We had Indeed won five thousand dollars. The lady at the game handed us enough chips to cover the top of our bed at home, adding up all to five thousand. When I asked her where to cash these out I watched her pull a breaker under the table.
"Up front to the right," she told me, eyes looking defeated despite her friendly smilie. I turned away to leave knowing full well we were about to have company. Casinos never actually want people to walk away with money, so they do the best they can to get you to stay and loose it all again. Our company meet us halfway to the cash out counter, clad in a tight pencil skirt and blazer, she looked like she belonged in an office instead of a casino.
"Congratulations on your win, mr, " she trailed off, unsure of our last name.
"Thank you," he pulled me with him as he tried to walk around her, he tried In vain to just ignore her, she refused to allow it.
"To congratulate you, the hotel portion of our business would like to offer you a room for the night on us. It's around one in the morning, I know there are no clocks on the floor," her entire face looked fake right down to her impossibly white teeth. We were irking her, or maybe just worrying her she'd loose her job if we didn't stay, I couldn't decide which. I looked at Dei, pulling on his arm.
"Do you wanna stay?" He asked, leaning in so I could hear him over the other patrons. I nodded to avoid confusion. A free hotel room was a free hotel room. She took us to a staff elevator and up to floor fifty, pulling out a pair of swipe cards, she stopped in front of room one thousand and two.
"Please enjoy your stay," the woman was all but forgotten as we entered the room and flipped on the light. Everything inside was beautiful. The walls were painted a pale yellow color that contrasted with the white ruffled spread on the bed on right wall. A flat screen tv was opposite, a low modern dresser under that. The farthest wall though, was not a wall, from ceiling to floor was one huge window that over looked The Strip. My husband, it felt so strange to say that, turned the light back off as he shut the door, letting the outside neon illuminate the room.
"I think this is the best day of my life," I was ecstatic with heavy eyes, I stifled a yawn as I kicked off my shoes and fought to stay awake as I sat down on the edge of the softest bed I'd ever felt. I litterally sank into it as I lay back.
"I know it's the best day of mine," Dei lay down facing to me, his hair out of his pony tail splayed out behind him. For the first time since I'd put it on I had a second to look at my ring. It was smooth and earth colored, very light in weight but structurally solid. It was simple and plain, poetic in a way few could appreciate. In the center was a clear gem, meant to look like a diamond though it was clearly not, it couldn't even pass for cubic zirconium.
"Did you make this?" I asked.
"Yeah," he responded thumbing over my ring finger and then the ring, then the fake gem "this came out of one of those turn crank things from the grocery store," he laughed, a drowsy look on his face too.
"It's beautiful, I love it," I closed my eyes and snuggled closer to him. I felt him shift and then his weight was was on top of me, when I opened my eyes I could only see his blond hair, his lips on my neck and hands moving down my sides.
"I want to show you how much you mean to me," he whispered. His hands moved lower and lower until I got the idea.
"Okay," I uttered, barely above a whimper. After it was all over, even hours later I was still trembling. I had way too much on my mind besides the wedding and the love we'd just made, no matter how much sense it was making right now. What was the point of even going to sleep now I wondered as I lay on my back. My husband had passed out a while ago but for whatever reason I was still awake. I didn't regret anything that had happened, I know that much, but as I played it over and over in my head I couldn't help but feel bad. My parents hadn't been there, my extended family or friends either but maybe that was a good thing. I wondered if this would have really happened if any of them had been around. I never wanted to go back home, never in a million years. The sun would rise in an hour, and I wasn't going to miss it I decided as I turned my head to right to look out the glass.
"Have you been to sleep yet?"
"No," I responded to the only other person in the room.
"Are you okay?" my husband asked.
"I'm fine." I wouldn't look away from the window, if I looked away, he'd know I was upset.
"No regrets?" He asked. He needed that confirmation for himself I decided.
"No regrets," I agreed. There he was being his sweet, sweet self, working hard to put himself in front of all, and me in front of him.
"It was the sex wasn't it," he sounded like only someone beyond angry with themselves could sound. A self disappointed, hallow tone that made my heart hurt.
"No, it wasn't sex. I've gotta tell you though, that was pretty scary. But no, I'm just thinking about... When we got back from South Carolina, I realized how much I hate it in ohio," I sighed, " and were gonna go running back, catch all hell and who knows after that."
"We have five thousand dollars. We could go almost anywhere," he rolled over so he was facing me. I could almost hear him thinking what to do or say next. He settled for pulling me closer, my hips butting up to his. He tangled his legs between mine, propping himself up on one arm to hold his head in his hand. I wasn't sure when I turned to look at him, but I found myself lost in his ice grey irises.
"We could stay here," I felt like I was asking permission instead of making a statement.
"We could," he nodded. Granted that was gonna take some special kind of crazy to pull that off.
"I don't see why a dashingly, handsome artist and is beautiful, blushing new bride couldn't make it in a city that's all about art and media," I felt like his words had pulled back a curtain, revealing that not only had nothing changed between us, but these hidden stores of hope for us. I rolled my eyes at him. Always so cocky, always so sure of himself. He'd plow though a rock with shear determination if it stood between his stubborn self and something he wanted. One of the reasons I loved him.
"I think you had better just hope I get my period next week," I said with my eyebrows raised. My tone was joking but my words were completely serious. He visibly paled.
"So we put two thousand away, one for us to fall back on, one for uh, accidents," I thought aloud. I dug through the covers to find his free hand to hold in mine. He nodded.
"I should have did something cool, like, for a dress. Or, at least wore something other than capris and a tank top," I told him, stuck back on our wedding. Though planning anything in any way would have defeated the entire purpose of spontaneously eloping. Eloping was not something many people premeditated.
"It was fine the way it was," he scolded as he flopped back down on his back, the mattress so plush he never even bounced. He was right. It was perfect the way it was, I just needed to calm down. Save it for the eventual reception one day.
I realized as a blinked away the blurriness in my eyes that the sun had already rose. My husbands face glowed a calm, pale orange and I swore his golden hair shone like actual gold.
"You wanted to leave just as bad as I did," I made the observation without thinking before I spoke. A sly smilie crossed his face and I knew I had him pegged. That big speech he gave me about responsibility might have meant something before but I think now he was seeing my side of things. We would have been content to lay in that bed forever if the woman from last night wouldn't have barged in fallowed by a maid carrying our breakfast an hour later.
"Good morning," she greeted, "would you like me to arrange for anything as of yet? Perhaps a tour? Though of course activities will not be covered by your stay."
"No thanks, but uh, we do need a few other things though," Dei responded, finding my shirt somewhere at the bottom of the bed and tossing it to me.
I was new to this whole vegas thing, apparently it was perfectly fine to walk in on two naked people and bring them scrambled eggs and mimosas. Not that the mimosas weren't appreciated, but she could have knocked first. I took a decent shower while my husband cashed out our chips and found our car. He paid for another night in paradise and handed our dirty cloths off to a maid to have them washed. I didn't want to know how much this costed. I decided to just let him handle all the money, just like in the past. The lobby had more ATMs than a factory, and I used them to quick deposit two thousand into my almost over drawn bank account.
The next thing we did was go for a walk. We got off the strip but kept to the nicer streets as we searched for an apartment. I hated house hunting. It was hard enough to find something in our price range, in a decent location without using the internet. I was insanely frustrated when I found out how few people would answer their phones. We'd left a few messages and so far no luck. We found a fairly reasonable place over a shop, with a location I liked, not too noisey and that was all fine, but no one was around to let us see the inside and the owner didn't return our call so we could only try again later. I wondered if the phone we'd got from a gas station even had a call back function it was so low tech.
The shop below the apartment had probably been built in the 80s, judging by what we could see through the front window, and by the looks of it empty since then too. As we left to get ourselves some lunch I found myself hoping the apartment had been better kept up.
As we sat down with either half of a sub, the phone rang, and being the one without a mouth full of food I answered.
"Yeah uh, I'm looken' for the guy that called about the studio apartment?" The voice on the other end of the phone sounded raspy, making what I already assumed to be a deep male voice deeper.
"Yes, this is his wife," I responded, "we were wondering about renting it? How much does that cost?"
"It's got a fridge and a stove top, so, seven hundred a month," he returned. I could hear a woman and a kid yelling in the background, I wondered if he was a father. I took the phone from my ear to mouth 'seven hundred' to Dei, who after chewing he reached for the phone.
"Hi there, yeah, I was wondering, oh just a second sweety, I'll be right back," he said, but never moved, he just wanted the man to think he excused himself, "I just got married, and you know how it is, we don't have a lot of money and my wife thinks she might be pregnant," he told him, I felt my face flush, "yes I know that's not your problem, but you've been there right? Right. I can do five hundred."
He paused while the man talked rolling his eyes with an annoyed look on his face.
"No, I can only do five hundred, but I swear on my honor, we will take awesome care of this place," my husband paused again, "right okay, we'll be over in a little while to see it."
He hung up the phone and sat still for a moment.
"When we go look at this house, I want you to tell him you aren't sure if your pregnant, but make it look good," his tone reminded me of last summer, when he was little more to me than a traveling companion and a half asses teacher. He was returning to normal.
Hours later with a new apartment under our control and a cheep bed set being delivered tomorrow, we returned for one last night in paradise at the hotel.
"Is this still fun?" I asked him as I flipped on the tv, looking for a movie.
"It will be," he answered, he lay down next to me and as he got comfortable, I handed him the remote and curled up on the side, resting my head on his chest. He curled his arm around me, hand resting on my neck as he thumbed my cheek.
"You should call your parents, just to tell them your okay," he whispered. I shook my head.
"I don't want them to find us. The note I left just said we were leaving, not where we were going, if they find out where we are, they'll run right out here," I clutched his shirt in one hand and the bed sheets in the other, "maybe in a few days, I don't want them to see us caught in limbo."
"Not to change the subject so suddenly, but can you draw faces from descriptions?" He asked suddenly. I wasn't sure if he was tricking me to get his mind off of it or he was genuinely asking, but it didn't matter. I needed a few seconds to think about it anyway.
It's common knowledge that to paint something, you sort of need to know how to draw it. Paint doesn't just magically float into place, you have to move the brush to construct what you want it too, hence why I drew things out first to avoid guessing and mistakes.
"I've never tried," I told him, not only was it true but I was unsure if I was able too.
"Tomorrow I'd like you to," his voice was getting lower and lower as sleep neared for the both of us. I hummed in response as he shut the tv off. We fell asleep one last time in paradise, knowing tomorrow our own kingdom would start construction.