What Stays in Vegas (24 page)

“Mr. Dorfman I’m -” I tried to speak.

“Do you know why I came here tonight?” interrupted Rob, blowing smoke into my face.

“Not really, since you own the place,” said Chris.  “But I’m a little curious as to why
Beatrice Miller
came here tonight.”  He took a step to his left and repositioned himself to face Rob.  He yanked me by the hand and I joined him.

“I’ll tell you why,” said Rob.  “Despite the fine work your trashy little boss did with Jasper Quick the other night, he was still unable to sway the rest of the Commission.” 

“Don’t you talk about her like that!”  I said.  “Who’s sick idea was that in the first place?”  God I hated him. 

He ignored me and continued.  “My application was going to get denied, and that, that is unacceptable.”   He ground his cigarette out under his foot.  I watched, feeling sick, as if he were grinding Chris and I into the dirt as well.  “So I was forced to make a small contribution to the City of Riverlin, in order to help things along.”

“So you bribed the entire Zoning Commission?” asked Chris.

“I said I made a
contribution
,” said Rob“like I’ve done a thousand times before.  Only that idiot Beatrice Miller got it into her head that she needed to see the place in person before giving her final vote.  Then of course they
all
had to come.”  He shook his head in disgust.

I nearly laughed out loud when I pictured Beatrice Miller convincing the Zoning Commission that they needed to take a little field trip.  That is, until I remembered that if she hadn’t insisted on the tour, none of us would be in this mess.  I joined Rob in shaking my head in disgust - maybe there was some camaraderie forming here.  Maybe Rob would forgive Kendra and instead focusing on hating Beatrice Miller!  Hey, it could happen.

“I would have had them.  I
had
them,” continued Rob, jabbing his index finger in our faces.  “Until they spotted that slut up there making her damn stripping debut!  What the hell was she doing?” 

“I don’t know!” I kept repeating.  Apparently our alliance against Beatrice Miller wasn't going to work out after all.  Then a genius thought dawned on me.  “Hey, maybe they didn’t even recognize her!” I said.

“You think
Jasper Quick
didn’t recognize her?  Give me a break!  Not only is Jasper inside right now telling everybody exactly who she is, but word is going to spread like wildfire to every other city in Nevada.  How many prudish old bats are going to be jumping to approve my applications once they find out what a whore I have representing me?” 

I don’t know if he had been preparing for a while, or if it was a spur of the moment decision, but the next thing I knew the blur of Chris’s right arm came sailing past my left cheek as he punched Rob directly in the nose.  Rob went down to the pavement like a ton of bricks, blood everywhere. 

“You know,” said Chris, for once looking down on the mighty Rob Dorfman, “for the owner of this place, you sure judge the people who choose to work here.” 

I thought for sure there would be an all out death match as soon as Rob stood up.  I imagined myself kneeling over Chris’s lifeless body as he lay bleeding in the alley, rain suddenly pouring from the desert sky, the sound of sirens wailing in the distance.  But he didn’t lunge for Chris or make any attempt to fight back at all.  He merely stood up, rather shakily to tell you the truth, and walked backwards to the door of the club, wiping the blood from his face with one hand, and pointing his finger at us with the other.

“Tell your little boss that I’m pulling all my business from your firm, and I mean from
all
branches.  We’re done.” He wrenched open the door and slammed it shut behind him.

Chris and I stood in silence for a few seconds.

“Oh my God,” I said.  “That was so great!” I threw my arms around his neck.  “Too bad Kendra didn’t get to see that!”  What a chivalrous guy he was turning out to be.  Despite the fact that I had just witnessed Flamhauser-Geist lose one of its biggest clients, I could barely control my glee.  None of that mattered at the moment.  Chris had just punched the biggest asshole I’ve ever known square in the face, and it will forever be the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen.

The sound of rustling from the far side of one of the dumpsters startled me and brought me back to my senses.  I grabbed Chris’s arm as I expected to see a rabid raccoon or maybe a hobo lumber out from the trash bags.  Instead, Kendra’s blonde head peeked around the corner, black mascara running down her cheeks.  She was wrapped in a huge flannel shirt with a mysterious oatmeal colored stain down the front. 

“There you are!”  I ran over and gingerly sat down on the pavement next to her.  “You’ve been back here this whole time?” I asked. 

She nodded.  “I ran out to go to my car, but I had to puke.”  She pointed to a spot about three inches away from where I had sat down - oatmeal colored.  “Then I heard you guys come out so I just stayed here.  I couldn’t face Rob again.”  She rested her head on her knees.  “What have I done?”  The nights events seemed to have quickly sobered her up.

“It’s okay,” I said, putting my arm around her.  Chris came over to try to comfort her as well, but she burst into fresh tears at the sight of him.

“If you hadn’t just seen me naked, I would give you a big hug right now,” said Kendra.  “I didn’t deserve you defending my honor like that.  But, thank you.”

“It was nothing,” said Chris.  “And, as far as the whole nudity thing, you have
nothing
to be ashamed of.” 

I rolled my eyes at him and he quickly retreated to the other side of the dumpster. 

“Ken,” I said.  “Why,
why,
did you do this? What the heck is going on with you?” 

“Todd,” she said quietly.

“Ah, I figured.”

“I ran into the both of them today.  Him
and
Carlotta.  At Wal-Mart.”

“You went into a Wal-Mart?”

“I know right, what are the odds?  But I was there, and so were they.”  She wiped her nose on her sleeve.  “And Carlotta is about sixteen years old, I swear, with boobs out to here.”  She held her arms out about two feet from her body.

“They’re probably fake,” I said.

“I don’t think so,” said Kendra.  “You know why?”  I shook my head.  “Because she’s seven months pregnant.” 

My jaw dropped. “Oh Ken, I’m so sorry!”

“I’ve been ready to have kids for years now!” she said.  “But not Todd.  No, he was too focused on his
career.
  His career!  I’m the one running the whole branch!  If I didn’t think having a baby would ruin
my
career, then he would’ve been just fine in his cushy little job that my dad set up for him.  Director of Business Development.  Please!  All the stupid ass did was go out drinking and hand out a few business cards.  But I went along with what he wanted.  Now I’m old, dried up -”  she ticked the items off on her fingers, “- I probably killed off any remaining eggs that I had with all the vodka I’ve been drinking, and it turns out that Todd just didn’t want to have kids with
me.
” 

“Oh please,” I said.  “I’m sure he didn’t plan it!  He’s probably devastated, I mean his fun-time girlfriend just became more serious than his wife ever was, right?”

“Thanks for trying, Tessa,” said Kendra.  “But I saw them, and they were having a grand old time.  They were in the baby aisle picking out strollers.”  She closed her eyes and shook her head.  “Fucking strollers.”

“So what happened, did they see you?” I asked, trying to move on from the subject of strollers.

“Oh they saw me.  I kind of snapped and made a huge scene in the middle of Wal-Mart.  I’m surprised Jerry Springer didn’t swoop in and sign me up for the show.  Oh gross!”  She finally noticed the puke stain on her shirt and started trying to clean it with her sleeve.

“Here, let me,” I said.  I mopped it up with a Jiggly Kitty cocktail napkin that was on the ground.  Very apropos.

   “Then I slapped Todd in the face,” said Kendra.  “Then I got myself escorted out by Wal-Mart security, about the same way you guys were just escorted out of here.  It’s really been quiet a day hasn’t it?” 

“You slapped him?” I asked, smiling.  This was turning out to be quite a day indeed.  “That’s so great.” 

“It did feel pretty good.”  She let out a huge sigh.  “That is until I got home to my huge, empty, childless, house.  I just felt so old and gross, Tessa.  You wouldn’t understand, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you.”

“We’re like four years apart.”

Kendra ignored me.  “So, I got really drunk, and then I remembered that Thursday nights are amateur night.”  She put her face in her hands and moaned.  “I don't know what I was thinking."

I tossed a pebble back and forth between my hands, thinking back through all the psychology classes I had in college.  "You know those criminals," I said finally, "who do something really stupid because deep down they
want
to get caught?"

"Mmm hmmm."

"Well, I think maybe you just really wanted an out.  And maybe all this stuff with Todd just gave you a good excuse to go off the deep end.  Take the plunge, if you will."  I did air quotes around "take the plunge." 

"You are so wise and lame for an admin," she laughed.

"Thank you.  By the way, where's Bryce tonight?" I asked.

"Dental convention with his buddy."

Ah, Tooth Model.  He would have quite enjoyed all this had he been here tonight.  Shame.

“Well, everything will turn out okay," I said.  “It’s not even that bad, it’s just one stupid client.  We’ll be better off without psycho Rob Dorfman terrorizing us anyway.  We should all bow down and
thank
you for this, really.  My dad always said - ”

“Oh God, don't remind me about my dad!  He’s going to disown me!”  Kendra let out a wail of despair and flopped back into a pile of trash bags.  “I’ve disgraced my entire family.”

I lied and told her that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, though I couldn’t imagine facing
my
dad after a night like this.  We sat there for a few more minutes until a car rounded the corner of the building, blinding us with its headlights.  Chris had gone and brought the car around.  He was turning out to be quite the gentleman, even though he
did
look after he promised not to.  I suppose that can be forgiven.

“Come on,” I said, standing up and holding out my hand.  “Let’s get you out of here.  We’ll sort everything out in the morning.”

***

Later that night, after Chris and I had put Kendra to bed, we sat out on her deck drinking gin and tonics with little umbrellas in them that I had found in the kitchen - my feeble attempt at cheering up a miserable evening.  There was little doubt in our minds that Chris would find himself unemployed come tomorrow morning.  And Kendra’s fate was questionable, as was my own. 

“I might actually miss Flamhauser-Geist, you know?” said Chris as I snuggled in closer to him on the loveseat.  “Kendra and I have worked together for a really long time.” 

He told me, as he tipped back the last of his drink, that watching me pull Kendra from a pile of trash bags, in a parking lot they had once designed together, was probably the saddest thing he had ever seen.

- 27 -

Walking through the office, I did not make eye contact with a single person on Friday morning.  Even though I was ninety-nine percent sure that there was no way anybody could have found out about what happened last night, that one percent was enough to make me keep my head down. 

I mean, what if it made the eleven o’clock news?  What if Roberta Mallard had been sitting on her couch, stuffing her face with a bag of Doritos, and there on the television was a shot of Chris and I being led out of The Jiggly Kitty practically in handcuffs?  And then, what if the camera panned over and there was Kendra, whipping her hair around with two blurry boxes over her chest?  I couldn’t bear it.  I particularly wouldn’t be able to bear the delight in all my female coworker’s eyes when they realized what an absolutely delicious mess Kendra had made of everything.

I bolted to my office, closed the door, and had barely breathed a sigh of relief when the sight of the blinking red message light on my phone gave me about four heart attacks.  Nobody ever left messages on my office phone.  Nobody except for, maybe, Sean Flamhauser?  Or Rob Dorfman?  Or Rob Dorfman’s attorney?

Relax!  You didn’t even do anything wrong!  If Rob’s attorney is going to call anybody it would be Chris, you know, the guy who punched him? 
Not that I wished Rob’s attorney would call Chris or anything, but the rationalization made me feel a bit better as I dialed into my voicemail.  I relaxed at the sound of Kendra’s voice.  She called in early to tell me that she had been summoned by her father to the Flamhauser compound in Miami Beach. 

"Don't even think for a second that I'm going to let you or Chris take any blame for what happened," she tried to reassure me.  But her voice lacked confidence, and Chris and I spent the rest of the day jumping every time the phone rang.   By the time five o'clock rolled around we had still not heard a peep from either Kendra or her father, and were left with the unknown hanging over our heads for the entire weekend.