Money Shot (2 page)

“Oh just try them,” Kimber urged. “My feet have gotten bigger since high school.”

She was right. The shoes slipped on—just barely. They were tight and pinched Jodie’s toes, but the heels made her legs look even longer under the short skirt.

“Perfect,” Lauren exclaimed, clapping her hands in delight. “Now let’s go win some money!”

“Are you sure you’re okay with me wearing this dress?” Jodie asked, lifting the tag under the arm. “It’s… uh… not cheap.”

“Are you going to run away in it?” Lauren wrinkled her nose and laughed, unhooking the tag and putting it into the bag.

Jodie couldn’t remember much about Kimber’s college friend, but she was far easier to chat with than the other girls, who talked about country club memberships, nannies, and husbands who worked eighty hours a week. Lauren had mentioned a husband and a little girl—and clearly she had enough money to buy a fifteen hundred dollar dress—but she seemed less pretentious than the others.

“Well… no,” Jodie admitted, grabbing her jeans and t-shirt off the sink. “I promise I’ll give it back to you.”

“Good deal.” Lauren winked at Kimber, linking her arm through hers, and then doing the same with Jodie. “Now let’s get drunk and go gambling, shall we?”

They made a quick stop at the hotel room, dropping off their bags and purses, taking only what they needed in little clutches. Jodie didn’t have one of those either—she hadn’t realized how high-end things were going to be on this trip—so Lauren loaned her that too. She put her driver’s license, her one credit card, her iPhone, some lipstick and, at the last minute, a picture of her and Jason from her wallet, taken at the zoo three years ago next to the gorilla cage, into the sparkly little clutch.

He sure made a monkey out of me,
Jodie thought as the elevator took them down to the main floor. The women wandered around the casino, drawing quite a bit of male attention as they moved from the slot machines—Lauren apparently loved the slots and didn’t want to be dragged away—to roulette to blackjack. Jodie didn’t bet—she didn’t have enough money—but she did drink, since those were complimentary. She could understand why, as the night wore on, that they gave drinks away for free. The more drunk people were, the freer they were with everything, including their cash.

The girls had taken over one entire blackjack table. Jodie stood off to the side, inwardly bemoaning her decision to wear Kimber’s too-small shoes and drinking her fourth margarita of the night. She wasn’t much of a drinker anymore and she was well on her way to getting drunk and would probably be hung over the next day. But if it made her forget Jason—and the texts he kept sending, making her little purse vibrate—she was all for it.

“Come with me to the bathroom.” Lauren slid off her stool, nudging Jodie with her hip as she passed. Jodie put her empty drink on the tray of one of the waitresses passing by, following. After all those margaritas, she had to pee anyway.

“So you went to high school with Kimber?” Lauren made conversation as they weaved their way around tables toward the bathroom. Vegas was loud, Jodie had discovered, day and night, the sound of slot machines and roulette wheels going at all hours.

“Yeah.” Jodie pushed open the ladies’ room door. “You went to college with her, didn’t you? Bob Jones?”

Kimber’s parents had insisted she attend a good, Christian school. Jodie wondered what they’d say if they knew their daughter was dressed like a prostitute, drinking and gambling in Vegas a few weeks before her wedding.

“Worst four years of my life.” Lauren went into one of the stalls but she didn’t stop talking. “At least I met my husband there, so I guess it was good for something.”

“What does he do?” Jodie felt weird, keeping up the conversation, but it felt weirder to stop. She peed, grateful she didn’t have nylons to deal with, and the dress was so short, it came up easily enough.

“He’s an engineer.” Lauren’s toilet flushed in the next stall.

Well, that explained the fifteen hundred dollar dress, Jodie thought, standing to pull up her panties. The toilet flushed automatically behind her as she grabbed her clutch off the ledge.

“What about you?” Jodie inquired, going out to wash her hands at the sink beside Lauren.

“I’m a nurse.” Lauren went and put her hands under the air dryer. “Was a nurse. I quit after I had my daughter though. Do you have kids?”

“No.” Jodie ignored the stab of pain at the thought. She and Jason were supposed to get married, supposed to have kids. It should have been part of her immediate future and, instead, it was just a faraway dream. “Not even married.”

“But aren’t you engaged?” Lauren raised her eyebrows as Jodie shook off her hands in the sink and went over to use the other air dryer. “I thought Kimber said you were planning a wedding?”

“I was.” Jodie didn’t meet her eyes, rubbing her hands together under the warm air. “I found out just before I left for this trip that he’s been cheating on me. For the past six months.”

“Oh no.” Lauren’s eyes widened in horror. “No wonder you’ve been so…”

Her voice trailed off and Jodie gave a short little laugh. Apparently her bitchiness had been obvious.

“I didn’t want to tell Kimber and ruin her bachelorette party, but I know I haven’t been much fun.” Jodie reached for her little purse, sitting on top of the hand dryer, and felt her phone vibrate. She opened it and saw Jason’s name on the front of her smartphone. “Jason again. He’s been texting me every hour how sorry he is.”

“Well… maybe he is?” Lauren offered.

“He hasn’t stopped talking to her on Facebook.” Jodie made a face, closing her clutch. “I have his password but he doesn’t know.”

“Ah.” Lauren glanced up as a woman in a very short-skirted uniform—one of the waitresses—came into the bathroom. “So what are you going to do?”

“Get drunk and try to forget about him.” Jodie headed for the door.

“That’s a good plan for now,” Lauren agreed, following her out.

The casino’s cacophony of noise and lights invaded Jodie’s senses as she came out of the bathroom. What she really wanted to do was go back to her room and sleep. The alcohol had made her tired and dealing with Jason every hour, along with trying to keep her secret from Kimber, was exhausting.

“Hey, please don’t tell Kimber,” Jodie said as they weaved their way through the tables.

“Oh I won’t.” Lauren jogged left, pointing. “Come on, let’s get one of those Long Island Iced Teas. They’ll give you a nice buzz.”

“That’s okay, I’m already buzzed.” Jodie followed her anyway, halting at the bar when Lauren stopped to slide up onto a stool. “Besides, the margaritas are free.”

“Oh, I’m paying.” Lauren smiled at the bartender as she ordered two Long Island Iced Teas, handing him over her credit card when he put them down on coasters in front of them.

“So what do you do?” Lauren asked, sipping her drink through a straw.

“I’m an editor.” Jodie played with the little umbrella, ignoring the buzzing from her clutch sitting on the bar. She couldn’t believe he was still texting her. Glancing around the casino, she wondered what Jason would think of Vegas—neither of them had ever been—and kicked herself for thinking it.

Stop thinking about him!

Might as well ask herself to stop breathing.

Her gaze skipped over the slot machines, past the big roulette wheel, coming back to rest on Lauren, who was almost done with her drink. Jodie had barely started. She sipped through the long straw, people-watching. There was a young couple at the end of the bar that made her think of Jason. She ignored them. There was a guy in a suit sitting alone just a few stools from her on his cell phone.

“Oh yeah? Freelance?” Lauren asked.

“No, for Simon & Schuster.” Jodie watched the guy pocket his cell phone, calling the bartender over with a snap of his fingers.

“Wow, really?” Lauren perked up, clutching Jodie’s arm. “Oh my God, I bet you hear this a lot but… would you read my book?”

“You write?”
Ugh, of course she does.
And here Jodie had thought Lauren actually liked her.

“I used to write in college. But then, you know, school. And the wedding. And then the baby.” Lauren gave a nervous laugh. “But now that my daughter’s a little older, I picked it back up again.”

“What genre?” she asked, watching the bartender deliver a martini to the guy two stools down. She glanced at Mr. Martini, trying not to be obvious. He had answered his phone again, giving low, one-word answers.
Yes. No. Two weeks.
He had turned slightly toward them and he caught her eye, raising an eyebrow when he saw her looking at him. Jodie flushed, sipping her drink.

“Young adult,” Lauren told her.

Oh right, they’d been talking about books.

“I can take a look,” Jodie offered. She didn’t really want to, but she felt kind of backed into a corner.

“You don’t have to.”

“It’s the least I can do for someone who loaned me a fifteen hundred dollar dress.” Jodie smoothed her skirt self-consciously, somehow feeling Mr. Martini watching her. She glanced over and found her intuition had been correct. He was still on the phone but his gaze was definitely pointed in their direction.

Lauren laughed. “My husband is going to kill me for buying it. We don’t make the kind of money they do.”

“Yeah, neither do we…” She swallowed, correcting herself. “I mean, neither do I.”

“I just wanted to fit in.” Lauren shrugged. “But they’re kind of snobby aren’t they?”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I love Kimber. She’s been my best friend forever. But…”

Lauren nodded. “Yeah, we’ve kind of grown apart too.”

The little clutch Jodie had borrowed vibrated on the bar. Jodie grimaced, reaching for it, knowing it was him. Of course it was.

“I’m going to throw this phone in the garbage, I swear to God,” she muttered, seeing Jason’s text on the screen. More apologies, as if he could make up for in volume what he lacked in loyalty.

“Want me to text him back and tell him he’s a giant dick?” Lauren glanced over her shoulder at the phone. “You look so awesome, you should take a selfie and send it to him.”

“Ha. No.” Jodie opened the clutch again, ready to drop the phone in, but Lauren had grabbed it from her hands.

“Yes! Show him what a great time you’re having!” Lauren had already opened the camera. “Hey! I have an idea!”

“What are you doing?” Jodie gaped as Lauren motioned to Mr. Martini, waving him over.

“Hey! You!” Lauren smiled and waggled her fingers at him. “Can you do us a favor?”

Jodie got her first full-on view of the man and nearly fell out of her chair. She’d never had a reaction like it before. Her heart lurched in her chest, her mouth went dry, her hands got clammy and she was pretty sure her nipples got instantly hard—but she didn’t want to look down and call attention to them by checking.

She’d never seen such a beautiful man in all her life, outside of a magazine.

“Can I help you?” His voice was smooth, like velvet, as he approached.

Jodie thought her reaction couldn’t get more embarrassing, until he got closer and she caught a whiff of his cologne. Or something. Whatever it was, he smelled all-man. She felt like that cartoon she-wolf with her eyes popping out of her head and jaw dropped, and turned back to her drink for something else to do with her mouth.

“Hi, listen…” Lauren smiled, cocking her head at him. “Wow, you’re cute. You’ll do. We just need a teensy weensy little favor.”

“Lauren,” she warned, holding her hand out for her phone. Jason had texted
again
. She could see his name on the screen.