“I- well, I’m only here for the weekend, so that might work. Honestly, I’m only going to say yes, because my condition is that if you think of something, you have to pay for it. I know that sounds bad, but my girlfriends and I came here to have a good time, but honestly we’re here on a shoe string budget and we can’t just go for anything and everything…” she trailed off, obviously embarrassed. Women had asked him for things before. Used him for things, but this was different. June was just being honest.
“I’ll pay for it, if you honestly give it a shot.” He watched June’s confidence waver, but she quickly composed herself.
“Of course! I’m not a user. Maybe we can have fun. Who knows. Maybe we could salvage this epic fuck up of the century and this could actually work. I’ve heard of worse. Aren’t all marriages shit anyway? This might just be par for the course.”
“Oh god. A fellow jaded traveler on the ride of life. I think I’m in love already.”
June rolled her eyes, but her smile widened. She swept her tongue over her lips to moisten them, which caused all sorts of combusting and hardening and swelling to happen in his pants, before she turned back to the phone. He heard her swear that she was thinking with her vagina and clearly it was certifiable.
Yup, maybe he was in love after all.
CHAPTER 7
June
An hour later, armed with bags containing her clutch, shredded dress from the night before, all the containers of their leftover breakfast, and a ridiculous promise of an evening she’d never forget, June made her way back to her hotel room. She didn’t have a key card, but she knocked and luckily enough, Jasmine pulled open the door.
“Oh my god, what happened?” June dropped the dress onto the floor along with her clutch and stepped in. She wrapped her arms around Jasmine’s shoulders. Her best friend’s eyes were swollen and red rimmed. Her cheeks were puffy and her lips watered.
“Oh…” Jaz brushed at her eyes. “Nothing. Sorry. We were just watching one of those sappy romances until you got back.”
“What? So, nothing’s actually wrong?”
Jaz shook her head and offered a watery smile. “Nope. Just the best Victorian style avowal of love I’ve heard in a long time.”
Mandy joined them at the entrance. She swiped at her eyes and offered the same watery smile. June groaned. “Oh no. Not you too.”
“I’m afraid so. We had to do something until you decided to show up.”
“We were worried about you. You didn’t answer your phone.” Jaz’s hands flew to her hips in a motherly gesture of worry.
June sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. I might have lost it.”
“Might? What number did you text us from then?” Mandy narrowed her eyes. She assessed June, the long t-shirt she was wearing, her wavy, half dry hair, and then, of course, her eyes fell to her hand. “Oh my god. Oh my fucking god! What is that?” She pointed at the gold band. “No! No, no, no, no, no!”
Jaz let out a shriek and lifted June’s hand. “Oh my lord. You didn’t? You got- married?”
“Without us?” Mandy chimed in instantly, like she was actually put out.
“Argh!” June gripped at her hair. “Just let me sit down for a second and I’ll tell you all about it. And no, you weren’t there because I lost my phone and I was so drunk I don’t even remember what happened.”
“Oh no!” Jaz gasped. She gripped June’s hand and led her over to one of the two double beds. The TV was rolling a list of credits. Apparently, she had good timing. She didn’t interrupt the bawl bag style happy ending for her friends. At least someone got a happy ending. At least some people still believed in love.
“You disappeared on us,” Mandy said before June’s ass even hit the bed. “We were at this club having drinks and dancing. You said you had to go to the washroom and you just disappeared.”
“Did this club also happen to be in a hotel that had a poker room?”
“I don’t know,” Mandy said, but Jasmine nodded.
“Yeah. You tried to convince us to go in there before we even went dancing, remember?” She cast a look at Mandy. Mandy’s eyes widened.
“Right. She did. I remember. Sorry.”
“Uh- well- the only thing I can remember about last night is that I was in a poker room. There was a guy sitting next to me. He was hot. I was drinking a lot because it was free, and well- it’s Vegas. We came here for a good time. We came here to forget about Rob.”
“And about his cheating ugly dick.”
June giggled. “Thanks Jasmine. I needed that.”
Jaz winked. “No problem.”
“Soo-uh- anyway, this guy was sitting beside me and he was smoking hot I remember that. He made me nervous. Maybe I was drinking more to steady myself too. I don’t honestly know. I just- uh- he made this bet on this hand. It was a big one. He had me covered and I was going to go all in.”