Love Unmatched by Anne Leigh

I needed her? Oh, that’s right. She was arriving in two hours since her flight had been delayed.
     
    I turned my head to look at myself in the mirror. At five and a half months I looked like a balloon. How in the world was I supposed to dance like a stripper as Tanya was suggesting I should?
     
    Yes, my crazy friend was suggesting that I should stand in as the stripper for Zander’s lap dance.
     
    The guys had tried to convince him to go to a strip club, but he was vehemently against it. Even Kieran said that Zander was being such a killjoy. I had no problems with Zander going to a strip club. It was his bachelor party. But I could not force him to do it. And why would I? Just the thought of him being teased and grinded on by scantily-clad women was enough to bring back my morning sickness. I’ve had an easy pregnancy so far, aside from the anemia and the bouts of morning sickness during my first trimester that went into my four month mark. It was a struggle to do my internship at that time, but I had done it. Now there was no more morning sickness, just the constant feeling of being bloated and feeling like a whale.
     
    I eyed the outfit that Tanya set on the bed. It was a two-piece neon green, tiger print spandex bikini set. The top was a triangle bikini top that tied in the back, and the bottom was a G-string. I have never worn something like this outside of the pool. Actually, some of the two-piece bikini sets that I wore for Zander were probably skimpier than what Tanya had picked out. My reservation came from the glaring fact that I had a protruding tummy, that my thighs were twice their size, and that my legs were starting to stick together when I walked.
     
    Tanya’s emerald gaze pleaded with me as she said, “Listen here girlfriend, do you want your soon-to-be-husband to not have any lap dances or a stripper for his bachelor party? This is like a one-time party for him to celebrate his last days as a single man. And since he doesn’t want those strippers, you might as well give this to him.”
     
    I stayed quiet.
     
    “What if it was only you and him?” Tanya asked. “You would be on the stage and he was the only one in the room. Would you do it?” When she initially brought up the idea, she had said that only a few guys would be in the room. That was so not happening. Those guys would throw up if they saw what was underneath my clothes. They would probably run for their lives and swear to never look at a pregnant woman ever again. Where did Tanya and the guys get all these harebrained schemes?
     
    “Tanya, it will only be Zander and I, right?” I repeated.
     
    She nodded, her face breaking into a smile. “It will only be you, lover boy, and the pole!” she exclaimed.
     
    “What pole?” I was aghast.
     
    Tanya’s eyes flicked to the door. She was avoiding my gaze. I thought it was just a dance, but now there was a pole? Exactly how did she think I was going to manage climbing up and down a pole?
     
    “Well, because of your condition,” she started, “You can’t really do much. But you can still work the pole. I’ll just have to show you.”
     
    “I’m not climbing down the pole, right?”
     
    “Of course not. Unless you want the pole to break into pieces with all your weight on it,” she reasoned, like an engineer .
     
    I still could not believe this. But I wanted Zander to have his lap dance at his bachelor party, even if it was coming from his whale-sized fiancé.
     
    “Fine, I’ll do this. But it’s only going to be me and him in the room. No one else.” I was not having anyone else see my humiliation. At least, with Zander, I could always resort to my powers of seduction.
     
    So here I was, standing like a crazy fool on this stage. Tanya had set the music on a timer. I requested the lights to be turned really low. Maybe I shouldn’t have. Now it was hard for me to see. I still had to walk up the stage. Tanya said that my cue to go on stage was when the music played,