by Cari Quinn
Even better, it didn’t look like she’d been attacked by a cosmetology student. Everything made her feel young and fabulous.
“I think we should go to Light tonight.” Jinx held her phone over her head as she tapped carefully at her screen so she didn’t smudge her purple chrome nails.
“Club?” Chloe asked.
“Yes. Wait until you see this place. It’s a huge pool and outdoor concert area by day, and at night a deejay takes over. All of the screens and craziness. God, it looks so cool.”
“We’re from Los Angeles, it’s not like we don’t see cool clubs.” Ivy stretched her arms over head with a sigh. “We were just at one last weekend.”
“This is nothing like that hole.”
Ivy opened one eye. “You loved that hole last weekend.”
“Well, we are getting an upgrade.” Jinx dropped her phone into her robe pocket and draped her hands over the arms of her chair. “And we’re shopping to match.”
“Go to the eighteenth floor. Meri will take care of you at Luxe,” Suzanne said from the back of the room.
Chloe frowned. “That sounds expensive.”
“Room forty-one-oh-eight, baby,” Jinx said with a singsong voice.
Chloe clenched her fingers on the arms of her chair. God, she so didn’t want to take advantage. “We’ve been saying that number way too much today already.” Not to mention that she had to tip the hell out of all the people who had taken care of them.
She wanted to sink lower into her seat, and she was already practically at an incline with the crazy zero-gravity chair she was in. But she wasn’t going to ruin everyone’s fun.
If she told herself it would be okay enough, maybe it would be true. She just couldn’t look at the bottom of the receipt or she’d probably have a coronary.
“All right, ladies. It’s time to get you back into your street clothes.”
“Do we have to?” Ivy stretched her toes to the ceiling. “This robe is glorious.”
“You get to take it with you.”
“Oh, man. For real?” She popped up and her chair swung forward. “Whoa.”
“Careful there.” Ivy’s technician, Janet, stepped forward to help her out of her chair. “You guys were a lot of fun. Let’s not break anything before you go have some real fun for the evening.”
Ivy stood up. “Shopping then food? Or food then shopping?”
“I’m not eating. I want my belly completely flat for tonight.” Jinx laid her hand over her middle. “No food baby.”
“I recommend a little salad and cold-pressed watermelon water from the little eatery also on the eighteenth floor. Hydrates after all the things we’ve done today and helps to prepare you for whatever craziness you do tonight.” Suzanne winked.
“I like this girl.” Jinx grinned. “I like her a lot.”
“You girls are a trip.” Suzanne helped Chloe out of her chair.
The checkout process was terrifyingly simple. She just had to sign a little electronic clipboard. The number was slightly nauseating, but it was whipped out of her hand so fast that she didn’t have time to digest it.
Oh, she memorized it. Definitely knew that four-digit number like the last four of her social, but she was trying like hell to block it out.
They were shuffled off with huge shopping bags and a bunch of product as well as samples. Oh, and the robes. Couldn’t forget those bits of lusciousness.
She would guard hers with her life, and pray that she could keep peanut butter and jelly off of it for at least one full day. Maybe a week, if she hid it in the back of her closet and only put it on after Axl was in bed for the night.
Maybe.
This time, the elevator was designed like a desert sunset. There were a mind-boggling number of elevators on every floor of the damn hotel. So many floors. It was like a maze. And the little room card was their golden ticket to everything.
Terrifyingly awesome.
The doors opened on eighteen. She thought she’d been prepared after the luxury of The Golden Dragon, but that one had nothing on the chrome, gold, and glass of the shops that seemed to go on forever.
They followed the signs to the eatery Suzanne mentioned. The watermelon drink was ridiculous, and the salad was just enough to kill the empty feeling living in her gut. Nerves didn’t allow her to eat too much, but she didn’t want to be looped after one drink, so food was a necessity.
“Are you done yet?” Ivy asked again.
“Dude, what’s the rush?” Chloe sat back on the dainty white wrought iron chair. They were eating next to a glass balcony that looked down over two more floors. There was a double escalator and a massive fountain below.
One of the casino entrances was flooded with people streaming from the slot machines to electronic card games. It wasn’t the main casino, but there seemed to be a dozen smaller game stations all over the hotel. In between were restaurants galore and a huge archway that teased the shark attraction in another building.
It was a feast for the senses.
And made her dizzy as hell, and not because of the height. She just couldn’t imagine this many people in one space. Hell, she lived in LA, but it didn’t feel like this. It was claustrophobic sometimes, but at least there was space and the ocean. There were little pockets where she could actually get away with Axl and sit on a patch of grass.
This was just ostentatious and overwhelming.
A world so outside of her own.
“Earth to Chloe.”
“Hmm?” She turned to Ivy. “Sorry. Just people watching.”
“Anyone hot?”
She laughed. “I hadn’t noticed.” How sad was it that she wasn’t even looking for men? The last man she’d been with was Snake. Her hormones had closed up shop sometime between her pregnancy and losing him to the accident.
They’d emerged a few times for brief moments of mayhem, but the trouble of having a man in her life outweighed the benefits of getting naked with one.
You can get in all sorts of trouble this weekend.
She pushed aside that little voice. It was pretty quiet most of the time. Actually, probably in a coma more often than not. Getting an average of four hours of sleep a night usually kept that voice dormant.
“Girl, that needs to change.” Jinx slapped the table. “You’re a screaming-hot ginger. You need to own that.”
“Sounds like an adult beverage.”
“That’s awesome.” Ivy pulled out her phone. “I’m totally writing that down. We’ll find a bartender to create it.”
“God save me.”
Jinx stood up. “God has no place in Sin City, baby.”
Chloe looked up at her. “I don’t like that look in your eye.”
Jinx crossed her arms. “The longer your butt sits in that chair, the shorter your skirt is on the dress I deem worthy for tonight’s festivities.”
Chloe got up. “All right, all right. No need to get so bossy.”
She let them drag her across the unbelievably sparkly marble and obsidian checkered floors to Luxe’s gilded doors. Chloe’s stomach dropped. Yeah, that wasn’t going to be a cheap place. No twenty-dollar dresses on the clearance racks for this shop.
Jinx braceleted Chloe’s wrist as she began to back up. “Oh no, you don’t.”
“We can definitely find someplace cheaper.”
Ivy and Jinx hauled her through the doors. “We have permission remember, Pollyanna?” Jinx scanned the faces in the shop. “Who’s Meri?”
A woman with long, sun-kissed brown hair came forward. “I’m Meredith.”
“Suzanne sent us.”
Meri’s polite smile widened. “I just got the text. She said you girls were a lot of fun.”
“Especially since we have rockstar money to play with.”
“Oh, jeez. Jinx, say it a little louder.”
“We have rockstar money to play with.” Jinx’s voice lifted.
Chloe bowed her head.
Meri laughed. “I have a friend just like you,” sh
e said to Jinx.
“Then you have taste. And you can find us hot clothes for Light tonight.”
“I think we can handle that.”
“Guys, can we talk about this?”
“No,” Jinx and Ivy said in unison.
Meri showed them to the back of the store. Four dressing rooms were set up in a large curve. A huge tufted circular bench sat in the center. Chloe couldn’t stop herself from swiping her hand over the sumptuous fabric. Everything screamed money and luxury. Shopping at Target was splurging for her.
“You’re a four or six, right?”
Chloe blinked at Meri. “I honestly have no idea. I’m an eight in Target, a medium on the clearance rack at T.J. Maxx.”
“Well, we’ll just figure it out.”
“I’m a four,” Jinx announced.
“In your dreams,” Ivy muttered. “You have too much hip for a four, you liar.”
Meri laughed. “All right, let’s take a walk around then. You can leave your bags here. They’ll be safe.”
A flurry of silk, satin, rayon, and even a random cotton was piled into Chloe’s arms as Meri and Jinx grabbed clothes for her. Just as many were draped over Ivy’s and Jinx’s arms—actually, a bit more. They were far more willing to strip the hangers than she was.
Ten minutes later, she had her serviceable black leggings around her ankles and the third dress on. None of them seemed to fit right. Too tight in the boob, too clingy in the ass, or if they did fit, the price tag gave her palpitations.
“I hate this.”
“Try this.” A soft gray and blue dress came over the top of the door. When she didn’t take it right away, Meri wiggled it. “Try it.”
“It’s way too short.”
“You have fabulous legs. Try it.”
Chloe sighed.
“And no bra.”
“Um, you do know that I had a kid, right?”
“No bra.”
Chloe held up the dress and gulped. The entire back was open, with a skinny chain attached at each shoulder to keep it from falling down. It was a scrap of nothing.
“Come on, hooker. We require adult beverages.”
She wiggled out of the pink monstrosity she was currently wearing, unstrapped her boobs, and put the new dress on. It floated around her like a dream. The waist was elastic, of all things, but it bloused the dress just right, making her look young and fashionable.
She hadn’t been fashionable since she was sixteen-freaking-years-old.
“Get out here.”
“Where’s the price tag on this thing?”
“I took it off,” Meri said.
“I told her to,” Ivy said.
She opened the door. “You too?” Chloe’s breath caught. Ivy Johnson had certainly been transformed. “Wow.”
Ivy twirled. “I know, right?”
“Why does she get to wear pants?” Chloe tugged at the short length of her dress. It felt like her damn ass was on display.
Ivy fussed with her floral bustier, hoisting up her girls. “Because I have to deal with a strapless top.”
“I’m braless here.” Chloe crossed her arms over her chest.
Meri drew her out of the dressing room. “Nope. Come look in the full mirror.”
“Don’t you think the one in there was enough?”
Jinx whistled. “Where have you been hiding those legs?”
Chloe felt the heat flooding her face. She did a helluva lot of walking for work, not to mention hauling kegs around when she covered the bar. Oh, and a twenty-pound kid. Couldn’t forget that part.
“Get up there,” Ivy said. “I wasn’t sure about my outfit until Meri made me do it too.”
“Wait. Shoes.”
Chloe curled her toes into the ultra-soft pile carpeting of the changing area. “I have sandals.”
“You don’t have these.” Meri held up a pair of gold, strappy sandals with four-inch heels.
“Do you want me to kill myself?”
“You remember how to wear heels. You used to wear even taller ones to the club with—” Jinx pressed her lips together. “Sorry.”
Chloe took the shoes. “No, you’re right. I wore spiked heels for Snake because he loved my legs in them.”
Ivy came up behind her and met her gaze in the wall-sized mirror. “Time to wear them for you, don’t you think?”
Chloe chewed on her lip for a moment before nodding. “Yes. Yes, it is.” She straightened her shoulders before sitting on the huge hassock to buckle the shoes. Her arches made a little scream of protest before she was rock solid.
This was supposed to be a fun weekend.
She remembered how to have fun. Sort of. Fake it till you make it, girl. That little voice was getting louder. She climbed onto the small dais and got a good look at herself.
Young.
Objectively pretty.
Her legs were damn good. Strong because she needed to be strong for her son, for her job. But also lean and tight because she didn’t know how to not be on her feet all day. It had been a damn long time since she’d actually looked at herself in a full-length mirror.
“You’re smoking hot, you bitch.”
She smiled down at Jinx standing to her left. “Not so bad yourself, bitch.”
Jinx’s smile broadened. “Now that’s the Chloe I know and love.”
Meri put her hands on her hips. “You girls are stunning. Now go kill it at Light.”
Chloe stepped off the platform. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.”
They went back up to the room with armloads of bags. She tried not to think about just how much had been charged to Nick’s account. Instead, she tried to focus on having fun as the three of them freshened up their makeup and hair and explored the hotel.
Light was on the main floor. The sharp scent of chlorine and cocoa butter hit her as they followed the crowd of people. A deep bass seemed to vibrate beneath their feet and a buzz started under her skin.
The music was a far cry from her days at seedy bars and clubs, but the overall feel was the same. People out to have fun. Okay, maybe not exactly the same. There was money and a little wildness running through the air like its own perfume.
And she really wanted to wear it.
The bouncer waved them through with an appreciative gaze. Jinx was wearing a little black outfit that was all movement with a trace of glitter. Instead of a skirt, she had on dressy shorts. And she was already tall enough, so she went with flat sandals that laced up her toned calves. She owned her sexuality.
The opposite sex noticed. Immediately, she had three different suitors breaking away from their friends to approach her.
Within minutes, they were seated outside by the pool with drinks on their table. And they were surrounded by men.
The party had begun.
Chloe threw herself into the moment. Because she worked at a bar, she was conscious of the drinks placed on the table. She kept her hand over the top of her vodka tonic.
There were a lot of them.
And she let herself have fun.
She danced.
She laughed.
She only checked her phone three times all night. One of those times was to add the phone number of a guy staying at the hotel through the weekend.
The edge of the pool even got some play. She splashed her feet in the water with a vapid guy named Brad—owner of the number added to her phone. He was pretty and kept flirting with her. He didn’t do much else but talk about himself, but she decided to live in the moment.
The past didn’t matter. Only today.
It wasn’t like she’d carry any of this home with her. It was just a couple of nights to let loose, then she’d go back to her real life. Dutiful Chloe, with only memories to keep her warm.
But until then? She wasn’t going to regret one single thing.
Six
Chloe pulled the pillow over her head. “Just five more minutes, Axl.”
A pillow thumped on her back. “Tu
rn off that fucking alarm.”
“Wha?” She groaned. Oh crap, her head. The buzz and bleat of her phone dented her consciousness. She had her phone set for a daily alarm to get ready for work. She slapped it off and pulled the duvet over her head. “How much did we drink?”
“All the drinks.” Jinx wiggled next to her on the bed. She’d started off bunking with her sister, but somehow she’d ended up with Chloe.
Chloe peeled off the duvet and squinted at her phone. Eleven? Really?
She sat up and swallowed down the immediate and all-consuming crash of nausea. She blew out a slow breath and flicked down her messages. “Who’s Brad?”
“Hot guy, dumb as a lump of platinum.”
Chloe laughed and her head almost fell off her damn neck. At least it felt like it. Not good. She vaguely remembered a guy with hair better than her own. “Talked about himself. Lawyer?”
“That’s the one.”
“Hmm.” Chloe filed that away to think about later. She found two texts from her dad and winced. They were already at the picnic and would check in later. “Crap.” She hadn’t even heard the phone ring or vibrate.
She scrolled back and nibbled on her lip. Because there’d been no calls.
A swirl of guilt tried to fight the high tide of nausea. Instead of thinking about that one too hard, she tossed her phone onto the bedside table and curled back down into the bed she was willing to sell an ovary for.
God, it was comfortable.
Even if she did have to share it with Jinx. Damn bony butt. She shoved her over.
Jinx grunted, but moved over and flopped onto her back. “Why is there sunlight?”
“We’re in the desert.”
Another pillow came for her head, but this time, she blocked it. Jinx laughed. “Ow. Stop, don’t make me laugh. My head is splitting.”
“Get up, lazy butts.” Ivy came in wearing running shorts and a tank.
“Fuck off.”
“I told you to hydrate before you faceplanted, but you didn’t listen.” Ivy sipped from a bottle of water. “I ordered breakfast and met the waiter—hot, by the way—in the hallway. You’re welcome.”
