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still reaching for me and placed it on the bar in front of him. Then I looked over his shoulder toward the door, trying to determine just how hungry I actually was. Maybe I didn’t really need dinner tonight. Though, after all the walking I’d done today, my stomach grumbled in protest.
    “Sorry I’m late, babe,” a familiar voice said in my ear as an arm slipped around my shoulders. I looked up into Asher’s face and had literally never been happier to see someone than I was in that moment.
    He held out his hand and said, “Thanks for keeping my girl company. I got held up.” Then he turned to me and waved his arm to the far side of the bar. “Shall we?”
    “God, yes.” I slid off the stool and followed Asher to some open seats around the other side. When we were both settled, I said, “Thank you. I was dying over there and didn’t know what else to do. He wouldn’t take the hint.”
    Asher smiled at me, his dimples deepening. “He probably just thought you were playing hard-to-get.”
    “Funny, because I was actually playing Leave-Me-Alone.”
    “Yeah, I don’t think he was picking up on that AT ALL,” said a blonde sitting on the other side of Asher. She was tall and slender, with tight curls to her shoulders. She leaned forward and held out a freckled hand. “I’m Julia. He was hitting on me last night. I was just about to come save you myself.”
    “Skye,” I said as I shook her hand. “This is my friend, Asher. And it’s really nice to meet you.”
    “You two traveling together?” Julia said.
    I looked at Asher and he waited for me to answer. I just shrugged and said, “We met in Paris.” Then I grinned at Asher. “Oh my god, I love that I can actually say that. Of course, it sounds much more romantic than it is, but still. Not EVER going to get old.”
    Asher leaned toward Julia. “The European Shine hasn’t worn off for Skye yet.”
    “It never will! I love this place,” I said. “I could stay here forever. Couldn’t you?”
    “Nah,” Julia said. “Don’t get me wrong. I love it here, too. But going home makes traveling so much more fun. The difference between the two is great—the ordinary and the exotic. If it were all exotic, all the time, that would start to feel ordinary.”
    “I can see that,” I said. “But I still think I’d be okay with this being my ordinary.”
    Julia waved to someone coming in and I turned to see a guy and a girl.
    “You traveling with friends?” I said.
    “Yup.” She nodded, her eyes following them as they rounded the bar. “We’re staying at the hostel next door. What about you?” I nodded. “Good. It doesn’t seem too bad. Pretty clean in comparison to the last place we were at.” She pointed to her friends who’d joined us. “This is Tommy and Shayne.”
    Tommy was tall and lanky with thick, dark hair, and big brown eyes behind metal-framed glasses. Shayne was a touch shorter, had warm brown flawless skin, and was perhaps the most beautiful person I’d ever met. Her long black hair hung down her back, and she wore a spicy orange flowing sleeveless shirt and long skirt. She was gorgeous.
    The five of us got a table and ate dinner together, hanging out until we were too tired to do anything but fall into our respective beds. Julia and Shayne were in my dorm, which made it feel kind of like a sleepover. After spending the evening together, these two now felt like friends.
    This whole experience of meeting people and hooking up with them for dinner, the ease of fitting in with strangers, of sharing things with them, and becoming less than strangers so quickly—it was an amazing thing.
    “So how long have you and Asher been together?” Shayne said as I secured my pack to my bed and slid under the sheet. My feet were killing me after walking all over—it felt so good to be laying down.
    “Oh,” I said, shaking my head, “we’re not. We traveled from Paris to Rome together, but we’re not together together. We only met