Page 17 of The Anti-Bachelorette (The Anti-Bachelorette 1)

Erika is pouting at me again. “Please Emory! I swear I won’t make you do anything else tonight. Please! Pretty please!” I just keep staring at her. I am about to say no again when she sticks out her bottom lip. “Please Em. It’d really help me feel better.”

I throw up my hands. “Oh for Christ's sake! Fine!”

Erika jumps up and down and claps. “Yay!”

I get up and straighten my dress and fluff my hair. I take a big breath. “Here goes nothing.” I turn back to my friends. “You all are lucky I’m such a good friend.” They are all just grinning back at me and watch as I walk away toward the bar.

Alaric hasn’t left the spot at the bar since we’ve been here. He’s just been sipping on beer and watching whatever sports are playing on the TVs. I walk right up next to him, and he turns in his bar stool so he is facing me. I feel like my heart is beating a million times per second. He doesn’t say anything to me and instead just gives me an irritated look like why am I bothering him.

I take one more big breath. “Don’t make this weird or anything.” He raises his eyebrow at me in confusion, but I don’t want to lose my nerve, so before he can ask what I mean, I lean forward and gently press my lips to his.

I see Alaric’s eyes shoot open in surprise, and I am about to pull back away when suddenly I feel his hand press against my lower back. Then my whole body is pulled against his chest, and his other hand grips into my hair. His mouth moves against mine, and I just melt into the kiss. I feel his hand tugging my head to the side, and then his tongue is in my mouth. My body just automatically reciprocates.

A few seconds later, I hear a bunch of hoots and hollers. “Damn girl! The card said kiss not tongue fuck!”

The sound of Erika’s voice pulls me back to reality, and I immediately pull away from Alaric and push at his chest to put some distance between us. The second my lips disconnect from his, my eyes connect with his. His face is just blank. He isn’t smiling and he isn’t frowning. I have no idea what that was. I don’t know what to say to him, so I just walk away back toward the girls.

Erika is trying to convince the girls to do more shots, but I can barely hear anything they are saying. My mind is racing about what just happened. What was that? I glance back over to Alaric, but he is just back in the same position as before sipping his beer and watching whatever is on the TV.

I feel like I need some air. “I’m going to use the bathroom.” Angela stands too. “Hey, I’ll come with you.”

We both head into the bathroom, and I blow out a breath. She gives me a knowing look. “So what was that all about?”

I shake my head at the ground. “I have no idea. I was just planning on giving him a peck on the lips.”

She grins back at me. “So what changed those plans?”

I shake my head again. “I don’t know. He just like pulled me closer. I went in and kissed him, and when I was pulling away, he pulled me back to him. Right? You saw. Right? I didn’t just go full makeout on him did I?” Now I’m afraid maybe I had too many drinks and just imagined him kissing me back.

Angela laughs. “Oh that man definitely kissed you back.”

I smile back. “Oh good.” Then I pause. “Wait no. No, that’s not good.”

Angela laughs again. “Why not? You seemed to quite enjoy that kiss”

I roll my eyes and then give her a serious look. “It doesn’t matter if I liked the kiss. I don’t like Alaric. He’s basically the spawn of satan.”

Angela wiggles her eyebrows at me. “Maybe that makes him good in bed. Gets all his tips from the devil himself.”

I shove her shoulder gently. “Shut up! I am not sleeping with Alaric!”

She just grins back at me. “Mhmm.”

We head back out and head on to the dance floor for the rest of the night. Once all our feet are too sore to walk and we are too drunk to stay awake, we call it a night. I’ve been dreading this moment. Now I have to go over and talk to Alaric. I try to pawn that off. “Someone go grab Alaric. I can’t walk.”

No one makes a move to go over there. Kelly just moans out. “Can’t you just text him? I can’t feel my feet.”

I get up. “C’mon let’s just go. We can grab him on the way out.”

We all head over toward the bar. He sees us approaching, but his eyes are only set on mine. He gets up. “You ready to go?”

I’m too scared to say anything, so I just nod my head. We all pile into his car, and of course the girls leave the front seat for me to sit up next to him. Luckily, the whole way home Erika is crying about how we are such good friends, so I don’t have to say anything to him.

We pull up to the house where the girls’ rides are waiting for them. A few of them have to grab some things they left in the house, so I follow them in. Erika hugs me for a minute straight, and I tell her I love her and she finally leaves. Angela gives me a quick hug, but whispers in my ear. “Let me know if those devil tips work. I might have to find my own spawn of satan.”

I pull away from her, but smile. “Not going to happen.”

She just laughs and heads out the door. She turns and faces me as she walks backward toward her ride. “Call me tomorrow with the details!”

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