Vegas Baby

“Hello!” The guide said, walking right up to us like she knew us. But I supposed that was her job. If I recalled right, my secretary had sent pictures of all of us as well as mini-bios with all of our likes. “How were all of your travels?”

There was a murmur of generally positive phrases, and her smile just grew that much more broad.

“Fantastic! Now you all arrived fifteen minutes before schedule, so that is fantastic! If you want to follow me to the bar, we’re whipping up the favorite drinks that were included in your profile, and then we’ll head to the show, where you’ll be in some of the best seats in the house!”

“Oh my God!” Missy cried, jumping up and down. “I’m so excited, like so unbelievably excited. You don’t even know.”

“Boy, I know.” Vanessa said from the middle of our gaggle. “You wouldn’t shut up about it the entire flight. I could literally recite every single thing you know about this stupid magician in alphabetical order.”

“Come on, I wasn’t that bad!”

“Guys,” I said, cutting in. They all fell silent, surprised by my interjection. I was told I had that sort of effect on people. I wasn’t sure if it was because of my height, my broad frame or my deep voice, but whatever worked, worked. “I think the guide is waiting to get us those drinks.”

“Oh, right…”

They fell in line after that, and we walked over to the oversized, overwrought and overly lit bar that took up nearly an entire wall of the casino. It was styled to be retro, with plenty of attractive workers to sate people’s thirst with their specialty drinks.

Casinos were funny that way. There was a whole slew of alcoholic beverages that they gave out for free; with a dozen or so servers walking across the floor offering them on the regular. These were to make sure people stayed tipsy or drunk, because inebriated people always spent more than they should.

But on top of all those free libations, there were drinks you could pay more for. These were usually top shelf alcoholic drinks, or one that required a ton of ingredients. And, of course, every bartender’s worst nightmare: the mojito.

I had made sure to buy us a package that included unlimited signature drinks however. Sure, it had been a pretty penny, but what was the point of making money if you didn’t spend it? Nothing. I was born without it and I would die without it. It wasn’t like I had any kids to pass it on to like my own Dad had.

The bartenders were on their game. There were eleven drinks all lined up in a row, yet none of them were watered down by the ice melting yet. One by one, we picked up the drinks on our profile until I grabbed my gin and tonic.

Sure, it wasn’t the most exciting drink, but I didn’t need some fruity, elaborate cocktail. If I was having alcohol, I wanted to taste the alcohol. After all, what was a drink without a little burn?

We made it to the auditorium without any other shenanigans, and I saw there was indeed a line down the hall and out the door, but we breezed right past it, and our guide lead us down to the comfy, recliner seats where we all filed in to sit down.

“Now you’ll notice on the side of your seat that there’s a call button. Feel free to press that if you need anything! After the show, just stop by the front desk and you will be given your room assignments, key cards and anything else you might need! My name was Becky, and I hope y’all enjoy the show!”

She gave us a cheesy little salute then hustled off, no doubt just in time to greet another group.

“I cannot thank you enough for this!” Missy said, turning and looking to me with big eyes from her seat.

“Don’t worry about it. You earned it.” I gave her a short smile, but that was it. I had long since learned that I needed to walk a fine line with some of my employees. Not because they were scheming or dangerous, just that some of them developed crushes far too easily and relationships were the last thing I was interested in. It just so happened that Melissa was a hopeless romantic, and had probably cycled through everyone in the office at least once for her crush du jour.

Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about that for long, because the lights were dimming and the show was underway.

It wasn’t half bad, but it also was wholly not my thing. I gave it a solid twenty minutes to see if it could catch my attention, but after the good ol’ college try, I told my crew I was going to head to the bathroom and ducked out.