Page 35 of No One Else

Apparently. “All right, Hermione,” I say with admittedly the worst British accent ever. “Shall we get to snogging?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Natalie completely leave the kissing booth area, her hand over her mouth, shoulders shaking.

“Oh, Harry,” the faux Hermione sighs. “It’s always been you.” Now,heraccent sounds genuine.

She brings her lips to mine and gives me a surprisingly chaste kiss. Based on the level of weirdness, I was expecting to have to pry her off if need be.

She leans back, a satisfied smile on her face. “Thanks,” she says in her normal voice again. “You just made my day.”

“Happy to help.”

I signal for Natalie to come back over as the girl zips her jacket up and stuffs twice the suggested amount in the donation jar. When she makes her way over, she’s still wiping tears from her eyes.

“Kinda lost it there?” I ask her wryly.

She releases a shaky breath, along with the last of her giggles. “All I can say is, you’re a true professional.”

“I try.”

We do a steady business for the rest of the allotted time, Angela’s donation jar a tad more full than mine, but I’m completely fine with that. Today’s been the weirdest day ever. I’ve kissed shy wallflowers, girls that look like they’d like to eat me for lunch, women ranging from their teens to their seventies. I’ve even kissed three guys. Never thought I’d have a reason to say that.

As we’re about to close up shop, a burly guy with dreadlocks and tattoos running down both forearms approaches us. Angela sits up a little straighter, but he stops in front of me instead.

“You’d rather kiss him than me?” she asks flirtatiously, winding a finger through a lock of her hair.

“Baby, you’d better believe I’d rather be kissing you,” he says to her, winking, “but this is for a bet.” Is it bad that I’m mildly offended? I’ve left plenty of satisfied womenandmen in my wake today, thank you very much. “What do you say, man, you okay with that?” he directs to me.

“Sure,” I shrug, so far past the point of caring who I kiss anymore. My standards are nonexistent by now.

He points to a group of guys watching from a distance. “They thought I’d back down. But they’re just not secure enough in their masculinity to do it.”

“Okay, dude. We can be secure in our masculinity together.”

“That’s what I’m talking about.” He slaps hands with me, grinning.

He leans in, his lips surprisingly soft as they touch mine, a commotion of hollering occurring off to the left as his friends lose their shit.

I glance over at Natalie as he breaks the kiss, a wide smile plastered over her face as she gives me a big thumbs up.

“Appreciate it, man,” he smiles before walking back over to his group.

“Lucky,” Angela mutters good-naturedly, staring after him.

When the event officially ends, we pack up and Natalie counts out the money we raised.

“Four hundred seventy-four dollars,” she says triumphantly, sealing it in a manila envelope. “I guarantee you no one did as well as us.”

“What do you want to do with the booths?”

“You know what? Olivia wanted to be in charge so bad, she can figure out what to do with them. It’s not my problem.”

“Fair enough.”

“I’ve got to run,” Angela says, taking a compact out of her purse and touching up her lipstick. “Hot date tonight.”

“Did you tell him you were going to spend the whole day kissing other guys?” Natalie asks.

“Nah. He doesn’t need to know,” she grins, swinging her purse over her shoulder and leaving.

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