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“I have to call Benjamin,” she muttered to herself and followed them out of the room. As if reading her thought, Elijah asked:
“Where is my grandson?”
Lucy stiffened. Benjamin was almost never around. He was probably in Paris or off on some expensive trip, living lavishly. She wasn’t against that, definitely not; she also loved living the classy life, but her son’s extravagance was positively flamboyant at times. She’d always told him to tone it down a bit.
“He’s around,” she lied, fiddling with the words in her head.
“Around? And what does that mean?”
Lucy straightened and cleared her throat.
“I spoke to him an hour ago. He had some business to attend to, but he’ll be here soon.”
Elijah narrowed his eyes at her and but then nodded. “Very well…”
Lucy watched the nurse wheel him down the hall, before she took out her phone with a long, audible breath.
“Please pick up…”
Benjamin was slowly sobering up in a penthouse suite in Las Vegas. He lay in bed, the silk sheets soft, and smiled when the lady by his side shifted closer and rested her head on his chest, her brown hair falling over his arm. She lay naked under the sheets and he could feel the warmth of her body pressed against him. He smiled, stroking her hair and taking in the luxury of the suite. $25,000 a night. It did feel like chicken feed. Most times all he had to do was mention the name Radcliff and he’d get the best. He worked hard at his grandfather’s company, so he had not the slightest bit of guilt partying hard as well.
“I’ll tell you something,” the hotel manager had whispered to him the evening he’d checked in. “I have a great suite a movie star actually stayed in just a night ago.”
“A movie star, huh?” he’d said and nodded. “That’s amazing. Can I get something better?”
Life is good,he thought to himself as he stretched his arms.
Suddenly his phone rang. For Christ’s sake. The ringing sent bolts of pain through his head and reminded him of how hungover he was from the previous night’s celebration.
Where is the damn phone?he thought.
The lady beside him moaned softly as he shifted to her side and slid from the bed. Even his legs felt numb. He waved his arms in a bid to steady himself. It felt like he’d just gotten a new pair of legs. The ringing stopped.
“Okay, that’s taken care of,” he said with relief and walked to the window. He could feel the luxury even from the soft carpeting beneath his feet. The window had a great view of the bustling strip below. Few would ever be able to afford this luxury and he liked to think that he’d worked hard enough to get to where he was—with a little help, of course.
The ringing started again, slicing brutally through his moment of zen and tranquility. Frowning, he turned and this time his eyes fell on the phone almost instantly. It’d been on the sideboard nearby the whole time.Could be important, a tiny voice in his head said.
He grabbed his phone and saw the caller ID: Mom.
Oh great, he rolled his eyes, cleared his throat and answered the call.
“Hey, Mom.” He struggled to make his voice sound as normal as possible. He cleared his throat, but it still came out flat and choked.
“Benjamin, where are you?”
Benjamin. His mother usually called him sweetie or Ben, or whatever popped up in her head, but whenever she called him Benjamin it always meant she was in a serious mood. Just the thought of having to deal with an out of control Lucy, especially in the state he was in, brought a new wave of throbbing headaches over him.
“Vegas, Mom.”
“Las Vegas? What in the world are you doing?” she yelled but stopped mid-sentence, taking in deep breaths, obviously trying to calm down.
Benjamin held the phone away from his ear and moved around the room, stopping at a table with an ice bucket on it. The two bottles of champagne cradled in it were empty.
His mother’s voice filtered through the phone as he took out the last surviving ice cube and held it against his forehead, all the while mumbling, “Uh-huh, yeah, uh-huh” irrespective of what his mother said.
“You’re not listening to me, are you?”
“Look, mom, I'm fine. I'm a grown man who can handle himself. So yeah, I'm in Las Vegas for my pal's birthday.”
