she asks, with her perfectly shaped brows arched. I take a moment to admire the soft wav
es of her golden hair falling past her shoulders. I love the way her hair reflects the light and the delicate way her chest rises and falls with every breath.

  “Oh.” I stop my staring and turn to look at the dark window instead. “You can see the city lights. I thought that would make a great backdrop.”

  I look back just in time to catch Holly’s eyes roll. She doesn’t need to speak; I know what she’s thinking.

  Typical Cameron, always gotta have the perfect stage.

  I hold out my hand and gesture for her to come over. Her nose wrinkles as she giggles and joins me on the couch. Then she glances at my phone leaning against the pile of books and throws her head back with a laugh.

  “That looks so professional,” she teases, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

  “Do you have a tripod?” I ask. Holly shakes her head.

  “I should have asked Michelle to leave hers.”

  She slides onto the couch next to me and her thigh brushes against mine. The light touch obliterates any concerns about the camera set up and ignites a fire in my chest.

  “So… How long are we going to do this? We never worked out what qualifies a makeout?”

  I shake my head at Holly’s over-thinking. “I tell you what, whenever you feel like stopping, stop,” I say. I'm trying to sound confident but there’s a slight tremor in my voice. Holly appears not to notice though, and her stare turns vacant.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever want to stop kissing you,” she says. Her words are as soft as a summer breeze, but they land on my ears like a hurricane.

  “Neither do I,” I blurt, my face burning as I grin at her. Holly looks at me like the President just declared world peace. “Are you for real?” She grasps my hands and bounces on the couch with a squeal.

  “What does this mean? We’ve been best friends for… Well, you know, ages,” Holly says, her eyes misty.

  “Well, yeah…” I reply. Right now, the blood has drained from my head and I can't find words to form a sentence.