“Mum can take care of Grace, she’s old enough now for you to leave her here for a week,” I suggested as I looked over at Lilly as she tried to digest her thoughts.
“Okay girls, Vegas here we come,” Lilly screamed as her whole face lit up.
The next morning, Lilly and I walked into the kitchen to ask my mother if she could take care of Grace for a week.
“I’m happy to take care of Grace, girls, but you’ve forgotten one important fact. You’re both only eighteen, what will you do in Vegas? You need to be twenty-one to drink or gamble, and you know how strict they are over there,” my mother said sternly.
“Mum, we will be staying at the Bellagio hotel, that’s legal. We can go shopping and hang by the pool during the day and in the nights we will go out for dinner. You don’t need to be twenty-one to do that,” I pleaded as I waited for my mother to reply.
“Okay, girls, well I guess that’s that, but if I get a call that my under-aged daughter and her friends are in trouble, it won’t go down well with your father,” she replied as she poured herself a morning coffee.
“We will be fine, there’s no need to worry, we won’t do anything illegal,” Lilly assured her as she happily walked over to prepare breakfast.
In fact, we had Megan’s older brother arrange fake IDs for us all and we planned to go out on the town. As they say, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Joe was spending the holidays skiing with a few of his friends from law school and would be back in DC the day before Christmas. Our phone calls were less frequent and both of us were too polite or perhaps afraid to talk about anything serious. He mentioned he wanted to spend New Year’s Eve at a friend’s house party and I was welcome to come, but I said I would think about it. When we said goodbye, we didn’t tell each other we loved each other like we used to. Our relationship felt like a slow train going downhill towards a perfect crash.
A day before I was leaving for Vegas, Joe called me and came out with it.
“I think we should both be open to seeing other people,” he said hesitantly.
I guess in a way I was not surprised. “Have you met someone?” I asked, wondering if I even wanted to know, as I waited for Joe’s answer.
“No, Jess, I just feel we both may be growing apart. I know in some way you agree.”
There was a long silence as I collected my thoughts. “I’ve not been very sure what to feel or say, Joe, I guess this is for the best,” I said, feeling a huge weight lift off my shoulder.
“I still care for you, Jess, and will always be there for you, if you ever needed me for anything, like legal advice …”
We both laughed, we always shared a sense of humour when things got a little uncomfortable.
“Enjoy Vegas, and I will see you after Christmas. I have a small gift for you and I would love to see your folks,” Joe said before we hung up.
Well, that was it, and surprisingly I was somewhat relieved.
“If you ask me, it happened at the perfect time,” Tanya blurted out when we were in the cab on our way to the airport. Tanya always spoke her mind and I guess this time I agreed with her.
“I’m actually okay with this. I had been having nightmares that if I stayed with Joe, I would end up a divorced, bitter woman after years of Joe sleeping with his secretaries,” I said as the cab stopped outside the airport.
“You watch too many movies, Jess,” Megan gasped.
Lilly was on the phone to my mother, checking if everything was okay with Grace.
“Grace will be fine,” I reassured her as I handed over her suitcase.
“I know,” she smiled back. We were all excited for our week ahead.
We arrived at the Bellagio Hotel just in time for happy hour at the bar. No one questioned our IDs and we were even upgraded to suites and given our own personal butler.
“You know, I could easily fit in to this kind of life. Butlers, maids, room service, happy hour every day,” Tanya laughed as she waved her drink in the air.
“Cheers girls, here’s to a fun week in town, let the celebrations begin,” I replied.
Moments later, a very well-dressed and handsome man walked past us.
“Are you enjoying your evening, ladies?” he asked politely. “I can escort you to a lovely booth we have available if you wish?” he said as his eyes wandered over to me.
“Thank you, that would be awesome,” Megan replied eagerly, as we followed him to our booth. There were bottles of complimentary Champagne at our table and a waiter arrived to pour our glasses.
“My name is Ben Stanford. We have a comedy show in the Arena Lounge at nine tonight. If you would like to attend, let me know, I will be sitting at the bar,” he said and he left us to enjoy our drinks.
“Maybe he’s the manager, he is gorgeous. What do you think, Jess? He couldn’t take his eyes off you!” Tanya smiled as I started to blush.
“He is very handsome,” I had to admit.
“Well, you are available,” Tanya reminded me. “Mrs Jessica Stanford, it does have a nice ring to it …”
And we all burst out laughing.
At nine, we headed to the comedy show in the Arena Lounge. I spoke to Ben briefly before we sat down – he was very sincere and it was pretty clear he was interested in me. The show was entertaining; five comedians took the stage and they all had us in stitches. The band came on afterwards and we were all on the dance floor having a ball. Time flew and before we knew it, it was three o’clock in the morning.
“Night girls, I need to get some sleep. You ready, Jess?” Lilly pulled me off the dancefloor and we left while Megan and Tanya stayed and chatted with some of the crew from the band.
The doorbell rang at ten the next morning and Lilly walked back in with a dozen white roses.
“The card is addressed to you, Jess, open it,” Lilly screamed excitedly.
It was from Ben Stanford and included an invitation to dinner. I began to blush again as I read the card.
“Well, you must go. C’mon, let’s go shopping and we can find you a dress to wear,” Lilly eagerly insisted.
The stores in Vegas had sales on and the girls were pleased with their new purchases. The Bellagio staff were very accommodating and had organised a driver to take us anywhere we wished. We arrived back at the hotel in the afternoon and spent a few hours sunbaking by the pool.
“The service is impeccable here, don’t you think, girls?” Megan remarked while eyeing off a hot guy at the other side of the pool.
“Sure, especially if the manager has a crush on you,” Lilly teased as she winked at me.
I accepted Ben’s dinner invitation and he took me to a fab Japanese restaurant in the hotel. We had our own private room and enjoyed a seven course degustation with complementing wines.
“I have to say, this is a very lavish evening. Do you invite all your special guests here?” I asked as I swirled my wine.
“No, we just opened this restaurant last week,” Ben happily remarked. “My uncle owns the Bellagio Hotel and I manage it for him. I guess it requires me to dine in all our restaurants frequently, to make sure the quality remains high.”
“Oh, so that explains the special treatment,” I smiled. “You must be close with your uncle?”
“Yes, he raised me. My mother was very sick and died when I was young and my father, well, he was never in the picture. My uncle promised my mother before she died