The One After [SHAWN MENDES]

Chapter 75

"You know," Briya started in a dramatic tone of voice, "if you're going to spend the whole trip texting your hero, you're gonna have to give us more scoop. It's a little sus that you keep saying nothing serious is going on between you, yet you cannot seem to go five minutes without contact."

I shoved my phone in my purse. "Sorry. He keeps asking questions and I feel bad ignoring him."

"Sounds like he misses you," Fallon commented before finishing her complimentary gin and tonic.

"Maybe."

"Shawn Mendes is your boyfriend!" Briya said loudly in a sing-song way.

I put my hand over her mouth. "Jesus, Bri! This casino is packed and the last thing I need is someone overhearing you say that! I'll tell you two more when we go back to our room, but for now, drop it!"

"Sheesh! You're being so touchy about this," she said after I moved my hand.

The truth was, I didn't want to repeat past mistakes. There'd been a couple times in the dream where my besties had gotten in my head and caused me to overthink. That's why I was keeping the details of my blossoming relationship with Shawn from them, though they weren't making it easy. All they knew at this point was that we'd been on some dates and that he didn't have a girlfriend after all.

"Sorry. It's all kinda confusing right now," I told her.

Fallon wrapped an arm around me. "We understand. You've been through a hell of a lot this summer."

"These slot machines are duds. Let's move on to others," I suggested, eager to get off the topic of my life. "And I think we could use another drink."

After switching to another row, Briya played a five dollar machine and hit the jackpot, which amounted to several hundred dollars. "We're going to use this to buy tickets to a show!" she announced enthusiastically.

We went online and decided to check out the Cirque du Soleil show themed around The Beatles. It was at Mirage, which was only a couple doors down from Bellagio, where we'd been since we checked in that afternoon.

"Let's go change into nicer clothes and grab dinner before the show," Fallon suggested.

Up in our room, we took turns using the bathroom mirror and picked out cute outfits for the night. The girls were so distracted with getting ready that they forgot to ask for more information about Shawn, which I was grateful for. When we were done, we went to Noodles, a Pan-Asian restaurant in our hotel. I ordered Cantonese dumpling noodles, which were incredible, and couldn't resist taking a quick pic for Shawn, since he knew how excited I was to try new foods. He replied a few minutes later.

Looks great!

About to get on the plane

His next show was in Glendale, so he was flying to the west coast where he'd be performing over the next couple weeks. A lump formed in my throat when I thought about how we wouldn't see each other for almost two months. We'd gone on a couple more dates while he was on break in Toronto, and things were progressing nicely. We had not, however, had sex. When he said he wanted to take things slowly, he apparently meant it.

Once we finished our dinners, the girls and I walked to Mirage and played the slots there for a bit since we had time to kill before the show. The Cirque du Soleil performance was completely insane visually and musically, and even though our seats weren't great, it didn't matter because the three of us were spellbound by the acrobatics and stupefying feats. When it was over, we decided to walk the strip since it was now nighttime and Las Vegas was lit up in colorful lights.