Nothing Stays In Vegas (26 page)

It was two in the morning by the time I slid the key card in the lock of our room, but time didn't mean anything in Vegas. 

I opened the door slowly, afraid to find him up waiting, more afraid that he wouldn't be. But the room wasn't dark as I'd expected. The bedside lamp burned and illuminated Andrew, and our suitcases which were packed and sitting on the bed. He jumped up when he saw me. 

"Where have you been?" he asked. He didn't sound angry and he looked exhausted. No longer wearing his wedding clothes, he had changed into jeans and a polo shirt, but they were rumpled, like he'd slept in them. His eyes were red with dark circles under them. Had he been crying? Maybe he already knew.

"I'm sorry, Andrew. I-""

"Lexi, we have to talk," he said and took my arm. His touch was gentle as he guided me to the bed.

"I know we do. I have so much I need to-"

"You didn't take your cell phone with you," he said as if he hadn't heard me at all. "I didn't know how to get in touch with you and I've been waiting, hoping you would get back in time, we have to go now or we'll be late." He spoke fast, and his voice was thick, with emotion or exhaustion. It took me a moment to register what he was saying.

"Go where? Be late for what?"

Andrew stopped and looked me in the eye. Despite the obvious sleep deprivation, his eyes were clear, he hadn't been drinking. "Lexi, we have to go home," he said much slower. 

I looked around the room for the first time, at our bags, our coats lying on top of them. Everything was packed.

What was happening? Panic began to seep through me, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up. "Andrew, what's wrong? Is Ben okay?"

He scrubbed a hand across his face and his eyes glistened with unshed tears but he didn't answer right away. 

Andrew didn't cry. Ever. 

I hopped off the bed and yanked his hand away from his face.

"Andrew! Tell me," I yelled. "Tell me my baby is okay."

###

Waiting wasn't easy. I felt that part of me, the most important part, the part that remembered how to breathe, had gone with her. I was empty.

It had been four hours since Lexi left. I knew she wasn't gone forever. I knew it was only four hours. Four hours where I should have been sleeping, resting for the busy work day ahead. But I couldn't sleep. How could I when I knew she was upstairs with her husband? When I knew she was telling him about us? Telling him the truth. In only a few hours my life would change. 

Of course I couldn't' sleep. Instead I was in my office, mindlessly moving papers around and staring at the details of a jewelry convention for next weekend. I hadn't read a word. I glanced at my Blackberry and checked for the hundredth time that it was on and receiving messages. There were messages. 

None from Lexi. 

What was taking so long? I should've heard something by now. Anything.

Frustrated, I pushed away from my desk and looked for something to take my mind off the phone that wasn't ringing. 

Moving the mouse, my computer screen came to life. I flicked through some emails but didn't read anything. Not really. 

"Focus," I said.

"Talking to yourself, boss?" Roberta appeared in the doorway looking perfectly put together as always. She probably slept.

"What are you doing here in the middle of the night? Go home. You don't have to work all the time."

She laughed. "It's six o'clock, Leo. I have a million things to do today." She walked into my office and dropped a paper in front of me.

"What's this?"

"The ad for a new event planner," she said. "You told me you would start looking right away but you seem a little preoccupied, so I thought I'd help you out a little bit. All you have to do is approve it and it'll be online by noon."

My eyes flicked down to the paper then back up at her. "I'm sure it's fine. You know as well as I do what we need."

Roberta took the paper and tucked it into her portfolio. 

"Is there anything else?" I asked when she didn't move away. 

"Yes, there is," she said. "You look like shit. Are you okay?" 

"I'm fine."

"Have you slept?"

"Not lately."

"Leo, go home."

"No can do, Roberta." I clicked my computer off, aware that I hadn't even looked at it, and stood. "I have things to do."

"Would those things involve a certain woman?" 

Roberta rarely mentioned my personal life, and I never inquired about hers. It was an unspoken rule we had and an arrangement that worked well. I raised an eyebrow at her and said, "I think you know that's none of your business." I grabbed my Blackberry off my desk as I stood. "I have a meeting with the banquet coordinator in an hour about the conference this weekend."

"I can handle it," Roberta said. "You need some rest and if you don't mind-"

"I do mind."

"It's just that, if this is about that woman, you should know-"

"Roberta," I warned, "this isn't your business. Drop it." 

"It's just, you should kn-"

"Enough," I barked at her and before she could say another word, I pushed past her and left her standing in my office.

###

I should've let Roberta take the meeting. It took forever. The representative for the jewelry group couldn't decide between cold or hot finger foods for cocktail hour and despite both the head of catering and myself urging her to choose a selection of both, she waffled for over an hour before finally selecting cold appetizers. Then details about the rest of the food needed to be worked out and it was a quarter to nine by the time I escaped the meeting room.

As soon as I was on the casino floor I powered up my phone and checked messages. Lexi was probably wondering where I was. There were four messages. All from Roberta. Lexi hadn't called. 

Something was wrong. It couldn't possibly take so long to tell someone their marriage was over. Unless...no...I wouldn't go there.

My stomach churned and for a moment I thought I was going to be sick. What could've happened? Andrew didn't seem like the violent type, but no one could predict what a man would do faced with the news Lexi was going to deliver. I should have insisted on going with her. She should never have gone alone.

My first instinct was to phone her room but I stopped short of dialing the number. If her husband answered what would I say. And if I went upstairs myself...no. There were other ways to handle this.

I dodged and swerved through the black jack tables and approached the front desk. 

"Nancy," I said to the concierge on duty. "I need you to send housekeeping to a guest room please."

"Hi, Leo," she said and immediately turned to her computer screen. "What's the room?"

"2634." 

She dutifully tapped away on the keyboard before turning to me. "That room is vacant, Leo."

A chill ran down my spine. "No, they aren't due to check out until tomorrow. Look again."

Nancy turned back to the computer. "Sorry, Leo. It seems they checked out this morning."

"No." I put my hands to my face and pushed my thumbs into my eye sockets in an effort to relive the building pressure.

She wouldn't have left. Something must be wrong. She wouldn't leave again. She wouldn't.

"Leo? Do you need me to call someone? You don't look good. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," I said and pulled my hands away from my face, smoothing my hair. I tried my best to hide my rapidly increasing panic. "Thanks, Nancy." 

I left her and crossed the tiled floor. The sounds of the busy lobby were muffled as if I were underwater. Bruce, the desk manager, was busy checking customers into their rooms. I waited as patiently as I could while he handed a couple their keys and gave them a quick explanation on how to get to the proper elevator bank. As soon as they turned to leave I grabbed Bruce's sleeve. 

"Were you working this morning?"

"Hey," he said and removed his arm from my grip. "Nice to see you too, Leo and yes actually I worked the graveyard shift, I'm just covering for Susan this morning, she's at a doc-"

"Sure, whatever," I said trying to keep my voice level. "Did you happen to notice a couple checking out a day early?"

Bruce raised a bushy eyebrow.

"It's important," I said trying to use a professional voice. "They were at a wedding I hosted last night and I think the woman may be in some kind of trouble."

Bruce narrowed his eyes, but he sighed and said, "What room were they in?"

"2634. Titan."

He nodded. "I remember them. They checked out in the middle of the night."

"When?"

"Must have been almost four in the morning. He said they had a flight to catch."

"Did he say anything else? Did you see his wife?"

"What's this about?"

"Did you see the woman?" I yelled.

"No," Bruce answered tightly. "I didn't see her."

I turned and walked past the other desk clerks who had all stopped what they were doing to stare at me. Weaving through the guests who were waiting to leave for tours in the lobby, I crossed the marble floor, and pushed my way into the men's bathroom where I found a vacant stall and promptly threw up the contents of my stomach. 

When I was finished, I let the water in the sink run cold before splashing it on my face. It wasn't until my skin was sufficiently numb, that I looked up at my reflection. 

Roberta was right, I looked like shit. I doused my face again letting the cold water drip off my skin where it soaked the front of me. I needed a fresh shirt. I hadn't changed since being with Lexi last night. 

Was it really only hours ago that I tasted her lips, felt her body in my arms. 

"She's gone," I said to my reflection.

"Brutal, man, lost love in Vegas is the worst," a man said coming out of a stall. He stood at the sink next to me. He reeked of cigarette smoke and stale alcohol. The stench of him made my stomach flip again. "Happens all the time, buddy. It's just that kinda town." 

I turned back to the mirror. 

"It's just that kind of town," I repeated to myself. 

"Like I said, happens all the time. By the look of ya, she was probably somethin' special, huh? Hurts more when they're special." 

"She is very special," I said. I turned off the water and faced him. "It's just, I didn't think she'd leave again."

"Again? Man, she left ya before? You got it bad," he said and picked something out of his teeth with a grubby fingernail. "Ya want my advice?"

I don't know why, but for some reason I did. I nodded.

"Go get her." The man smoothed his sparse locks across his bald forehead. 

I stared at him. 

"You thought I was gonna say something else, didn't ya?"

I nodded dumbly. 

"Normally I would," he said. "There are millions of broads in this town and I don't see the point in chasing just one. But you... you look different." He smiled a grey, nicotine stained grin. "Ya got anything else to lose?"

"No." I shook my head. "I don't have anything to lose."

"Then what are you doing yakking at me? Go."

Chapter Twenty-Five

I hesitated outside the door I'd been directed to by the nurse. She'd looked at me with a mixture of pity and sympathy. It wasn't a good combination. She might as well have told me how sorry she was, or to prepare myself for the worst. 

I put my hand on the smooth, cool handle and pushed down. With a click, the door opened and I was in the room. As soon as I walked in, I wanted to turn around and run. I probably should have spent some time thinking about what I'd see when I got here or prepared myself in some way. But Andrew had given me a sleeping pill on the flight home so I could rest. When I'd woken up right as the plane touched down, I was angry at him for slipping me the pill. But in hindsight, I had needed the rest. It was going to be a long day. I had slept, but I had not prepared myself. 

Not for this. 

The monitors, tubes and wires. Tears sprang to my eyes but I blinked them back. He couldn't see me like this. Not now. 

"Lexi," Uncle Ray croaked. His voice just above a whisper. "It's okay. Come here."

I left the sanctuary of the doorway and walked to his bedside. He looked so small. Uncle Ray always seemed to fill a room, but hooked up to the life saving machines, he seemed to have shrunk. I took his hand. His skin was paper thin, a washed out grey and it felt like it would dissolve with my touch. How could things change so much in three days? How was it even possible?

"Uncle Ray," I said. "What...how...I don't understand."

"It's okay. My old ticker just decided it wanted a little break is all."

"Did Ben see? Was he there?"

"Such a brave boy. He called 911," he said and managed a smile. "He's a good kid."

My thoughts flashed to Ben who'd rushed to give me a hug as soon as he'd seen me walk through the hospital doors. He'd been waiting with Sara Beth. They were watching for us in the lobby. I'd held on to him, inhaling his little boy scent, feeling his warmth. I didn't want to let him go, but when Sara Beth pulled me away, I watched as he went next to Andrew, slower this time. But Andrew scooped him up and squeezed him tight before piggy-backing him to the cafeteria for hot chocolate. All I'd ever wanted was for Andrew to be that kind of dad. But not like this. Watching them together, walking away, my heart splintered a little more if it was even possible. But I couldn't dwell on it. There was no time. Sara Beth hadn't wasted any time filling me in on the details of Uncle Ray's heart attack. It wasn't good. As if any heart attack could be good. But this was bad and I said as much to him now.

"It's not good, Uncle Ray. Sara Beth told me you need surgery."

He nodded. 

"A quadruple bypass," I said and the tears I'd been fighting began to fall. "That's big. Really big."

"It's okay, Lexi." He tried to squeeze my hand but the result was pathetic. 

"Is it?"

"Yes. It's going to take a lot more than a little blockage to get rid of me. Don't worry, I'm going to be here for a long time to come. The doctors tell me it's just a matter of a little surgery. It's routine. They'll clear up my tubes and I'll be good as new."