“Oh there, that’s the cantina place. Pretty obvious about it, aren’t they? Nice drink.” A gigantic neon pink lit pitcher perched on the side of the restaurant, with a huge lighted lime wedge on top.
Angus laughed. “Maybe we should get you one of those so you put on your swimsuit at the pool without moaning about how tiny it is.”
“I should’ve gotten the navy ones,” Reece said. He’d never in a million years feel comfortable in the itty-bitty flowered trunks.
“When are you ever going to believe people when they tell you you’re hot?”
“I don’t know.” Reece shrugged. “I’m hungry. Let’s hope there isn’t a line.”
There wasn’t, so they sat down to a table right away. They chose to eat out on the main corridor of the mall, which deceptively felt like eating outside, and watch the people walk by. It was cool and dark, which was nice compared to the intense, bright heat of the real outside, and after a margarita and a bowl of chips, Reece was starting to think he might like Las Vegas after all.
After lunch, they walked back to the room and put on their suits for a little pool time. Reece slathered himself with sunblock and then helped his lily-white friend do the same. Sue him if he spent a little extra time smoothing the lotion between Angus’s shoulder blades and making sure the entire swimsuit line was sufficiently shielded. He was conscientious, all right?
“We ready?” Angus asked. He slid his feet into a pair of flip-flops he’d bought at the concert and put on his sunglasses. Reece did the same, and made sure he had their room key and some cash as well.
“Let’s go swim.”
THE POOL
wasn’t annoyingly crowded—maybe most of the crowd had died off after lunch and were in their rooms recovering from what had to be heatstroke.
“I feel like we’re on the surface of the sun.” Reece groaned.
“It’s not that bad. You’re such a wuss. It can’t be much hotter than it was before lunch.”
“Yes, it can. I feel like I’m wilting.”
Angus stuck his tongue out at Reece. “Let’s get a drink. Look, there are even lounge chairs over there in the shade.”
Nothing like drinking in the heat of the desert while still trying to get over a night out… drinking in a different desert. Reece still followed Angus to a set of pool chairs that
were
luckily in the afternoon shade. Then he plopped his tired and hot body down on the chair. His belly was full of tacos, the pillows of the chair were warmed from earlier sun but no longer hot, there was actually a pleasant breeze coming in from the surrounding hills, and he was more than ready for a nap. He barely even noticed when Angus came back from the bar.
“Here, babe. I got you a mojito.”
“Isn’t it a little early for this?”
“Pfft. Early. We’re in Vegas. People have cocktails for breakfast here.” Angus gave him a big wink and handed over the drink. “Live a little. You can be the grown-up when we get back home, okay?”
“Yeah. Okay.” Reece took his drink from Angus. It was enormous, as everything in Vegas seemed to be. He kind of hoped it wasn’t very strong. “What’d you get?”
Angus’s drink had a huge pineapple slice, a flower, and a big umbrella. It was also practically the size of Angus’s head. The blatant frilliness of the thing made Reece smile.
“Lava Flow. Strawberry and coconut. Want to try?”
Reece took a huge sip of his oversized mojito and groaned. “No, this is perfect. Thanks.”
Angus sat on the lounger next to Reece’s and sipped his drink. “I keep having these, like, moments where I can’t believe we’re doing this. Like… I don’t even know how to explain it. I was such a mess. I’m still a mess. But I just look at all of this, and… I don’t know. I just can’t believe it’s real.”
Reece snorted. “Real’s a generous term. We are in Vegas, after all.”
“You know what I mean.” Angus swatted at him gently. “I know I might not have shown it at first, but what you’re doing? This means more than you know. I wish we’d done it under better circumstances, you know, like other than me freaking out over losing my loser boyfriend.”
“Of course I’m doing it. Wait. Did you just call Brad a loser?”
Angus made a face. “I’m working on it, okay? I know he wasn’t good for me. I think I always knew he wasn’t good for me.”
“Can you tell me what happened the past few months?”
Not exactly relaxing poolside conversation, but he thought maybe after the day at the concert and the happiness from being in a place he loved, Angus might be ready to talk.
“I wish I could tell you. I mean, I don’t even know myself. He was there, he was controlling most of my life, and then within the space of an hour he was gone.” Angus shrugged. “It kind of felt like getting sucked out into deep space.” He seemed to catch himself getting into the story. “Dramatic, right? I guess I am coming back.”
The small smile he gave Reece felt about as genuine as anything Reece had seen so far on the trip. Just like everything else since they’d hit California, he decided to take it as a good sign.
“I can’t even imagine what that would feel like.” Reece hadn’t ever been so connected to anyone he was dating. He wondered what it would be like if he lost Angus, though. There would be a huge hole inside of him for sure. He’d come pretty damn close to losing Angus in the past couple of months. There wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to let that happen for real.
“It wasn’t even just that, though.” Angus stirred his drink and took a tentative sip. “It was Eric, the fiancé. It was knowing that Brad was seeing some other guy long enough to get engaged while I was scrambling to make him want me again. It was the fact that his asshole friends probably knew and still looked me in the eye. It was… it was everything. I just kinda lost it.”
“But you know you’re better than those dickheads, right?”
“No.” He pouted a little. It was adorable. It also made Reece want to strangle someone. Starting with Brad’s friends would be cathartic and completely deserved.
“Angus. They
sucked
your personality out of you. It was like, you were there, but you weren’t you. Only like eighty percent of you.”
“I know. And I guess I just got angry. You’d think I would be relieved, and I suppose that’ll come someday, but I’m still so mad. Mad I wasted so much time, mad he made a fool of me, and scared that I have no idea what the hell I’m doing with my life, now, tomorrow, next year.”
“That’s why we’re doing this. You don’t have to think about next year. You don’t even have to think about tomorrow unless you want to.”
“I know. Part of me thinks that might have been why it was just easier to do nothing—because I didn’t know what to do. How to walk out of my door and possibly run into people who were friends with Brad. It was like I didn’t know how to even handle my life. So I didn’t.”
“When we get back, we’ll deal with all of that. Together.”
“But this isn’t real life, is it?”
“Nah.” Reece grinned. “This definitely is a break from all of that.”
“Good. Then down that drink and let’s go get wet.”
FIVE MINUTES
later, Reece found himself in the pool, one mojito down and quite a bit wobblier than he’d been only minutes before. The pool felt incredible, though, and the sun wasn’t so bad with the cold water all around his skin. He didn’t even mind the damn swimming trunks. He figured after another one of those mojitos, he’d barely remember they were there. He also decided Angus needed a bit more fun.
“When was the last time you went dancing?”
Angus splashed a bit of water at Reece. “I don’t know. We kind of danced at Coachella, didn’t we?”
“Kind of. But that’s not what I meant. We’re in Vegas, right? If you’re going to go to an over-the-top club all night somewhere, this is the place for it, right?”
“You want to go dancing. In Vegas.” Angus looked like he’d seen an alien take a dive right off Reece’s forehead and into the pool. Sure, it wasn’t exactly in character for him to suggest clubbing, but he wasn’t that boring, was he? Reece thought about it for another second, about Angus grinding up against him, which he always did after a few drinks when he’d managed to drag Reece to the club with him, and then he nodded with a grin.
“Yeah. I want to go dancing.”
Angus dunked himself underwater and then splashed up for air. “Don’t you want to go sightseeing some more?”
“I figure we can do that tomorrow before we head out. We’ll walk somewhere, grab some dinner, and then maybe do a tiny bit of sightseeing on the way out, then come here and get ready to go out.”
“So, tomorrow. You want to start driving home or head somewhere else?”
Reece looked at Angus’s face, how much happier he’d been between the concert and the lights. “Somewhere else.” He smiled. “I think we could do with at
least
another day of distraction.”
“Me too.” Angus reached over and put a hand on Reece’s as if to say thank you. “You want to take a nap before we do the whole dinner and dance club scene? Neither one of us are exactly caught up on sleep. And I’m old. You’re almost old.”
“Shut up.”
Angus splashed him. “Still hot, though.”
Reece felt himself blushing. “Are we going to go up and get showers and take a nap, then? It’s got to be close to six.”
“Yeah. What do you want for dinner? I’m willing to give up on burritos if we’re going dancing.”
“Sushi? I’m sure there’s somewhere good around here.”
“I can do sushi. Let’s go up now, then, and take a bit of a nap, cool off in the air conditioning.”
“You want to grab another drink to take with us to the room?” Reece didn’t know what he was doing, or if it was even remotely a good idea. But he did it anyway.
“I wouldn’t complain about that. Let’s go grab a drink.”
ONE SHOWER
and one nap each later, they were in the elevator and on the way to the strip. Reece had found a sushi place across the street at the Bellagio, and he’d called for reservations. “I think they’ll give us a table overlooking the fountain. That’s what I asked for.”
“That would be amazing. You haven’t seen the fountain yet.”
“Yeah, I figured you’d like that. And there’s a Nobu on the strip, but that’s so ridiculously expensive. It can’t be
that
good.”
“Babe. The place at the Bellagio will be amazing.” Angus reached up and pinched his cheek.
“Really? You just pinched my cheek.” Reece gave Angus an annoyed look. He wasn’t really all that annoyed, because deep down Angus was five and pinching was his way of being flirtatious. Reece knew he was just comfortable, and Angus flirted with everyone he was comfortable with, but it still felt good.
“You like it.”
They wove their way through the casino and out to the main strip. It was cooler than it had been in the full sun, but still, at dusk, the heat was heavy and dry at the same time. The lights were starting to show in their full glory—daylight hadn’t done them much justice. Reece decided he liked the city better at night, when it seemed a little more magical somehow.
“It’s pretty, isn’t it?”
Reece nodded. “Definitely like it better here at night.”
“I think everyone does.” Angus linked his arm with Reece’s elbow. “I’m pretty sure we have to go across that bridge to get to the Bellagio.” He pointed with his free hand to the left.
“That’s how I got to the drugstore this morning, so it should work.”
He turned with Angus toward the skybridge. At least they didn’t have to dive across about a million lanes of traffic. The view from the skybridge was amazing at night. It had been too bright and glaring to see much during the day. Reece stood there for a minute and stared at the lights in either direction. He was impressed by how much work had to have gone into building the strip, putting in all the lights and the decorations.
“C’mon. You don’t want to miss our reservations, and it’s going to take a while to get all the way back to where the restaurant is.”
Reece allowed himself to be tugged along.
“Can we watch the fountain from the street too, after dinner? I don’t know if you’ll get the full experience from the restaurant.”
Reece looked across the street to Planet Hollywood. They’d barely left their own hotel, and it seemed like they’d gone for miles up and down and through lobbies to get where they were, which was essentially across the street. Reece understood how someone could get seriously lost in the swirl of the city. “We’ll stop there after dinner on the way back to our place, okay?”
“At least two songs.”
“Okay.” He slung his arm over Angus’s shoulders and led him across the street. If Angus thought it was weird that they were basically walking around like a couple, he didn’t say anything, and he certainly didn’t do anything to stop it. They crossed the street and made their way into the Bellagio. It blew Reece’s mind how big everything was.
“You get your freaking exercise here,” he muttered.
“Going to get more tonight, shaking your caboose.” Angus poked him.
They made their way to the restaurant, checked in at the front area, and were led to a table that did look out over the Bellagio lake and fountain. Reece had to admit, fake or not, it was quite amazing.
“This is gorgeous,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I never expected it to be this lavish.”
“This is nothing. You should see the places where the, like, rich and famous people stay. Like
palaces
.”
“This is good enough for me.” Nicer than anywhere he’d been in a long time. He didn’t need the palaces of the rich and famous. He’d probably feel uncomfortable in them.
With the fountains booming in the background, they ordered plates of spicy tuna, rainbow roll, tempura roll, and California rolls as well. They got a miniature bottle of sake too, to share.
Angus chuckled. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you were liquoring me up.”
“Nah. I’ve got to liquor myself up to dance.”
Angus smiled. “Thank you for trusting me,” he whispered.
“What?”
“After that whole debacle that morning in San Francisco, you could’ve decided I was an alcoholic and treated me like a patient. I was drinking too much, I was. But it was different than this, you know? This is just… letting loose. I’m happy you trust me to know the difference.”