Page 113 of One Night in Vegas

“I don’t think I would do that tonight,” she advised. “I know Macy a little. I think she needs some time to come to terms with this. If you try to talk to her right now, you might end up making matters worse. She’s a wounded animal. She needs some time to calm down. She’s not going to hear anything you have to say when she’s hurt and angry.”

I groaned and rubbed my face. “I hate the thought of her spending the night thinking I cheated on her.”

She was smiling, which seemed a little out of place given the situation.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s nice to hear you think of it as cheating on her,” she said.

“Mom, what are you talking about?”

“You already see her as your girlfriend,” she said, smiling. “You can’t cheat on a casual hookup.”

“Mom,” I groaned.

Sometimes, it was a little too much to have my mom that involved in my life.

“Have you ever felt like you’ve cheated on a woman?” she asked.

I thought about it. “No, I guess not,” I answered.

“Talk to her tomorrow,” she said.

“What if she doesn’t show up?”

“Then I think you need to search her out and do whatever you can to make her listen to you,” she said.

“What if she doesn’t believe me?”

“I think that’s a risk you take, but Macy doesn’t seem like the type of person to just shut you down without giving you a chance to explain,” she said. “You might need to explain to her how you feel though. You said you haven’t put a label on it or made it official. This might be the time to do that. She needs to know where you stand.”

“I’m pretty sure she knows,” I said.

“She needs that confirmation. That assurance you aren’t going to be seeing other women. If I was her and I was in this loosey-goosey relationship with a man known to be a serial womanizer and I saw a picture of him kissing another woman, I too might be suspicious.”

“I wasn’t kissing her,” I said again. “And there is nothing loosey-goosey.”

“Talk to her,” she said.

“I will. Thanks, Mom.”

“Are you sure you don’t want dinner?” she offered.

“No thanks,” I said. “I’m going home. I’ll call you later.”

She walked me to the door and gave me a reassuring hug. “I saw the other write-ups about the new line,” she said. “Good job. Your father truly would be proud.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

I left and went home to my empty house. I didn’t want to be alone. I was done with being alone. I did the bachelor thing and I was over it. Sleeping in bed with her was a million times better than sleeping alone. Waking up with her and planning weekends together was far better than lounging around or going out with Dane.

I found something to eat and sat at the eat-in kitchen table. The silence was deafening. The house felt so empty. Far emptier than it ever had before. I thought about the last couple of weeks with her and then I thought about the upcoming cruise. I had been fantasizing about her in a bikini and the two of us sneaking off for some quiet time on one of the islands we were supposed to be visiting.

It wasn’t just the cruise. There was so much more I had been thinking about. I was thinking about a trip to Cancun with her, the Maldives, and any other tropical location that would put her in a bikini.

Hell, I would buy a damn island for the two of us if she was worried about people finding out.

43

---