Kiss and Tell will be published as a paperback and e-book from W by Wattpad Books under the new name "As Long As You Love Me". The book is available for pre-order now: https://a.co/d/bV1ARdt

***

"Qué carajo estás haciendo?" I asked Gabe so only he would understand the extent of my outrage.

All he did was hold on tighter and whisper, "Tranquila."

Which was precisely the opposite of how I felt.

Liz stumbled upon her feet but caught herself in time. The same couldn't be said for her drink and it spilled over the rim of her cup and down to the floor. She stared at the puddle at her feet like she'd just lost another major thing, aside from her pride after the words her ex spat back at her in front of everybody. I felt for her, really. But I also knew that trying to console her would land me in the ER with a scratched out eye. At least based on the fact that the last time a sort of interaction like this had happened, she'd attempted to slap me in the face. And that had been after seeing Gabe and I walk out of the office, our heads close to each other as we discussed a joint report we'd been working on for Jeff.

"I didn't think—I mean, I thought you'd," she stammered, looking back up at us with a world of hurt in her eyes. "I thought you'd come back to me, not run to her."

Maya gasped and covered her mouth so she wouldn't start laughing. Taylor's jaw hung and the way she looked at me was like she believed this spiel.

To make things worse, Malik asked, "Wow, I didn't know you had a boyfriend, Catalina."

At the sound of his voice, all my attention pulled to him. There was a different type of appraisal, as though previously he hadn't even thought the notion possible and though that cut me, it also made me wonder if that was why he'd seen me as a little sister and not as a girl with great potential to change status into girlfriend.

My brain short-circuited. The opportunity to make Malik see me as not a sister was right there and I jumped head first.

"Ah, yeah. It's kind of recent." I glanced up at my supposed boyfriend and with a nasally voice said, "Babe, I don't want to make a scene so I'm just gonna go."

So far Gabe had been getting an A+ in acting but this change of tack from me caught him off guard. Unfortunately, it also served to amuse him. "You're right, bebé. We should just go."

No. That wasn't what I had in mind. I just wanted to leave that place and get some fresh air, not do so with Gabe. But then again as he steered me out of the kitchen, murder was written all over Liz and I was thankful for the safe escort.

In front of me were two possibilities, one where I kept walking out the apartment door and made it outside. There, I could text the girls and with the suggestion of relocating our behinds to a nearby McDonalds because I was certainly not in the mood to party. The second option was to head in the opposite direction, into the empty hallway that led to the bedrooms, where thanks to the noise I could tell Gabe off while not straying alone into the night. Then once I was done ripping him a new one I could text my friends and we could leave this place together.

Option two won out. I pulled Gabe's forearm until we were sequestered in the dark hallway.

"What the fuck, babe?"

He rubbed the sores I'd left and gave me an annoying grin. "Two birds with one stone, huh? You're welcome."

I wanted to punch him. Instead I managed to just use words. "What are you even talking about?"

For a minute, all he did was fold his arms and lean against the opposite wall in the hallway. His long hair had fallen forward over the side of his face, lending him an air of danger that was only compounded by his smirk.

"So you're not an unfeeling robot after all," he said at last, jerking his chin towards the kitchen. "Te gusta ese muchacho."

My first impulse was to shush him but we were alone. The way my limbs flailed as he stated the fact was confirmation enough. In an effort to recover some dignity I combed my hair with my fingers and leaned back against my wall. "Yeah, so?"

"So," he continued with a shrug of his wide shoulders. "That certainly spiked his interest for you."

I muttered, "Guys are so weird. Why do they care about a girl only when she's with someone else?"

"We're competitive and dating is a sport."

That settled like a brick in my stomach. Maybe that was how it had always been to him, but there was something called love that had nothing to do with competitions. That explained why he'd made it his personal sport to break as many hearts as possible. Maybe that was what made him feel man enough.

And now I felt like he'd used me for his latest game.

"You're the worst," I said, pushing off of the wall. "And if that's how you treat all your exes, that makes you even lower than dirt and I hope every girl in campus sees you for the heartless player that you are. Chao."

I ducked my head back into the kitchen but didn't find my people. Instead Liz had grabbed hold of some random guy and they were kissing with such abandon that soon the scene would turn R rated. The music had changed to one of the latest pop anthems in the radio, which matched the crowd's dancing abilities a lot better. Or maybe the alcohol had turned their limbs more fluid than before. It didn't matter, none of my friends were among them. I fired off a few text messages to the girls and figured I could wait outside, close enough to the apartment that I wouldn't be risking myself.

Except the most dangerous person found me anyway.

"You wanna know why I treated Liz like that?" Gabe said, catching up with me in a few easy strides. He'd put his beer bottle down somewhere and had his hands stuffed in the pockets of his distressed jeans.

"Not particularly, no."

"Right." He rolled his eyes. "Because your judgement of me is already made and no one will change it. Watch me try anyway."

I checked my phone again but the screen remained free of messages. Maybe I had bad reception? But as I scrolled around I noted that the texts had indeed sent off.

"I invited Liz home once and she said mom's food was disgusting. To my mom's face."

I couldn't help the gasp that escaped my lips. Whatever reason I had imagined he would say, wasn't this. Recalling the moment of their breakup, Liz had mentioned his mom as a reason for why things weren't going well before he broke it off. If I went off from the few encounters I'd had with her as baseline for how a Liz vs. Gabe's mom scene might have looked like, I could easily picture Liz botching up the entire thing with her tantrums.

Nope, I didn't care. I wasn't going to sympathize with him. But then again, if I ever took a boyfriend home and he complained about mami's cooking, she would murder him and I would help her hide the body.

Then I remembered a piece of conversation we'd had that involved Gabe's mom and I narrowed my eyes at him. "I thought you didn't get along with your mom."

"I don't but it doesn't mean I'm going to let anyone else insult her."

I returned the stupefied look on his face with one of my own. "But you will, by making sure she has a terrible time at your brother's wedding that by the way, you're planning to ruin. Guide me through that mental gymnastics, please."

"Actually my brother's in on it." He shrugged, as if this explained things in any capacity. "And so is his fiancee and my older sister. Mom's just insufferable."

He started laughing at how my entire face scrunched up like I'd eaten a lemon.

"Don't tell me you thought all this time that I was that much of an asshole?"

I folded my arms. "I've seen little proof to think otherwise."

Gabe sighed. "Picture this, you're in love and planning your wedding. But then your mom, the person who is supposed to love you the most in this world, is actively trying to sabotage it."

"Pretty sure you're describing yourself right now."

He sighed and flicked my forehead softly. I jerked back, hands up to fend off a second possible attack. Even though he wanted to laugh at me, he fought the impulse off and sobered up.

"Mom hates my brother's fiancee," he said, his frame filling with tension. "She's Asian American, you know? Not a good Catholic boricuan girl."

Oh.

My throat closed up with an uncomfortable feeling that I tried to clear away. "It can't possibly be that bad."

"It absolutely can, if we go by what happened at my sister's wedding." Gabe's eyes got lost in the night beyond the apartment entrance, as if he were picturing the scene rather than the parking lot full of cars and ambling tipsy people. "Magdalena's husband is Black and Mom spent the entire two years they dated trying to break them up. Then at their wedding she got drunk and told everyone how she disapproved of the union because according to her, Jason was going to worsen the DNA of her grandkids. The fact that now Chris is going to marry an Asian American woman is, according to her, the final nail on her coffin."

My jaw hung from its hinges. "No way."

"Way." He ran a hand through his hair with a soft growl that travelled through my spine.

I steeled myself against the sensation by folding my arms. "Is that why you only date white girls? Because it'll, um, deflect her racism off of you?"

He startled. "God, no. She hates white girls too."

I didn't know what came over me but I threw my head back and laughed. "Yep, you're awful."

"And I don't just date white girls," he added. "It just so happens that a couple of my most recent exes are but I have a wide interest in all girls."

"You're not helping your case, you know?"

"And what's that?" he asked. When it was clear I had no idea what he meant he clarified. "My case."

I thought about this with much more intent than I ever meant to dedicate to him. Tilting my head, taking in the jeans that hugged his shapely calves and thighs, the button shirt with sleeves that hugged tight around thick biceps and the couple of buttons that showed off enough of his neck and chest that he didn't look sleazy, but definitely aware of his own appeal, I finally said, "That you're not just some heartless player."

I was pinned by his eyes as he asked, "And do you want me to be more than that?"

My heart stumbled upon itself to beat harder and in my mind I screamed a mantra at it that consisted of a single word.

No.

Which was also what I was about to tell him when two things happened. First, my phone went off and I preferred looking at it rather than address the moment that hung heavy over us. I'd just got a text from Maya that read S.O.S. when a familiar voice called from inside the apartment. "Gabe!"

He and I shared a look of panic upon recognizing the wail that came from Liz. When she followed it up with her distinctive babe, it sounded a lot closer. I turned for the stairs but they were blocked by a group of people who were chatting around.

"Shit," I said upon realizing the confrontation was imminent. "She's going to kill me because of your damn fault."

"No, she won't." This time Gabe pulled me from my arm and settled me against the wall. "Let's give her a shock enough that she won't be able to react."

I was conscious of how this looked and I put my hands up against his chest to push him away. "Don't you dare do what I think you're about to do."

His eyebrows went up. "What do you suggest instead? We jump over the rail onto the cars below?"

That almost sounded like a better alternative.

Then we both heard Liz next to us say, "Babe, let's just talk-"

She never finished off what she intended to say because, seeing no other way to divert her focus from us, we both took a deep breath and dove in. Or Gabe dove in and I let him.

The moment his lips met mine there was a gasp that didn't come from either of us, but that was the last thing I was aware of outside of the cocoon of heat that his arms created around me. My hand holding my cellphone remained wedged between us and not even the incessant vibration of an incoming call was able to snap me from the fact that my entire body had become a ball of heat that far from consuming it, Gabe stoked with his own. His lips brushed a caress over mine so intent that nothing else was necessary to coerce my mouth open. When his tongue touched mine, my chassis lost all structural strength and collapsed against the wall.

It momentarily pulled me away from him, but with a growl Gabe pulled me against him again. In the back of my mind I wondered why a second kiss was necessary if we didn't hear Liz's voice anymore, but he held the back of my head at an angle that allowed him more access to my mouth. At the same time, as his other hand blazed a hot path down my back and lower still until it settled over the curve of my butt, I responded to the sensation by clutching two fistfuls of his hair and pulling him flush against me from head to toe.

My phone clattering against the floor was what it took to finally tear myself apart from him.

Gabe's eyes were half mast, dazed as he looked down at me in a way he never had before. It sent a shiver down my spine, more intense than the feeling of losing his heat. He licked his lips with the same tongue he'd used to lick mine just a second ago and I gasped.

Qué carajo acaba de pasar?

With the last of my strength I pushed him away so I could pick up my phone. The case had saved it from getting cracked and the relief was short-lived as two missed calls from Maya lit up in the screen.

"What's going on?" I asked her, my voice shaking as I looked everywhere but a Gabe. In doing so I noticed that Liz was nowhere around.

"Finally," she said, sighing. "After you left the kitchen with your new beau, Taylor saw her ex making out with her current girl and far from curing her of feelings it has made her fall too deep in them."

I cringed, feeling the brunt of the blame because that was exactly what Gabe and I had just done to Liz. My stomach tightened at how easily it had been to be an accessory of heartbreak. I glared at him as though this, too, were his fault.

"Shit, okay. Where are you?"

"In the parking lot with Malik, watching Taylor cry her heart out in the car on one hand and on the other, watching you make out with Gabe."

Blood rushed in and out of my face, leaving hot and cold in turns. "I'll be downstairs in a second."

As I disconnected the call, I contemplated about what had been worse. Whether coming to the party and thinking it could help Taylor move on form her ex, or helping Gabe get rid of his. While I could definitely help my best friend heal from her broken heart, I couldn't help Liz, and I refused to help Gabe any longer.

I faced him for the first time since my brain glitched and I agreed to kiss him. Reservation lined his eyes and radiated off of his posture. It was almost as though he braced for a physical blow, which told me he knew he deserved it.

Taking a deep breath I said, "To answer your earlier question, no. I don't want you to be more than what you show you are. You play with girls' feelings like they don't matter and I don't want you to make me a part of that ever again. Figure out a way to break things off cleanly with Liz that doesn't involve me."

He took a step back like I'd hit him after all. Gabe swallowed with difficulty. "But I was also helping you get that guy's interest."

I bit my swollen lip and shook my head. "People's feelings aren't a game to me and maybe you should grow up and learn that lesson too."

"What are you trying to say?" he asked, pushing his hair away from his face with both hands. "Are you dropping out from our deal now?"

My head throbbed. I wanted that full time position. If I chopped off the contract we'd both signed just yesterday, Gabe would no doubt amp up the intensity of the competition. But deep down I knew that if I didn't, and I tangled with him any further, it would be an even worse idea than just agreeing to kiss him.

It was as though a hand squeezed my heart when I raised my chin and said, "Maybe I should."

Did they just kiss?! And fake-broke up too?!

What do you think is going to happen to these two silly geese?