Keeping out of a sticky mess

 "OK, the thing to remember...it's all in the kiss," Eddie had said in one of their late-night conversations over the phone when Cyrus couldn't sleep. He was at his wit's end about Pix these days.

"A kiss?" He'd squinted. "What kind of kiss? I don't know how."

"It's not the first kiss, anyway." Eddie was rather vague. "You just want to get her attention."

"But..but.." was he going to have to ask Eddie to come over and show him?

"Make a mouth with your thumb and finger," he said that was the best way to practice.

"You did that?" Cyrus had winced hard. Never in a million years would he think to kiss his own hand.

"Oh, you'll be surprised the things you can do by yourself," he told him. And that was where Eddie had left it. He promised him if he wanted to make this leap was to just go for it and stop thinking so much about it.

So Cyrus did. Of course, his heart raced so amazingly he didn't know if he could possibly live through it. And the way she kept looking at him as if he had done the impossible. Honestly, it was a delicate sort of thing to keep standing, but he didn't want this to be over because he might fall with her in his arms.

Maybe it did leave him a little shaken, but it was true and she kissed him back. He followed her lead, an important key Eddie had told him. Kissing was a lot like dancing. "You just let it happen and just see where it goes, but never ask if it was any good." Eddie's very words.

Honestly, it felt like an eternity in Cyrus' mind, but he guessed it had lasted all of thirty seconds. 

She jerked herself up as if nothing had happened. Luckily, Alex didn't even notice. He was on his phone studying something and they were in the back far from the empty dining area.

"Do you think people know we're open?" Pixie would say something like that. 

He didn't have an answer for her. After all, this was possibly the biggest thing he'd ever accomplished since making his first podcast. Cyrus just looked at her as if she was faking something, but he wasn't sure what.

"I need something to drink, right now." She looked around as if she was still on her two feet and jumped into action, bringing him a Pepsi from the fountain.

"You know, this will keep me up tonight." He watched her stab the straw in place as she handed it to him. 

"Precisely." She was even lipped but slurped her Pepsi as if she needed to be fully hydrated. 

"Then..then..surly you wouldn't go back to Frankie's, not tonight," Cyrus suggested, or was it a plea?

"But what if I do?" She snapped as if this was all his fault. Her lips sucked the straw even harder. As if she intended to give herself an icy headache.

"I don't want you to go." Cyrus was honest.

"We'll see." She would not look at him but gave him a little shrug. "First, you better mop the floor back here." She pointed out the areas he better not miss.

Cyrus nodded, making sure he didn't dump his drink accidentally. He watched her walk toward the counter, but she looked back at him and almost tripped.