Her hair was the color of cappuccino foam, and as Eric held her close he found it smelled of cigarettes and tropical fruit. He didn’t know what he had expected her to be like, what he had expected her to feel and smell and taste like, but he knew from the beginning she wouldn’t be the same.

She wouldn’t have Liddy’s perfect, summer-browned skin, or her deep-set, opaline eyes. She wouldn’t laugh with Liddy’s strained, high-pitched giggle, or walk with her timid grace. She wouldn’t smile against his lips or play with the hair at the nape of his neck.

She would be nothing like Liddy. But when Eric had closed the hotel door behind them, and she had quirked up her mouth and asked him for money up front, he felt ashamed. Not because he knew it was wrong, but because he knew it would be enough. For now, at least, she would be enough.