Naturally, I was extremely relieved to learn that I hadn't contracted some nasty social disease. As soon as I got a clean bill of health from my doctor, I promised myself I would never put myself in that situation again. Ever.

I moved on. Well, I made myself move on. I didn't really have a choice. I never heard from Eric again and that spoke volumes to me. I'd been used and tossed aside. I didn't blame him entirely though. I did it to myself as well. That actually kind of made it worse.

I spent a lot of time with Pam, and we became even better friends. I was careful to never mention Eric's name to her.

She was such fun to be around and often dragged me to parties and clubs where her friends performed in bands. I was always slightly afraid that I would run into Eric, but promised myself I would just hold my head up high and act like nothing had happened between us. Fortunately, I never saw him.

My boss, Sam, asked me out. I was surprised, but said yes. He was a nice guy and very cute. We'd been on four dates and had done some fairly serious kissing and I liked him a lot. It wasn't like the crazy hormonal lust I'd felt when Eric Northman was in the room, but this was more sensible. More reasonable.

I was pretty sure Sam wanted to go further than just kissing, but he never pressured me, and I'd learned my lesson about controlling myself. Whenever I felt like the kissing might get out of hand, I had stopped it and Sam had left.

I had started to kind of expect a date with Sam when I had a night off and was surprised when Pam called and suggested we go to Las Vegas on my next free night. I'd never been to Las Vegas—I couldn't exactly afford to go on vacations, but it sure did sound like fun.

Pam and I both had a Saturday night off coming up and decided we'd drive to Vegas and just spend one night and drive home on Sunday. When Sam asked me out for that night, I told him my plans and he said he was glad I was going to have some "girl fun," but didn't really sound too convincing.

I didn't blame him, really. Vegas was famous for wild nights. Who would want their new kind-of girlfriend going to Las Vegas with another girl? Little did he know the chances of my misbehaving in Las Vegas were zero. I just wasn't the type to do something so out of character—okay, I guess I was—but that was just that one time. Never again, right?

Pam and I booked a room at Caesar's Palace. I was so excited. I'd never stayed in a fancy hotel before, but Pam said we had to "do it right," and so I went along with the plan.

We checked into our room as soon as we arrived and immediately went downstairs to the casino. We found some video poker machines, ate lunch, went shopping in the huge mall attached to the hotel—there was so much to see and do and I was in absolute heaven.

We decided that night, we'd venture out and see some of the other casinos. Pam forced me to wear one of her outfits since she said the one I brought was "too tame." I figured, what the heck—we're in Vegas! So, I put on her silver sequined halter top and way-too-short-and-tight black skirt and what she called her "fuck me" pumps. I wasn't used to going braless, but I had to admit, the top was really cute in a trashy, slutty kind of way. I even let her do my hair and makeup.

Since Pam was a performer, she was an expert at dramatic makeup. I got black eyeliner and smoky eye shadow and very glossy red lip gloss. She teased my hair and sprayed it so it was huge. Then she did the same for herself and put on a very sexy red, shiny and extremely short dress. She had matching red shoes, of course.

We started walking outside the casino and the sidewalks were full of people—some in casual tourist clothes and some all dolled up like we were. We decided to eat at The Venetian across the street and up a little. It was absolutely gorgeous—even more beautiful than Caesar's Palace, I thought.

We ate dinner in a very packed Italian restaurant (of course) in the big fake St. Mark's Square. Then we meandered a bit, checking out the beautiful stores before we found the ladies room to fix our makeup and hair again, and then we hit the casino. We watched some of the people playing at the tables, but decided we didn't have the nerve to do that just yet. I didn't really know the rules and the thought of doing something wrong was pretty intimidating.

So, we decided to play on the machines some more. I had designated twenty dollars to play with and Pam had forty. I was up to twenty-two after playing at Caesar's and Pam was up to forty-nine.

We were feeling pretty good about our winnings and found the nickel video poker machines. I learned that drinks were free as long as you were gambling, so we ordered pina coladas. Pretty soon, I was up another four dollars and decided I was on a lucky streak and wanted to try a new game.

I'd seen the roulette machines somewhere where we first came into the casino and asked Pam if she wanted to check them out. She was down a few dollars on video poker and said she'd rather stay put.

We both had our phones in our little evening purses draped across one shoulder so pick-pockets couldn't take them, so I told her I was going to wander for a minute and to call me if she couldn't find me when she was ready to move on to another casino.

I left her playing with a very serious face and went exploring a bit on my own, ready to win big and have some fun. I was loving Las Vegas and ready to play.