He stopped. He was speaking. She should probably reply. Speaking required breathing. Breathing. Right. Dezzie reminded herself that that was necessary to not die.
Frantically, her wide-eyed gaze moved to the sleigh driver who was either oblivious or determined not to react (that was good) and then back to Captain Pettigrew who seemed to think he had done something wrong.
Which he absolutely had not!
Except he had. Kissing in public was bad.
Kissing full-stop was bad, unless one was married, which Desdemona was quite sure was not in the cards for her.
Except it hadn’t felt bad, in the physical sense.
But morally bad. Yes.
Dezzie had little experience in kissing and the etiquette surrounding it. How did one respond to a kiss politely? Respond to an apology for a kiss politely? Oh Merlin, what if he regretted it? Did she regret it?
Yes.
No.
Maybe?
Maybe if he kissed her again, she would have a better idea of how to respond. After all, it had been her first kiss; surely her second would see her every bit the seasoned veteran.
But he was apologizing. So that probably wouldn’t happen.
What would her sisters say? Bella would surely warn her off, but Cordy would egg her on. Cressi would almost certainly just chuckle, and God forbid she ever mention this interlude to her mother. So that line of thought was no good.
His mouth was still dangerously close to hers. Surely if he was embarrassed he would have looked away—she always did when she felt awkward. That settled it, then.
With every ounce of moxie that had ever graced her bloodstream, she did what would likely prove to be her boldest action in all of time:
Dezzie kissed Art Pettigrew.
Frantically, her wide-eyed gaze moved to the sleigh driver who was either oblivious or determined not to react (that was good) and then back to Captain Pettigrew who seemed to think he had done something wrong.
Which he absolutely had not!
Except he had. Kissing in public was bad.
Kissing full-stop was bad, unless one was married, which Desdemona was quite sure was not in the cards for her.
Except it hadn’t felt bad, in the physical sense.
But morally bad. Yes.
Dezzie had little experience in kissing and the etiquette surrounding it. How did one respond to a kiss politely? Respond to an apology for a kiss politely? Oh Merlin, what if he regretted it? Did she regret it?
Yes.
No.
Maybe?
Maybe if he kissed her again, she would have a better idea of how to respond. After all, it had been her first kiss; surely her second would see her every bit the seasoned veteran.
But he was apologizing. So that probably wouldn’t happen.
What would her sisters say? Bella would surely warn her off, but Cordy would egg her on. Cressi would almost certainly just chuckle, and God forbid she ever mention this interlude to her mother. So that line of thought was no good.
His mouth was still dangerously close to hers. Surely if he was embarrassed he would have looked away—she always did when she felt awkward. That settled it, then.
With every ounce of moxie that had ever graced her bloodstream, she did what would likely prove to be her boldest action in all of time:
Dezzie kissed Art Pettigrew.
![[Image: RvKF54W.png]](https://i.imgur.com/RvKF54W.png)
— graphics by mj ❤ —