"Maddy! Isn't this enough?"
Bethanie pouted and pushed her lips out then sucked them in again, stretching her mouth and trying to ease the ache. She looked all the way down the long meeting room table that was strewn with a crazy variety of objects, from stuffed toys to kitchenware to rubber chickens and everything in between. None of them bore the faintest smudge of lipstick.
"Jesus, Bethanie, we've got to get the whole list done today. You know it and we're almost done. So pucker up." Maddy, her short, stylish blonde hair held perfectly with two simple bobby pins (Bethanie cursed Maddy for being some kind of hair ninja, her dark hair wasn't at all curly, but it was always ended up such a tangled mess no matter what she did with it) held another empty coffee cup in front of her.
"I've already kissed, like, six coffee mugs Maddy." Bethanie sighed, exasperated.
"Not with this lacquer you haven't Bethy." Maddy explained slowly, as if to a child. "Now, kiss." Bethanie sighed, pursed her lips and pressed them against the cool ceramic cup, rubbing them left and right slightly then pulled away. No lipstick was left on the cup. "My lips hurt!" she whined.
"You have to admit this lipstick is something else though, huh?" Maddy ignored her, and scrutinized the cup with a small magnifying glass. "It doesn't come off on anything. If you lost the solution, you probably couldn't wash it off yourself."
Bethanie was rubbing her lips gingerly, teetering on the edge of a full sulk. "The colours are too slutty. They should come up with something a little more... subtle."
"Oh, well that's up to the people upstairs I think." Maddy was casting around for some object they hadn't tried yet.
"Yeah but think about it, ever-lasting lipstick in hot, trashy colours? It's like they're making it for hookers."
Maddy giggled and rested her head in her arms on the desk, she was getting tired too, even though she hadn't had to kiss a whole range of pans from a leading kitchen ware manufacturer. She sat up again, smoothing down her stylish, fitted, green wool sweater and pulling her grey skirt straight. She seemed deep in thought, but after a while she looked at Bethanie until she caught her junior's eye.
"We have three or four more surfaces we have to do then I think I can sign off on the whole list."
"OK..." Bethanie cautiously anticipated an end to this chore.
"One is kinda strange."
"OK..."
"You see Bethy, we have to test it," here, Maddy's raised an eyebrow cheekily, "on a live specimen."
Bethanie's eyes got big, a little surprised that bossy Maddy was getting a little playful. "OK...?"
"So, I um... well..." here Maddy seemed to lose her train of thought, and after a moment's hesitation and a small sigh, she started again. "Ok, you know Seth up in the design pool?" Maddy was trying to look mischievous, but she seemed a little tired or something. Bethanie couldn't quite read her expression, there was something else under the surface.
"Um... yes!" Bethanie's eyes got bigger. Her school-girl crush on the young designer was fairly well known, and she realised that he always worked later than everyone else in the company, so... She looked up at the clock. It was likely that he was the only person in the company working late other than them! Maddy watched her face as her mind watched up these steps and smiled.
"Let's call him." She said with a strange hint of resignation in her voice.
"Yes, let's!" Bethanie was sitting up straight, oblivious to the off undertone of Maddy's words, and her sore lips all but forgotten. As Maddy dialled the design department Bethanie affected a professional tone. "I hope he hasn't shaved, the friction from his stubble would... ah, provide an excellent test surface for my... um our product. I'd probably have to kiss him several times or... more to be..."
"You goof." Maddy smirked as she waited for the phone to be answered. "Oh, hi! Diane? Yeah, it's Maddy. Yes, late, I know! Listen is Seth around, I..." Bethanie watched Maddy's face fall theatrically, her own face turning from excitement to disappointment as she realised what the message was.
Maddy hung up the phone, "Of all the days to go home early!" "Oh Maddy," Bethanie smiled a little, even though it kind of hurt, "that was such a nice idea though."
"Ah you're welcome."
The girls sat in silence for a moment.
"Well, I'm sorry to be your boss again, but we still have to get this stuff tested." She tapped the lipstick tube against the tabIe. "I'm guessing that the only people left in the building now are going to be cleaning staff, that old security guy and Diane. So... who do you want to turn into a Prince, Princess?"
"No way, I don't have to..." Bethanie started in disbelief.
"You do I'm afraid Bethy. I've got to sign off on this today."
"But they really are all frogs! I can't believe you chose me to do this!"
"Oh come on Bethy! Your lips are the... fullest, y'know. The best for kissing..." Maddy sounded a little hesitant at this, and when Bethanie looked over she was looking down at her list quite intently. The two girls were silent for a minute or maybe more. Neither looking at the other.
"Well..." Maddy broke the silence, "we could... I mean."
"Yeah?" Bethanie glanced over at her superior, but Maddy was still looking down, twisting the lipstick up and down in its tube.
"That is... you could... kiss me?"
"Um..."