Lauren's heart thudded in her chest. She wasn't ready for this. He'd taken her by surprise yet again.

"Lauren," Dex said and his voice was so different she almost didn't recognize it. Gone was the cocky, sarcastic jokester. Gone was the flirtation. Instead, Dex looked and sounded positively grieved.

"I don't want to talk to you," Lauren said, pushing past him.

"I wouldn't want to talk to me either," said Dex. 

"Then leave me alone," Lauren said over her shoulder.

"Listen. Lauren. I promise I'll leave you alone. We can put this all behind us. I just wanted to talk to you for one minute."

Lauren paused. Perhaps she could use his apologetic demeanor to her advantage.

"What could you possibly have to say to me?" Lauren asked, turning to face him. 

"Thank you," he said. "Thank you for asking for that. There's nothing I can say except I'm sorry. Look, I was a creep. I get that. I hate that I behaved the way I did. I'm really, terribly sorry."

Lauren was surprised. Who was this Dex and where had the old Dex gone?

"I'm not sure I can accept your apology," Lauren said.

"Really? Why not?" he was honestly surprised.

"Because you won't show me the pictures you claim to have and you won't delete them either. You're using them against me and there's no way I can forgive that."

Dex pulled his phone from his pocket. "OK, that's fair. Here. You can look through the pictures yourself."

"I don't want to see them," Lauren said. "I just want to stand here while YOU delete them all."

Dex began tapping at his screen and Lauren waited. A moment later, he held up his phone. 

"All gone," he said. "You can see that the most recent picture was from this morning at the airport. I took a picture of the arrival and departure screens."

Lauren leaned forward to catch a glimpse. He was right. There were no pictures of her in his phone. 

"Can you forgive me now?" Dex asked.

Lauren chewed her bottom lip. She fiddled with her purse.

"On one condition," she said.

"Anything," he said. "Like I told you, I'm terribly sorry. If you're wondering, nothing happened. When I got to your room, you were too sleepy to do anything. I was lying there waiting for you to wake up."

"So we didn't have sex?" Lauren asked.

"No! Not even close!" Dex laughed. And for a moment, his smile bewitched her. She could feel herself beginning to believe him. It was hard to say no to someone so handsome. It was hard to believe someone like him could be such a snake. 

"But why did you do all this?" Lauren asked. "I don't understand why you'd risk your marriage on someone you don't even know. By the way, how much DID I drink?"

"Well, we did quite a few shots."

"We did?"

Dex shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I'm the one who acted like a jerk. And I'm really sorry for that."

Lauren broke eye contact with him, trying to shake herself free of distraction. She wanted to believe him but her gut told her he was still lying about something. 

She looked down the hall towards the hotel lobby and saw a familiar figure striding toward her. Thomas! Just in time!

"Excuse me, Dex, but I have to go," she said. "There's someone I need to talk to."

"Oh. OK. Soooo....are we good?"

"Just please leave me alone from now on," Lauren said and turned away from him. She walked toward Thomas, hoping he would remember her, hoping he would rescue her from Dex's clutches.

"Thomas!" Lauren said, as she approached him. But Thomas didn't return her smile.

"Ma'm, I need you to stay in the lobby. We're clearing this whole area."

"What?"

"There's a bomb threat and we need everyone to stay clear of the ballroom."