Page 10 of The Christmas Mistake

I groan and push my head back into the pillow.

I don’t feel well. Drinking the punch was definitely not a good move. My stomach churns and I predict I’m going to be sick very, very soon.

“I can’t stay here in her bed,” I whisper to myself. “I need to leave. Now.”

I just feel so damn uncomfortable. I’m regretting last night with every fiber of my being. The last thing I want is to talk to the girl currently asleep next to me. This whole situation – this one night stand - is not me. I never lose control. I’m never drunk. I’m analytical and not impulsive. I don’t do drunken sex with random girls. The last thing I want is to be presented with the consequence of my lapse of judgment.

And that thought makes me feel even more sick.

Ew. Chastity.

Really, what the hell was I thinking?

My eyes dart around the bedroom I find myself in, desperately scanning for a means to escape. My clothes and shit are lying scattered messily around the bed like a bombsite. I’ll have to move quick to get out of here. I don’t want her waking up with me struggling to put my pants on. I don’t want that whole stilted conversation.

I grit my teeth.

I’ve gotta jump out of here fast and swift. I simply want her to think she hallucinated me coming home to her last night and, right now, that means I’ve gotta move faster than Santa delivering presents.

I carefully slide out of bed, so conscious of not stirring the girl next to me, but before my big toe even touches the floor there’s movement behind me. Chastity ruffling the bedsheets.

Chastity waking up.

“Morning,” she grunts, her voice all croaky.

Ugh. Even the way she wakes up is annoying.

I sigh, take in a deep breath, and then turn around to give her the fakest smile in the history of faked smiles.

“Morning.”

“How did you sleep?” she asks me.

“Fine.”

Her eyes blink open. She sees me sitting on the edge of the mattress, half in and half out of her bed.

“Where are you going?”

She’s full of questions this morning, isn’t she? Great. Here comes the awkward conversation I was dreading.

“I think I’m going to head home,” I reply. No point dancing around the truth.

Chastity’s eyes glance over to her bedside alarm clock.

“It’s like six in the morning, Nicholas. On a Friday. And it’s freaking snowing out there. How about you stay for a minute, we’ve got the whole morning?”

Trust me, that’s the last thing I want to do. I would rather eat rocks.

“Look,” I mutter. “About last night…”

Chastity props her head up on her elbow. She’s wide awake now and staring intensely at me. The light catches her cute innocently-just-awake face, and I can see why drunk me slept with her last night, but then I remember how irritating her bubbly personality is and I immediately regret thinking how pretty she appears.

“Last night was definitely a one-off,” she replies.

“Oh.” She’s actually on the same page as me?

Chastity raises her hands. “I seriously hope you don’t think we’re gonna date or anything, right?”