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1
Jessica looked out the window as the plane started to descend. The gigantic green and widespread mounds of the Alps came into view, which took her breath away. The night skyline was lit up from all the lights of the beautiful city. If Jessica looked closely, she could make out the Hotel De Paris and Monte Carlo. Her stomach started jumping with anticipation and excitement. It was as if this one image could erase all the pain and heartache she had experienced earlier that day, and it almost worked until she turned to her side to share her excitement with Spencer and remembered that he wasn’t sitting next to her.
Her mind wandered back to that morning—a day she was hoping she could just forget. She felt so humiliated. Spencer was supposed to be her boyfriend, her best friend, and her everything. She thought she knew him like the back of her hand, but you never really know anyone…and that was what deeply hurt her. Today was supposed to be her wedding day, and instead of it being the best day of her life, it was actually the worst. She had stood up at the altar, in her curve-fitting white Vera Wang wedding dress, alone. Just like she was going on her honeymoon alone. Both events had taken months to prepare because it was something they had always dreamed of and wanted, except it wasn’t what Spencer wanted anymore, but instead of telling her that he had concerns about the wedding, he just left her humiliated in front of all of their family and friends.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Cote d’Azur Airport. Local time is 5 pm, and the temperature is 67 degrees. For your safety and comfort, please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the Captain turns off the Fasten Seat Belt sign. This will indicate that we have parked at the gate and that it is safe for you to move out of the cabin. At this time, you may use your cellular phones once the Fasten Seat belt sign has been turned off.
Please check around your seat for any personal belongings you may have brought on board with you and please use caution when opening the overhead bins, as heavy articles may have shifted around during the flight. If you require deplaning assistance, please remain in your seat until all other passengers have deplaned. One of our crew members will then be pleased to assist you.
On behalf of Air France Airlines and the entire crew, I’d like to thank you for joining us on this trip, and we are looking forward to seeing you on board again in the near future. Have a great evening,” the flight attendant said over the intercom.
Jessica changed her phone setting from airplane mode to regular mode. She had 27 missed calls and about 50 text messages—all from her friends and family and Spencer’s family, wondering where she was and if she was okay. She hadn’t told anyone where she was going. Once the realization had hit her that Spencer was not coming, she fled the church before anyone could pull her aside and try to comfort her. What could they have said that would make her feel better? Nothing. She was thankful that the limo was still out front. She had jumped inside and had the driver take her back home, where she changed out of her wedding dress and picked up her packed suitcase. Before she knew it, she was on her way to Newark Airport and out of the country. She closed her phone without replying to any of her messages and dumped it back in her purse. She would answer all of them later because all she wanted to do right now was get to her hotel and relax. His parents had booked them a suite at the famous Hotel De Paris, and at this very moment, she wanted nothing more than to feel like royalty since her fairytale wedding was pulled out right from underneath her. She really needed to stop thinking about that.
Getting out of her seat, she grabbed her bag from the overhead bin and made her way to the front of the plane.
“If you’re going to Monaco, there is a shuttle bus waiting in front of the airport that will take you across the bridge from Nice,” the flight attendant at the airplane door informed her.
“Thank you,” Jessica replied. This was the first time she had walked through an airport on foreign soil, and everything was written in French. The feeling alone made her sigh with relief. She was across the world from home, where she wouldn’t run into anyone she knew and have to explain or talk about what happened this morning. For that, she was very thankful.
Following the group of people who were on the plane with her, Jessica found the exit and the bus that would take her across the 118 highway and onto a new adventure.
2
Matthew Miller stood inside the lobby of the Hotel De Paris and took in the sight that was right in front of him. It never ceased to amaze him how incredible this place was. After living in Las Vegas for the past three years, he thought that he could never be impressed by any casino again, but he was wrong. This was the most famous casino in the world, and nothing could compare to it. He respected its old-world feel and the fact that it was only open for certain hours a day. The people of Monaco really understood that there was more to life than gambling and left time alone during the day for people to relax and recuperate or to find a way to make more money to drop at the casino.
“Okay, Matt,” he said, pulling himself out of his daydream. He could stand here for hours if he let himself. It was so beautiful here. However, he was a professional and needed to remind himself that he was there for business, not vacation. Moving his legs into motion, he made his way to the reception desk. There was a slim blonde woman standing behind the desk with a smile painted on her face.
“Good evening, and welcome to the Hotel De Paris,” she said. “Are you here to check in?”
Matt put his overnight bag on the ground beside him and fumbled in his pocket for his wallet. “Yes, I am,” he cleared his throat. “Reservation under the name of Matthew Miller.”
The clerk checked her reservations and smiled when she must have found it. “Ah, here it is. I see that you have a King suite reserved for two nights.”
“Is there a fee if I need to check out early? He asked her.
“Not for our high rollers. We here at Hotel De Paris understand that business calls at inopportune times.”
“Great, thanks,” he finished checking in and walked the long blue and white marbled hallway to the elevator that took him to the 10thfloor and the same room he booked every time he stayed here. He held the key over the door until it turned green, then turned the handle. The door opened up into a bright living room area adorned with two cream-colored couches, a matching room rug, and a coffee table. There was a tiered plate on the table covered with assorted snacks an ice bucket, and a plate with water bottles and ginger ale that filled it. Big wide cream-colored curtains opened up the view of the sky outside his balcony. A big screen TV was attached to the wall opposite the bedroom door.
Matt bypassed the living room without so much as a second glance and walked right into the bedroom, throwing his overnight bag on the bed. He loved this room because of the view outside the balcony. It was one of the few rooms in the entire hotel that had two balconies. The first time he booked a room at the Hotel de Paris with his ex-girlfriend, the hotel had bumped them into this suite because they had problems with their first room. He remembered waking up in bed, sunshine streaming on his face, to half of the city bathed in light. It was breathtaking and one of the pleasures he still allowed himself to have, even if he was still on business, which reminded him that he had a poker game in about an hour and needed to mentally prepare himself for a good night of fun. Matt had never imagined that he would enjoy playing poker this much, especially poker tournaments. When he was little, he had always wanted to do something exciting with his life, but he never knew it would be this glamorous. Being born to wealthy parents has its advantage, but it could be pretty boring. There was only so much you could spend your money on. Playing professional poker was a risk and something that made his blood run hot every time he played and won—and boy, did he play to win.
Poker was his game. He learned how to play from his grandfather, and after winning the first game, he got a rush every time he played. It was easy to learn other people’s tells. Not too many knew that they did the same thing when they were trying to bluff or not share if they had a good hand or not. His friends always told him that he would make a killing in Las Vegas and that was exactly what he did on the night of his 21stbirthday. His buddies surprised him and took him on an impromptu trip to Vegas, where they rang in his birthday at the blackjack tables. After winning a few hands there, he wandered to the poker tables and beat everyone at his table. They played for six hours and came to find out that one of the other players was a professional player that was on the World Tour of Poker, who was just playing a friendly game to keep his mind fresh.
Matt remembered that day like it was yesterday. James, the other player’s name, came up to him and told him that he was more than impressed with how Matt played and wondered if he was interested in playing poker professionally. Matt clearly thought the man was joking and laughed at him. Once he figured out that James was not joking, he became curious and wanted to hear more. It gave him something to do with his time when he wasn’t working for his father’s multi-billion company. For the next three months, he followed James on tour to learn how to play on a professional level, and by the end of the tour, he became hooked. The rest was history. Being the owner’s son gave him extreme advantages. He could take time off from work whenever he wanted to spend time on his “little hobby”, as his father called it, but at least it was better than getting in trouble with the law or getting hammered every night to relieve himself of the boredom that followed him around like a shadow.
Opening up his overnight bag, he grabbed what he had come to call his lucky shirt out of the bag and changed into it. It was looser than the one he had been wearing, and he wouldn’t show sweat stains if he was getting too hot or nervous. Tonight, he would be playing in the Room of Stars, which is the very room that holds the PokerStars Championship from April to May. It was the only poker room on the floor. You could play blackjack elsewhere on the floor but not poker. It was a room where they could play in silence, away from the crowds at the other card tables and old-fashioned slot machines. He did like to play on slot machines when he could because the feel of putting in quarters or coins and pulling the lever was so much more fun than just hitting buttons.
TheSalle des Etoiles(Room of Stars) was an outside room that looked like an open football stadium. There were windows all around the sides and tables throughout. The top of the room is open to enjoy the good weather and to see the stars at night. It is only closed during the cold and rainy seasons. Matt decided to walk through the casino floor and wait for his scheduled game. He found a slot machine and decided to try his luck out on the slots while he waited.
3
The door to Jessica’s room opened up to her honeymoon suite, decorated just for that occasion. She should have called ahead to let the hotel know she was coming alone, but she didn’t want to have to deal with it. Now, she wished she had. The king-size bed was decorated with rose petals, and there was a bottle of champagne chilling in an ice bucket on the side of the bed. Frustrated with herself, she stormed into the room, slammed the door behind her, and dropped her bag on the floor. Grabbing the trash can, she started throwing the rose petals in there by the handful until the bed looked bare for the most part. She could still see the indentation of the heart and threw the covers down to keep herself from crying, but it was too late. The tears started to flow down her face, and she needed to find a way to stop them. Grabbing the champagne out of the bucket, she pulled the top, flew on the bed, and gulped the bottle down until there was nothing but bubbles left.
“Well, that’s not enough,” she said as she turned the bottle upside down and let the last drops fall into her mouth. She could order more from room service or raid the mini bar and just charge it to her room. “Why not!” she exclaimed. She had never splurged like that before, but it was her honeymoon and she didn’t have the groom to share this experience with her. She opened the mini bar and took a couple of bottles, then sat on the bed with them. Downing them one by one, she started to feel a little buzz going on, which took some of the edge off. However, she knew that if she stayed here all night, all she was going to do was drink her sorrows away into oblivion. She knew that wouldn’t be good for her at all. She needed to get out of this room and do something fun; be around other people.
Picking herself up from the bed, she threw all of the empty bottles in the trash can, on top of the discarded rose petals, and grabbed her clutch. She decided she could continue drinking on the casino floor. Making sure she had her room key, ID, and credit cards, she made her way to the elevator and down to the hotel lobby. The lobby was bustling with people, and even though she didn’t know any of them, it still made her feel better that she wasn’t alone anymore. Relying on her high school French, she used it to read the signs that directed her to the casino floor.
When she walked into the casino, Jessica felt like she had walked back in time. The room looked like a palace ballroom with a diamond chandelier right in the middle of the room and smaller ones throughout the room. She was introduced to a big green roulette table as soon as she walked through the door, and there were tables for games as far as her eye could see. There were chairs in front of each side of the roulette table, which was a little bit more civilized than what she was used to in Vegas. She was used to people congregating around the tables while someone was throwing dice as the main entertainer. The casino had high gold marble ceilings with brown casings all around it. There were royal blue fixtures on the high-vaulted ceiling as well. The carpets in the room matched the colors all around her. She felt like a little princess, and she wished Spencer was here to share this experience with her. He would have loved the royal feel of this room, the hotel, and even the town. He would have immediately wanted to walk around and check out the sites. She didn’t know if she could do that by herself. She would think about that tomorrow, as she just needed to get through tonight and anything else she could deal with as it came.
