The Laws of Attraction

03-Jules

The Law of Escalating Commitment–“Once a course of action starts, momentum can carry it forward, for better or worse.”

“For the last time, we met by complete accident, Kia!”

Kia, seated cross-legged on the rug with her back against the couch, took another bite from her pizza, followed by a small sip of her Coca-Cola. “Sam, please pass me the fries,” she said, ignoring me.

“Come on. Are you seriously going to believe Sam over me?” I shook her.

“I'll stop bugging her if I were you.” Sam Dudley, the source of my problems, spoke, his mouth full as he handed the plate of fries to Kia.

He was sprawled across the couch, bare feet shamelessly back on the coffee table, even after I'd removed them more times than I could count. I glared. “This is all your fault.”

“Hey now. Don't shoot the messenger. How was I supposed to know that you guys bailed at the last minute, and you decided to fly solo and ask Kingsley yourself?”

“Why is no one listening to me? That isn't what happened at all.”

Sam shrugged, his dark curls sticking to his forehead. “Tell that to the faculty general group chat. Someone took a picture of you two talking. Everyone knows he said yes, by the way.”

“Oh goodie,” said Kia dryly, mouth full.

I groaned.

“Sam, can you tell Juliette that, since she's now allergic to keeping promises that I don't need her help with my case brief anymore. Don't want her canceling on me at the last second.”

“Jules, Kia said to tell you—”

“I heard her! And like I've been saying for the past twenty minutes, it was an accident!”

“She heard you, Kia.” Sam reported lazily, reaching for another fry.

“Tell her also that she has the impulse control of a goldfish and that when this crashes and burns, I won't be bailing her out.”

“Yeah, I'm not saying all that,” Sam muttered.

Kia shot him a look. “Whose side are you on?”

“Preferably, the side that lets me eat my food peacefully,” he mumbled.

“See, this is why you can't trust him, Kia. He's the definition of a shifty guy.”

A rich, shifty guy who was long overdue for a visit from karma. Honestly, if he weren't the reason why we all got to live together, I'd probably have thrown him out by now.

“Kia!" I cried, shaking her again.

She sighed and then finally looked at me. She gave me a long look. “You really ran into him by accident?”

“Yes,” I said, my head bobbing like a yo-yo. “I even spilled his coffee. It was a mess.”

Kia’s shoulders loosened, but her eyes didn’t. “Of course it was.” Her posture relaxed further. “Okay, fine,” she said slowly. “I believe you.”

“Really?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes. But, it doesn't mean you're off the hook though. You're on food duty for the next two weeks.”

“But—” I started, and Kia's raised brow froze me mid-word. “That's completely fair.”

She patted me on the back. “At least you made it out alive, even if I'm surprised you did.”

“Yeah, about that, why did you make it out?” Sam asked.

I turned to face him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” he waved his pizza. “Kingsley shuts down anyone who approaches him. Just last week, he made Angie cry after rejecting her. So why didn't he do the same to you?”

Silence.

My stomach flipped. Nerves. “You guys don't think that he might actually like me.”

“Nah, there's no way,” Kia shook her head. “You guys have had zero communication with each other. It has to be something else.”

“Right,” I nodded. “Actually, come to think of it,” I added. “He kept asking really specific questions when I told him I liked him. Like, since when and the exact day.”

“Those are very specific questions,” Kia said slowly.

“Right. I found it odd too.”

I'd been too surprised about him saying yes, that I'd forgotten about that, but thinking about it now, it had felt less like curiosity and more like an interrogation. As though he was confirming something.

But then again, I might be overthinking things, maybe it was just how he did things. Who could ever understand the working mind of Killian Kingsley?

“Well, regardless of the reason,” Sam straightened slightly, “and because I want to see how far you're actually willing to go, the dare is getting an upgrade.”

My brows shot up. “What do you mean by an upgrade?”

“Firstly, and for the record,” Sam continued, as though he hadn't heard me. “He can't know this is a dare.”

“Well, duh,” Kia snorted. “If he finds out this is a dare, he will eviscerate you.”

“Secondly, you can't back out at the last minute like you did with your other date.”

“He had a girlfriend. I have morals."

“Thirdly, since we thought asking him out would be more of a challenge, and you were given seven days to do so, you have to do something else.”

I didn't like where this was going. “Like what?”

"You,” he pointed at me with a single fry, “have to kiss him by the end of your date.”

I choked on my drink. “What?”

“You're the one who wanted a challenge,” he shrugged.

I swiped my mouth. “Asking him out was the challenge, which I won by the way. This though, this is just… just…”

“I think the word you're looking for is unhinged,” Kia helped and I latched on.

“Yeah that. That's the word.”

“It’s just a kiss,” Sam said, like we were being dramatic. “Why are we acting like I told her to sleep with him or something?”

I stared at him. “This is Killian Kingsley we're talking about. I don't think he even knows how to kiss.”

“So what?” he asked. “If he can't, just teach him. He seems like a fast learner.”

“What am I? A kissing instructor? I can't just go around kissing people like I'm some kind of— of— emotionally unstable side character of a rom-com.”

“Okay, okay, relax,” Sam said. “You don't have to do it if you're scared.”

I stared at him speechless for a second. “What? Me? scared? Please. I am not scared. I just… I just have standards.”

Sam laughed. “You? Standards? Oh, come off it. You are a hundred percent scared. And to think, ‘your new year new me’ only lasted a week,” he tsked.

I sat up straighter. “First of all, the new me is still very much alive and active. Second of all, if I wanted to kiss Killian Kingsley, I could.”

Sam grinned. “So you'll do it?”

“I didn't say that. I'm just saying hypothetically, if a kiss were to occur—”

“On the cheek doesn't count.” He cut in.

I narrowed my eyes. “I regret ever befriending you.”

“Jules, think with the organ in your head.” Kia pointed at my forehead. “You've never won any of Sam's bets.”

“Kia, I have evolved. I have self-control now. He can't get to me anymore.”

Sam's grin widened. “Coward.”

I blinked. Once. Then again.

I have made many questionable life choices. I once even tried frying eggs with water instead of oil. But I have never been a coward.

“You know what? Fine. I'll kiss him. And it'll be the best damn one he's ever had.”

“Right,” Kia drawled. “This won't end well.”

I tore off a huge piece of pizza and chewed it. It was only a kiss, anyways. People do it every time. It was practically a public service. Just how hard could it be?