On My Way To Mr. Right

Chapter 31

“Excuse me? You’re frustrated? You humiliated me and Emman. You won at our expense. What more do you want?” I snapped.

I was never good at confrontations. Mere huffs and puffs rile me up. It’s not like I don’t have a gazillion questions to ask him. I just didn’t want him to think I never grew out of my nosey personality.

“I didn’t think Emma would actually show up. She never showed any interest in me. Only that I was sort of well-known. She broke things off with me yesterday, then decided this morning that she wanted to come.” He explains.

So, was I a rebound girl?

“I know what you’re thinking. No, you weren’t just a replacement for her at the moment. I actually staged the entire thing to give a rose to whoever was in the center seat. That’s why I reserved those seats. One was for Ross, by the way. I didn’t know who’d sit there but I made sure it would be either one of you guys, so I knew you'd play along.”

Play along.

It was just a ploy, after all.

“You saw Emma was there. Why didn’t you just grab her? She was humiliated, by the way. Her glares were deathly and menacing.”

“The dance was made to be executed for the center seat, with just enough beats for me to dazzle. She was a little far off.”

“So that’s the only reason you did that back there?” I was completely humiliated and it was for James to win. At least I won’t have to deal with anymore tutorials with him.

“Well, no,” He glanced at me with a stern look. We had turned to my street already. I could see our porch light glimmer in the corner of my eye. James, noticing this, pulls over just two houses before mine. He looks at me again and doesn’t speak for some time. I raised an eyebrow at him.

We didn’t have all night. What was he waiting for? The sunrise?

“I like you, Lottie,” As soon as those words left his mouth, I froze in my seat. There was no stage to fright but the idea of confronting my feelings about James was even more terrifying. “I like you a lot, and I was going to confess on the stage when they called you, but I chickened out.”

I was left speechless. I didn’t even know if this was real or not.

Just then, thousands of thoughts and ideas popped into my head. I contemplated what to tell him. Whether I should tell him I liked him, too. Or that I’ve seen this movie a hundred times. The pressure of the moment ate me up, and I sympathize with his chickening out earlier.

“I didn’t expect you to answer me immediately, Lottie,” he spoke after moments of silently staring into each other’s eyes. I had thousands of words to tell him. But I couldn’t find the voice to tell him. “Hell, I didn’t even expect you to like me back. I know you’ve seen me flirting around these past weeks.”

“Flirting? Try sleeping around,” I accidentally mumbled a little too loudly. He tilts his head and a small smirk appears on his face again. I did not like where this was going.

“I’ve never slept with anyone. I’m sorry if I gave you that disgusting impression of me,” He chuckles, finding delight in this horror story. “I only wanted to forget about these feelings. More so when you’re around. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. Trust me, I really didn’t. I just can’t help it. You are amazing, Charlotte. I know you feel like you struck out with Adrian last year and I saw how devastated you were after that. I just wanted to give you some space and time. But I can’t go on like this anymore. I think I’ll go crazy if I just don’t tell it all.” He was gasping for breath after his little speech. His cheeks were flustered.

“I like you, too,” I admitted.