“We’re going to go to that big bridge today and Grandpa said he’d let me take as many pictures as I want,” Sam continued. “I’m going to bring back a few rocks for my collection, but Grandpa says I can’t bring any bugs ’cause we have the same bugs in San Diego.”
“You should listen to your grandpa,” I replied, cringing at the thought of unpacking a bagful of bugs when Sam got home. “He’s a smart guy. That’s why I left him in charge.”
For the next few minutes, Sam continued to blast me with everything he’d done in the past twenty-four hours. I soaked it up greedily, even though it made me miss him horribly. After we said our goodbyes, I called up Sarah. She was even more excited to talk to me.
“You’re on speaker,” she warned. “Spill. Everything.”
“Well hello to you, too,” I joked.
“Please tell me you slept with the Sheikh,” Sarah said. “That would officially make this the coolest bachelorette weekend ever.”
“Shouldn’t the qualifier for best bachelorette party ever be how much fun the bachelorette has?” I asked. “Not just her friend?”
I felt more than a little guilty about abandoning my friends for a guy. It was the kind of thing I’d never done in the past, but I’d heard plenty about how much it annoyed other people.
“Are you kidding?” Sarah exclaimed. “I made you spend all this money to come out here. It would be selfish of me to expect you to give up an opportunity like that just because I want to do Jell-O shots off a male model.”
“Pardon me, but what?” I asked.
There were snickers in the background. Sarah cleared her throat. “Nothing. Just a thing that could potentially be fun. Definitely not something that has already happened.”
I grinned. “You’re wild. I would never have been able to do that.”
“True,” Sarah said. “But you did end up shacking up with bona fide royalty for the night. I think you’re doing okay.”
I was still having trouble wrapping my head around that concept. I, a nurse from San Diego who had barely traveled and had spent most of the past five years up to my elbows in grime of some kind, had charmed a sheikh into bed.
Talk about surreal.
“Well I’m just going to go for a swim with Jalaal and have some breakfast,” I said. “After that I’ll come back and tell you guys all about it.”
The protests came so quickly that I couldn’t tell who was saying what. Eventually Sarah managed to quite everyone down enough to talk.
“You need to stay, Skyler,” she insisted. “Who knows when you could get another opportunity like this?”
“But it’s your bachelorette weekend, Sarah!” I furrowed my brow. “I can’t just abandon you because some hot guy wants to hang out with me.”
“That is so not what is happening here,” she replied. “You’re looking at this all wrong.”
“Enlighten me.”
“You are a hardworking single mother who desperately needs a break. You’re clearly having a ton of fun with this guy, and I would be so mad at you if you gave that up just because you felt a duty to be by my side while I do a bunch of stuff that you probably wouldn’t want to do anyway.”
She had a point.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
This time it was words of encouragement that piled on top of each other.
I really loved my friends. I didn’t get to see them much, and our lives had taken us in wildly different directions, but I could always count on them to look out for my best interests.
“I’ll keep you guys posted,” I grinned, strolling toward the gift shop on the other side of the reception desk. “Make sure you have a ton of fun.”
“You too, girl!”
I hung up the phone and strode into the gift shop like I owned the place. Maybe I didn’t, but the guy buying me a swimsuit did. Speaking of swimsuits, I tried not to look at the price tags after I caught a glimpse of the first one. The shop assistant helped me pick out a cute but modest bikini, her eyes flashing with interest as soon as I told her which room to bill it to. She treated me like a queen—even though she probably made more working in that shop than I did as a nurse.