I grip the steering wheel until my knuckles are white as more images from last night pop into my head. God, this girl. My dancer. Taylor.

My pulse quickens, and I can feel my heartbeat in my hands. I shake my head furiously and scream at the top of my lungs until every cubic inch of air is out of my body. I gulp in oxygen until my pulse slows and my muscles relax. With my mind just a fraction clearer, I can see that she’s ruined me. I smile at the thought and hop out of my car, spinning my keys around my finger.

Then I pause, and remember; I’d been ruined before, and not in the sex-so-good-I-can’t-even-think kind of way. The Navy, my family, my fiance, her family - it’s all a shell of what it once was, and what it’s supposed to be. I came out of it all empty, too. Taylor is the only spark I’ve had since. She’s the only glimmer of hope that I might be able to rebuild myself, my family, and my dreams.

I sighed as I crossed the parking lot.

Eli’s Electronics has a fairly small physical store, but I’ve been to one of its two warehouses to pick up special orders, and I know it has a sizeable inventory. Also, I’m a returning customer. What EE doesn’t have in stock, I have no doubt they’ll find for me. I came to order the remaining materials for the renovations at House of Stars. I have a few days of work to finish while I wait for them to arrive, so I don’t think the delay with the screen room impacted my schedule as badly as I expected it would.

“Brandon,” the store manager greets me after the employee at the customer service desk radios him over. “What can I help you with this time?”

Silently cursing the fact that I can’t remember the man’s name, I smile and shake his hand. “Landed myself a botched job and I need some wire and some more specialized components to fix it.” I pull the list from my pocket and hand it out.

“Let’s see what you need.” The manager pores over the list and I glance around the store idly.

A flurry of blonde hair emerges around the corner of an aisle. I straighten up eagerly, and sure enough, it’s Taylor. She’s wearing a pale blue tank top and jean shorts to combat the heat, and she’s tying her hair back in a ponytail as she walks. What’s she doing here?

The beautiful girl herself answers my question as she comes to a stop in front of the laptops, trailing delicate fingers across the keys of one and flicking another’s touchpad into wakefulness.

I wonder if she’s just looking. I keep returning to EE with my orders because I know they have fast, reliable deliveries or pickup times and quality products, but I wouldn’t buy a laptop here. Online prices almost always beat in-store prices on electronics like laptops.

Come to think of it; I know Cullen ordered three laptops for the accountants a few days ago. They should be delivered any day now, but Taylor might not know that since she originally wasn’t supposed to be an accountant.

“—what’s here?”

“Sorry, what?” I ask, taking an extra second to admire the curves of Taylor’s ass, just visible below the bottom hem of her shorts as she leans against a display and taps her toe.

“Do you need anything else aside from what’s here?” the manager asks. “We don’t have anything you need in the store now, but the wire will take four hours to ship here from our warehouse and the rest of the electronics will be available in three days.”

“I’ll pick up the wire along with everything else,” I decide. “I need it all at the same time, anyway.”

“Alright then, you can pay over here.” He gestures to a register.

My fingers hover impatiently at the slot and I push the card in as soon as the prompt appears. Taylor hasn’t left yet, but she’s nearing the end of the laptop isle and I need to talk to her.

About what? Nothing, in particular, comes to mind, but I know I need to talk to her.

Well, I suppose there is last night. She had looked so adorable and irresistible, standing outside the car and clutching her jacket with a smile that lit her face like no streetlight ever could.

I just… I hadn’t known what to say. I spent all that time convincing myself that asking her to come to the bar with me was just a simple invitation between coworkers, but it had been a lie.

Buried deep in the back of my mind, the idea—the hope—that something like that could happen had been very much present.

And now I don’t know how to feel. I never thought I would feel and want these things again, not after Anaja took my heart in her hand and crumbled it into unfeeling dust.

I don’t know how to feel, but when my eyes find Taylor as I return my card to my wallet, I know she’s the key to understanding myself.

I thank the manager, stuff the receipt in a pocket, and make my way across the store. “Hey Taylor.” I inject some surprise into my voice as though I haven’t been watching her this whole time.

She squeaks and jumps a little, snatching her hand away from the laptop she’s examining like it burned her. “Holy shit, Brandon, you scared me.”

“Sorry, sorry.” I hold up my hands in apology.

“No, it’s fine,” she says quickly. “I just set off an alarm here before and touching things kind of makes me paranoid now. What are you doing here?”

“Orders for House of Stars,” I explain. “I decided to break for lunch early and get this done.” I gesture at the laptops, trying to ignore the line of skin that appears between her tank top and shorts when she leans forward to check a price tag. “Looking for a laptop?” I ask casually.

“My old one is getting impossible.” Taylor’s eyebrows draw together and her face sours at the mention of it. “I’ve had it for years and it’s really slow and it shuts down randomly. I had a lecture this morning and it shut down in the middle, then jerked visually through the rest.”

“What else do you need a laptop for besides work and classes?” I ask.

“Nothing, really. I occasionally watch some Netflix. Everything else I do on my phone. Why?” She looks at me questioningly.

Of course, she caught that I’m leading up to something. She’s smart like that. “You might want to double check because I only heard this from Rick, but I think all the accountants are getting company laptops.”

“Wait, really?” A sparkle dawns in her eyes as she looks up at me still bent over the laptop.

“I think so. I’m pretty sure, anyway. I would suggest ordering one online, anyway. It’s usually cheaper.”

“I was just around the area, and I thought I’d take a look.” She straightens up and turns away from the laptops with a flourish in her step. “My old one will work until I check with Isabel. But hey,” she grabs my arm earnestly, “thank you for letting me know. I really, really didn’t want to spend the money on a new one, even if I am making more now.”

“You could have returned it anyway, but I’m glad I could help. Really glad,” I add, unable to contain a smile as her mouth curves into a happy smile. “I was hoping to see you today.”

“I have today off,” Taylor informs me, a blush stealing across her pale cheeks. “I know I said I’d see you at work today, but my brain wasn’t... working.”

“Then, will you have lunch with me? I still have about an hour until I really need to get back to work, and we could walk to that little coffee and lunch place down the street.” I wait with baited breath.

“Sure,” she says without hesitation.

I’m not a nervous person, but wondering all last night and this morning about how Taylor would react, speak or look at me next time we saw each other had gotten me worried like nothing and no one else can.

Now that we’re walking together and talking together, everything feels right in the world. I say something, and she responds quickly with an honest statement or a clever comment, just as she did before last night.

It’s like for her; nothing has changed. Has anything changed for me?

“This way.” I skirt a group of tourists arguing in Chinese, giving them a wide berth to avoid their expansive gestures. After we pass them, I slow and walk closer to Taylor so she can hear me over the chatter of what feels like the entire world out for lunch. “Vegas isn’t for everyone, I guess,” I joke.

“Try to look like you have no idea where you’re going. I’ve found that discourages most tourists from assuming you know where things are just because you don’t have a map in your hands.” Taylor splits away from me to avoid a spilled takeaway box of food on the sidewalk.

“But I don’t agree with you,” she adds, gesturing to the mixed groups of people we can see around us. “Those people were Chinese, there’s a group speaking Spanish, there’s an Indian family—they’re all here because they wanted to visit the Entertainment Capital of the World, and Vegas is meant for people like them. It’s meant to embrace everyone and offer something for everyone.”

Everyone who comes to Vegas does it for the first time once. I could have started up my business as an electrical contractor anywhere, but I chose to compete against the top companies for the electrical jobs that illuminate the Strip and the city around it. Hopes soaring and tool belt ready, I had expected so much from the city and myself—only to realize that making it in Vegas takes time and so, so many sacrifices. It took me two years to land a job with enough prestige to get me any recognition anywhere that mattered to me.

“Vegas embraces tourists. What about you and me? And Rick, and Cullen? And the dancers and the accountants in House of Stars? We’re all just Americans trying to make our way in the world. What does Vegas offer us?”

Taylor doesn’t respond as we turn into the coffee shop. She’s staring at the ground, so I take her hand to guide her away from her current collision course with a laden waiter and toward the stairs to the second floor.

She looks up, but she squeezes my hand rather than release it. “A challenge,” she says softly, and her voice rings with determination. “One that wouldn’t exist without tourists. Everyone in this city makes it what it is, and it needs all of us to be Las Vegas.”

I release her hand as she sits and sits on a chair across from her. “That’s incredibly insightful. And… beautiful.”

By her blush, I’m sure she realizes I mean the city—but also her. The way she thinks. The way she talks.

“Well, I can’t be pessimistic 24/7. I live with Gemma, after all, and she’s happy to exist 24/7, so we kind of rub off on each other and balance out.”

A waitress introduces herself and hands us menus, but I already know what I want. Taylor gives the menu a quick glance and orders a sandwich, probably so that the waitress doesn’t have to come back again and I can be on my way back to work sooner.

“So, what do you like to do?” Taylor asks when the waitress takes off toward the kitchens. “Like… hobbies. I’m going to guess you don’t spend all your time working or bar-hopping.”

I laugh. “I don’t bar-hop at all. Like I said, semi-regular at Spinner’s.”

“Then what do you like to do? Because I’m imagining you redoing wiring for fun on your off days,” Taylor teases, accepting her glass of water as the waitress returns with two.

“I usually just work out and watch something when I’m at home,” I relent. “I guess you could also say nutrition is a hobby of mine, but that kind of goes with working out.”

God, I love it when she looks at me like that. Her eyes roam across my powerfully-built upper body like I’m delicious enough to eat. It’s the same way I look at her.

“I can tell.” The tiny blush on her cheeks and waver in her voice tells me she knows she paused for too long and was caught staring. The open once-over she gives me next tells me she doesn’t care, and both reactions are so incredibly sexy.

Our food arrives, and for a moment we’re too busy arranging our plates and saying ‘thank you’ to the waitress to talk. Once I’ve taken a big bite of my Caesar salad and a sip of my water, I ask, “What about you?” Her eyes rise to me over her sandwich to convey her confusion. “Hobbies.”

“Oh,” she mumbles through a mouthful of food. Taylor chews deliberately, thoughtfully regarding the sandwich. “I guess dancing is sort of a hobby. Or a dream. Or both. I—I, uh, used to sketch and draw a lot, but I’ve been way too busy lately.”

Drawing? Why would she feel awkward about drawing? “You should pick it up again,” I tell her, watching the way her slender hands spin the sandwich around on the plate. I can easily imagine those fingers holding a pencil.

She shrugs. “I don’t have the pencils I used to, and I wouldn’t have time anyway.”

“I get you. I used to build RC cars and planes back in high school, and I know I don’t have time anymore.” Drawing is clearly… well, I don’t know if I would say it’s a touchy subject for her, but she definitely hesitated to tell me. Just for a second, but now that she has told me, she doesn’t hesitate to talk about it. Even so, I feel like I need to share something I used to do in return.

“Really?” Her eyes sparkle with interest. “That’s a pretty cool hobby.”

“It’s what got me into electronics and put it in my mind to go to trade school after— well, after things didn’t work out with the Navy,” I finish.

“And now you’re a top electrical contractor working the Las Vegas Strip.” Taylor raises her hand and gestures out the window, managing to encompass the entire idea of Vegas in the motion.

“Top? No,” I disagree, laughing. “Maybe one day.”

“Maybe one day you’ll have your own building in the city— offices, storage rooms for equipment, company trucks— the lot of it.” Taylor winks at me and returns to her sandwich. “And you’ll need a sexy accountant, of course.”