Three Girls And A Leading Man (6 page)

“Okay, this is you guys,” Eric
said, stopping at a door and handing me a small envelope with our key cards.
“Jen and Matt, you’re two doors down.” He handed Matt their cards. “And Kiki
and I are right next to them.”

The girls and I grinned at each
other goofily for a minute, like little kids at Christmas, before we all dived
for our doors. I frantically fumbled with the key card, finally getting the
door open so Ginny and I could rush inside.

“Wow,” Ginny said, stopping in the
foyer. “I mean…wow.”

I was having trouble finding words.
The room was huge, bigger than Jen’s and my entire living room. Probably our
entire first floor combined. “Did you know she was getting us a suite?” I
asked.

“Nope,” Ginny said, setting her purse
on a small coffee table. “But I sure as hell ain’t complaining.”

In addition to two queen-sized
beds, there was also a living room area and giant floor-to-ceiling windows. The
staff had pulled the curtains, giving us a spectacular view of the Vegas strip
far below us. I walked over to the window, staring down in amazement.

“You have to see this,” I called to
Ginny, who had wandered into the bathroom. “There’s a replica of the Eiffel
tower down there!”

“Hang on,” Ginny called. “This
bathroom is incredible.”

I ran in to check it out and saw
Ginny sitting, fully clothed, in the marble tub, testing its size. “This is
bigger than our kitchen!” she cried.

I started laughing and found I
couldn’t stop. I felt giddy with excitement. Ginny started laughing too. “Can
you even believe this?” she asked.

“Come look at the view,” I told
her, grabbing her hand to pull her out of the tub.

We ran back into the living area
and stood at the window, gazing down at the lights.

“Oh my God!” Ginny squealed,
grabbing my arm and pointing. “It’s that fountain! You know, from the George
Clooney movie!”

“You’re right!” I told her,
following her pointing finger down to the Bellagio fountain, which looked
familiar to me from
Ocean’s Eleven
.

“You guys,” a voice said behind us,
and we spun around. Jen was standing in the still open doorway. “Isn’t this
amazing?”

“Do you have a view like this?”
Ginny asked.

“Yes!” Jen said, coming over to
stand with us. “It’s totally incredible!”

“Look at our bathroom!” Ginny said.

“Mine is like that too!” Jen said,
sounding more and more like Kiki with every word.

We were saved the embarrassment of
jumping around like five-year-olds when the porters showed up with our luggage.
Seeing them standing there in the doorway with my bags had the effect of reminding
me that I was actually a grown woman. I tipped the porter generously and Jen
slipped away to help Matt unpack.

“Late dinner and drinks in half an
hour,” she called over her shoulder. We had all eaten on the plane, but that
felt like hours ago. We had a full night of partying ahead of us and I was
determined to have the energy to go the distance.

Chapter Seven

‘While it’s important
to have confidence when dealing with men, it’s equally important not to be too
bold. Men like it when you let them make the first move. A woman who insists on
ignoring this fact will have a hard time making a man interested in
her.’—
The Single Girl’s Guide to
Finding True Love

“Wow,” I said again. “I know I keep
saying it, but this place is unbelievable!”

“I know!” Ginny squealed, grabbing
my arm. “Look at all the people!” Our group was standing at the entrance to the
casino. Everywhere I looked I was bombarded with noise, lights, conversation,
and people. It was so cool.

“What should we do first?” Jen
asked.

“Drinks,” I said immediately.

“Obviously,” Ginny agreed.

We headed over to the bar and
placed our orders while we all gazed around. “I want to try this,” Jen said
excitedly. “I want to learn how to play cards.”

Matt chuckled and put his arm
around her. “I have a feeling you’d be pretty amazing at that.”

“I want to try the slots first,”
Ginny said.

In the end we decided that Kiki,
Jen, Matt, and Eric would head over to the blackjack tables while Ginny and I
gave the slot machines a try. The two of us headed to the loudest, most garish
machines we could find and sat down together.

“So, how does this work?” Ginny
asked, adjusting her sparkly top. She and I couldn’t help but to get a little
gussied up before coming downstairs, and I was glad we had done so. I had
already spotted several guys I wouldn’t mind getting to know a little better.

“I think we just put our coins in
here?” I said uncertainly.

We decided to give it a try. Within
a few minutes we were each out five bucks.

“Wow,” Ginny said. “That wasn’t
quite as much fun as I thought it would be.”

“Let’s walk around a little,” I
said. “Do some people-watching.”

We grabbed our drinks and made our
way deeper into the casino floor. There was so much to look at it was hard to
focus on anything. We ended up gathering with a small crowd around a craps
table. There was a man there who seemed to be on some kind of roll. Every time
the dealer rolled the dice the people around him would start screaming. He
seemed to get free drinks every few minutes.

“What’s he made so far?” Ginny
asked the middle-aged man next to us.

“Oh, he’s up to thirty thousand,”
the man replied.

“Holy hell!” I said. “Seriously?”

The man smiled.

“So how does this work?” Ginny
asked him.

“First time in Vegas?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Ginny replied. “First time
in a casino, actually.”

The man started explaining the
rules of craps to Gin, and I felt myself zoning out. I just had never found
card or dice games to be all that interesting. The money sounded great, sure,
but I couldn’t really imagine trying to learn all the intricacies that the man
was explaining. I let my eyes wander around the crowded floor. There were
groups of people everywhere, gambling, chatting, and drinking. I felt the
unmistakable feeling of someone’s gaze on me, and I turned.

I found myself staring at a man,
probably about my age. He was dressed casually in jeans and a tee shirt. His
body looked nice, but it was hard to make out his face under his baseball cap.
Then it hit me. He was wearing a Detroit Tigers hat.

“Gin,” I hissed. She tilted her head
in my direction. “See that guy over there?” I asked. She looked in the
direction I was indicating.

“Yeah,” she said. “So?”

“Do you think he’s from Detroit?” I
asked.

She squinted. “Hmm. Could be. But a
lot of people wear that hat. It’s a cool logo and Eminem made it totally
famous.”

I thought about that. She had a
point. But the guy was still looking at me, and I found my curiosity and
interest pique.

“Care if I go over and talk to
him?” I asked her.

Ginny rolled her eyes at me.
“You’re such a tramp,” she teased.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “Seriously
though, you okay here for a minute?”

She waved me away and I smiled at
her. I headed over in the direction of the guy. He was now breaking away from
his friends a little and walking in my direction.

“Hey,” I said.

Up close he was definitely good
looking. Tall and blond, very clean cut. He reminded me a little bit of Kiki’s
husband, Eric. He had that football-player, classic-American look to him. Not
necessarily my type, but who cared? A little flirting never hurt anyone.

“I’ve been watching you for ages,”
he said, then flushed. “Oops, sorry. That sounded totally creepster, didn’t it?
I just meant that you look familiar to me. I’ve been trying to place you.”

I had a hard time not rolling my
eyes. Real original line.

“I noticed your hat,” I told him,
pointing up at it. “Are you from Detroit?”

“Yeah,” he said eagerly. “Well,
Birmingham actually, but close enough.”

I did roll my eyes at that.
Birmingham was a totally ritzy suburban town—about as far from Detroit as
you could get, figuratively speaking.

“What about you?” he asked.

“I live in Ferndale,” I explained.

“Wow. That’s a small world. Maybe I
have seen you around then.”

I smiled up at him flirtatiously.
“Perhaps,” I said. I saw him gulp and felt my heart soar a little. He was
totally into me.

“So how long are you in Vegas for?”
I asked.

“Just the weekend,” he replied. “My
buddy is getting married in a few weeks; bachelor party, you know.” He gestured
to the group of guys behind us. “How about you?”

“The same. Well, minus the bachelor
party stuff. So, are you guys just getting wasted and getting a bunch of lap
dances?”

He laughed. “Hardly. I mean, we’re
drinking but I don’t think any of us would be too into the stripper thing. I
have little sisters and I just couldn’t imagine ogling a girl like that.”

I looked at him, trying to figure
him out. He seemed like a pretty nice guy, but it could always just be an act.
I’d seen it before.

“So, what are your plans while you
guys are in town?” he asked.

“I think we’re gonna do the
Stratosphere thrill rides tomorrow,” I replied. “You know, the ones on top of
that tower? And see the Cirque du Soleil show too. Probably do a lot of
dancing, that kind of thing.”

“That sounds great,” he replied.
“It would be cool if I saw you around.”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling again. I
had to admit, faker or not, it was nice that he was so clearly into me. “Well,
I should get back to my friend.”

I couldn’t be sure but I thought I
saw his face fall. “Yeah?” he asked.

I gestured over to where Ginny was
standing, clearly gawking at us. Poor married girl, she had to live vicariously
through me when I chatted up new guys.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you
around,” I said, turning to go.

“Wait!” he called after me. “I
don’t even know your name.”

I kept walking. When I had gotten a
few feet away I turned back. “It’s Annie,” I called out, grinning, then turned
back to Ginny.

“Like I said—tramp,” she
sighed when I reached her.

I grinned at her. “Oh, Gin,” I
said. “You’re just jealous.”

***

The next morning I rolled out of
bed with a pretty major headache. We had casino-hopped ‘til all hours of the
morning. As Matt had predicted, Jen had turned out to be a phenomenal card
player. She had picked up blackjack fairly quickly, and ended the night four
hundred bucks richer. The rest of had occupied ourselves with a lot of
drinking.

“Ugh,” Ginny groaned from the bed
next to me. “I keep forgetting that I’m an old married mother and I shouldn’t
be doing things like this.”

“Gin, baby or not, you’re only
twenty-five,” I told her, rubbing my head.

“Let’s go get food,” she said.
“Bacon is the only cure for a hangover this bad.”

“Oh my God,” I moaned. “Bacon
sounds amazing.”

We dragged ourselves out of bed,
throwing on yoga pants and tank tops. “You look hot,” I told Ginny drily as she
pulled her hair up in a messy bun.

“Says the girl who didn’t manage to
take her make-up off last night,” she replied.

We made it downstairs to one of the
casino restaurants and found a mouth-watering buffet. Ginny was whimpering next
to me as we stared down the long line of food. We had never been the kind of
girls to avoid food after heavy drinking—or any other time for that
matter. We were of the opinion that the best way to kill a hangover was to
stuff it full of greasy junk.

A few minutes later, we had found
our way to a table with heaping plates of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. “I need
coffee,” Ginny moaned. “Where the hell is the coffee?”

“Right over there,” a voice said.

We both looked up and I found
myself face to face with the guy from the casino last night. Oh, hell. He
looked even better in the morning, if that was possible, all bright eyed and
rested. I’m sure I looked like crap.

“How you doing this morning,
Annie?” he asked, sitting down across the table. “Have fun last night?”

“A little too much,” I said,
feeling uncomfortable at his nearness in my present state.

“Well,” he said, “what happens in
Vegas stays in Vegas, right?”

Ginny was watching my reaction to
his arrival with a smile on her face that freaked me out a little bit. She knew
me too well.

“Hi,” she said, pushing her hand
into his face. “I’m Ginny, Annie’s friend.”

“Hello, Ginny, Annie’s friend,” he
replied, smiling. “I’m Nate.”

“Nice to meet you, Nate,” she said,
smiling at me way too obviously. Oh, geez.

“So what are you guys up to today?”
Nate asked. “Did you say something about thrill rides?”

“Yeah,” Ginny said excitedly.
“We’re gonna go to the stratosphere tower and do the rides up there.”

“That’s awesome,” Nate said. “I’ve
been trying to convince my buddies to do that, but they’re way too chicken.”

“You could always come with us,”
Ginny said.

I kicked her under the table. I
could live without her matchmaking. It was one thing to flirt with the guy last
night, when I was looking good and feeling pretty tipsy. It was another to invite
him to spend the day with us.

Nate was looking at me with a
slight smirk on his face. “Thanks, Ginny, but I should probably hang out with
my friends today.”

I gave a sigh of relief, but it was
short-lived.

“Well, before we head over there
we’re going to spend some time at the pool here at the hotel,” Ginny said.

“Cool,” Nate said. “I’ll totally
see you guys there.”

He tapped the table twice, then
stood up. “Good to see you guys, Ginny, Annie.”