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celebrity, but I can promise you a good time,” Nate said.
    The man knew how to lay it on thick. Just when I thought he was about to be genuine he’d throw me a one-liner that damn near could’ve been stripped right out of a cheesy teen drama…or worse, a soft core porno. I forced a smile and sucked down a little more of my frozen cocktail.
    “What do you do, Nate?” I asked, trying to speed the get-to-know-you-small-talk-bullshit along. I’d never enjoyed one of those story-swapping conversations with a guy. It always felt forced and fake. Let’s be honest, when you’re both just trying to get in each other’s pants, what’s the point in hearing about their job or their favorite movie?
    He finished his beer and flagged the bartender for another just before he answered. “I’m a personal trainer.”
    “Of course you are,” I snickered.
    “You?”
    A sigh passed my lips and I regretted asking about his job. I didn’t want to talk about my job . “I work at a law firm. I’m an administrative assistant,” I replied, trying to hide the disdain in my tone.
    “Ah, naughty secretary,” Nate quipped.
    A cross between a grunt and a laugh fell out of me and I nodded, locking my eyes on the bar as I continued to drink. “Sure. Something like that.”
    When and I turned to look at him, Nate tugged off his sunglasses and his face lost the ever-present frat boy smirk. “I didn’t mean anything by that. It was just a joke. A bad joke.”
    I was at a loss for words. Sure, I didn’t want to think about my shitty job and my shitty life that were waiting on pause at home, but it had taken his remark to make me realize just how long I’d considered both my job and my life to be shitty. Figuring out what I wanted to do with my life hadn’t exactly been at the top of my priority list in college. I was more interested in meeting people and going to parties. I went to class and I got decent grades, but I was never actually thinking about what I was studying as being the rest of my life . Random business classes and technical writing courses got me a degree and I’ve been sitting outside of Mr. Leonard Young’s office doing everything from his memos to his dry cleaning ever since.
    This vacation was what I’d needed for a while. Not just to get laid, but to really examine my life from a neutral playing field and figure out what the fuck I wanted and whether or not I had the lady balls to reach out and grab it. A chill ran up my spine. I wanted nothing more than to quit my job the second I got off the plane in Philly in a few days.
    I sucked in a breath, hiding the fear that ricocheted through my insides at the thought. “Tell me about your friends, the guys I saw you with last night,” I said, changing the subject.
    Nate laughed and I tried like hell to focus on his strong jaw and white teeth as he smiled. I tried to listen to him as he started in with a grin on his face.
    “Those jackasses are Jerome and Paul. We’ve been buddies since high school. It was their idea to come here. They actually had to convince me. But now I’m glad I folded.”
    What the fuck is wrong with me? He was interested in me. Ready-to-carry-me-upstairs-like-a-caveman interested! He was undeniably sexy. I was in the most beautiful place on earth and yet…all I wanted was a friend. I would’ve given anything to have Danielle at my side. She would’ve seen the look that washed over my face the moment I’d started analyzing my future internally. She would’ve narrowed her pretty blue eyes on me and told me to spit it out. Dani had always been the girl I could pour my heart out to.
    During one of our tequila and lime laced evenings on the floor in front of the coffee table, long before the night we decided she should ship off to Desire Resort, I’d felt my throat tighten when she started talking about Kyle. Their relationship was new and all lovey dovey and he hadn’t yet shown her what an asshole he could be. She was going on and on