50 Shades of Blue
Only a few more hours and then I'll be on the trip of my life. I thought to myself, checking my watch for the 20th time that evening. Friday evening at the hospital wasn't exactly the slowest day by any means, but I still somehow managed to check the time everywhere I went. Kind of hard to miss when there are clocks in every patient's room. I was going to Vegas. I had all of my paid time off saved up for this little excursion, and tomorrow morning, I would be heading to the airport, out to the desert.
Finally, at 9pm, it was time for me to do my last rounds for the night and head home. Everything was all packed up and ready to go so all I had to do in the morning was brush my teeth and I'd be off. When I arrived home, my dog, Bea, ran to the door to greet me. I set my bag down on the floor and bent down to greet her. This was a nightly routine for us and I was truly going to miss her in the next coming week. Ella, my best friend came out to greet me. "Hey Rylinn." Ella said to me, a wide smile spread across her face. "Hey Ella." I replied, bending down and picking up my bag and placing it on the hook, along with my coat. Ella didn't live with me but she was here more than her own house. You see, when I had first started my job at the hospital, Bea would tear up everything in reach and since there was no one here to stop her, I'd come home to the house looking like a tornado had hit and find little Bea, sitting there with wide eyes, tail wagging, like nothing had gone wrong. One day, I had finally had enough and called up Ella to see if she would come over and puppy sit. Of course I offered her hourly pay and before I could hang up the phone she was over.
Ella and I said our goodbyes and I cooked up something quick in the microwave and had a quick cigarette I headed off to bed. I needed to be up pretty early and no matter how much I wanted to catch up on my reading a little, I had to be in bed.
After a fitful night of sleep, it was 5am already and I had to get moving. I threw on some clothes, checked my bags one more time and with one last look in the mirror, I headed downstairs. There, was Bea, sleeping on her usual spot on the couch. Her head perked up as I walked towards her and she slowly lifted her head. Her tail wagged, though half heartedly. I had the feeling she knew that I was going away and she wasn't too happy about it. "Don't worry girl, I'll be back before you know it." I smiled, giving her a good scratch behind her ears.
The trip to the airport was no easy ordeal. Traffic was backed up a few miles from the entrance. I kept glancing at the clock every few minutes, scared to death to miss my flight. Just as I was finishing my 5th cigarette, I pulled into the gate and I sped to a spot as fast as I could. I quickly walked to my loading gate as fast as I could and swung my baggage on the conveyor. The flight wouldn't be more than a few hours and my only carry on was my phone.
As I sat down in my designated seat, I sent Ella a quick text thanking her again for watching over my house and my baby girl. I pulled on the in flight headphones and looked out the window, letting my mind wander, my stomach flip flopping over the idea of being in Vegas partying all day and night, like I've needed for so long. Or maybe that was just the lift off.
Upon arriving at my destination, shivers ran up my spine. I knew I needed to check into my hotel as soon as I got off the plane but my mind started racing at all of the possibilities of things to do. I could go to a casino, blow a few bucks. Or maybe I could go to one of their famous clubs. No, clubs could wait for later in the night. The atmosphere is better when it's dark outside anyway. I thought about the show Pawn Stars and how their pawn shop was supposed to be in Vegas and chuckled to myself. Wouldn't that be something, checking out a place I religiously watched on tv.
I checked into the hotel, and upon opening the door, saw the most magical thing I had ever seen. Okay, well almost ever. The bed was possibly the most magical thing I had ever seen at least. I set my bag down by one of the tables in the room and let myself flop face first down onto the bed. Just as I had thought, absolutely magical. I got up and looked around again. There was a sliding glass door that lead out onto a balcony. I slid it open and stared out into the city. When the sun went down and all the lights came on, it was definately going to be a beautiful sight.
I walked through the rest of the hotel room, checking out the huge bath tub that had jets and wound back up outside. I light a cigarette and sat down on one of the patio chairs, opening up Google and looking for something to do with the rest of my afternoon. There were plenty of things to do by the look of it. Restaurants, dinner shows, things like that. Things that you should really have a partner for. I ashed my cigarette, feeling that longing feeling I always get when I see two couples out on dates.
I put my cigarette out and decided it would be as good a time as any to unpack. Forget whatever restaurants and ballets, were going on, I bet there's HBO. I flipped on the tv and a flashy commercial caught my eye. It must have been on the info channel because it was talking about a club just a few streets from where I was staying. The walls were purple, the lights were blue, and there were even a few waterfalls. The more I watched the commercial, the more I wanted to go. So as I set my unmentionalbles in a drawer, I decided that going to club Aqua was how I was going to spend my evening.