The First Kiss

"It started with an application. It ended with a kiss."

At twenty-one years old, Olive Carter has never been kissed.

Not in middle school.
Not at prom.
Not during drunken college parties where everyone else seemed to pair off effortlessly while she held someone's purse and pretended she didn't care.

Now she's officially over it.

So naturally, she does the only reasonable thing possible:

She creates a campus-wide application for men to apply to be her first kiss.

Complete with questionnaires.
Compatibility rankings.
And a strict "NO FEELINGS" policy.

Her roommates think it's hilarious.
The entire university becomes obsessed.
And Olive is determined to finally experience the magical, movie-worthy first kiss she's been missing.

There's just one problem.

Noah Reed signs up.

Her best friend.
Her favorite person.
The guy who knows her coffee order, walks her home after late classes, and has been secretly in love with her since the day they met freshman year.

Olive is stunned when his application turns out to be perfect-sweet, thoughtful, respectful in ways none of the others are.

So they make a deal:

One kiss.
No complications.
Friendship intact.

Easy.

Except the kiss is anything but easy.

It's soft for exactly three seconds before it becomes desperate, breathless, impossible to forget. Suddenly Noah's hands linger too long. Olive hates every girl who flirts with him. Their friends are taking bets on when they'll finally admit they're obsessed with each other. And every "accidental" touch feels dangerously close to another kiss.

Because it turns out...

It was never just one kiss.

And friendship has never been this messy.


Tone & Vibes

• Messy friends-to-lovers
• Forced proximity
• Mutual pining
• Jealousy and possessiveness
• "It's just one kiss"
• Everyone knows except them
• Banter-heavy romantic comedy
• Emotional vulnerability hidden under sarcasm
• Slow burn with explosive chemistry