Page 26 of What Happens In Vegas
Ava and Celia were speaking over each other and Bonni had to grab Celia’s arm to stop her from enthusiastically calling over the waitress. ‘No, he’s a poker player. There’s a tournament at the Bellagio.’
Both women visibly deflated. Ava said, ‘That’s not a real job, is it?’
Celia agreed. ‘And what are you supposed to watch?A bunch of men sitting a table trying to be the alpha male and attempting to out-bluff each other?’
Now it was Bonni’s turn to be deflated. She hadn’t realizeduntil now that she had been hoping to convince her friends to check out the tournament. Her body remembered quite nicely how good she and Quinn were together. She hungered for him almost as much as for the bacon and eggs she’d ordered.
Fredi regarded her thoughtfully for a beat then said, ‘You want to go, don’t you?’
‘No, no,’ Bonni said, probably not fooling any of them, ‘This is a girls’ trip.’
Now it was the other three’s turn to silently communicate. Then Celia said, ‘Since we didn’t know when you’d leave your love den, we made our own plans for the morning. Fredi and I are going to hit the casino and Ava is taking a tourof the locations where famous movies were filmed. You totally have time to watch him do his thing.’
She seriously had the best friends ever. ‘Are you guys sure? I don’t want you to think I’m ditching you.’
Celia airily waved her Mimosa in the air. ‘Bitch, please.’
Ava was dreamily staring off into space, probably trying to figure out what their couple name would be, and Fredi just smirked ather. Bonni said, ‘Okay, so I’ll go check out Quinn and his tournament, but I’m also going to book us spa treatments for this afternoon. My treat, of course.’
Fredi said, ‘I’m not going to argue with you. See if you can book a masseuse that gives a “happy ending”.’
Celia bounced in her seat. ‘Yesss, totally. I need a “happy ending” too!’
Ava remarked wistfully, ‘I bet Quinn and Bonni are goingto have a happy ending.’
Bonni looked at Ava, trying to figure out if she was making an innuendo or if she was serious. You could never tell with her friend. Before Celia could say something outrageous, the waitress brought over their food.
‘Oh,thank God. Okay, no more sex talk.’
Ava happily dived into her food while Celia and Fredi shot Bonni looks of betrayal. She didn’t care, though, asshe bit into a crispy strip of bacon. Sometimes a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.
‘Bonni, don’t think you can distract me with tales of a hot masseuse.’ Celia was clearly on a mission.
‘What? I’m not distracting you. We’re going for a massage later, right?
‘Yeah, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to talk more about the sex,’ Celia said, around a mouth loaded with scrambled eggs.
‘Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to speak with your mouth full?’ Bonni teased her friend, glad that she was enjoying herself and being silly.
‘Yup, same thing I say to my kids too. But they’re not here. No kids! Yay! So rules don’t apply. Plus, my mom isn’t here.’ She took another big forkful of eggs and her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk’s. ‘Now I really have my mouth full. Only it’snot what I really want to have a mouth full of.’ Celia swallowed and then cackled like a hyena.
Bonni burst out laughing. So did Ava and Fredi.
‘Holy shit, I haven’t heard that laugh in years!’ Fredi said between giggles.
‘Celia, you know that laugh is enough to twist us inside out. Good God, I love your crazy old laugh.’ Bonni was crying, she laughed so hard, and had to hold her stomach.
They had just begun to calm down when Ava did her infamous snort, which sent them all once again into peals of laughter.
‘This is going to be one great trip,’ Bonni said.
‘For sure.’ Fredi took a deep breath before stirring her fruit salad, looking for the choicest bits of melon.
‘I’mso glad we are doing this,’ Ava agreed, cutting her pancakes into four quadrants, her fork and knife makinglittle clicking noises against the plate.
‘Oh, hang on. My phone’s ringing.’ Celia stood up and pulled her cell from the back pocket of her jeans.
She let out a cry of delight and held it up to show her friends. ‘It’s my kids. They’re calling me!’ A huge smile lit up her face. Gone was the wild party woman and in her place was a mom. A mom who loved and missed her kids.
