1
Destiny
Crossing the gaming floor, my shoulders tensed. The number of people around me putting me on edge. I’d been in Las Vegas for three days and I could’ve happily gone home on day one. Everything about this city just screamed everything I wasn’t. It was all shiny and bright, and I longed to set my bare feet on the earth and ground myself again.
The stench of desperation lingered in the air. It was 9:00 p.m. Vegas time, but to be honest, the place felt no different than it had at midday. Our first stop of what seemed to be the longest day in existence was a cocktail bar in our hotel that my sister, Jade, had dragged me to. With its plush lounges and the way it felt hidden away from the neon and glitter, I felt like it had pulled me back. There was also a cocktail on their list that I felt like it needed to be revisited, especially after a day of wrangling my drunk sister and the rest of the bridesmaids.
I weaved past a drunk patron and ducked behind the modular room divider. Even with the lights flashing through the gapsin the pattern, I’d already felt safer. Tugging on the too small dress my sister had talked me into wearing, I lifted my head and strutted toward the bar. I’d learned long ago that appearing confident made you less of a target, and I always felt like a massive target. These days I just didn’t apologise for it.
Sitting on the black, velvet cushioned stool at the bar, I breathed a sigh of relief. I loved my sister, I really did, but there was only so much toxic positivity I could take from her and her fellow fitness influencer bridesmaids. They meant well. I knew they did and I think they were genuinely concerned about my health and welfare when they gave me diet tips. But I was healthy and strong, just not slim. Plus, at least I could drink more than a glass and a half of wine before I passed out.
That was where my sister was, not quite passed out but less than two drinks and she was sloppy drunk and telling me that this could be me too if only a lost a little weight. I could be that happy bride to be. It was something I used to believe her too, that all I needed to do was drop some kilos and my newly svelte body would attract my soulmate. I’d seen the woman my father left my mum for and ironically, the woman he left his second wife for as well.
It took me a lot of work to accept that I deserved love just as I was, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t sometimes feel like I took up too much space. My personality was big, I tended to be outspoken and after a few too many drinks, my filter dropped and I was way too honest for my own good.
My level of intoxication was at that point when I left my sister and her bridesmaid in the suite we were sharing for her hen’s weekend. One more diet tip or sly look if I dared to take another slice of cheese and I was about to unleash. Instead, I took the option of sitting in a bar in a foreign country by myself.
With a friendly smile, the bartender asked for my order, and I requested the fruity concoction I’d been craving when I satdown. I watched as he deftly measured, poured and shook the cocktail before presenting it to me. Sipping the liquid heaven, my shoulders relaxed, I placed the drink on a coaster and sat back on the stool, intent on enjoying this time to myself.
“Is this seat taken?” A smooth, deep voice sounded to my right. He sounded faintly Australian, although that could just be my homesick head making things up. I was close to giving him the brush off. I was sick of fending off the advances of sleazebags after a night wearing a dress that highlighted each of my curves.
Turning my head was all I needed to stop me in my tracks. I was not someone who stopped talking, ever really, but one look at this stranger and I was speechless. The man standing next to me was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in real life. He had dark hair that hung over thick brows, framing bright blue eyes. Tall and broad, he stood with his hand on the back of the stool next to me, a smirk forming on his lips. The kind of smirk that said he knew how hot he was and he was amused by my reaction to him.
“It is now,” I smiled back. A little Vegas fling might be just what I needed to get through this hen’s weekend with a little more sanity. In just over 24 hours, I was jumping on a plane to head to Hawaii for my sister’s wedding and I’d had just about enough of my fellow bridesmaids.
“Aussie?” he asked, tipping his head to the side.
“Yes, you?” I turned my stool to face him.
“Yeah…been a while since I’ve been home, though.” He waved down the bar attendant and ordered a high-end scotch. Tipping well, he thanked the server before turning back to me. “It’s a big place, though. Where are you from?”
“Sydney.” I gave him a vague reply. He didn’t need to know my life story. It’s not like I was going to meet the love of my life in a bar in Las Vegas. I played along with the small talk though, if it could get me what I wanted with him.
“I lived in Sydney for a while before I…uh, moved to the US. So where in Sydney do you call home?” He probed.
“2-7-7-0 baby!” I quoted the postcode of the suburb I grew up in, notorious for being full of public housing and all the problems associated with the poverty cycle. To me, it was a tightknit community of hard-working people who always had each others back. It was my litmus test. If a man was turned off by the neighbourhood that raised me, well, he was too much of a wanker for me, anyway. I had a good job and was financially secure, but some people didn’t look past the post code.
“Ahhh, Mt Druitt girl! I’m a fellow westie. I lived near Penrith when I was in Sydney.” He referred to a suburb twenty minutes west of where I lived. “My name is Mason. What’s yours?”
“Destiny.” I held my hand out to shake his and he honest to god, brought it to his lips and kissed it lightly. Who does that shit these days?
A little taken aback by his old-fashioned gesture, I took a sip of my drink to recompose myself. I needed to get back into the femme fatale energy I was trying to express and not the spellbound awkward dork I felt like I’d turned into. There was a thought niggling at the back of my head that said that Mason looked a little like a singer I’d had a crush on as a teenager.
“So, Mason, what brings a boy from the Riff to the US?” I asked, trying to take back control of the conversation.
“Ummm, work.” He muttered, his eyes not meeting mine. I took a sip of my drink, assessing him. He was definitely hiding something, but as long as it wasn’t a spouse at home, it was something I could overlook for the night. Especially when a man looked as good as he did in a suit.
2
Mason
The goddess before me was breaking my brain. It was mush. My whole life, my parents had told me their love story and how love at first sight ran in our family. It was something I’d never really thought much of until this moment, but my heart raced, my cock stirred and that my normal, charming, flirty self had flown out the window.
I’d seen her walk into the room, gold dress clinging to her curves, barely covering her long legs. Like one of those cartoon characters, I felt like I’d gone bug-eyed with my tongue rolling out, heart visibly beating out of my chest. I made excuses with the friends I’d travelled to Vegas with to go sit beside her. The minute I heard her Aussie accent, I knew it was fate, my heart calling me home.
After living in the US for more than a decade, I’d finally decided to go home for good, back to the little town of Hartwood Bay. I missed my family and the laid-back lifestyle. My friends, though, thought I needed a last hurrah. They thought that for aformer rock star; I lead a very boring life. My need for a quiet life while I continued to write music was half the reason I still had a fairly hefty bank account while my ex-andmates were doing celebrity reality shows to boost their profile and income.
High-flyer, I wasn’t, but I didn’t mind a big night out every now and then. I was thankful that my friends had pushed me into one last big night and for their insistence that it had to be in Las Vegas. Without that, I would never have been in this bar and would have never run into this intriguing woman. I would never have met my Destiny.
