My best friend took my hand, led me to the other side of the bar, and kissed me. A friend of ours had just tried flirting with her. Earlier that night, he had asked me to help him get somewhere with her, which made my new position in the proceedings a little awkward.
The evening had started with a Halloween bar crawl and several layers of preparation. I finished work at seven and went to my best friend's place to get ready and have a drink before we went to another friend's house for the actual pregame. Apparently, even the pregame needed a warm-up.
I was twenty-three; she was twenty-two. We had both recently come out of relationships, and we'd grown closer since the breakups. I'd always thought she was cute, and I liked being around her. That evening, while we were getting ready, she began flirting with me. So before our group had even assembled, the night already had my attention.
At our other friend's house, a guy in the group told me he thought she was cute and asked me to put in a word for him. I told him he could just go and talk to her. I hadn't promised to arrange anything, and she hadn't expressed an interest in him. Still, I now knew he liked her. That was information I would have preferred to receive on a less eventful evening.
As we moved through the bars, she kept flirting with me and getting touchy. Then he approached and tried flirting with her himself. She told him she wasn't interested, took my hand, and brought me away with her. The kissing followed. There wasn't much room left for me to mistake the situation for unusually enthusiastic friendship.
I felt bad for him. Being turned down is unpleasant enough without seeing the person immediately kiss your friend. But I liked her too, and her interest in me hadn't started after he approached. I hadn't gone into the night planning to compete with him; I had gone to my best friend's place after work.
Later, she told me she'd liked me for a long time, thought I was cute, and was happy I was single now. I could certainly agree with the cute part in reverse. I was less inclined to announce how delighted I was about her breakup. There are probably more elegant ways to enjoy good timing.
Near the end of the night, we arranged rides back to the house where we'd met up. From there, I walked her home. She invited me inside, I stayed the night, and we had sex. The attraction hadn't stopped at the bar.
The next morning, I had an angry text from the friend she'd turned down. He blamed me for her flirting with me and kissing me in front of him. I tried to explain that she'd initiated it, as though that accounted for my entire participation. It didn't quite cover the fact that I wanted to be there too.
I also left out the part about staying over. Our other friend thought I should tell him and be upfront. By then, I'd defended myself over the kiss while leaving the rest of the night out of the conversation.
