No Kiss Blogfest! Horray!

And it’s the Official No Kiss Blogfest day! Horray!

This is an excerpt from something I’ve been working on on-and-off for a long time now. Stephanie is the witness in a high-profile murder, and is now under the protection of the US Marshalls. Because she’s deaf, they had to call in Michael, because he’s one of their only people who knows American Sign Language. Stephanie has worked very hard to learn how to read lips, so sometimes he speaks to her, when signing is not convenient. They are flying her to his home town to hide because the murderers are now after her.

Stephanie was frozen in her seat. She hated flying. She’d always hated it. When she was growing up her family had taken one plane trip, to Disney World in Florida when she was six and they’d never flown anywhere ever again, not with her anyway. She’d been so terrified of the plane and everything that was going on that her parents had almost been asked to leave the plane. They’d rented a car to drive home and she had never gotten on a plane since, until now.

“We’ll be landing in about twenty minutes,” Michael said, sitting down next to her again.

Something, some noise most likely, distracted him before he’d barely sat down, and he got up and went back to the front of the plane. Stephanie wished he’d stop doing that. Every time he did that she was absolutely terrified that he’d just received news that the plan was crashing and they only had a few minutes left to live, not that she’d say that to anyone. She hadn’t even told anyone of her fear of flying. They were actually lucky she hadn’t started screaming like she had two decades before.

It wasn’t very long before Michael was back at her side. “Ever been to Chicago before?” he asked.

Stephanie nodded.

“My family has a farm about twenty minutes out of the city. My dad and my brother live out on the farm. There’s plenty of room for us to spread a little, more room than we had in your condo at the very least. We’ll have a bigger group with us, I’ll introduce you when we get there,” Michael explained.

“How long will we be there?” she asked, trying to ignore the lurching of her stomach as they started to descend a little bit.

“As long as it takes,” he replied, not looking at her eyes.

Suddenly the plane dropped. Stephanie fought to keep from screaming. Lord, please tell me this isn’t happening! She thought.

Michael must have seen her terror because he reached out and touched her arm. “Are you okay?” he asked.

* * * * *

“Why didn’t you tell me you were afraid of flying?” Michael asked, putting his arm around her. He would have pulled her in close to him, but then she couldn’t see what he had to say next. “Stephanie, you know I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. I wouldn’t put you anywhere I thought you wouldn’t be safe.” He spoke the words aloud, but quietly, not loud enough Amy could hear them over Thom’s snoring.

Then he pulled her in close. He could practically feel the fear coming from her body. For some reason it hurt a little. It hurt him that she didn’t trust him to keep her safe in this. Not that there was much he could do if the plane started to go down, but he wasn’t going to think about that.

Michael was amazed at Stephanie’s ability to trust him in the other situations they’d encountered thus far. He knew it had to be hard for her to not ask questions, to simply go along with what he said, but she did it. Over and over again she did it. He wanted to be worthy of her trust. He wanted to be someone she could trust through thick and thin; in the big things and the little things.

Something drew him to kiss her on the forehead. He simply brushed his lips against her soft skin, but it caused her to look up into his eyes. He felt something in the pit of his stomach as he gazed into her beautiful green eyes. That something made him want to press his lips to hers, to kiss all her fears and worries away. He saw the same something in her eyes and he leaned forward. Slowly Stephanie’s eyes fluttered shut as she licked her lips slightly.

Just before their lips met the plane dropped again and Stephanie stiffened before burying her face in his shirt.

Day Five of the Countdown to the No Kiss Blogfest

Some thoughts on the perfect almost kiss.

The perfect almost kiss.

What goes into the perfect almost kiss? What actually qualifies as an almost kiss that’s not a real kiss? Does it have to be on the lips or will any kiss disqualify it from the “almost” category?

For example: If someone goes in for the kiss and it ends up being instead rerouted (unintentionally or intentionally on the part of the kissee) by the turn of a head, landing on the cheek, does it still count? Or if the kisser kisses the kissee on the cheek or forehead (intentionally) instead of on the lips, does it count as an almost kiss?

Also, in order for a perfect almost kiss to occur does the kiss need to be interrupted? Can, rather than interruption, one member of the kiss decide that the kiss should not occur and therefore avert it? Would it still qualify for perfection?

Or, if they are interrupted, who/what must/should do the interrupting? Should it be a human force or can it be a so-called “Act of God” (be it happenstance or because God actually doesn’t want you to kiss)?

These are all questions one must consider (or at least, I have been considering) when composing the perfect almost kiss, because, as we all know, the perfect almost kiss can be almost as good as the real thing.

In fiction anyway.

Tomorrow's the big day!

I was going to add a clip or two for today from either the TV show gLee or Bones but could not find the clips I was looking for. They're both great shows, though, so check them out.

See ya' tomorrow! (Oh, and Happy New Year!)