Green Beans and Reminiscent Things

Temperance spoke evenly, as if choosing each word before uttering them. She kept her eyes on the leaves in her hand. “I think…” She cleared her throat and continued, “I think that this is one of the best Christmas presents I’ve quite possibly ever received. Though I did receive a better one once.” She squinted up from the mistletoe to me, then back at the leaves. She must have seen my confused expression, for she let out a sharp breath of a chuckle and smirked. “It was this guy I really liked. I mean, I liked him for the longest time, and I never thought he felt the same way. But the day before Christmas Eve he came to my house for some green bean casserole and - you would never believe it - he stole some mistletoe my father hid and offered it to me.” She looked up into my growing crooked smile and let go of my hand she still grasped. “And do you know what I did?”

“I couldn’t quite possibly know at all,” I sarcastically replied.

“I took the mistletoe -” She held it up between her fingers. “-and I gave it back to him.”

“What?” I softly asked. My pulse was frozen.

“I gave it back to him,” she said, placing the leaves in my hand and closing my fingers over them. “And when I gave it back to him, I told him it was his to use however he wanted, because the best Christmas present I ever got was him, standing in front of me in my kitchen with his heart on his sleeve, telling me he loved me more than I could ever comprehend.” She ran the back of her fingers on my cheek and smoothed my bangs against my forehead with her fingertips. “So… what are you going to do with the leaves?” she quietly asked, setting her hands on my shoulders.

“Smoke them,” I simpered, giving myself time to think of a wittier comment.

“John!” she exclaimed, back-handing my chest.

“Kidding! Just kidding!” I lowered my laughing along with Temperance and brought the small bundle of leaves closer to my eyes. “I guess I could put them to use right about now.” I straightened my arm and lifted the leaves above our heads, keeping my incoherent gaze on them as they became higher and higher. “What’s up?” I mumbled, simpering at my joke.

Temperance just gave me a raised eyebrow and a tapping foot.

“You know what you’re supposed to do when there’s mistletoe above you, right?” I whispered, looking back at the mistletoe I held.

In all but a flash of a smile, Temp caught my lips with hers into a simple empathetic kiss, gripping one side of my partly open vest. She kept her other hand on my chest as I set my hand void of mistletoe on her cheek. To be blunt, it was a simple and inactive kiss, but it loving, strong, and expressive.

I could feel my pulse nosily speed up as I unwillingly unlocked my lips from hers, keeping my eyes closed. I gently traced the bridge of her nose with the tip of mine and slowly opened my eyes: Temp was smiling wide, her teeth uncovered from her lips just like a newly made-up stage uncovered from pale pink curtains.

She slowly snaked her smooth, soft hand from my chest behind my head and played with the hairs at the base of my neck. In my recuperation from our expression of what quite possibly could be a mutual love, I noticed my arm was still limply raised in the air, mistletoe unmoved between my fingers. I looked down from my early Christmas present and back to Temperance. My lips separated for a small smile while my hand lightly touched her cheek. I stuck the mistletoe in my jeans pocket and leaned down to ask a question my nervous wreck of a mouth couldn’t keep inside its lips any longer. “Can I kiss your teeth?”

“My teeth?”

“Teeth.” I leaned back to my usual height and smirked. “Teeth,” I repeated.

She let out a breath that sounded like she could barely get herself to properly laugh, but smiled wide anyway. I leaned down and, gently cupping both her cheeks, pecked her teeth with my lips, straightening up with satisfaction and a smirk. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while.”

“Kiss my teeth?”

“I guess you could call it a trademark. That’s it… my own trademark,” I muttered, biting my lip and grinning. She kept fingering the hairs at my neck, but adverted her gaze to chuckle. I still kept the lined skin of my palms touching the skin of her cheeks – I just had to keep her near me. When she returned her gaze to my eyes, she still smiled, but her teeth had hidden back behind her pale curtains for an intermission of sorts.

Honestly, I’d be damned if I couldn’t throw roses onto the stage once more.

I dove in for another kiss, the last two barely enough to keep my senses easy and my emotions laid out like cards.

I could never act rough, especially with Temperance. She was adamant - hardcore, to keep it colloquial - about her ways. She had morals that were driven in and out of her entire being that no one could ever budge, including me. I’d never question her ways, and I wasn’t going to start. For the love of God (no, really), she had a promise ring. I know it sounds cheesy, but I respected her for it, and if she wanted to wait until Jupiter was closer to the sun than Mars, I’d wait for the impossibility as well.

My lips were active with poignancy and my attitude was clearly confident as I kissed her – forget my acne. I took her hand that still remained on my chest into my own, now absent of mistletoe, and intertwined our fingers. My breathing slowly became more labored as I took another opportunity to recapture her lips. Her fingertips still tickled my neck, giving me goose skin all over my torso and arms. I finally lifted my limp hand from her cheek and set it on her fingers stroking my neck, stealing an opportunity to take in a breath. But she quickly caught my lips again, literally taking my breath away.

The second we separated, we both gulped in large amounts of air. I kept my closed eyes aimed towards the small space of tile between us.

“That was quite possibly the best first kiss ever.”

“Well-” I took in another gulp of air. “-it wasn’t technically our first…” I looked up with open eyes and kissed the outline of her jaw bone. “…but it sure exceeds my expectations, if you get my drift.” I muttered my words near her ear before reattaching my lips to her facial features.

She craned her neck and lightly traced my nose with hers before I covered her neck with kisses again. I kept kissing the same spot on her softly thin jawbone as she quietly chuckled at my forward actions. “John…”

“Hmm…” I mumbled against her jaw, lips pursed in a kiss.

“Your stubble tickles.” Tempe lightly sniggered and rubbed our thumbs together. She kissed the corner of my mouth and brushed my bangs from my forehead, smiling wide. I stopped attacking her jaw with my lips to rest for a moment and let her speak again.