Page 122 of The Bodyguard

Jack went on, “That’s why people call her ‘Peanuts.’”

Now I opened my eyes and blinked at him.

“I have great breath, by the way,” Jack said then.

I blinked again.

“Like cinnamon rolls,” he said, giving me an actual wink.

What was happening here? “But… what about the thing you said about crying—when it’s really working, you’re feeling the feelings as the character?”

“That’s a good question,” Jack said, all professorial, pointing at me. “When you’re working with someone really good, that can happen. I could totally do that with Meryl Streep.”

“Wait—have you kissed Meryl Streep?”

“Not yet. Give me time.”

I punched him in the shoulder, like Rooting for ya, buddy.

“All to say,” Jack concluded, “yes. You can kiss each other as the characters.”

“Thank you,” I said, like he’d just put the world back in its proper order.

Then he added, “But not when you’re kissing Katie Palmer.”

“Dammit!”

He kept going. “It’s all choreographed. You’re thinking about your blocking, and the angles, and hitting your mark, and not having a double chin, and making sure your lips don’t get folded up in a weird way. It’s very technical. You talk about everything beforehand. You know, ‘Will there be tongue?’ That kind of stuff.”

“Will there be tongue?”

“Almost never.”

Was that disappointing? I couldn’t decide.

“You have to block it out in advance,” Jack went on. “That’s true for all on-screen kissing, really. It’s the opposite of real kissing. Screen kissing is all about how you look. Real kissing, of course”—he glanced away for a second—“is about how you feel.”

“Huh,” I said.

“Yeah,” Jack said.

“So you hated kissing Katie Palmer…” I said.

“Affirmative. I hated kissing Peanuts Palmer.”

“My favorite kiss of all time,” I said, trying to absorb the news, “was a hate kiss.”

Jack shook his head. “Your favorite kiss of all time was a let’s-get-this-done-and-get-out-of-here kiss.”

I sighed. I looked at the river, just over there flowing along like nothing had happened. Then I said, “I miss the time when I didn’t know that.”

“So do I.”

“You just ruined my favorite kiss.”

Jack gave me a little shrug, like Them’s the breaks. Then he said, “Maybe someday I’ll make it up to you.”