Mallory and I had grown up together in California. Neighbors since we were kids, we’d done everything together.California life for kids revolves around swimming and surf, or at least our families did when we weren’t all watching Jupiter play baseball. As we moved into our teens Mallory’s love for the water increased; she was soon competing with the big boys on the big waves, and found herself in the elite leagues before she’d turned sixteen. When I headed to college, she toured the world chasing the surf as well as finding a permanent base in Hawaii, home to some of the biggest waves. But the second I’d told her about Richard she’d been on the next flight out, because she was that awesome.
“Hey, I wouldn’t be anywhere else. Plus as an added bonus I get to annoy Jupiter, which you can never put a price on, oh and I’ve seen my parents which has made me the best daughter they have. A win win all round, I’d say.”
My heart lightened in amusement at the memory of Jupiter and Mallory’s frat house high jinks, almost as much as I enjoyed it ten years ago. “He’s still not forgiven you for switching out his lucky bats with softball ones before his big game.”
She spun round to face me; her mouth aghast. “What? He got me back good! He punched holes in my wetsuit, remember? I was on the board before I realized! It was like wearing a sieve.”
My laughter swiftly turned into full blown, side splitting, tear pouring, cheek aching happiness. With my eyes closed I could very clearly remember the look of horror on both their faces at the moment of discovery, followed by dogged determination to get the other back.
“Oh, God,” I wheezed as I wiped away the tears and blotted my face, “how had I forgotten that?”
The pair of them together had certainly kept my life interesting, up until Jupiter had gotten himself a girlfriend for a few months before leaving home permanently for the Major Leagues. Mallory and I had to make our own way to school after that.
“I dunno, but I haven’t.” She peered out of the window just as we passed the enormous white letters signaling our arrival at LAX, “Oooh we’re here.”
The car slowed to a halt outside the domestic terminal, and before either of us, or the driver, had a chance to get out, two identical screeching blonde whirlwinds – otherwise known as LJ and Ainsley, the McAvoy twins – yanked open the door, and pulled me out into a giant embrace.
“You’re here, thank God.” They graciously released me, only to give me a thorough once over which would have rivalled my mom’s. “How are you?”
I shrugged, before breaking into a grin. “Better now I’m with you three, my favorite people in the world.”
“You know it,” winked LJ, “but this is only the beginning of the best girls’ trip ever.”
“Which starts right now.” Mallory jumped out of the car with the type of smile you only had pre-vacation, and waited by the trunk for the driver to remove our bags. She passed mine to me before hugging the twins.
“Come on ladies, let’s get this show on the road.” She linked arms with me on one side, and Ainsley on the other, marching us through the airport to the check-in desk.
“So how’s Jupe?” Ainsley’s question was way more casual than it needed to be. It was also pointlessly casual because we all knew she had a long, unrequited crush on my brother. She was my brother’s original fan girl.
Mallory rolled her eyes, while I just smirked. “He’s good, same same really.”
While I didn’t care she still carried her torch, I wasn’t about to encourage it. I could quite easily set her up on a date, but seeing as he’d leave her the second the sun rose – or likely before – I didn’t want to put her through the heart ache, or myself through the earache.
She was still daydreaming when we reached the desk,andwhile we handed over our IDs,andas we took our boarding passes. After a not-so-swift journey through security, where I found myself dragging LJ away moments before she begged the very hot security guard for a pat down, we boarded our plane and buckled in.
“God, I can’t wait for a cocktail.” Mallory announced as we touched down on the scorching tarmac at McCarran.
“It’s eleven a.m.?”
She grabbed her bag from the overhead locker, shaking her head as she did. “No, it’s not. We’re in Vegas. Time doesn’t exist here, cocktail hour is a constant.”
As it was, she had to wait until lunchtime before immersing herself in cocktail hour, because that’s how long it took us to get off the plane and into the much needed A/C of the hotel. We’d come from the warmth of California and even though we were in the middle of the desert, it felt way more deserty than it should at the beginning of May; the sweat running down my back from the brief moments we’d been outside was testament to that. As such we took our time walking to the check-in desks across the lobby, enjoying the artificial Arctic level temperature.
“IDs please, ladies.” Asked the clerk as we arrived, and we all reached into our bags handing them over; he began typing our details into his computer, then stopped when he reached my ID card.
“Ah, Ms. Reeves, I didn’t realize that was you.” He looked up at my surprised filled face. Normally of the four of us, Mallory was the one who was recognized and that was usually limited to the vicinity of locations around the beach. He rounded the desk. “Come this way, please. Your check-in is this way, your hostess is expecting you.”
We all followed silently, Mallory shooting her eyes over to me in question but I merely shrugged because I didn’t have ananswer. He guided us over to a discreet entrance by a separate set of elevator banks away from the throughfare of the lobby, and manned by a very beautiful, perfectly polished woman, her cherry red smile greeting us warmly.
“Hello ladies, welcome.” She took our ID cards from the clerk. “If you’ll leave your bags here, we’ll arrange for them to be brought up. Follow me, please,”
Her fingers grazed a hidden button on the wall opening the elevator doors, and we stepped in. Mallory was still sending me her silent questions via her raised eyebrows, until the elevator stopped and the doors opened to a room so high up that all we could see out of the enormous floor to ceiling windows, which ran the length of the back wall, were the mountains of Nevada.
All four of us walked to the middle of the suite; LJ and Ainsley were softly gasping at the more than impressive view, while Mallory and I were slowly spinning, taking in our surroundings. The room was decked with everything we could possibly need and things we hadn’t even thought we might need including our own poker table, which would be great if I knew how to play. Giant couch, giant TV, giant doors through to giant bedrooms, giant floral arrangements… everything was giant. Colossal even. Excessive.
Vegas, the city of excess.
Then I noticed two oversized bottles of champagne sitting in an ice bucket on a marble table by the entrance hall. An envelope with my name on it rested on the side.
