“We are beginning our descent into Seattle,” the pilot said over the speakers.

Chewing the flavorless gum as quickly as possible, little popping sensations sounded in my ears as the plane landed. The journey from Dallas to Seattle was a piece of cake compared to the long-distance flights I had traveled just a month ago.

A month.

I drew in a breath, feeling the effects of Luke still in my system. The swirl of pleasure that I felt for him now circled my lungs and squeezed every time I thought of him.

Mechanically, I moved down the aisle of the plane, falling in line with the other passengers. Just like every time I thought of Luke, the world closed in around me, and I struggled to breathe. Even in the ample open space of my apartment or at a coffee shop when images of him floated into my mind, I developed a strange sense of claustrophobia that crippled me until it decided to pass. Which usually wasn’t for several minutes, although it always felt like hours.

Those situations were few and far between now, but they had returned with a vengeance in the confines of the plane. I wanted to scream for everyone to get out of my way and rush off the plane.

But no one wanted a crazy person on their plane, even if it was already on the ground. I knew there was a trigger-happy air marshal somewhere on the plane, and I wasn’t going to get arrested before I got to see my best friend, Matt.

He would tease me to no end if I got arrested, and he would probably find some photographic proof to harass me with for the rest of my life.

Instead, I took another deep breath, closing my eyes and willing myself to think of vast, open spaces nowhere near the country of England or Qatar. I preferred to think of the farmlands that I drove by on the way to the airport in Dallas.

“Miss?” someone said behind me.

My eyes sprang open to see the annoyed passengers behind me. The woman in front of me was already way down the aisle of the plane, and I was holding everyone up.

I muttered an apology and lurched forward, dragging my carry-on suitcase behind me.

Focusing on the signs for the baggage claim area, I hustled through the airport, a blur of other travelers moving around me. The only face I wanted to see came closer with every step.

I hadn’t seen Matt face-to-face since New Year’s Eve, the day that changed my life for better and worse. That night, my former boss, Mr. Fraser gave me the assignment to get the dirt on a prince after rumors surfaced of his father leaving the throne. Weeks later, I was Luke’s fake-turned-real girlfriend, visiting his family’s palace in Qatar after his father’s death, and Luke sent me packing, claiming that he didn’t love me just hours after confessing his love to me.

Since then, I had suffered through many sleepless nights, replaying the conversation over in my head, willing it to have a different outcome. But with no communication from Luke in a month, I knew what I felt was heartbreak, and I wasn’t sure if I would ever recover.

I had never been in a relationship long enough for it to hurt. I’d also never fallen for someone so quickly before. First, it had been a job to me, but getting to know Luke on a deeper level while we pretended to be a couple for his mother’s sake was what did me in. Under all the money and good looks, he was a genuine guy. Someone that I could see myself with for the rest of my life. Granted, that would have made me a queen, but if I hadn’t hesitated, Luke wouldn’t have been hurt and pushed me away from him.

He was going to be king no matter what, and apparently, I was the only thing standing in his way.

It didn’t take long for other news outlets to get the first jump on the story, the story that I didn’t feel comfortable telling.

“Soph!” Matt called my name from afar.

I jolted and then found his smiling face in the crowd. He’d grown a beard apparently. It was longer than I imagined him to be comfortable with but trimmed nicely. I wondered if that had to do with the chilly Seattle weather.

My heart warmed for a moment before I walked in his direction. He met me halfway and scooped me into his arms. I dropped my carry-on, and the handle smacked against the ground, startling several nearby passengers from my flight.

“It’s good to see you, too,” I said. “Now, put me down.”

“You packin’ a few extra pounds there?” he asked, squeezing my upper arm.

I swatted at him. “Shut up.”

“All those break up pints of ice cream?” he asked with a smirk.

More like bottles of wine. “You’re looking fit as ever.”

He preened. “It’s Erica. She’s so damn fine. I swear she gets more and more beautiful every day.”

“Worried?” I asked as a smile played along my lips.

“Hell, no. With this personality? Please.” He pointed to himself and wagged his eyebrows.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

We walked over to the baggage carousel, and I found my bag right away. It wasn’t that heavy. I was only spending a few days in Seattle. Since I had used most of my savings to go to England and Qatar to find Luke, I had to pinch my pennies. It was a good thing the flight to Seattle was Matt’s treat. I never would have been able to afford it.

“How about some lunch?” he asked. “I want to catch up with you for more than an hour at a time.”

“You said me ditching you on New Year’s Eve was fine,” I said, giving him a look.

“It will be fine when you tell me everything.”

“I have—”

“I’ve known you for a long time, Sophia. I can tell when you’re lying. I know everything wasn’t covered in our few short phone conversations.”

After returning home, I had to deal with quitting the Dallas Post and searching for a new job or else I was going to go broke. And I had no urge to talk about Luke to anyone. Ripping open that wound wasn’t going to solve any of my problems.

---

Matt brought me to an expensive restaurant near the water. I scanned the menu, seeing so many good options. My palate had changed a lot since meeting Luke. Him taking me to expensive restaurants and the amazing food at the palace had brought me out of my fried food and pasta meal rut. Since I’d worked so much, those were always easy and quickly bought or prepared.

“Don’t worry about the bill,” he said. “My treat.”

“I don’t want this vacation to be me sucking your bank account dry,” I said.

“Like you did to yours?” he asked, sipping his water. “Too soon?”

I glared at the menu, and he gave up for the time being. I ordered the cheapest entree, but Matt didn’t skimp on the white wine. The sun was shining, a rare thing for Seattle, and after a full glass, I started to relax a little bit.

“You can’t hold me in suspense too long,” he said. “I am paying for lunch.”

So that was his game. He was footing the bill as long as I supplied him with information. I supposed there were worse things to trade for.

“What do you want me to say?” I asked. “Mr. Fraser wanted a scoop on life at the palace with Luke, and I couldn’t give that to him.”

“Didn’t Luke want you to write the story?” Matt asked, bringing back the memory of Luke telling me to write about him. He knew how important the promotion was to me, yet I still couldn’t do it. It proved how selfless he was, but putting his name into my word processor was only going to make everything worse.

“He did,” I said, pouring myself more wine. “But I figured if Mr. Fraser couldn’t see my talent after six years, it wasn’t worth it to write the story. So I left.”

“How do you feel about that decision?” he asked.

I shrugged. “It’s probably something I should have done a long time ago, but I needed that push. I needed to see that there’s so much more out there, and Mr. Fraser and the Dallas Post wasn’t for me. I only wished I didn’t spend most of my savings on plane tickets.”

“Do you have anything lined up?” Matt asked.

After a week of wallowing in my sorrows and another week to peel myself up off the couch, I applied to several other newspapers. The jobs didn’t pay as well, but I needed to pay my rent.

“I have an interview next week,” I said. “I sent over my portfolio before coming here.”

“Sounds positive,” Matt said.

“I hope so,” I said.

“Well, if you ever get kicked out of your apartment, I have a spare room. And there are plenty of news outlets here that would be lucky to have you.”

“Thanks,” I said, truly meaning it. But I had created this mess, and I was going to get myself out of it. If only my heart weren’t attached to my failure, I might have had another job already.

“Are we going to talk about the Luke-sized elephant in the room?” Matt asked.

“No,” I said firmly. “We can talk about work and any other aspects of my personal life, but not him.” I didn’t even want to think of him, never mind talk about him.

Matt put his hands up in surrender. “That’s fine. But I’m here if you need to talk.”

“I know,” I said. I appreciated everything he did for me, but I couldn’t help seeing a black hole as my future with nothing waiting on the other side for me.

---

After lunch, Matt brought me to my hotel. He had wanted me to stay with him, but I was already disrupting much of his life. Also, I wanted to use the trip to regroup and get my head in the game before my interview next week. Staying in Dallas only reminded me of my failures.

He suggested I treat myself to a spa day, and I promised I would consider it. He knew cost was an issue and offered to pay, but I figured I would get a manicure or a pedicure just to show that I tried.

All I wanted to do was sleep and order room service, maybe binge watch a few shows that I had on my list and never had time to see due to my work schedule. If I got the new job, then I would throw myself back into work, harder than I ever had before. It was the only way that I could see getting over Luke.

Matt followed me up to my room, probably to make sure that I didn’t hightail it home out of fear, and helped me settle in.

It was early afternoon, but I was exhausted. I couldn’t blame jet lag. After going from Dallas to England to Qatar and back, there was no amount of jet lag that could take me out ever again.

“I’ll leave you to it,” he said. “I’ll be in touch tomorrow after work so we can have dinner.”

I walked over to the window and stared out at the Space Needle in the distance. “Sounds good.”

We said our goodbyes and Matt left. I had been alone for most of my adult life, but hearing the click of the door catapulted me back to being in Dallas. I could travel as far as I could away from Luke, but he was never far from my mind.

What the hell was I thinking? Did I really think that a vacation could make me forget that easily? His memory was attached to everything I did. My needing a job reminded me that I had failed to write the story that he wanted me to. Even being in Seattle reminded me that I wasn’t with him in Qatar instead.

A vacation wasn’t the easy-out that I wanted and needed to get Luke out of my mind.