Page 49 of Clichés & Curses

Closing my eyes, I waited for the feel of his lips on mine.

But it never came.

Instead, I felt a warmth resting against my forehead.

Opening my eyes, I saw Colton’s face close to me, his forehead touching mine.

And as his uncle sang the last line of the song, Colton followed along.

His eyes stared into mine as he softly sang, ‘Oh my darling, you are wonderful tonight.’

We continued swaying to the song, foreheads pressed with one another as the outro played out. We lingered in that position, even when the song was finished, and the crowd had burst into soft cheers and claps.

Smiling at me, Colton pulled back and I could finally catch my breath. While a part of me was sad he didn’t fully lean in, a part was equally relieved. It had been just a spur-of-the-moment thing. We were slow dancing, our bodies pressed closelytogether. I was not surprised he felt compelled to do something like that, for we had been lost in the romantic haze of it all.

Or I might have misread the moment entirely, and let my imagination conjure up what I had wanted the reality to be. Maybe Colton wasn’t even trying to kiss me and just wanted to press his forehead to mine—platonically.

He proceeded to pick up my hand and raised it to his lips, gently placing a soft kiss on my knuckles. I didn’t know how I was supposed to react to his gesture, but my panic was short-lived, when Colton offered his arm to me with a playful look on his face.

‘Milady?’ he asked. It was then I realized the kiss on the hand was part of the royal ball bit he had been doing.

When my brain finally caught up with him, I placed my arm inside his and answered, ‘Milord.’

And we were back to being the Clara and Colton that I knew.

Once we got back to our table, I pulled out my phone to check the time, finding out it was almost midnight.

‘Everything okay?’ Colton asked me.

‘Yeah.’ Putting my phone back into my purse, I continued, ‘I just didn’t realize how late it was.’

‘We can leave if you want.’

‘I kinda don’t want to go home just yet,’ I said sheepishly.

‘I didn’t say anything about going home.’

I furrowed my eyebrows at him, puzzled by what he was saying. ‘You have a place in mind?’

‘I do,’ he said, before drinking the rest of his water. ‘What do you say? One last stop before I drive you home?’

At this point of the night, all my defences had already been down, and I didn’t even hesitate with an answer.

Smiling at him, I said, ‘Sure, why not?’

Chapter Eleven

We said a quick goodbye to his aunt, who made Colton promise to bring me back here again.

‘Drive safe,’ she said to him, hugging each of us before sending us off on our way.

Colton’s uncle was back on his DJ duty behind the booth, so we just waved him goodbye as we made our way out of the bar.

I waited for Colton to lead the way to his car so I could follow him, but he caught me by surprise when he decided to take my hand. ‘The car is this way,’ he said, pulling me with him.

Considering the bar was still open for the next couple of hours, cars were still parked alongside the row of shops where Colton’s drive was parked at the end. Upon reaching his car, he opened my door. Once I settled in my seat, he closed it and went over to the driver’s seat.

A part of me was curious as to where he was bringing me, but a bigger part of me wanted it to be a surprise. So, I just stayed quiet as Colton continued to drive. His radio was turned on and a new ABBA song started playing. A smile appeared on my lips upon recognizing the soft melodies of ‘Andante, Andante’.

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