The Sheikh's Stolen Bride-To-Be

“It’s totally overwhelming,” Elyse commented.

Elyse was the only other person on the trip who hadn’t been to Vegas before. I was glad she was feeling a bit overwhelmed, too.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Heather assured her. “You just have to remember that there’s no way you could possibly do everything in one weekend, which is why we’re not going to even try.”

“Then what are we going to do?” I asked, and Heather grinned.

Sarah turned around from the front seat of the van, her expression mirroring her maid of honor’s. “What do you think we’re going to do?” she giggled. “Get crazy and make bad decisions.”

“And eat everything,” Ariana chimed in.

“I like Ariana’s plan better,” I joked. “I haven’t eaten at a restaurant in months.”

Ariana gasped. She was the youngest of the group at only twenty-four and was fully ensconced in the glamorous, early-twenties life I had always wanted. Eating out almost every night, going on a ton of dates, and always having fun. I would have been jealous, except I didn’t feel like I’d missed out on all that much. I’d had Sam at twenty-three, and we’d had a different kind of crazy time, but one I wouldn’t trade for the world.

“You’re going to love the buffets here,” Heather said. “They’ve got more food than you’ve ever seen in your life.”

It all sounded a bit excessive, but hey—that was what vacations were for, right?

The cab pulled up to the doors of Caesar’s Palace and my jaw dropped. I’d seen the building in movies, but the real-life experience was grander than I could have imagined.

“This is crazy!” I said.

“This is Vegas!” Sarah cheered.

We grabbed our bags and checked in at the front desk. I couldn’t stop staring at our surroundings. I’d taken some Classics in college, and the statues and columns that populated the expansive space were fascinating to me.

The receptionist gave us each a map of the hotel, and my jaw dropped again.

“I could spend the whole weekend just inside Caesar’s Palace,” I commented.

Elyse, too, had eyes the size of dinner plates.

“There’s a whole shopping district,” she said. “This place is insane!”

I didn’t even know where to begin. What if I got lost in our hotel and never found my way out? My dad would have to raise my son on his own, and he’d tell him stories about his mother and how much she’d loved him before she went into Caesar’s Palace and was never seen again.

I was getting ahead of myself. I needed to relax.

“Let’s drop off our stuff in the room and get out of here,” Sarah said. “I want to go to that restaurant where they insult you.”

“After that, let’s go to the Miracle Mile and do some shopping!” Ariana suggested.

As for me and Elyse, I sensed we were along for the ride. I found I didn’t mind. It had been so long since I’d allowed myself to get lost in anything. Maybe what I needed was to dive headfirst into this new, albeit terrifying experience.

“Let’s do it all,” I said.

My suggestion was met with excited cheers, and we made our way toward the elevator.

THREE

We started drinking at ten a.m.

I say “we,” but it was more of a “they” situation. I hadn’t expected much else from a girls’ weekend in Vegas, so I didn’t mind that I was the only one not imbibing. I was used to standing out from the group. Ariana and Heather were both married, Sarah was about to be married, and Elyse was single, but only newly so. I was the only one in the group who seemed to always be single, a fact I was reminded of constantly.

“Oh, he’s handsome!” Ariana crooned, gesturing toward a guy with a dazzling white smile who was down the bar from us. “You should go talk to him, Skyler!”

I frowned at her. “He seems more Elyse’s type.”

“Oh no, I’m on the mend,” Elyse chimed in, receiving her freshly filled Mai Tai from the bartender. “I’m staying away from men this weekend.”