“Do you want to cash out?”
“Uh…yeah.”
The person seemed less than enthused to assist me.
“How much did I win?”
“One-thousand.”
“One-thousand pennies?”
“No, one-thousand dollars.”
I covered my mouth and spoke into my palm. “Oh my God!”
“Do you want it in fifties or hundreds?”
“Um…hundreds.”
She handed me a wad of cash, and I smelled it before running off to find Elec.
As I made my way through the bright lights and chaos with the money burning a hole in my purse, I finally located him at one of the poker tables. He was deep in thought, scratching his chin and didn’t know I was watching him. His shirt was loosened even further, and his sleeves were rolled up. His hair looked like he’d been running his hands through it in frustration. His tongue slid back and forth across the lip ring as he concentrated. There was something so painfully sexy about the contrast between his new bespectacled look and the tattoos all over his arms.
Finally, he smacked his cards down and mouthed, “Fuck.” He checked his phone and got up from the table. He walked toward me and finally noticed me smiling at him from the corner.
“I lost my shirt—200 dollars. I was up for a while then that last game fucked me over. How did you make out?”
I stuck my hand in my bag and lifted out the cash. “Oh—you know—the lame penny machine.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“A thousand dollars!” I said, waving it in his face and jumping up and down.
“Shit, Greta! Congratulations!”
When he pulled me into a quick but firm hug, I quickly closed my eyes because it felt so good to be in his arms again. Every nerve in my body came alive in that brief moment.
I kept hearing Evelyn’s voice in my head.
You have twenty-four hours.
It was less than that now. A funny visual of Evelyn with a gun to my head entered my mind.
I put the money back in my purse. “Let’s go out to dinner to celebrate.”
As we walked the corridors looking for a restaurant, his phone rang. We stopped in our tracks.
“Hey, baby.” He quickly glanced over at me when he’d said it, and I instinctively turned away.
With my heart in my mouth, I walked a few feet away, still listening to every word.
“I’m glad you made it okay.”
“I had a little bit of a freak out at the burial, actually. Greta drove me around for a while until I calmed down. We ended up at a casino in Connecticut. That’s where we are.”
“I will.”
“Me too.”
“Have fun. Tell everyone I said ‘hi.’”
“Love you, too.”
Love you, too.
Well, that was a reality check. And why was I upset that he told her the truth as if this trip were supposed to be some secret rendezvous? In that moment, I realized I was delusional. Sure, his feelings after seeing me may have been a little conflicted, but he loved her, not me. Plain and simple. His heart was in a different place than mine was, and I needed to accept that.
He walked over to me. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
“That was Chelsea. She says hello and to thank you for helping me out today.”
I flashed a fake smile. “Hello and you’re welcome.”
“Have you figured out what you’re in the mood for?”
Admitting the true answer to that question would have put me back at square one.
Seeing as though the rum and Coke I’d had earlier had gone right through me, I said, “I’m heading to the bathroom. You decide what you feel like.”
I took the opportunity to freshen up even though I still smelled like the alcohol that spilled on my dress earlier. I guess I could have afforded to buy myself a new dress now.
When I emerged from the bathroom, Elec was looking down at his phone. When he looked up, his face appeared pale.
“Are you alright?”
His hand was trembling, and he wouldn’t answer me.
“Elec?”
“I just got this text. It’s from an unknown number.”
He handed me the phone.
I was confused. “22?”
“Look what time it says the message came in.”
“2:22. That’s weird, but why does it bother you?”
“Randy’s birthday is February 22nd.”
Chills ran through me. “You think the message is from Randy?”
His eyes stayed fixed on the phone. “I don’t know what to think.”
“It might just be a coincidence. Why would he just send you the number 22?”
“I don’t normally believe in that shit. I have no idea. It just weirded me out.”
“I can understand why.”
Elec was preoccupied all throughout our meal at the steakhouse. I knew he was obsessing over the text. To be honest, it really freaked me out as well.