Ephram was running around his room packing and talking on the phone.
"Yes, Mrs. Rice, just call my cell phone if you need me. I'm going to go out of town over night and will be back in plenty of time to pick up Jake tomorrow afternoon." Ephram listens. "Oh, no, Mrs. Rice. I only get Jake on the weekends and I already have plans for us to do something on Sunday before he goes back to his mom's, but thanks anyway." Ephram listens again. "Thanks again for letting Jake spend the night, I know Jake was really excited. See you tomorrow. Thanks. Bye." Ephram hangs up the phone and throws it on the bed and goes to grab his toiletries from the bathroom. The phone rings again. He races back to the bed and picks up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Are you on crack?" Mindy yelled into the phone.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. What do you think you're doing?"
"Well, I'm packing right now."
"Quit sidestepping, Ephram. Madison called me to see what I thought about her going out of town with you."
"And?"
"I mean, the custody papers haven't even been finalized yet."
"I know."
"Why did you ask her?"
"Well, she asked me to go out for drinks after work and I told her that I already had plans and then I asked her if she wanted to go with me. Simple as that."
"What were your intentions behind this over night excursion to Vegas?"
"Let's see people go to Vegas to gamble."
"People also go to Vegas to get married, Ephram."
"Whoa, whoa, now. None of that. You know I don't have any feelings for Madison. Madison's Jakes's mom and nothing more to me."
"Whatever. You think I was born yesterday. You two fight like an old married couple."
"Look, if you called me to just bicker, I need to finish packing."
"Fine. But just so you know, I told her not to go with you."
"That's fine. I told her it was her decision. Look, I really gotta go."
"Bye."
Ephram hung up the phone with Mindy and changed into some jeans and a golf shirt with some Birkenstocks. He grabbed his bag, grabbed a few water bottles out of the fridge and headed out the door.
Ephram was walking to his SUV when he noticed Madison sitting in her M-Class. He looked away really fast so Madison wouldn't notice he noticed her sitting there. He threw his bag in the back seat and got into the driver's seat and sat there for a minute. He put the address to the Bellagio into his navigation system and then looked in his rearview mirror to see Madison still sitting in her car. He got out of his car.
Madison saw Ephram get out of his car and was walking toward her. She got out of the car to meet him.
"Still contemplating?"
"Yeah."
"Look, it's okay. You don't have to go."
"But I want to go."
"No, you don't. You would be worrying about Jake the entire time and not enjoy yourself and that's understandable."
Madison sighed when she heard Ephram say what she was thinking.
"Go home and enjoy having the weekend to yourself. I'll drop Jake off on Sunday."
Ephram smiled and turned and got in his car to leave, leaving Madison standing there. He looked in his rearview mirror and saw her standing there. He felt guilty for leaving her for some reason. He had no reason to feel guilty. He was doing nothing wrong or was he? He thought about other options for the weekend. He got out of the car and walked toward Madison who was about to drive off.
Madison let her window down, "Yes?"
"How about we go to this casino I heard about in Palm Springs? It's a little over an hour away and we can come back when we get tired or lose all of our money. No spending the night." Ephram said.
"No, you really want to go to Vegas, so go." Madison started feeling guilty for letting Ephram change his plans to suit her.
Ephram opened her car door, "Let's go. Come on. I'm not going to feel guilty for leaving you here."
"You shouldn't feel guilty. You've done nothing wrong."
"Don't remind me, but I saw you in my mirror and I got an overwhelming feeling of guilty run through me, so get out of the car and let's go."
"Ephram..."
"No, Ephrams. No buts. Let's go. You're going with me. We'll be back before dawn."
Madison smiled at Ephram and grabbed her purse and got out of her car. Ephram went and opened the passenger side door of his car for Madison to get in. Madison smiled as she passed Ephram and got into the car. Ephram closed the door once she was in and ran around the car to get in. When he got in Madison said, "Thank you."
"For what?"
"Making me get out. I needed to get out."
"Yeah, well, no need to thank me. This is a purely selfish act on my part. I have been wanting to go gambling ever since I got out here."
Ephram and Madison drove off toward Palm Springs. They got to the Spa Resort Casino two hours later after Ephram got lost a few times even with the navigation system.
Thanks for all of the reviews. I just hope that Britchick, kohlbits,Sporty, whoopiez, and all the other fic writers update soon.
