A Life Less Ordinary (20 page)

Zeke
and Alicia introduced themselves and learned that Jack was Lionel’s life
partner, and this was Simon-Simone’s first trip to Las Vegas.  Lionel casually
slipped an arm around Jack’s waist as they chatted.

Zeke
pounced at the first lull in the conversation.

“Okay,”
he said to Manny, “enough with the small talk.  Spill!  What – who – how did
you meet all these people?”

Manny
took a sip of her drink and smiled with a half-puzzled, half-embarrassed air.

“Well,”
she hesitated, “that’s a bit of a long story...”

“I
think we have time,” Zeke said drily, “and you promised to tell me everything. 
With the way you’re squirming, I’m beginning to think you have something to
hide.”

Manny
shot him a mock glare, then shrugged and said, “Well, I guess I should start at
the beginning, then.”  She nodded at the newlyweds.  “I met Angeline and Reuben
when we were playing on neighbouring slot machines and we struck up a
conversation.”

Angeline
said, “I was having so much fun talking to Manny that I got distracted and
accidentally hit the maximum bet button.”  She leaned closer to Zeke and
conspiratorially lowered her voice as she added, “I don’t
ever
play at
the maximum bet - I can’t afford to lose that much.  Plus I was down to my last
twenty dollars for the day.  I screamed when I realized what I’d done, let me
tell you!”

“Really
loudly,” Reuben agreed with a wince.  Angeline smacked him lightly on the
shoulder.

“Thankfully,
she got the bonus,” Manny told Zeke with an affectionate smile at the happy couple.

“And
she ended up winning the jackpot,” Reuben finished with a grin.

Zeke
raised an eyebrow.  “The jackpot?” he asked, lifting his drink to his lips.

“It
was one of those progressive machines,” Angeline explained modestly.  “Eleven
million dollars.”

Zeke
spewed out his drink, although he thankfully didn’t get any on anyone except
himself.  Manny helpfully pounded him on the back as he coughed, his eyes
watering, while Alicia, Angeline and Simon-Simone scrambled for napkins to
press into his hand.

He
stared at Angeline, his dark eyes huge.  “Are you fucking
kidding
me?”

Everyone
laughed, including Alicia, and Lionel said, “No, she’s definitely not fucking
kidding you.”

Zeke
coughed once more, then said, “Okay.  Well.  Well, then...that must have been exciting.” 
He congratulated himself on being the king of understatement.

“Very!”
Angeline said, grinning.

“She
screamed again,” Reuben said, deadpan.  “Even louder.”

“And
that’s why Reuben and I decided to get married.  Not because I screamed again
but because we figured luck like that had to be a sign that our marriage would
also be lucky.”  She smiled fondly at Reuben before saying viciously, “Plus
we’ll now be able to tell our kids to like our marriage – or lump it.”

Reuben
nodded vigorously while Zeke raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“And
that’s when I came into the picture,” Lionel said.

“To
make arrangements for the wedding?” Zeke asked.

“Oh,
sorry – no.  To hand over the money.  I own this casino.”

Alicia
gasped, her hand flying to cover her mouth.

Lionel
grinned as he eyed her curiously.  “You’re new here, aren’t you?”

“Ye-yes,
sir,” she replied, her eyes huge.  “I started three weeks ago.”

Lionel
nodded.  “I thought so.  Anyway, I met Angeline, Reuben and Manny when we were
doing the paperwork and the photos, etc., etc., etc.”  He waved his hand
airily.  “I was so charmed by their excitement and impulsive decision to get
married that of course I offered the chapel to them free of charge.  And
Angeline was so excited because she could do so many more things while they
were here, if she only knew what else there was to do, and Manny -”

Lionel
looked at Manny and laughed affectionately.  Manny squirmed a little
uncomfortably under his grin.

“I
rattled off about a dozen sights to see and activities to do that didn’t
involve gambling,” she muttered ruefully, her eyes on the drink in her hands. 
“You know me and my sightseeing.”

Zeke
nodded numbly.  “Do I ever,” he agreed but he didn’t have the energy to say it
with his usual sarcasm.

“Well,”
Lionel continued, “her enthusiasm was contagious and before I knew it, I
committed Jack and I to trying out the Fremont Street zipline, and going on a
bus trip to the Grand Canyon.”

“A
bus trip,” Jack sighed, rolling his eyes.  “With tourists!  I couldn’t believe
it when he told me!”  He gave Lionel an affectionately exasperated look.  “If I
didn’t love him so much, I’d have told him to jump in the Bellagio fountain!”

“Anyway,”
Manny continued, “I met Simon-Simone while I was standing in line that evening
to buy the tickets to the Grand Canyon.”

Zeke
turned to look at the woman in question.

“And
that’s a story all on its own,” Simon-Simone told him with an apologetic glance
at Manny.  “I was overly sensitive and thought she was offended by me.  We
ended up bonding over my shoes. And then...”  Simon-Simone’s smile became
slightly embarrassed.  “Poor Manny!  I sobbed my whole sad story out on her
shoulder, right there in line.  I told her all about how I’d finally decided to
stop living a lie and how I’d hoped Vegas would be the best place for me to,
well, practice being a woman, but it had all been a dismal failure, and how
confused I still felt about – well, everything.”

She
shook her head.  “I must have broken her heart because she brought me here, to
Angeline and Reuben and Lionel and Jack.  They all took me under their wings,
gave me my new name, and took me with them to the Grand Canyon.”

They
smiled fondly at each other while Zeke simply stared, his eyes wide and
disbelieving.

“This
is some elaborate prank, isn’t it?” he said finally, turning to Manny.  “You’re
playing with my head because I left you alone for the last few days.”

Manny
laughed and shook her head.  “Trust me – I’m not that bright.”

Zeke
shook his head.  “Okay, fine.  So tell me, how did you meet those three over
there?”

They
looked over at two young women and a young man who were standing close together
while they avidly watched a table full of poker players.

Manny
said, “That’s Cordelia, Alphonse and An-Li.  We met them on the UFO watching
tour.”

“Total
Area 51 geeks,” Simon-Simone said confided.

Lionel
laughed his big booming laugh and said, “I thought they were going to get us
shot!”

“
I almost fainted when
they started talking about disabling the cameras and making a run for the
compound,” Angeline said.

“Good
thing Simon-Simone managed to talk them out of it,” Jack added.

Simon-Simone
nodded sagely, “Yeah, by pointing out that we were surrounded by soldiers with
guns and they’d never make it past the fence.”

Zeke
shook his head in disbelief.  “And those two?” he asked, indicating a man and a
woman with matching bright green mohawks.

“Oh,
God,” Manny groaned, “that’s Vic and Viki – they almost fell into the Grand
Canyon!”

Angeline
shuddered, “I was never so scared in my life – well, until the UFO tour.”  She
turned to Zeke and Alicia and explained, “They started slipping off the donkeys
on the way down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.”

“Good
God!” Zeke blurted.

“That’s
what we said!”  Jack agreed.  “On the other hand, they’ve vowed they’re never
going to ride donkeys ever again.”

“We
met Perry when we went ziplining on Fremont Street,” Simon-Simone said,
pointing out the man in question.  He was the dapper sixty-something man Zeke
had noticed in the chapel.

Lionel
nodded towards one purple-haired man, “Arturo was from the midnight helicopter
ride.”

Manny
laughed, shaking her head, “He blew almost his entire budget just so he could
say he’d flown in a helicopter.”

Reuben
said, pointing out each person as he named them, “Josh, Blonde-Josh and Ali
were from the trip to Death Valley.”

Lionel
nodded and said, “Valeria, Ed and Tamara were gathered up at various casinos
when we cruised the strip.  And the rest,” he looked around and shrugged. 

“They’re
friends, or someone met them here in Vegas and brought them along,” Manny
explained.  She shook her head and met Zeke’s eyes with a small, slightly
confused frown.  “To tell the truth, I’m just as surprised and confused as you
are,” she assured him.

Zeke
shook his head in silent amazement.  A few minutes later, after Simon-Simone
spirited Alicia away to the bar for refills, and Lionel and Jack went with
Angeline and Reuben to one of the poker tables, Zeke stared around the room one
more time then looked again at Manny.

“And
here I’ve been feeling guilty for leaving you all alone and lonely,” he said
with a rueful grin.

Manny
laughed.  “No, you weren’t.”

Zeke
gave her a wolfish grin.  “No, I wasn’t.  I had other things on my mind.”

Manny
rolled her eyes and laughed again.  “I’m sure.  Well, I didn’t come to Vegas to
sit around.”

“You’ve
certainly proved that,” Zeke agreed, and smiled, his eyes warm as he looked at
her.

He
could see Simon-Simone and Alicia returning, so he leaned closer and said,
softly and quickly, “You’ve definitely surprised me.”

Manny
looked around the room and shook her head with a puzzled air.  “I’ve definitely
surprised myself,” she admitted, and turned to take her drink from Simon-Simone
with a smile.

* * * * *

Rebecca
bustled around the kitchen making breakfast while she spoke to Manny, the phone
tucked between her shoulder and her ear.  “It sounds like it was a great time,”
she said with a grin as she stirred the hash browns.

“It
was awesome,” Manny agreed with a huge yawn.  “Sorry, Rebecca – it was a late
night.”

“What
did Daisy think of it?”

“She
wished she could have been there, if for no other reason than to see Zeke’s
face.”

Rebecca
laughed.  “I have to admit – that must have been priceless.”

“It
really was – I didn’t think anyone’s eyes could get that big!”

Rebecca
took a couple of eggs out of the fridge as she listened to Manny and exclaimed,
“Damn!” as one of the eggs slipped out of her hand and smashed on the floor on
her way back to the stove.

“What
happened?” Manny asked, suddenly alert.

“Oh,
nothing – I just dropped an egg.  I’m making breakfast for me and Tris.”

“Hmmm. 
How’s that going?  Have you talked to Jaime lately?”

“
No,” Rebecca sighed. 
“She’s been calling Tris, but she hasn’t spoken to me at all.  And Tris isn’t
sharing.  I have no idea if -”

Rebecca
stopped abruptly as Tris shuffled into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes and
yawning.

“Whoops
– and here’s Tris, looking for breakfast,” she recovered quickly.  She nodded
at the broken egg on the floor and said, “Tris, could you please wipe up the
mess I made?  Thanks.”

Tris
shot Rebecca a dirty look, but dug out the paper towels to do as she’d been
asked.

Rebecca
frowned at Tris’ back as she said to Manny, “I’ve got to go – talk to you
tomorrow?”

“You
bet.  Say hi to Tris.”

“I
will.”

Rebecca
clicked the phone off and focused her attention on making omelets for
breakfast.  She continued to frown slightly as she watched Tris clean up the
dropped egg then pour herself a glass of orange juice, all without quite
looking her grandmother in the eye. 

Rebecca
said, carefully casual, “Morning, Tris.  Manny says hi.”

Tris
shrugged carelessly as she sat down at the table.

“How’d
you sleep?” Rebecca continued.

“Okay,”
Tris said without enthusiasm.

Rebecca
sighed.  “I know you’re not thrilled to still be here, but I wish you’d at
least pretend to be a little happier.”

Tris
slumped down in her chair, her arms crossed tightly across her chest, her
bottom lip pouting out.  “So you want me to lie?”

“No,
but I do want you to make the best of a – a not-so-bad situation.”

Tris
snorted.  “Oh, please!  Since when have you ever sugar-coated anything for me?”

Rebecca
paused, turning from the stove, the spatula still in her hand.

“I’m
not sugar-coating anything.  This
isn’t
a bad situation -”

“Except
both of my parents have dumped me here on your doorstep with barely a word.”

“All
right,” Rebecca acknowledged calmly, “that is a bad situation, but not you
staying here.  And that still doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be trying to make the
best of it.”