It was a very emotional morning and I felt miserable. Watching James walk into McCarran and leave for Los Angeles, I felt like I was being abandoned. I knew I had no right to feel that way, but I couldn’t seem to get my emotions under control. I had never felt like this before. I thought I had experienced some bad breakups in high school, but none of them felt as bad as this.
The cabbie took me to the car dealership, and I picked up the Land Rover without incident. It was such a beautiful vehicle; it had every possible option: leather seats, power everything, and a sunroof. That should have made me feel better, right? It didn’t.
I desperately wanted to skip my finance class, but I couldn’t. The paper I’d written over the weekend was due today and I’d lose a lot of points if it was turned in late. We were also reviewing for our midterm, and the prof was notorious for giving away test questions and telling students what they needed to study in order to do well in the exam.
I felt numb, both emotionally and mentally. I couldn’t think, let alone concentrate like I needed to, and as hard as I tried I just couldn’t seem to pull myself together.
As the day progressed, my mood did improve somewhat. My finance class went well and I was able to go to the library and study for a few hours for my midterm exams, which were later in the week. I had also stopped by the student records office and put James’s name on my financial account like he had asked, so he would start receiving my tuition bills. I was also able to pull up my credit-card statements on my laptop and email a copy of them to James’s office. I smiled to myself when I remembered that James had told me to fax them. What’s a fax? I thought, wishing I was with him so I could tease him about using an antiquated fax machine instead of email.
I just wanted to go home, sleep, and wake up the day James was flying back into town. If only, I thought.
As I pulled into my apartment complex my jaw dropped. Oh, shit! I saw the cars of my two best friends, Sue and Samantha, parked in front of our apartment. I also saw my roommate Rachel’s car, so I knew all three of them had to be inside. Sue and Samantha never came over on a Monday afternoon; I smelled an ambush.
I used my key to open the front door and the most heavenly aroma entered my nostrils. Rachel was making her famous stir-fry vegetables with chicken breast. It was my favorite and definitely another bad sign, like a convict’s last meal before the electric chair.
“Hey, girl,” all three of them screeched in unison as I walked through the door.
“Hi, everyone,” I said.
Leave it to my best friends to pull me out of my doldrums. I immediately felt my mood start to improve. They had already finished off a bottle of wine and were starting on their second. Look out; it was going to be an interesting evening. Rachel poured me a glass of wine and we all sat down on the sofa and loveseat in the small living room.
As Rachel handed me a glass of wine. she said, “Sam, do you know what happened to Mel this weekend? We’d made plans to go to the Ghost Bar on Saturday night, but she stood me up and then was nowhere to be found.”
Samantha laughed and said, “The last I heard, Sue made her go to some fancy soirée at the Paris and no one has seen her since.” I found it hilarious that they were talking about me as if I wasn’t in the room.
“Sue, can you give us a recap of the events of Friday evening, so we know that the record is correct before we continue?” she said, making all three of them laugh while I shook my head, trying not to smile and encourage them. I was sure that Sue had probably told Rachel and Samantha the story of Friday night at least twenty times already.
“Well, I was letting this cute guy chat me up when I saw Mel dancing with this handsome older man. Then she went back to his table and they talked, drank, and danced all night while she totally ignored me the entire evening. Finally, at midnight, she made me leave because she told me that she was having such a great time with him,” Sue said, smiling at me.
“Okay, Melanie, enough with the suspense, time to start dishing,” Samantha said, grinning at me.
Since we met during our freshman year in the dorms, the four of us were inseparable and we told each other everything: who we liked, who we slept with, nothing was out of bounds. We’d enjoyed each other’s company in the best of times, and we’d all gotten each other through some of the very worst of times. But this one was going to be difficult.
I took a deep breath. “It’s not really that big of a deal, guys. I met him, we hooked up, and I spent the weekend with him.”
They all looked into my eyes, trying to see if there was more to the story than I had revealed. “I’m calling bullshit,” Rachel said, smiling. “When’s the last time you fucked a guy, Melanie, and an older guy at that? There has to be more to the story.”
I could tell that the wine was kicking in. Rachel never dropped the F-bomb unless it was directed at her boyfriend, and that was only after he had made her mad. I looked down; time to come clean. “His name is James, and he lives in LA. He comes into town about once a month. I really like him, and I told him I’d see him when he’s here.”
Samantha smiled at me. “So, what’s the catch? You’re working out your daddy issues with some hot older guy, no big deal.”
I took a big gulp of wine, draining the glass. “The catch is, he has a wife and kids, and he’s been giving me gifts.” The room went silent.
“What do you mean, giving you gifts, Melanie?” Sue said with a look of concern in her eyes.
I reached into my pocket, pulled out the tennis bracelet, and handed it to her. She examined it closely and then passed it around the room.
“Melanie, I know jewelry, this has to be worth at least $4,000,” Samantha said.
“Honestly, I don’t know what it’s worth, Sam,” I said as I refilled my wine glass.
“My God, what else did he get you, Melanie?” Sue asked.
“Look out the front window.” They all got up and peered through the blinds. “See the Land Rover parked in front of the sidewalk?” I asked, taking another sip of wine.
I knew their jaws were dropping and I didn’t even have to look at them. They silently looked out the window for a full minute before they came back and sat down without saying a word. It was like a dark storm cloud had come into the room and the tension was thick. No one knew what to say or how to react.
Samantha finally broke the silence. “I know you, Mel, and I want to tell you the truth. The bracelet, the car, your pussy just isn’t that good.”
We all broke out in a fit of laughter as I grabbed a pillow off the couch and threw it at her. It was a little inside joke between the four of us. The first time I met Samantha we had both gotten drunk at a party and hooked up in her dorm room. We became fast friends and agreed that, while we enjoyed our night together, our relationship would be strictly platonic going forward.
Rachel looked into my eyes and said in a serious tone, “I’m not judging you, Melanie, but I know you, and this isn’t you. You don’t have sex with a guy just because he’s buying you things. You are the last person on Earth that I would have thought would ever be a kept woman.”
Sugar daddy, sugar baby, kept woman were all words I would grow to loathe. “There's a lot more to it than just sex and the monetary things he gives me; I think I’m falling for him, Rachel,” I said quietly.
They were all very concerned for me, and I had to admit I was concerned for myself. We talked more as we ate Rachel’s delicious dinner, and of course we put away a few more bottles of wine before the evening was over. I ended up telling them about the apartment, the clothes, and the debit card. Not that I really wanted to, but we were the type of friends that didn’t keep secrets from each other. They were all very curious about the sex as well, because none of them had been with a man who wasn’t around our age. I told them the truth, the sex was great, but my attraction to James had a lot less to do with the sex and money and much more to do with the connection I felt with him when we were together.
Later that evening, after Sue and Samantha had left so they could study for their midterms, Rachel and I were sitting on the couch. “Melanie, you could never do anything to make me stop being your friend and I love you like a sister,” Rachel said as she looked into my eyes. “I know you had a lot of problems with money and I’m glad that he is helping you with some of that. I just don’t want to see you getting hurt. He told you he’d never leave his wife, so keep things in perspective. See him when he’s here, fuck his brains out, let him take care of you, but don’t you dare let him break your heart. If he does, then that’s your fault, not his.”
She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek and gave me a big hug, then went to her room to study.
She was right. When he came into town, I would be his, just like he wanted. But the rest of the month, he wasn’t going to change how I lived my life. I had one more thing I had to do before I studied and went to bed. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and texted Gianna; “This is Mel, let’s meet this Friday for drinks.”
- - - - -
My mid-term exams went great. I found that the more I studied, the less I thought of James, and all that studying paid off as I ended up getting A’s on all my tests. Even though I had three weeks to move out of the apartment I shared with Rachel, I was anxious to get into my new place. Between studying sessions, I was able to box my things and move them in the Land Rover. By the end of that week, I had the majority of everything I owned in my new apartment. I also went to a furniture store and purchased a queen-size bed and two flat-screen TVs, one for my bedroom and the other for the living room. The furniture store delivered the bed and TVs on Thursday afternoon, and I paid them extra to mount the TVs on the wall.
During midterm exam week, I got better at keeping James at an emotional distance. We texted each other a couple times each day, but I made sure I kept my texts light and casual. He had his life, I had mine, and I felt that I was taking Rachel’s advice. He wasn’t going to break my heart, or, more accurately, I wasn’t going to let him break my heart.
I took my last exam Friday morning. Then I went home and got the last of my things packed and in the Land Rover by noon. I gave Rachel a big hug as I left our apartment for the last time. I’d still see her a lot, even though we would no longer be roommates, but I knew it wouldn’t be the same. As freshmen, we were dorm-mates, and then we had gotten the apartment together. Even though we had a lot of history, I knew it was time to move on and take the next step.
My moving out ended up being good for her too. Instead of finding a new place or a new roommate, she’d talked her boyfriend into moving in with her and they would be signing a new lease together. It’s a big step moving in with a guy; I knew she was getting more serious with him, and I was very happy for her.
Moving out was a big step for me as well; it was the first time that I had ever lived by myself. I loved my new apartment, but it was also a bit scary being out on my own.
I spoke to Gianna a couple of times during the week, and she told me she lived in North Las Vegas in a house she rented with two other students that she went to college with. She was a junior at the College of Southern Nevada and was a nursing major. I suggested that we meet at the Red Rock Casino in Summerlin since it was off the strip and easier to get to. Also, it was not too far from where she lived. We agreed to meet for drinks at six o’clock in one of the bars inside the casino.
I chose to dress in a white jean skirt with a light pink top and sandals. I pulled into the valet station and checked the Land Rover with the attendant, then walked into the casino and headed for the bar where we had agreed to meet. I had been to the Red Rock Casino once before about a year earlier when an old 80s band was playing there. Normally I liked the clubs on or near the strip, but this location seemed like a better choice.