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Did I take it? I’d agreed to an interview for the hell of it, just because it seemed stupid to say no, but now that I was confronted with the actual opportunity, I wasn’t sure I could say yes. Everything was a little too strange, right?
Plus, the more she talked about the job, the more certain I was that I couldn’t work at Dazzlers at the same time. In other words, if I accepted the position, I’d have to quit — and by extension, I wouldn’t get to see Tate as much. Was that a childish thing of me think? Maybe. But romance is childish and giddy and freewheeling.
My phone beeped and I looked down.
Speak of the devil — it was Tate calling.
I sent it to voicemail, not wanting to be rude to Tulsie.
“So?” she asked. “Would you like the job?”
I debated it for a moment, then came up with a short-term solution.
“Could I shadow the position tonight, see what it’s all about?”
She nodded. “Yes, that sounds like a great idea. You’d be co-managers with Henrietta, so I’ll have you follow her around.”
Huh. So they were adding a position, not just filling a vacant one. Strange, but I guess not extraordinary. Casinos gets busy and need more people, that was normal.
I shook off my doubts and walked with Tulsie to the RES floor. My phone dinged again — Tate. What could he possibly want? I powered down the phone. Answering it would be pretty unprofessional. I tucked it away in my coat.
Tulsie introduced me to Henrietta, a middle-aged woman who looked like she’d spent her whole life working in casinos. That’ll be me in a few years, I thought with dismay. She wasn’t unattractive — far from it — just… worn, as though the years sat heavy.
But she was all business, and I appreciated that. Tulsie left us to it, and Henrietta began to show me around the shift, explaining how operations worked, what the girls were like, so on and so forth. We’d never be good friends like Sonia and I were, but maybe she could be a strong adult role model for me, a kind of mentor.
The hours passed smoothly, save for the fact that I was so tired I felt like my bones had had their marrow wrung out. By the end, I was hobbling with exhaustion, and though I tried my best to hide the fact, Henrietta caught on as my shift was winding down.
“Late night?” she asked in the dry tone of a woman who’d seen it all.
“The latest.”
She nodded. “I had a few of those when I was your age. Tell you what, you’ve seen everything you needed to see ‘round here. Frankly, the job isn’t very hard, and it doesn’t require two people, but I’ll be happy to split the workload and keep my pay the same. It’s a good deal, and I hope you take it.”
She stuck out her hand, and I shook it gratefully.
“Thanks for showing me the ropes,” I replied. “I’ll definitely think about it.”
Without another word — it seemed like talking wasn’t her forte — Henrietta turned and went back to the employee lounge, and I was left alone in RES, pondering my choices.
Well, at least this day is finally over, I thought with relief.
As I walked out the front door, I pulled my phone from my pocket and turned it on.
Suddenly, I was hit with a deluge of notifications, so many that it looked like a waterfall down the front of my home screen. What the fuck?!
A number of them were texts, calls, and voicemails from Tate. I was about to respond immediately, out of concern that perhaps he’d been in an accident and I was the first person he’d thought to call, which would be sad, but I suppose possible since he had no living family. That’s when I caught a glimpse of a breaking news alert with the word DAZZLERS in the headline.
That was weird. Casinos never made news in Vegas, even when people found out they were housing puppy mills or some shit.
I swiped right on the notification and opened it up.
“OH MY GOD.”
The words fell out of my mouth before I realized they belonged to me. People on the sidewalk gave me some backwards glances, but I didn’t give a fuck.
Because there was a full-page spread, TMZ-style, detailing Dazzlers’ most sordid activities. The further down I read, the more I felt like throwing my phone into the nearest multi-colored fountain.
Here are some of the highlights:
Dazzlers has been underpaying its workers for over a decade, in many cases skirting under the minimum wage by hiring undocumented immigrants and other people in precarious living situations who have no choice but to take what money they can.
The casino sold drugs to patrons, including opioids that was rumored to be involved in the death of one particular YouTube celebrity.
