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“You didn’t get to kiss anyone tonight. That’s bad luck. Want to kiss me?”
“Is it bad luck?” Tim asked, his nose wrinkling as he thought through the digression.
Deep shrugged, and he shook his head. “I don’t think a pity kiss counts, but thanks for the offer.”
Irritation flared in her belly. As if she would pity-kissed anyone. Could he not see her? Someone this awesome didn’t have to kiss anyone, let alone kiss someone out of sympathy. Deep narrowed her eyes. Whether or not he kissed her, this misunderstanding was not staying on her record. “I’ve never pity-kissed anyone in my life. I did, however, kiss all of my friends tonight. Why shouldn’t I kiss my new friend too?”
“Oh.” Tim’s mouth stayed in the little O-shape long after the sound was gone. Eventually, he closed his mouth and blinked at her for a second, as if trying to make sense of the offer. Deep crossed her arms and waited, feeling her heartbeat pick up as heat flooded her face.
Why did she suddenly feel nervous about this? It wasn’t like a serious rejection if he decided not to kiss her, so why did she want him to say yes so badly? Maybe this was a bad idea. And barely two hours into her new resolution. She was still stinging from the last rejection. She didn’t need to go for a double. Taking a big breath, she started, “You know—”
“Okay.”
Deep’s heart stopped, along with her brain function. Was he agreeing to this? She narrowed her eyes at him, and Tim shrugged, confirming that he had, in fact, agreed to kiss her.
The gesture was small, but she felt the rest of her doubt fall away, along with her disappointment. Slowly, she stood up as Tim slipped down from the bed and walked over to her. She didn’t really remember walking toward him, but somehow they were standing in front of one another. He looked nervous, and she felt half a smile tug at the corner of her mouth. This was adorable. Of all the people she kissed tonight, he might be her favorite.
“Alright. So how do we—”
Deep put a hand on his chest and he stopped speaking. Moving closer to him, she closed the gap between all but a fraction of an inch. Pausing, she ran her hand up and around the back of his neck, waiting for him to be ready. For a heartbeat, he hesitated, then leaned in.
The kiss was shy at first. As if he were afraid that if he really kissed her, she might disappear like some sort of New Year’s fairytale. Deep moved a little closer to him, running her other hand up his chest to meet at the back of his neck. Something about the gesture seemed to reassure him, and he deepened the kiss.
It was suddenly something very different. Wilder and hotter than she’d expected. The buzz of electricity between them kicked into high gear, drowning out anything she’d been thinking. The only sense she had was the feel of him. The taste of sugar still on his lips, the pull of his hands on hips, the feel of his tongue in her mouth.
The sound of her phone buzzing against the desk registered in the back of her mind and she had just decided to ignore it, when Tim paused.
“Your phone.” Tim’s voice sounded hazy, like he was trying to make himself think. Stupid campus safety took hours to get here, and they chose now to arrive?
“Took them long enough.” Tim stepped back and Deep felt the fog slowly lift from her brain.
“I’d better get back to my floor.” Deep gestured to the door, feeling a little unsteady on her feet.
Tim looked crestfallen, then pulled his shoulders back. “Yeah, don’t want to miss them, or you’ll never get in.”
“Bye, new friend.” Deep backed out of the door with a small wave, ignoring the squeeze in her heart. “Happy New Year.”
“You too,” Tim said, his cheeks pink as she turned and walked down the hall, the cold, stale dorm air washing over her and bringing her back to her senses.
She didn’t need a crush on her new friend, any more than she needed one on her old friend. She would not be kissing him again, either. This year was for her being her, whatever that looked like. No more playing stupid or living someone else’s future. Best to leave the nerdy boy where she found him, if not for her sake, than his. Boys like that got their hearts broken by girls like her. And Tim, with his good-natured love of red cars, Mountain Dew, and pad thai, didn’t deserve that.
3
The wind bitat her neck, and not for the first time, Deep regretted cutting off most of her hair. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the sleek A-line cut her friends in Milan convinced her to get. Letting go of about two feet of hair had its perks, but keeping her neck warm wasn’t one of them.
“Cheers!” Shannon shouted, bouncing up to her with two glasses of champagne. Handing her a glass, she frowned as she tapped her glass against Deep’s. “Our last New Year’s together.”
Deep grinned and swallowed a saucy remark about the fact that Shannon always managed to wander away with someone well before midnight, so the pair of them had never actually been together anywhere near the ball drop. Taking a sip of bubbly, she opted for a less snarky response.
“Our last New Year’s in college, you mean. If you had asked freshman year us if senior year us would be studying abroad in Europe, being fancy and freezing a rooftop party, would you have believed it?”
“I mean, after you become a fashion major, sure. It was really just a question of which of us was going to Paris and who was going to Milan.” Shannon laughed.
“Right.” Deep rolled her eyes, but laughed anyway. “You saw this coming in your crystal ball. Probably predicted the Huskies Abroad party would be in Zürich this year, too.”
“Of course I did.” Shannon grinned. “And I predict that I am gonna hook up with someone named Brandon tonight.”
“Because you’re psychic, or you just saw him walk in and you’ve been social media stalking him all week?” Deep smirked. Brandon had been Shannon’s not-so-secret crush since sophomore year. They weren’t usually in the same place at the same time, so it never seemed to work out. But much to Deep’s chagrin, as soon Shannon found out he was in Zürich, she’d been trying to force a meet-up since the moment they got off the train.
