Kissing Booth

"It's your lucky day, honey!" the man told her as he handed her his ticket.

Brad wondered if she was holding her breath as she puckered up. She let the man kiss her, but she didn't kiss back, and as far as kisses went this was the kind grandmas gave. The lips were pursed and never moved, and Brad had to admit he couldn't blame her. And that made him wonder if that was the kind of kiss he'd get. That thought, in turn, bummed him out as he'd never once thought it might be a one-way...ticket.

The man stepped aside and as he passed Brad, he said, "Man, oh man! She is so fine!"

The young firefighter only nodded as he moved toward Kayla who saw him and smiled.

"Well, well. If it isn't one of my two favorite firefighters in the city of Omaha!" she said with a smile and a laugh.

"And you're my favorite MADD member."

"Fair enough," she said with a little laugh as he handed her the tickets.

"All four at once or one at a time, huh?" she asked with a little laugh.

"I already feel guilty about leaving my partner alone, so...all at once."

"Someone's a glutton for punishment," Kayla said with another little laugh.

"Come on. Kissing me can't be that bad. Can it?" Brad said, knowing she meant him.

His lightheartedness made her laugh before she said, "Okay. Kiss number one."

He got the same pucker the 'hunky guy' in front of him got. He knew that's how it had to be, but it was so unsatisfying it showed on his face in spite of his best attempt to hide the disappointment.

"Number two?" she asked as she puckered up again.

This time, when he kissed her, he didn't pull away until she did. It was the same as the first one except that it lasted maybe a full second instead of a fraction of a second.

He saw the look on Kayla's face and could tell she wasn't upset, so he smiled and told her that one was better.

"I...I believe this is number three," she said without the smile, a different sort of look in her eyes.

Again, he didn't pull away, and after a second or so, he felt her lips open ever-so slightly as she kissed him back.

"Wow," Brad whispered as their lips parted. "Now that was a kiss."

He waited for her to look at him, and when she did, he could sense something going on. He wasn't sure, but he was fairly confident something had indeed just happened.

So when they kissed for the fourth time, he put his hand behind her head and really kissed her. He felt the slightest pull against his hand then felt it stop. Kayla's lips parted and this time she really kissed him. It wasn't deep or passionate, but it was definitely a very real, very nice kiss.

"That was amazing," he whispered as he pulled away.

Kayla barely looked at him, but she did give him the quickest of looks. It was that shy, coy look he loved; a look that told him she either liked it as much as he did or that she at least didn't mind him kissing her.

"Thank you," she said just before he turned around. "For the donation."

"The pleasure was all yours," he quipped with a straight face, causing her to laugh which made him feel better.

The next man was waiting impatiently, but Brad didn't care. He knew Kayla got the play on words. He watched her smile at him before puckering up for her next kiss from the next person in line who happened to be an 18-year old high school senior. Having seen the open-mouthed kiss, he fully expected to get one, too. But to his chagrin the beautiful, older woman wouldn't budge even when the young man mentioned the 'double standard'.

As Brad walked back to his own booth, the kid walked up to him and said, "I know I'm only 18, but it can't be that. I have all kinds of hot chicks hitting on me."

He gave Brad the once over then said, "It's the uniform, dude. If I was wearing that, she'd have given me a kiss like you got and some tongue."

Not wanting to be a jerk or remind the young man that he was being rude, Brad only smiled and said, "When you turn 19 you can apply for the academy."

"Seriously?" the boy asked, surprising the firefighter.

"One-hundred percent."

"Can you tell me how?" he asked, now very interested.

"Sure. But I believe my partner could do a better job seeing how she just graduated six months ago."

"Whoa! She's hot!" the kid said as they got closer.

"She's also tough, so I'd recommend keeping your comments to yourself."

"About what?" Kathy asked as they stopped in front of her.

"This fine young man is interested in being a firefighter. Can you give him the lowdown?"

"Sure. I'd be happy to," Kathy said before asking him, "so...how old are you?"

Brad stood around mostly looking at his watch every few minutes as Kathy talked to the prospective candidate before he left with as much information as she could provide.

"He was really nice," she said before Brad could ask how things went.

"Yeah. He seemed like a good kid. You think he'll follow through?"

"I don't know. Things have a way of changing with time, so this might only be a passing fancy."

She started to ask him something then stopped.

"What?" Brad then asked, knowing she wanted to say more as he again thought about how things were changing with him as time passed.

"Oh, it's nothing really. I was just gonna ask about, you know, your donation. At the kissing booth."

Brad thought that's what she was going to ask and told her, "Oh. They were...nice."

"They? As in...more than one?"

"Um...yes. As in...four?" Brad replied, a little wince on his face out of mild embarrassment.

Kathy managed a laugh and told him, "Well...good for you."

Not sure what more to say and unconvinced she meant that, Brad asked if she was ready to leave yet.

"More than ready," she told him. "Now I know why the other guys don't volunteer for this."

Brad laughed and told her it wasn't exactly glamorous and reminded her they'd be packing up before she knew it.

At 8:45 they started getting things ready to put away knowing they were done at 9pm. It was very unlikely anyone else was going to drop by in the time remaining, so they did what they could so they could leave right at nine.

At two minutes to 'til, Kathy said, "If you don't mind, I'll grab a couple of those bags and head out. I'll fire up the engine and we'll be ready to roll as you as you get there."

"Great. I'll pick up the rest of the gear and be right behind you."

Brad gave no thought to the fact that Kathy, a female, picked up the lightest bags leaving the heavier ones for him. He didn't think of himself as being overly politically correct, but then, many things had been drummed into him over the course of his lifetime, and thinking of men and women as equals was one of them. He'd never bought into it, not even in college, but it wasn't something he ever gave much thought to.

Women and men absolutely were equal in terms of intelligence and as far as the law was concerned. But anyone who thought there were NO difference between men and woman was either 'woke' to the point of being brainwashed or not awake at all.

Were someone to challenge him he'd tell them without hesitation that he'd never yet met a woman who was even close to being as strong as he was. There were, of course, women who were bigger and stronger than him, but there were very, very few of them. But that wasn't the kind of thing one mentioned around the station, even during a fire where someone had to be carried out of a burning building. Were that to happen to him and Kathy, he would always be the one doing the carrying, and even then no one would bother bringing it up after the fact, keeping the meme alive and well in theory—just not in practice.

So as he slung the heaviest bag over his right shoulder a couple of minutes later he took a last look around, picked up the other heavy bag in his left hand, and headed out. But he'd only gone a few steps when he heard a female voice call out his name.

He turned to look and smiled when he saw Kayla.

"Hey. You leaving, too?"

Kayla caught up him then said, "I am. I'm not a night owl, and now that we have someone in the booth who is, she can stay until midnight, and I can home and get some sleep."

He about to say, "That's great," when Kayla laughed and said, "because people my age need their beauty sleep."

He'd stopped to wait for and she was now walking beside him.

"Your age. Listen to you."

"Ha! That's easy for...someone your age...to say," she replied with a laugh.

"And as far as the beauty part goes, whatever you've been doing, you should keep doing because it's definitely working."

"Oh, my goodness! I had no idea you were a flatterer," she told him with another little laugh.

He tried to imitate Yogi Berra as he said, "Hey, I just calls 'em like I sees 'em."

That, too, made her laugh even though she had no idea who he was imitating.

"So did MADD make some decent money tonight?" Brad asked her.

"We did."

"Nice."

"Seems there were several generous men who bought multiple tickets."

"Ah. Okay," Brad said as he looked at her and asked if anyone bought more than four.

"Just one person."

"I hope he didn't win your heart."

The way Brad said it made her laugh yet again and she told him she liked his sense of humor.

"What makes you think I wasn't serious?" he said in an overly serious way.

She smiled but didn't laugh when she asked him if it mattered.

"I just want to know if I have any competition," he told her just as seriously.

"Competition, huh?" she said as Brad stood there looking at her, that serious look still there.

"Yes. Competition."

"I wasn't aware anyone was competing."

Brad stopped, and in spite of the 50-pound bag he was toting, turned toward her and even more seriously said, "Well, yeah. I mean, isn't that what men do? Compete for the beautiful girl?"

He even tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow.

Kayla tried hard not to laugh before telling him, "Let me just say there were very few ticket holders I didn't mind kissing tonight."

Brad dropped the bag as though her words had just sapped his strength.

"Hold on there. You said...very few. Are you telling me there is someone else?"

Kayla was having such a nice time verbally sparring with him in a fun, flirty way she laughed harder than she had since they started talking.

"I'm hurt," Brad told her as he put a hand over his heart as he dropped the bag.

"How about this. Yours were the most pleasant kisses of the evening. By far."

She smiled then asked if that helped.

"A little," he replied as though he might possibly be willing to forgive her for some imaginary sin or transgression.

"You're a very nice young man, Brad," she told him, actually wounding his pride by using the word 'young'.

"I'm not that young," he told her, trying to pretend he was only kidding.

"No, I suppose you're not. But when someone's half my age, it's..."

"Hey, hey, hey. Hold on there. Half you age? You can't be anywhere near 50. In fact, you can't possibly even be 40. And I'd be very surprised if you're much over 30. So...I'm just not buyin' that."

"Fifty?" she asked before realizing what he meant.

She quickly did the math and laughed.

"Oh. No. Okay. Maybe not half my age then. Just...close to it."

"That's better," Brad told her with that same look on his face. "But I'm still not buying it."

She thought about telling him how old she was, but saying it out loud made her feel a lot older so she settled for laughing and telling him she'd enjoyed talking with him.

"We could talk some more if you ever..."

"Brad! There you are!"

Both of them turned and saw Kathy walking their way.

"I knew you were a little behind me, but I thought you got lost. Or worse."

"It's my fault," Kayla told her. "I was leaving at the same time, and we started talking, so if he's late, that's on me."

Seeing Kayla laughing and talking with Brad made her bristle, but she forced herself to play it off without success.

"The engine's running," Kathy said rather tersely, looking only at Brad.

"I need to run, too," Kayla said as she wished them both a goodnight and telling them how much she appreciated what they did for the community.

By the time he slung the huge bag back over his shoulder again and picked up the one he dropped, Kayla was a good 50 feet ahead of them.

Even though she'd promised herself she wouldn't say a word about what seemed to her like flirting, she had to know. Once Brad got to the idling engine she began talking.

"So it would appear that you find her rather...interesting."

"Kayla? Yeah. She's...she's really nice."

"Just...nice?"

"No, not just nice, but I believe she kind of put me in my place because of my age."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I was kind of...kidding around...and then she mentioned how she was 'twice my age' even though she's nowhere near that old."

"Why do you say that? I'd guess her to be at least 35."

"What? No way. She...she looks..."

Again, Brad, who'd already forgotten about Kathy's feelings for him, realized what was going on and stopped talking. He set the bags down for a moment then threw them on the engine as they got in and headed to the firehouse.

"You never finished telling me how she looks," Kayla said after waiting a few minutes of silent travel.

Brad had been deep in thought again about this beautiful, older woman he'd kissed four times and was wondering just how much older than him she was and if it really made that big a difference to her when he realized Kathy was talking.

"What's that?" he asked, knowing he hadn't heard a word.

"Never mind. It's not important," she told him.

She clammed up after that and didn't say another word until she told him 'goodbye' a half hour later.

While Kathy sat at home once again trying to understand why she kept going after the wrong guys, Brad found himself unable to shake the way he felt about Kayla.

From a logical standpoint it made some amount of sense. She was an attractive, single woman, and he thought of himself as a decent-looking, single man who'd been told he was 'hot' many times by a lot of different women. But he also knew that age mattered to most people, and to many of them, it mattered a lot. That also made sense to him as people felt more comfortable with someone who'd experienced mostly the same things growing up and into adulthood.

And yet he didn't think it was all that important to know about certain cultural influences someone experienced before he was born whether it was a movie, a song, or some kid's cartoon. After all, did it really matter whether or not he grew up watching Scooby Doo?

He didn't stop to think how that particular cartoon first aired in 1969, long before even Kayla had been born. It was more in line with people his parents' age, but it was the first thing that popped into his head as he tried to minimize the whole age thing.

Setting up took a lot less time the following day, and as they got ready, Brad kept watching for Kayla to show up. But when the fairgrounds opened their gates, she was still nowhere to be found.

A couple of hours later he peeked into the MADD booth and saw another woman who looked older and much less attractive. She wasn't doing anything so he strolled in and introduced himself.

"Oh, okay. Brad. Yes. Kayla mentioned you," she told him immediately. "I'm Marie."

"She did?"

"Yes. You made quite the impression on her," the woman said with a smile on her round face.

She smiled then said, "And now I see why."

"Oh. Gosh. Um...thank you."

"She's not feeling well today and asked me to step in for her."

"I hope I didn't make her sick," Brad said, as though that could actually be the cause.

Marie laughed and assured him it wasn't.

She leaned closer then quietly said, "But she did tell me there were a couple of guys who did."

"So you're today's...victim?" Brad teased.

The woman made a sour face then said, "We uh, we're not going to make much money today I'm afraid."

Brad wanted to tell her that wasn't true, but the um...truth...was that the woman was right. She was...heavy...and while not unattractive, she wasn't anywhere near as pretty as Kayla. He had no idea she'd lost over half of the extra weight she'd put on, but that didn't really matter when it came to enticing men into buying tickets for a kissing booth.

Brad pulled both of his pockets out then said, "I kind of spent all of mine yesterday."

"Oh, I definitely heard about that, too," she said with a look and a smile.

"I'm afraid it was all in vain, though," Brad admitted as he shove his pockets back in.

"I wouldn't exactly say that," Marie told him, a little smile on her face.

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. She talked about you quite a bit."

"She did?"

Brad wasn't trying to be cryptic, he was just shocked to hear what Marie was telling him.

"She did. And I can tell you that were you a few years older, or were she a few years younger, she'd have probably given you her number last night."

"Brad! What the hell? We have a class starting!"

He and Marie both turned the same way and saw Kathy standing there with her hands on hips and an unhappy look on her face.

"I think that's my cue," Brad told her.

"It's my fault!" Marie called out to the younger, female firefighter.

Kathy didn't say anything, at least not to Marie. But as Brad walked by her she muttered something about using the same lame excuse as the other woman.

The day dragged on even though there was quite a bit more interest in their booth than the day before. Brad wanted to talk to Marie again in the worst way, but after what happened last night and earlier that day, he stayed with his partner even during lunch which he ate there with her.

That night, Brad got on his laptop as soon as he got home and started looking for Kayla's name on the internet. He Googled it along with MADD and found it in seconds.

There was a photo of her along with a short bio which was a part of MADD's local home page. The photo was stunning. It might have been touched up or even a few years old, but that didn't matter to him at all. He sat there staring at it off and on while he read the personal information she'd shared.

When he got to the paragraph that explained how her husband and unborn child had died, Brad found himself close to choking up. Like so many other things, he'd never given any thought to what it would be like to lose someone so close. To help him understand, he tried imaging losing his mom or dad, and while that wasn't a spouse or a child, it helped him gain some perspective as to how awful that must have been.

He still didn't know her exact age, but from the things she'd shared, he was fairly confident she was between 30 and 40. Forty still seemed impossible, but as he thought about that, too, he realized he didn't care. But because of what she and Marie had said, he knew that Kayla did. He just didn't know how important it was to her.

So as he sat there staring at her pic he tried to put himself in her shoes with regard to their age difference. But unlike the mental exercise of imagining losing a loved one, he just couldn't make himself see how five or even ten years could be such a big deal let alone a deal breaker. And yet he knew that Kathy had it right. People did see the world in many different ways, and if something was important to someone, it just was.

That realization was important but not enough to deter him from continuing the search. From there he went to the county tax assessor's site and typed in her name. He felt both elated and guilty when his search revealed her full name and address. It was public information, and he was legally searching for it, and yet he felt like he was invading her privacy. However, his desire to talk to her again won out over any feelings of shame, and since he had the next day off, Brad planned on paying her a visit at some point.