333 Miles (25 page)

Gary: “I thought you always believed in the
free market and that people should earn what they were worth based
on the demand?”

Alex: “Yeah, I do. And this really confuses
me. On one hand, I think she is the biggest genius there is. I
mean, she gets millions of dollars just for partying and showing up
at places. Basically she has turned herself into a brand. So I give
her credit for that, and she deserves every penny she makes. But
maybe we should question where our society is headed if this is
what we idolize. Money is and should be great, but not just to show
off how much you have. I think part of it is also due to all these
new Russian billionaires who are so in your face about how much
money they have. I think previous rich people used to be more
discrete about it, at least from mainstream society. Anyway, I
think it will continue to get worse until we have a major
recession, but it doesn’t seem that will happen anytime soon.”

Gary: “I don’t believe that you, of all
people, are worried that there is too much materialism. I thought
you believed greed was the root of progress.”

Alex: “I still do. Maybe there just needs to
be something else that goes along with it.”

Gary: “Maybe you are just getting drunk.”

Alex: “Maybe. I think we are going to need
another bottle.”

When one o’clock arrived, each of the guys,
high on a mixture of Red Bull, vodka, and nicotine and feeding from
the energy of the club, found themselves armed with a strong sense
of optimism and a high level of alertness.

At 1:05 am, Alex poured himself a new drink
and informed the group that he was going to take a lap around the
club. Roger decided to join, leaving Mike and Gary alone in the
booth. With Roger and Alex gone, the space seemed awkwardly empty
when compared to the packed surroundings of the rest of the club.
Even the VIP area was now relatively full with people. Regardless,
within a few minutes, Randy arrived with two girls and suggested to
Mike and Gary that they may want to meet them.

The girls, both with medium-length blonde
hair, looked to be around thirty years old, but were still
attractive. Both wore designer jeans and expensive-looking shirts,
in contrast to the more naked approach most of the younger girls in
the club favored.

One sat next to Mike and the other stepped
over Gary’s legs to sit on the other side of him, closer to where
she could look down on the dance floor. Gary asked the girls what
they wanted to drink. At their request, he poured each a
vodka-cranberry with a splash of Red Bull, leaving about three
inches of liquid remaining in the second bottle. Mike, suddenly
feeling a lot less cheap, waved Yvonne down and ordered a third
bottle of Stolichnaya and three more Red Bulls.

Their inhibitions drowned by alcohol, each of
the newly introduced couples rapidly engaged in conversation. It
took Mike about three minutes to develop a crush on the one he was
paired up with, Kristen. He found out from her that both of the
girls were thirty-two, lived in LA, and were college friends from
the University of Arizona. Kristen was a pharmaceutical sales
representative and Ashley, her friend, was an elementary school
teacher. They were in town for a quick girl’s weekend and were
staying at the Venetian.

Mike recounted some of the humorous anecdotes
from the drive out, though he swapped Roger into his own role for
the outhouse story. He was pleased to get several laughs,
especially from his imitation of the Jeff Kent cop, and he was
impressed that Kristen knew who Jeff Kent was. She also seemed
genuinely interested to hear about the house he was buying in Del
Mar, which Mike greatly enjoyed talking about. Happy that Alex had
instigated the trip, Mike took inventory of how drunk he was. He
decided he could afford to down another few drinks but realized he
needed to be a bit careful. He poured himself a rather weak version
of what Kristen was drinking and also made her a new one.

Gary also took the opportunity to fix fresh
drinks for Ashley and himself. Yvonne returned with a new bottle of
Stolichnaya and a new bucket of ice. One of the Mexicans followed
her and swapped out several of the dirty glasses for fresh ones and
also brought a new carafe of cranberry juice.

Yvonne sat down briefly next to Gary and
asked how everything was going. Mike and Gary assured her things
were very well and she sensed her presence was not desired at the
table at the moment so she got up to leave. Before she did, she
looked down to the dance floor and said, “It looks like your
buddies are having a good time also.”

Gary, Mike, Kristen and Ashley all leaned
toward the balcony and surveyed the scene. The dance floor was
generally packed, but it did not take long to find Alex in his
yellow sweater. There was a bit of space around him and he was
doing his monkey dance, bent over, supporting himself with one fist
on the floor, and waving his ass around wildly. Though it could not
be heard at this distance, the puckered shape of Alex’s lips
suggested he was complementing the dance with “ooh-ooh, aah-aah”
monkey noises. Behind him, an attractive girl in a green mini-dress
was trying to rub against him, but was struggling to follow because
his butt was moving about unpredictably. In front of him, Roger was
engaging in an aggressive version of the white-man’s shuffle,
pausing periodically to grind against a slightly overweight Asian
girl who was obviously drunk. The Asian girl was so engaged with
Roger that she appeared oblivious to Alex’s antics, which were the
main attraction for everyone else within ten feet of them.

Gary turned towards Mike and Kristen with a
large grin on his face. “I haven’t seen the monkey dance in years.
Alex must be wasted,” he shouted across the booth. Then, he and
Ashley repositioned themselves so they could more comfortably watch
the action below.

The next time Gary looked at his watch, he
couldn’t believe it was already 2:30 in the morning. It turned out
he had a lot in common with Ashley, including being married and
having a three-year-old daughter. Ashley also was concerned about
getting her daughter into the best pre-school and how to pay for
the twenty thousand or so in tuition once kindergarten and
elementary school started. Her descriptions about the politics
within the public school she taught at were genuinely interesting
to Gary who was still a believer in public schools over private.
Additionally, Ashley’s husband was also a lawyer so she understood
the demands of his job.

Gary realized it was the first time he had
had a decent conversation alone with a woman other than his wife in
over a year and probably the first time he had spent this much time
alone with another woman while drinking since his wedding. He was
bemused to realize he genuinely liked this person he just met in a
club in Vegas, of all places. He had no ambitions of cheating on
Blair when he learned he was going to Vegas, and now he found
himself wondering if he wanted to now. Ashley had not given any
direct signs she would be interested, but she was very flirtatious
and demonstrated several of what Alex annoyingly and repeatedly
referred to as “Indications of Interest.” Clearly there was some
connection. Perhaps because of the alcohol, he also began to see
her as sexier than when she first arrived. It seemed her shirt had
been repositioned to reveal more of the top of her breasts than
before.

It took about ten minutes after the idea
first came into his mind for Gary to realize that as much as he
liked this new woman, and as much as he was physically attracted to
her, he did not want to sleep with her and had absolutely no
interest in attempting any kind of actual relationship. Still
involved in their conversation, and still very much enjoying it,
Gary did not have time to think much about his realization, but
somewhere he registered an initial feeling of disappointment and
regret. Happily, it was fleeting and quickly began morphing into
something like relief, but closer to satisfaction or pleasure.

It felt good not just to think, but to know,
that he was secure in his marriage and still valued it as much or
more than ever.

The notion was reinforced when he took a
break from the conversation to check out the group at the table
next to them. While the other table had been occupied since just
after midnight, Gary had not even made the effort to acknowledge
them until now. It consisted of two rather ugly-looking Persian men
in their mid-thirties and six attractive white girls in their early
twenties. On the table were the remnants of one bottle of Grey
Goose and four bottles of Cristal. Three of the girls were sitting
by the guys and looked utterly bored. The other three were dancing
against the railing and were, seemingly, thoroughly enjoying
themselves. Somehow in Gary’s mind it all looked quite
pathetic.

He wondered, given the miscommunications of
the weekend, what the chances were of Blair still allowing him to
buy the steak knives he had his eye on. He had a feeling there was
a new Gucci bag in her future. But, despite these petty desires, he
knew he had something beautiful and something real and felt good
about it. He refilled his glass with ice and poured two ounces of
Stolichnaya into it, his eyes happily lingering on the ass of one
of the dancing girls in the next booth.

Out on the dance floor there was no longer
any sign of Alex or Roger. Gary excused himself from Ashley for a
moment and repositioned himself to the other side of the booth next
to Mike. He put his arm around Mike and said hello again to
Kristen.

Gary: “How is it going over here?”

Mike: “Great. She is super-cool. How about
you?”

Gary: “Really good, man. I am having a lot of
fun. It is a bummer for you that these two are married.”

Mike: “What are you talking about?”

Gary: “Check the rings, dude. You didn’t
notice?”

Mike quickly turned his head back toward
Kristen and checked out her left hand which was holding a plastic
glass filled with vodka and cranberry juice. She started to talk to
Ashley who had moved to her other side.

Mike: “Holy shit-show! You have got to be
fucking kidding me.”

Gary: “You didn’t realize it?”

Mike: “No. I guess I didn’t even think to
look. Unfuckingbelievable. I really thought I was getting
somewhere.”

Gary: “Sorry, dude.”

Mike turned back toward the girls: “So
Kristen, how long have you been married?” he asked loudly.

Kristen: “Um . . . I guess it has been about
four years.”

There was a brief silence filled only by the
loudness of the club and
Milkshake
by Kelis. Then Mike said
that he needed to use the bathroom and stood and left the booth.
Kristen and Ashley conferred for a minute while Gary sat awkwardly.
Then Ashley let Gary know that they needed to get going and told
him she had really enjoyed meeting him. He stood and gave her a hug
and she kissed his cheek. Then they were gone. He sat again, now
alone. Unsure what to do and surprised with the sudden turn the
night had taken, he reached to the table and stole a Dunhill out of
the pack Alex had left there. He checked his watch, lit the
cigarette, and then checked on the Persian’s table where Yvonne was
bringing yet another bottle of Cristal. It was quickly consumed by
the girls who clearly were in no shape to tell the difference
between quality French champagne and Martinelli’s sparkling apple
cider. Gary laughed to himself, took a drag, sat back, exhaled and
crossed his legs contentedly. A smile lingered on his face.

It turned out he was not alone long. By the
time he finished his smoke, Alex and Roger came bouncing into the
booth, both dancing along to Duran Duran’s
Reflex
. Gary’s
smile widened as it was clear his two buddies were quite drunk and
it appeared likely that Alex, who immediately began eyeing the
girls in the Persian’s booth, might break into some of his robot
moves at any moment. Instead he sat next to Gary, reached to the
table for one of his Dunhills, lit it, and put his arm around
Gary.

Alex: “Where is Mr. Happy Face?”

Gary: “He got a bit bent out of shape when he
realized the girl he was ramping all night is married.”

Alex: “Ah, bummer. I hate it when that
happens. Where did he go?”

Gary: “He said to the bathroom but he went
the wrong way. Where were you two?”

Alex: “At another table on the other side.
Funny story. I will tell you later.”

Roger leaned in, slurring his words heavily:
“Alex was ramping the super hot blonde in the green dress and I was
getting sloppy with some Asian chick.”

Gary: “Yeah, I noticed that. I think the
whole club did. So where are they? Do you want to bring them over
here?”

Alex: “Nah, it is not important. I’d rather
hang with you for the rest of the night.”

Gary: “Another bottle of booze?”

Alex: “No. Fuck it, dudes. Let’s go roll some
dice.”

Chapter Twenty Three

The Casino Part II

3:05 a.m.

“
I'm not only legitimate, but running a
casino. And that's like selling people dreams for cash.”

– Ace Rothstein,
Casino

Once the decision had been made to gamble,
there seemed little reason to spend even a minute longer in the
club. Gary and Roger took an unsuccessful lap looking for Mike, and
Alex asked Yvonne to bring a check. Alex left the charge on his
Platinum Amex, signing away $1,324 for the beverages consumed and
service charge. There was a quick debate about the acceptability of
leaving without finding Mike first, but everyone agreed he was a
big boy and he should be able to find them easily in the casino. To
ease his conscience, Alex sent a text to Mike’s mobile phone that
read, “Craps. Hard rock. Join us. Btw, u r a little jizz
mopper.”