What Stays in Vegas (19 page)

“Let me know if I can get you anything else."  Holly gave him a wink before she headed off to make my drink.  I rolled my eyes.

“I didn’t know you were coming here," I said.  "What have you been up to today?”

Nick swiveled around on his bar stool to face me and leaned back, stretching.  His shirt rose up a little revealing a tanned stomach from a week of lounging by the hotel pool.  “Not much,” he said.  “Went to check out the view from the Stratosphere.  Had lunch.”

“By yourself?”

He looked at his watch.  “I met some people.”

“People?”

“Girls.”

“You met some girls?”

“Four girls, on a bachelorette party.  They were cool.”

I took my coffee from Holly and motioned for him to follow me back to the studio.  “You went to lunch with four girls?” 

“Lunch and some sightseeing.  No big deal."

“No big deal,” I repeated.  “Nick, what the hell are you doing?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, hopping up on the corner of my work table.

“I mean, you came to Las Vegas to see
me,
did you not?  And now, I’ve barely seen you all week because you’re out picking up girls.” 

“No, you haven’t seen me all week because you’ve been avoiding me for some reason,” said Nick.  He inched his way down the table and put his hand on my waist.  I wriggled free.

“I haven't been avoiding you," I lied.  "You’re just confusing me.  You’re married, you like me, you want to date other girls and go to strip clubs.  What is your deal?”

He looked me in the eyes and put his hand on the back of my head.  “My deal, Tessa, is that I’m in love with you.  I know you have feelings for me too, you said so in those texts.”

All the years, all the hints, and the only reason he had any clue about my feelings is because of a few drunken text messages.   I felt sick.

“I have some feelings, Nick,” I said.  “Right now I feel that you need to get out of here.”  I ducked out from underneath his hand and walked over to the door.  “Please just go, I can’t deal.”

“You’re kicking me out again?  This is what I get for telling you that I love you?”

“You don’t love me."

“Then why would I have come to Las Vegas?”

“Because you're fighting with your wife and thought it would be fun to fool around with your old friend.  Trust me, Nick, if you loved me, you would have figured it out a long time ago.  Realizing it five minutes after I asked you what you were wearing is not love.  And, by the way, it was my boss who sent you that one.  Plus, if you loved me you wouldn’t be out there flirting with Holly, and you certainly wouldn’t be gallivanting around with four girls you just met.”  

“Whoa, whoa!  Easy now," said Nick.  "None of that is true."

"Oh, so you're saying that you do all those things to girls that you're in love with?"  I rinsed a few paintbrushes out in the sink with more vigor than was necessary.  "Real nice.  I can't believe I was ever jealous of Megan."

"I knew you were jealous of Megan!  You told me that if
you
were my wife you'd never let me leave the - "

"Oh God, Nick, please just stop!"  I dropped the brushes into the sink and turned around to face him.  "I know what I wrote.  But can you honestly tell me that before any of those texts and emails happened, that you had ever given me a second thought...that way?” 

We stood looking at each other in silence for what seemed like forever.  I could tell that he wanted to say something, but that he also didn’t want to lie to me. 

"Well?"

“I should go," he said. 

And without another word, he ducked his head and disappeared out the door.  I wondered if Holly would follow him out to his car to make sure that he was okay.  I didn't even care - she could have him.  They could all have him.  He looked different as I watched him leave - no longer the image of perfection that I had built him up to be in my mind. 

He looked, to be honest, like any other guy.

- 21 -

“Look what the cat dragged in."  I nudged Kendra with my elbow.  We were leaning up against the bar at Pure inside Caesar's Palace, angry at the world, and downing Red Bull and vodkas at what some might call an alarming rate.

“Oh shit," she said.

We watched in horror as Rob Dorfman pushed his way through the crowd,  followed by a man with sunken cheeks and a crew cut who I did not recognize.  They seemed to be headed right for us.  I glanced around for a pole or a really tall guy to hide behind, but there was nothing.  And there was no time.

"Who's that other guy?" I asked, trying to avoid looking in their direction.

"Uh, only the biggest f - "

“Hey you!” I interrupted as Rob suddenly appeared right in front of us.   Please understand that that is not the normal greeting I use for Rob when he comes into the office.  But my vodka and I decided at the last minute that outside the office, Rob is just another human being.  And there is no reason that I should be afraid of another human being. 

“Whatcha doing here?”  I asked. 

Both of them looked from me to Kendra, and then their eyes lowered about six inches.  I rolled my eyes.  Kendra had on one of her racier tops, not to mention the short shorts and silver stilettos.  When we left her house that evening I told her that she may as well have worn a pair of nylon basketball shorts since nobody's eyes were going to make it past her chest.  Point proven.  I actually have a theory about Kendra’s choice of clothing and her encounters with her husband, Todd.  It seems that the worse the encounter, the less clothing she wears out to the bars.  It's a pretty perfect correlation. 

Today, for example, Todd stopped by the house to borrow the luggage that he and Kendra had received as a wedding present, so that he could take Carlotta to Hawaii.  Hawaii is also the place where Kendra and Todd happen to have honeymooned.  Eight hours later, there were her boobs, on full display.  The correlation never failed.

“Um,” said Rob.  I have never before heard the man hesitate.  “Uh.”  He finally pried his eyes off of Kendra and looked at me.  I was slightly offended that his eyes remained firmly on my face.  “This is Jasper, Jasper Quick, from the Riverlin Zoning Commission.  We’re just having a little boys night out.” 

"Nice to meet you," I said.  Jasper shook my hand while keeping one eye on Kendra.

Jasper Quick!  The pervert Chris and Dan had told me about.  Why the heck was he having a “boys night out” with Rob?  There was at least a twenty year age difference between the two of them.  Rob was a jerk, but I was pretty sure he had jerky friends his own age that he could be hanging out with on a Saturday night.

“Cool,” I said.  “You boys certainly do need to let loose once in a while.” 

I mentally told myself to stop referring to them as "boys."  For some reason, it made me feel like taking a shower.  But I needed to say
something
since Kendra still hadn’t spoken a word to either of them.  She just stood there awkwardly sucking down her Red Bull.  I don't know what I expected her to say anyway, I mean here was a man who had told her countless times that she was an incompetent idiot, and now he was invading her personal life.  Never mind that Jasper referred to her as “sweet cheeks” whenever she appeared before the Commission.

I followed Jasper's gaze as it moved from Kendra to a bachelorette party that had just entered the bar.  Before I even knew what was happening, he had ditched us and resurfaced in the center of their group.  The girls were unfortunately too drunk to scatter.  I stood there watching him in disgust until Rob bumped into my elbow as he sidled in closer to us.  His yellow button up shirt and sweater vest were a stark contrast with the trendy atmosphere inside the club. 

"I didn’t realize that loafers were part of the dress code," I said.

“What?”

“I said I didn't realize that Stouffers made pie a la mode!"  

"Yeah, whatever," said Rob.  He took a swig of beer and turned his back to me.

Jasper was now posing for pictures with who I assumed to be the bachelorette.  He sort of reminded me of Tooth Model.  The world might implode on itself if those two ever bumped into each other - at least I hoped it would, for its own sake. 

“Look at the old pervert!”  Kendra suddenly broke her silence by shouting directly into Rob’s face.  “I hope those girls enjoy getting ROOFIED!” 

I grabbed her by the arm as she lost her balance and nearly fell into Rob, shooting her my best “shut up you idiot we’re in front of a client” look, but it went right over her head.  I shouldn’t have been so concerned because when I stole a glance at Rob he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.  He slid an arm around Kendra's waist, a goofy smile on his face.

“You don’t like Jasper very much, do you?”  He was almost eye level with her chest.

“That man,” she said, pointing a finger into Rob’s face, “has no respect for women. 
None
!  And -”  She paused to throw back a shot that she grabbed from a passing waitress.  “At one of our hearings he said we'd get his vote only if
I
was going to be working at The Jiggly Kitty. 
Me
!  A stripper!  Canyoubelieveit?”  Her last four words ran together in one drunken slur.

“I hope you don’t think those terrible things about me too,” said Rob putting his arm around Kendra’s shoulders and speaking in a baby voice that made me want to grind my heel into his stupid loafers.

“Of course not!” Kendra put her arm around Rob’s waist.  “You see,
you
, are a gentleman, and you only do the things you do because you need to get by in this ridiculous business.”  Her finger was pointing all around again.  “Sometimes you have to be mean in order to get what you want.  That’s what
I've
learned. Right Tessa?"

Rob - a gentleman?   I gave a half-hearted shrug, unsure of where she was going with this rant, and not ready to applaud Rob for treating us like dirt.

"All I'm saying," she continued, "is that Todd wanted Carlotta, so what did he do?  He dumped me.
Totally
mean.  But it got him what he wanted.  So good for him.  Good for
fucking
him!"

Rob nodded along in agreement, looking seriously into her eyes.  For some reason him looking into her eyes made me feel sicker than when he stared at her chest. 

“I’m glad that we have an understanding,” he said.  “Because I was hoping you ladies might be willing to do me a small favor.” 

“What’s that?”  I asked.

“Well, Jasper took some of his own personal time to come out with me tonight, and we were fortunate enough to have run into you two single ladies.  I was hoping maybe you could help me show him a good time.”

“A good time?” I asked.

“Yes, you know - dance with a him a little bit, make him feel special.”

“Um, he seems to be having a pretty good time on his own,” I said. 

A woman in stonewashed jeans and a jet black perm, who had materialized out of the 1990’s, was grinding her backside into Jasper’s front side while running her hands down his face.  Kendra and I crinkled our noses in unison.

“True,” said Rob, “but unfortunately that lady’s name doesn’t appear on my zoning application.”  He took a long slimy sip from his beer.

“Neither does mine,” I said.

“That is also true,” said Rob.

“Actually, you two,” interrupted Kendra, sounding as if she had just solved the mystery of the universe, “
my
name is on that application.  Kendra Stoltz, Professional Engineer! 
P.E.
You know what P.E. really stands for?  Pretty Fucking Entertaining!  Yeah, I’ll do it.  If that bastard thinks I’m a stripper, well then I wouldn't want to disappoint him!”

"Ken, please," I said.  "How is
that
going to punish him?"

Kendra ignored me and started readjusting her boobs.

“That’s right," said Rob, "show him how much fun you are.  Make him fall in love with you.  Then once he approves our application you can break his heart by never speaking to him again.  I get what I want, you get what you want, everybody wins!”

“That's the stupidest thing I ever heard!” I shouted.  "Don't listen to him!"

“No!  This is
my
company and I need to do what’s best for it,” said Kendra.  “This is what my parents wanted me to do with my life isn’t it?  Daddy would be
so
proud. Thank goodness I’m not out there painting pictures because
that
would be disgraceful!” 

Before either of us could say another word Kendra was out on the dance floor fighting the 90’s time warp lady for Jasper’s attention and whispering God knows what into his ear.  I couldn’t take the sight of it.  I may be indecisive and somewhat of a pushover, but I will never be a sell-out.  Especially not for Rob Dorfman and this shitty company.  I stood there shaking my head and fuming while Rob stared at me.

"What?" I finally asked.

“Care to keep a client happy?”  he asked, motioning for me to join him and his vibrant sweater vest on the dance floor.   Every muscle in my face tightened as I informed him, through clenched teeth, that I had irrevocably converted to lesbianism.