What a lousy stinkin' night. Jeannie would have preferred leaving way sooner, but with Rebecca chatting her ear off, midnight was the earliest she could get away. The second she'd appeared with Steve by her side, she knew what a mistake it had been to even bother showing her face. While Steve had left only a few minutes later after stressing they were old school friends, Jimmy glowered the whole night and didn't say a single word to her.
That moment summed up her entire love life.
Stupid.
Most of the time she settled for the wrong guy and whenever the right guy came along, she found a way to screw it up. No wonder she was still all on her lonesome while most of her friends were married with babies, or were single only because they were too busy flying high in some glamorous career. Success evaded Jeannie on all fronts.
Trying to push all those self-pitying thoughts out of her head, she teetered down the long dirt lane-way to the main road. A strong wind, hot from the desert, blew all around the low-rise buildings. At the first traffic light, she stopped and waited. A taxi sailed past, then a second one. All night she'd felt invisible. Only Rebecca and Frank had talked to her; the others ignored her as if appearing with another man was the most thoughtless thing in the world. If Jimmy really loved her as much as they said he did, surely he would have told her something by now and not left her hanging. Always hanging. They should never have invited her to begin with.
Across the street a diner was still open. She debated waiting in there instead and just calling for a cab to come pick her up. Another taxi came speeding by, empty of passengers but not slowing down at all. Two blocks up the road, she spotted another one. They'd just dropped someone off outside of a convenience store.
"Taxi!" She yelled, waving both arms. She stepped out into the middle of the lane as the car pulled away from the curb. "Dammit!"
"Hey." Steve yanked her back onto the sidewalk. He was panting like he was out of breath from a marathon. "I called one and they should be here in a couple of minutes."
"I'm not going the same way," she said. "And why are you still hanging around here?" Good question, she thought, since it was something she'd asked automatically and only afterward did it occur to her how long he must've been waiting for. Long enough to be creepy.
"Interesting bunch you hang out with these days. Is that how you get by since your career tanked?"
"I thought you left three hours ago!" Jeannie hurried down the street. Maybe on the next block she'd have better luck. What an asshole and it sure didn't take long for Steve's true colors to come out and show themselves to her. She should never have picked up that phone when he called.
Steve grabbed her arm again. "What the fuck. You have the kind of friends who rob banks and casinos! What happened to you?"
He must have been spying on them the whole night, lurking outside the door like some crazed stalker. Even if he'd gone to eat at that diner, that shouldn't have taken him more than an hour or so. She tore out of his grip. "They were joking!"
"There's no way you're that naive."
"I didn't figure you'd spy on us!" She pushed him away and walked off again. At this rate, she might as well walk all the way home.
"You guys were talking about this Russian–"
Finally a cab pulled up to the curb. Jeannie waved to the driver and he rolled closer to where she was standing. She grasped the handle of the back door. "For your information, Rebecca's boss is a total jerk. All they want to do is to take him down a peg or two and–"
"Yushenko. I know who he is. Whatever you guys are scheming, don't."
She opened the door a crack and signaled for the driver to wait one second more. "It's just Rebecca and a bunch of drunk old men talking bullshit. Retired with too much time on their hands and not enough money because there's never enough money for some people." As soon as it was out of her mouth, she regretted uttering such a bad word. It was hard not to, at her job she was surrounded by cusses and trash talk.
"Wait. Just one minute. Thirty seconds."
She climbed inside the car and said, "I work at the Snake Eyes, two blocks from the strip. Visit any time. You'll hear the exact same bluster at every table in the joint. Every night."
She slammed the door shut, muffling his voice, and asked the driver, "Can you take me to Summerlin, please?"
The taxi driver pressed the button next to the meter. Jeannie leaned back in the cool leather seat, taking in the sweet perfumed incense that so many of these cars seemed to have. Lord, she could be an idiot, she thought. First messing things up with Jimmy, and now with Steve. Why did she always overreact to the slightest provocation? She hated drama queens. And here she was, acting just like one, in the middle of the street and all. She must have caused quite a scene. Good thing so few people were around to see it.
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