Alice sat awake on the edge of the bed, staring out of the dingy hotel room window at the wide open sky above the city. Las Vegas – the city that never sleeps. "Oh, the irony" She thought to herself as her head turned to look upon her unconscious male company which was sprawled across a large proportion of the bed.
She left out a miniscule sigh and turned back to gaze longingly at the sky again. This time, she got up to advance closer – yanking up the window with a soft creak and a rush of air greeted her. She breathed it in, her eyes fluttering shut. That's one thing she'd missed whilst in Britain; the smell of Las Vegas. It smelt of hopes and dreams and…and…love.
At that thought, her mind flickered instantly to Dan. Plain, middle-aged, obituary-writing Dan with the bad euphemisms…or so she thought. When the memories flooded through her mind, she smiled. A deep, wholesome smile, she hadn't done that in months.
Of course, there were her fake smiles. She had a whole repertoire of them, she had to – all strippers did. Be complacent and willing and you'd make it in the business – or so the boss had told her. She reached for a cigarette pack and lighter. The lighter momentarily breaking the darkness of the room and, at this point, she turned back to quickly eye who'd she just crawled out of bed with. Late thirties, by the looks of his briefcase and suit; a business man. "Not bad," She thought to herself, "Not bad at all."
She raised the cigarette to her lips and took a long, satisfying drag before slowly blowing out the smoke so it misted up before her face before disappearing. She always used to share a cigarette with Dan, no matter how much he tried to stop. This second thought of Dan brought another smile to her lips.
"Why do I keep thinking of him?" She internally questioned herself. "I lied to him. I broke his heart. I left him." When this final thought registered in her mind, guilt swamped her though her expression remained placid. She didn't want to regret. She didn't want to long for the past. She wanted to move on.
"But how can I do that if I'm still in love with him?" As the thought occurred to her, she barely knew where it even came from. Love him? Love Dan? Of course she did before but not now. Not anymore.
She took a few more breaths of the cigarette before stubbing it out and letting it fall to the ground outside of the window. Her eyes did not follow the stub but looked up towards the darkened sky in a hope to clear her mind but it didn't. Dan's face was still imprinted on her mind, and it stayed there when her eyelids shut.
It was only in that moment did she realise that although both of them had made their mistakes, had their arguments and their fallouts and caused one another pain – both emotional and physical, that they were made for each other. Her and Dan. Dan and her. Despite their differences…
She was still in love with him.