The next morning I rolled out of bed with a pretty major headache. We had casino-hopped *til all hours of the morning. As Matt had predicted, Jen had turned out to be a phenomenal card player. She had picked up blackjack fairly quickly, and ended the night four hundred bucks richer. The rest of had occupied ourselves with a lot of drinking.

"Ugh," Ginny groaned from the bed next to me. "I keep forgetting that I'm an old married mother and I shouldn't be doing things like this."

"Gin, baby or not, you're only twenty-five," I told her, rubbing my head.

"Let's go get food," she said. "Bacon is the only cure for a hangover this bad."

"Oh my G.o.d," I moaned. "Bacon sounds amazing."

We dragged ourselves out of bed, throwing on yoga pants and tank tops. "You look hot," I told Ginny drily as she pulled her hair up in a messy bun.

"Says the girl who didn't manage to take her make-up off last night," she replied.

We made it downstairs to one of the casino restaurants and found a mouth-watering buffet. Ginny was whimpering next to me as we stared down the long line of food. We had never been the kind of girls to avoid food after heavy drinking-or any other time for that matter. We were of the opinion that the best way to kill a hangover was to stuff it full of greasy junk.

A few minutes later, we had found our way to a table with heaping plates of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. "I need coffee," Ginny moaned. "Where the h.e.l.l is the coffee?"

"Right over there," a voice said.

We both looked up and I found myself face to face with the guy from the casino last night. Oh, h.e.l.l. He looked even better in the morning, if that was possible, all bright eyed and rested. I'm sure I looked like c.r.a.p.

"How you doing this morning, Annie?" he asked, sitting down across the table. "Have fun last night?"

"A little too much," I said, feeling uncomfortable at his nearness in my present state.

"Well," he said, "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?"

Ginny was watching my reaction to his arrival with a smile on her face that freaked me out a little bit. She knew me too well.

"Hi," she said, pushing her hand into his face. "I'm Ginny, Annie's friend."

"h.e.l.lo, Ginny, Annie's friend," he replied, smiling. "I'm Nate."

"Nice to meet you, Nate," she said, smiling at me way too obviously. Oh, geez.

"So what are you guys up to today?" Nate asked. "Did you say something about thrill rides?"

"Yeah," Ginny said excitedly. "We're gonna go to the stratosphere tower and do the rides up there."

"That's awesome," Nate said. "I've been trying to convince my buddies to do that, but they're way too chicken."

"You could always come with us," Ginny said.

I kicked her under the table. I could live without her matchmaking. It was one thing to flirt with the guy last night, when I was looking good and feeling pretty tipsy. It was another to invite him to spend the day with us.

Nate was looking at me with a slight smirk on his face. "Thanks, Ginny, but I should probably hang out with my friends today."

I gave a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived.

"Well, before we head over there we're going to spend some time at the pool here at the hotel," Ginny said.

"Cool," Nate said. "I'll totally see you guys there."

He tapped the table twice, then stood up. "Good to see you guys, Ginny, Annie."

"Bye!" Ginny said brightly.

"Bye," I muttered.

After he walked away, I turned on her. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"What? I thought you liked him?"

"I think he's cute," I corrected her. "I never said I liked him."

She sighed. "Well the only way to find out if you like a cute guy is to spend some time with him."

"Ginny," I said, "he is so obviously not my type. Flirting with him at the casino is one thing. Hanging out with him all day is totally another."

"Why don't you think he's your type?" she asked, surprised. "He's totally into you. And the way you sauntered over to him last night-I think there's chemistry there."

I sighed.

"I know what you're thinking," Ginny said. "You're thinking he's too together for you, right? You're wishing he would be just a little more emo?"

"I don't like emo guys," I said, offended.

Ginny laughed. "Bulls.h.i.t. Sensitive artist is just another way to describe emo."

I glared at her. "Gin, he's probably, like, an accountant or something. He lives in Birmingham."

She shook her head. "You're such a sn.o.b."

"Who's a sn.o.b?" Jen asked, sitting down next to me. I looked at her and groaned. While Ginny and I looked like we'd been drinking all night, Jen looked as perfect and put-together as ever. Typical.

"Annie made a love connection and she's in denial," Ginny said.

"Oooh," Jen said, digging into her pancakes. "Who's the guy?"

"It's not a love connection," I said, feeling irritated with both of them. "I met a guy from Detroit at the casino last night. I flirted with him a little bit. End of story."

"Or not," Ginny said, drinking her juice. "He came over here this morning and you can totally tell he's into her. He says he's going to try to find her at the pool."

"Wow, Annie," Jen said. "This sounds pretty serious."

"I have an idea," I said, putting down my fork. "How about you both drop it?"

"She says she doesn't care," Ginny said to Jen, ignoring me, "but how much do you want to bet right now she's thinking about what bikini to wear?"

As they both laughed, I could only glare at them.

I mean, she was totally right, but it was still annoying.

Chapter Eight.

"So where's the hottie?" Matt asked, settling down on a lounge chair near me. Jen snickered, and I glared at them both.

"Thanks, Jen," I told her.

"What?" she said. "It's very important to me that your future husband gets along well with my boyfriend. I had to make sure that Matt was welcoming to him."

"Future husband?" Kiki squealed as she and Eric joined us in the area we had staked out by the pool. "Who is it, Annie?"

I groaned. "You guys, seriously. It's no big deal. Please don't embarra.s.s me."

"Because you have never, ever embarra.s.sed either of us around a guy," Ginny said drily. I flipped her off.

"Hey, Nate!" Ginny said suddenly, staring at the s.p.a.ce behind my head. I jumped in surprise and I saw Jen snicker out of the corner of my eye.

"Hey, guys," Nate said.

"Annie, why don't you introduce us to your friend?" Ginny asked innocently.

I sighed. There was no sense in being rude.

"Guys, this is Nate," I said, gesturing behind me. "He lives in Birmingham and I met him in the casino last night. Nate, these are my friends."

"h.e.l.lo," he said cheerfully.

To my dismay, Ginny jumped up from her lounge chair.

"I'm gonna go sit with Kiki," she said. "Give you guys a chance to chat."

Nate, who seemed amused by the entire situation, came and sat down on the lounger next to me.

"So," he said. "You're pretty annoyed by me, huh?"

"I am not!" I said, surprised.

"I'll leave you alone, if you want," he said, holding up his hands. "But I thought it would be cool to get to know you a little. No biggie, alright?"

"Okay," I said, feeling kind of childish for my behavior. "Look, I'm sorry if I'm coming across as rude. My friends are being a little annoying. They think I need to be set up."

"And you disagree?" Nate asked.

"Of course I disagree," I snapped. "I have absolutely no problem getting a guy myself."

He appraised me for a minute. In spite of myself, I felt a blush rise to my cheeks.

"You know what, Annie? I have no problem believing that at all."

I blushed harder and looked down. What the h.e.l.l was my problem? I was so not the type of girl that got all red-faced over a guy. It was ridiculous.

"So is it okay with you if I hang out over here for a little while?" he asked. "My friends are right over there, and I'll go back and join them whenever you want, I promise. No pressure."

"Of course you can stay," I muttered. "I'm pretty boring, though. I have no plans to do anything but lay here in the sun for the foreseeable future."

"Sounds good to me," he said, settling back in the chair. "G.o.d, just think: in a few short months it's going to be snowing in Detroit."

I groaned. "Oh, h.e.l.l, don't even say that."

"So, you live in Ferndale?" he asked, squinting over at me.

"Yup," I said. "I rent a house there with my friend Jen." I pointed her out. "And Ginny lives a few streets away. Kiki and Eric over there are married and they live in Birmingham too."

"Have you always lived around there?" he asked.

"Yeah. We grew up there," I explained. "What about you? You said you're from Birmingham, right?"

"Yeah, and don't think I didn't see you roll your eyes last night," he said, laughing. "What, you a.s.sume I'm a sn.o.b or something because I live in a nice town?"

I shifted, uncomfortable. To tell the truth, that was pretty much exactly what I thought. "Sorry," I told him. "I just went to college with a couple of people who live out that way. They were kind of stuck-up. I guess I'm a little prejudiced."

"No problem," he said. "I'm actually pretty new to Birmingham. I moved there from Maryland, for work."

"What do you do?" I asked.

"I'm an engineer," he said. "For Ford."

"Wow," I said. "That's pretty impressive."

"It's pretty nerdy," he laughed. I was surprised to find that I liked the sound. Usually the guys I went for weren't so quick to laugh. "I've always been into computers and math. It's fun for me to see the stuff I do on the computer actually get created, you know?"

"I can see that," I said. Hmm, he had surprised me again.

"So what do you do?" he asked.

"I'm an actress," I told him.

"I knew it!" he said, sitting up straight and pointing at me.