What Stays in Vegas (20 page)

***

I stormed out of Caesar's Palace leaving Kendra, Jasper, and Rob to have a three-way for all I cared.  Rob was a despicable little worm, so no big surprises there.  But for Kendra to actually go along with his sick ideas?  I felt bad for leaving her in there, but if that's what she wanted I couldn't exactly drag her out against her will. 

I stood there rather drunk on the sidewalk, watching two cross-dressers get out of a taxi.  They shouted at the driver in Spanish, one of them tossing a mane of long black hair over his shoulder and flinging a bunch of bills through the passenger side window.  The driver peeled off, just missing a group of girls who had spilled out of the hotel and into the road.  Never a dull moment in this place. 

I flipped open my phone and stared at the screen, unsure of what to do with it.  This was the second time that Kendra had ditched me to hook up with a guy, but at least the first time had led to my getting together with Chris.  This time I had nothing.  Just a headache and some early signs of depression.  I missed Chris.  I wanted to go to the arcade again - I wanted to go on a second date with him for Christ’s sake.  But I could have none of those things until Nick was out of my life.  I scrolled through my list of Contacts until I came to Trask.

I called Nick and asked him to meet me at Sweet Dreams, a little dessert and coffee shop a few doors down The Strip.  There we could sit down in a quiet,
public
, place, with no alcohol, and no beds, and we could end this shit once and for all. 

After about twenty minutes a taxi pulled up and deposited a tanned and refreshed looking Nick Trask onto the sidewalk.  His little vacation that was ruining my life was certainly doing wonders for his appearance. 
It doesn't matter what he looks like!
  I scolded myself. 
He lied to you, remember?  
I had three Red Bull and vodka’s pumping through my veins and my determination was at an all time high.  If I couldn't put my foot down and send him home tonight, then it was probably never going to happen.

"You look nice," said Nick, as we followed the hostess to a table in the back of the dimly lit restaurant. 

"Thanks." I was suddenly very aware that I was wearing a tube top and that my arms were covered in glitter.  Not exactly restaurant attire.  I tried to casually brush some off with my hands as we ordered two slices of chocolate cheesecake.  I wasn’t so sure how well Red Bull and vodka would mix with chocolate cheesecake, but puking in front of Nick might lessen his desire for me, so I went ahead with the order.

“Do you remember the time,” I asked, when the waitress had left us, “that our office took that field trip to The Jiggly Kitty after it opened in Leominster?  It was like two o’clock in the afternoon.”

“And Donna Spang’s husband was in there,” said Nick laughing.

“Getting a lap dance,” I added.  “How’s she doing anyway?  Still about three seconds away from destroying the universe?”

“She’s pretty busy, actually.  I think Tom’s running her into the ground.”

"That's too bad," I said.  "Guess her twelve year streak of doing nothing and getting paid for it is coming to an end."

"She had a good run," said Nick.  "So, uh, besides Donna Spang, what did you want to talk about?  You look like you were in the middle of a fun night."  He gestured to my arm glitter.

Okay, Tessa.  It's go time.
  I took a deep breath and looked Nick seriously in the face.

"You're right," I said.  "I didn’t ask you here to talk about old times.  I have something important that I need to tell you."

But Nick didn’t seem to hear me as he had already been distracted by a man seated at the table to our left making a lot of strange sounds with his throat.

“Sir, are you okay?” asked Nick. 

“Well,” said the man, “in all honesty I’m just having a bit of trouble belching.”

Oh dear lord.
  I buried my face in my hands.

“Really?” asked Nick, intrigued.  That is the type of thing that intrigues him.

“Waitress!” said the man.  “Do you think I could get a pickle over here?  I think if I had a pickle it would help me to belch.”

“Nick,” I said.  “Are you listening to me?”

“We don’t serve pickles here, sir,” said the waitress.  "This is a dessert shop."

“Nick,” I said again, kicking him under the table.  “I don’t think this guy needs our help.  I have something important to tell you.”

Nick looked at me for a few seconds and then turned back to the pickle guy.  “What is it about a pickle that you think would help?”

Burping pickle guy did not respond right away because he was pounding himself on the chest.  “I just have a feeling, you know?  Sometimes you just have to go with your instincts.”  Burping pickle guy had a point.

“Nick,” I said for the third time.  “He does have a point.  Sometimes you need to go with your instincts, and my instincts are telling me that -”  Just as I was about to finally speak my mind, Nick’s phone began to ring and he looked down at the caller ID.

“Shit,” he mumbled and looked guiltily up at me.  “It’s Megan.”  He stuck the phone back into his pocket.  “What were you saying?”

“I was
saying
that sometimes something that you think is what you wanted, turns out to -”  This time I was interrupted by his phone beeping a text message alert.  He looked at it and swore again, this time louder.

“Uh, Tess,” he said, looking nervously all over the restaurant, "that was Megan again.  She’s, uh, she's
here
.”

- 22 -

“She’s
here?
” I shouted.  Burping pickle guy turned to look at me.   “Here
where?
”

“Here, Las Vegas.  At the airport.  Well, maybe at the airport, I don’t really know.”

“Well what did her message say?”

“Um, it said
‘found u you son of a bitch.  See u in ten
.”

“Oh dear lord.  See you in ten?  Ten minutes? How did she find your hotel?”

“She’s very good with the Internet,” said Nick.

“Alright, it’s okay,” I said, trying not to panic.  “You just need to get back to the hotel to meet her, and I’ll just go stay far away at Kendra's house."  I started gathering up my purse and getting money out to pay the bill.

“The thing is, Tess, I think she may be coming
here
here.  To this restaurant.” 

I stopped counting out the tip and glared at him.   “And how on
Earth would she know that you’re
here
?”

“Because I kind of told the front desk clerk,” he said.

“The front desk clerk?  The one with the boob job?”

“Are there other front desk clerks?” he asked.  “I never noticed.  She asked me where I would be later tonight.”

“So let me get this straight, you were flirting with the front desk clerk before you came here to cheat on your wife with the girl you claim to be in love with?  Christ, Nick, what the hell is wrong with you?” 

Before he had a chance to explain to me what the
hell was wrong with him, two things happened.  First, burping pickle guy let out the loudest belch I’ve heard in years, and second, the door to Sweet Dreams flew open to reveal Megan Trask, fresh off of her cross-country flight.  A flash of lightning and an axe in her hand would have completed the scene, but she had apparently brought nothing, not even a carry-on bag.  This was a woman on a mission.  My life flashed before my eyes as she came charging through the restaurant to our table.

“There you are you lying sack of crap!” she shouted.  “Did you think I was going to just let my husband disappear for a week, no questions asked, and then wheel out the fucking welcome wagon when you finally decided to come home?"

"Megan, baby - " interrupted Nick.

"Don't you dare 'baby' me!  I always knew something was going on with you two, I knew it! All those times you told me you were just friends, and that you thought Tessa was ugly, I never really bought it!"

Nick told his wife that he thought I was ugly? 
Hey!

"It's true, Meg!  She's not even close to my type - "

"Save it!" shouted Megan.  "You're going back to the hotel, and you're packing up your shit, and then you're coming home with me.  We'll get a God damned divorce if that's what you want, but you're sure as hell not staying out here."

I shrunk down a few inches in my seat out of sheer terror as I knew she would be unleashing the wrath on me at any moment. 

“Megan, baby,” said Nick, standing up and putting his hand on Megan’s shoulder, “just listen to me, please!  There’s nothing going on between Tessa and I.   I just needed to talk with her about some things!  About
us.
” 

“Ever hear of a phone?” asked Megan.  She turned and looked around at the dimly lit restaurant, motioning to the candles on the tables.  “This is where you go to talk?  And at, what the
hell time is it, one o’clock in the morning?  Do you think I’m stupid?”

“Tessa asked me to meet her here!” said Nick.  “She thinks that she’s in love with me!  I only showed up to try and let her down easy.  I was just about to tell her that I needed to go home to you and that she needs to move on with her life, isn’t that right, Tessa?” 

I couldn’t believe my ears.  The bastard was throwing me under the bus!  Did he honestly think I would cover for him like that?

“No,
Nick
,” I sad, really emphasizing his name.  “That’s not right.  Why would you do this to me?”  I stood up and turned to Megan.  “Megan, listen to me.  I have a boyfriend.  Well, I almost had a boyfriend, until Nick showed up and ruined everything.”

“Hey!” said Nick.

“Shut up,” said Megan and I in unison.

I turned to Nick and looked him dead in the eyes.  

“I was in love with you for years, Nick,
years. 
Not a couple of weeks, not since I sent those texts and emails, but
years. 
Did you know that?”  He shook his head and I turned to Megan who gave me a look that will probably follow me to my grave.  “This started way before he ever met you,” I assured her.  I turned back to Nick with shaking hands. 

“Knowing that I would see you, that was the only thing that got me into work every morning.  Even when you went through that phase of only dating girls from the modeling agency, I sat and I listened to you talk about your dates, and I let you complain to me when they didn’t work out.  Do you know why I did that?  Because it didn’t matter to me what you were saying, all that mattered was that you were talking to
me
.  I got to hear your voice and your jokes and at least for that moment, sitting in the middle of our stupid office, I was the girl in your life."

“Tessa, I’m -” interrupted Nick.

“No, let me finish,” I said.  “I know that sounds kind of creepy and stalker-ish, but I'm sorry.  That's just the way it was.  All those times that I comforted you while you dated idiot after idiot, and I kept telling you that the right girl was out there.   I told you that when you least expected it she would show up.  But you never once considered that girl might be me.”  I looked down at my cheesecake, and then at Megan, whose face had softened slightly.  “And then one day he came back from a cruise, and he was married to you.  All my hope was gone.  I had to accept the fact that I was destined to be nothing but Nick’s friend for the rest of my life, and it was devastating.  I hated you, Megan, for no good reason.  I took all my anger at Nick and I placed it squarely on you, just like every other bitter, jealous, woman does, and I’m so sorry about that.  I want to be better than that.” 

Tears formed in my eyes, but I kept on talking.  “At the time I would have given anything for your marriage to end and for me to get that glimmer of hope back.  That hope that someday Nick would come to his senses and we would end up together."

“Tess, I didn’t -” interrupted Nick again.

“I’m not
done
,” I said.  “And then I came out here, and I met this really great guy who I never told you about.  I should have, because he's everything you never could be, and by not telling you about him I may have royally messed it all up.”

“Then why would you send me those texts?” asked Nick, finally getting a few words in.  He spoke almost in a whisper, as if he didn’t want Megan to hear.

“Because when you told me that you and Megan were having problems, a little piece of that old stalker was still hanging on.  I just couldn’t let her go."  I shrugged.  "It’s like when you’re ten years old and your parents finally buy you that toy you wanted when you were eight - you know, you play with it for a while, but then you realize that it’s not what you really want anymore.”

The entire restaurant, including wait staff, seemed to hold their breath as I finished my speech.

“I’m not in love with your husband anymore,” I said to Megan.  The words sounded so liberating to my own ears, I wanted to shout them to the entire city.  “It was just kind of nice that finally, after all these years, Nick thought that he was in love with
me.” 
I gave Nick a weak smile and shrugged.  Then I sat back down.  “That’s all.”