As I stepped off the plane and inhaled a deep lungful of the crisp morning air, I felt a little waver in my stomach. Had this been the right choice?

“Come on, come on. I want to get to the hotel.” Zoe grabbed my hand and tugged me along impatiently, and I hurried to keep up with her. She was wearing an enormous hat that drooped down around her head, a pair of shorts, and a strappy top, and she looked like she’d been plucked from the poster of an old-fashioned, risqué vacation flick.

“Hey, hey, I’m going as fast as I can,” I protested as I hurried to keep up with her. “I got up in the middle of the night to make it here, remember?”

“Oh, enough of your complaining.” She rolled her eyes playfully. “We’re in Vegas! Aren’t you excited?”

“Yeah, I am,” I assured her, even though I wasn’t certain I was telling the truth. Sure, it was nice to get away somewhere new for a change, but some part of me felt… uncomfortable? Maybe it was because I hadn’t been anywhere but Portland for so long, but I couldn’t fight the feeling that I was in the wrong place, that this city wasn’t right for me.

We collected our bags and bundled into an overpriced cab to our hotel not far from the center of the city. The separate rooms had been cheap, and I was glad I would have somewhere to rest up soon. But Zoe seemed to be buzzing with excitement, ready for us to take on anything Las Vegas had for us.

“Okay, when we get there, we get something to eat.” She ticked the ideas off on her fingers. “And we get changed, go down to the pool, and start drinking.”

“And then?”

“And then we see where the night takes us!” she exclaimed, her eyes glinting with excitement at the thought. “Oh my God, it’s going to be so much fun.”

I was exhausted by the thought of it, but she had gone to such great lengths to organize this for us, and I didn’t want to let her down, so I ignored the nagging little voice at the back of my head. I told myself I was here to have a good time, not to sit around brooding on whether or not I had remembered to turn down my thermostat before I’d left home.

“I’m going to dump my stuff in my room and take a shower,” Zoe told me excitedly as we arrived at the hotel and picked up our keys. “I’ll meet you downstairs for the buffet soon, all right?”

“Sure thing.” I nodded. My stomach was grumbling, and eating a damn good breakfast was at least something I could get behind. I went to change and wash up and arrived down at the bar area not long afterward. Zoe, as she usually did, was taking a while to put herself together, so I ordered a coffee and took a seat at the bar, scanning the surrounding area and trying to get myself to kick back and actually fucking relax since I was all the way in Vegas.

The place was nice if not super glamorous. It was certainly built for the less discerning tourist, which was fine since that was precisely what I was. Clean but unremarkable. I took a sip of my coffee and began to brighten up. I was so far from home, maybe I could actually let go of some of the shit that had been plaguing me the whole time I was there and have a good trip with Zoe.

I felt a pair of eyes on me, and I turned around, expecting to see Zoe bouncing toward me from the entrance arch to the bar. Instead, I found a man looking at me. If I had been in the mood for flirtation, he would have been precisely the kind of person I would do it with. He was handsome, a few years older than me, with some streaks of gray in his hair and a dark beard that suited him well enough. He was grinning at me as he slid over to join me at the bar, taking the seat next to me.

“Well, hey,” he drawled, in a voice that was attempting to sound sexy, I assumed. I stifled a giggle.

“Hey,” I greeted him.

“You just arrive here?” he asked, and I nodded.

“Thought I would have noticed you at the hotel if you’d arrived before this,” he said, letting his eyes swim all over my body. I tugged down the hem of the short teal dress I had thrown on over my bikini and shifted in my seat, not sure how to react.

“You come here often?” he asked. “To Vegas, I mean.”

“No, this is my first time.” I shook my head. “My friend brought me out here. She said I’d love it.”

“Oh, wow.” He nodded. “There’s so much stuff to do, especially around here. What kind of things are you into?”

“Uh…”

“Like food, music, movies.” He cocked an eyebrow at me. “That’s what I’m asking about.”

“Oh.” I laughed. “Uh, I guess food. Or maybe that’s on my mind because I’ve not eaten any breakfast yet.”

“There’s plenty of places around here I’m sure you’d like,” he said. “I could show you if you like.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine.” I waved my hand, not wanting to put him out. “I get a free breakfast as part of the deal with the room. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Or maybe I just want to take you out,” he said. I made a face. “Is it that awful a thought?” He half-laughed, and I felt like an ass for reacting the way I had.

“I’m sorry. I’m not really out here looking for… anything.”

“You came to the city of sin with the plan not to commit a single one?” he shot back, and his voice was a little barbed as if he didn’t like that I wasn’t receptive to his advances. Did he often chat up women at hotel bars like this? Did he often do it successfully?

“Yeah, I guess so,” I conceded, shrugging cheerfully and taking a sip of my coffee. I kind of wanted to be left alone, but I got the feeling this guy wasn’t going to let it go that easily.

“Sure I can’t tempt you to a drink, at least?” he suggested. “On me. To celebrate your first time in Vegas.”

“Really, I’m fine,” I replied firmly. I craned my neck around to see if Zoe was anywhere near arriving yet. I just wanted this guy to fuck off and leave me the hell alone, but he didn’t give off the easygoing vibe that he had at first.

“I’m not asking for much of your time,” he told me, and my opinion of him soured swiftly.

“Yeah, and I’m not asking for any of yours,” I snapped back. He raised his eyebrows.

“Damn, I like a bit of feistiness in my women,” he remarked, grinning widely as though he had achieved something by getting me to respond that way. I wanted to kick myself. To this kind of man, any reaction was still a reaction he could hook into, proof that he was getting under my skin and could get what he wanted.

“I’m going to leave now,” I told him. “If you see me here again, don’t bother talking to me.”

“Fine, fine.” He held his hands up, acting shocked by my lack of interest and apparent irritation.

As I walked off, I heard him speaking to the bartender, and I did my best to tune him out, but he seemed determined to make sure I heard him.

“And there I was thinking she would be an easy lay,” he commented. I felt my cheeks burn hot, and I wanted to turn around and scream at him, chew him out in front of everyone in this place for acting like he could speak about me that way when I was right there in the room. But letting him rile me up would be enough to start the conversation again, and the last thing I wanted was that. I paused for a moment, gathered myself, and marched out of there, trying to ignore that my cheeks were burning with rage.

Before I got all the way out, I bumped into Zoe, who had a big, breezy smile on her face and looked about as full of the joys of life as I’d ever seen her. I instantly felt a twist of guilt. She had gone to all this effort for me, and I was already letting some jerk-off with a complex about winning me over get under my skin?

“You okay?” Zoe asked, grabbing my arm and leaning away from me to take me in. She could obviously read the anger on my face, and I worked hard to clear it away as fast as I could.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I promised her. “Just hungry, that’s all. Let’s get something to eat.”

“Yeah, agreed.” She nodded, rubbing her closed fist into her stomach. “I could really use some breakfast.”

We ate together, and thankfully, the man who had been at the bar before didn’t so much as bother to make eye contact with me this time. Probably because I wasn’t as easy a lay as he’d imagined. We ate way too much, and I was starting to feel a little better.

“Hey, walk me back to my room?” Zoe asked. “I want to brush my hair before we go to the pool.”

“Sure. I need to charge my phone anyway.”

I followed her back up the stairs, and I ducked into my room as she headed into hers. Plugging my phone in, I went to check my makeup, and that’s when I heard my cell buzz to life on the counter next to the bed.

I went to pick it up, assuming it would be some spam from my cell provider. Instead, I saw a number I recognized, a number I had done my best to forget.

“Hey, Autumn. Hope you’re doing well. I miss you. H x”

My heart sank, and just like that, all the hard work I’d been doing to convince myself I was doing all right seemed to slip away from me. How could things be okay when he was all the way back in Portland and missing me? I ached to have him close to me, and I held the phone up to my chest, pressing it to the spot above my heart. I knew I was acting crazy, and I didn’t care. No matter how much space I put between the two of us, I was still going to miss him. Nothing could change that.

I stared down at the message for a long time and chewed on my lip. I should have ignored it and gotten on with the rest of my trip. But I couldn’t. I opened a new message, hesitated for a moment, and then tapped out a response of my own.