Lessons On Love

15: Sold Out Or Sell Out

For the amazing book trailer she made on the side! I just absolutely love it!! Thank you!!

Chapter 15: Sold Out Or Sell Out?

            It would be easy for Marshall to kiss me at that point – what with the atmosphere and all the cheesy lines leading up to that moment – so to get things going a little bit faster, I leaned into him and stuck out my lips. To make it easier for him. To get the stupid thing over with. But I kept my eyes open so I could take in everything and lock it in my memory for future references.

            Marshall doesn’t exactly react to me at first, and when he finally does, he only narrowed his eyes at me inquisitively as a smile played on his lips. “Camila,” he mumbled slowly. “What are you doing?”

            I withdrew my lips, but kept my body positioned the way it was. “I’m waiting for you to kiss me,” I told him.

            He laughed. “Now why would I do that?”

            “Because it looked like you wanted to.”

            Moving away from me so that we were standing beside each other again and not facing each other like before, Marshall grabbed the dirty mixing bowl and started eating some of the leftover cookie dough. “Remember how we had an agreement about me teaching you things? I said it’ll cost you twenty bucks an hour remember?” I nodded and he quickly continued. “Well, kisses are extra.”

            “How much are we talking?”

            “Ten bucks each.”

            I groaned openly at him. “You’re such a sleaze! Why would I pay ten bucks to have you kiss me when the school’s having a kissing booth next week where I can get a kiss for two bucks?”

            Marshall, like the good salesman that he is, tried to bring back my business with his charm. “Yes Camila, that’s true. That is definitely true! Why would you spend ten bucks on a kiss when you can get five kisses for the same price next week, but you’re missing the biggest point here!! The standard of those kisses from the kissing booth are like… Wal-Mart! Target!” He patted his own chest twice. “Me? I’m like Prada. Gucci.”

            I laughed since the way he was selling himself as a product never fails to amuse me. It was like he was a prostitute, but a proud one. “I’ll think about it,” I said, turning my attention back to washing the dishes in front of me.

            Marshall chuckled and swept his finger in the mixing bowl one more time before dropping it into the sink where I was giving everything a soak before loading it in the dishwasher. “I’m just playing around with you Camila.” I turned to face him and found myself staring straight into his eyes – something that I won’t bother denying has a hypnotizing effect on me. “I didn’t kiss you earlier because if I did, it wouldn’t have meant anything. I didn’t want that. But when the right moment comes, I’ll sweep you off your feet and leave you panting.” He leaned into me again, tilting my chin towards him. “I promise.”

            My own lips mirrored the slightly playful grin on his face. This is the thing I like most about Marshall – how he intertwines everything together, tells me both the lies and the truth, and lets me pick for myself what I like best. What surprised me though, was that I was slowly losing grip of what’s real and what’s simply nothing more than words. When he said he was only playing around with me, which parts does he actually mean?