“What?…. yeah, I’m, um, out right now… I know…I KNOW… yes… noon, I promise… alright, later.” She flipped the phone shut and fiddled with the antenna for a few seconds in silence.

“Is… everything okay?” I asked.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Just my manager… reminding me we’re leaving at 12 tomorrow.”

“Oh.” I guess it hadn’t quite hit me she would be leaving so soon. But then again, I hadn’t really been deep in thought while kissing her.

“Yeah. So, um… I should probably get going, then,” she said. I felt a little bit of my life draining away with that statement. She stood up and straightened her skirt a bit. It was now or never.

“Wait,” I blurted out. She stopped and turned around, a curious look on her face. I got up and walked a few steps towards her. “Why don’t you, um… stay the night?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I opened my mouth to speak, to protest, to say anything, but no sound came out. Two hours ago, she was practically asking me to sleep with her. Ten minutes ago, we were kissing. What had I done? Where had I gone wrong? “Bye Spencer.” I was completely silent and stiff in her embrace; if she noticed, she made no acknowledgement of it. And before I knew it, she was gone.

That night, I cried for quite awhile. I felt like a complete loser, but I couldn’t help it. Not only had I made a total fool of myself, but she had left… she didn’t want to stay, and she had left. I wasn’t sure which day was worse… this one, or the one where we’d broken up for good. Because at least then, there was some justification for what occurred.

At around 1:30, I got a text message. From Ashley. It read: ‘Marriott, room 310. Breakfast @ 10:30?’ If you thought I was confused before, multiply that by 15 and that’s how confused I was now. Maybe I shouldn’t have been, though. Pushing me away, pulling me in… the usual Ashley strategies.

I texted her back with an, ‘Okay,’ and that was that. With my head pounding from crying and from the plethora of emotions running through my brain, I somehow managed to fall asleep.

It didn’t last long, though. Nervous anticipation kept me up for the majority of the night, but I really wasn’t that tired, either. At around 8, I took a shower and proceeded to get ready. I tried to downplay the situation; I was just meeting Ashley for breakfast, right? But I couldn’t stop myself from being meticulous when applying makeup and choosing an outfit. I couldn’t deny the fact that I wanted to look just right for this.

While the Marriott was only about a 10 minute walk, I left at 9:45 with the intention of picking up a cup of coffee on the way. That didn’t kill enough time, though, and I reached the hotel at around 10. I figured I might as well just go up; maybe we could discuss last night, or something. I took the elevator up to the 3^rd floor and walked down the hallway, looking for number 310. A few doors in front of where I was, an attractive blonde was leaving a room. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun and she was buttoning up a few remaining buttons on her skirt. She gave me a quick smile as we passed… it was pretty clear that at least someone had had fun last night. I smirked inwardly, but all previous feelings of curiosity and interest disappeared when I saw what room the girl had come out of. The numbers 3, 1, and 0 glared back at me as they took my heart and ripped it up into little pieces.

For a minute, I was paralyzed. I couldn’t move, couldn’t walk… I just stood there in shock. After a few moments, though, I did the only thing that seemed right. I turned around, got back into the elevator, and left.

I was still in shock when I returned home. By 10:45, Ashley was calling, presumably to find out where I was. I silenced my ringer and turned off my phone fifteen minutes later, when she had already called 10 times. I went back to sleep, hoping that after a good nap, this would all just seem like a dream. Or a nightmare.