‘There’s also the Bellagio, the Wynn, Caesar’s Palace… There’ll be lots of A-list singers around. I’m sure of it,’ says Matteo.
‘Of course there are,’ joins in Birdie as though she lives here. ‘Everyone knows this.’
From the window, mountains of suitcases are being slung on trolleys, hordes of staff are running to and fro, and throngs of people are going up and down the large travelators that take them up and into the hotel. The place is like a massive train station.
‘It has its own shopping mall,’ Cherry says, all breathy. ‘And… tattoo parlour!’
There’s a joint squeal of delight from the Dollz.
‘No,’ I say. ‘Whatever you are all thinking, it’s a firm no. A hard no. A definite no. We have zero time for anything that isn’t on the itinerary. Including spending half a day on matching tattoos.’
I must stand my ground with them otherwise the whole week will be carnage. They glare at me like disgruntled children.
‘So, before we go in,’ I say to the group. ‘I’ve put our itinerary in the Vegas group chat and added… Matteo.’ I give him a shy flutter of my lashes. It feels like such an intimate gesture to add him to our group. But we’re exclusive now so…
‘Whoa. Why have you gone bright red, Connie?’ demands Cherry, forcing a handful of jellied sweets into her mouth.
I glare at her.
She is oblivious. ‘Your cheeks. Are you too hot?’
Sweet baby Jesus. ‘No, I’m not hot. As I was saying, everyone needs to check their messages regularly for up?—’
‘Well, then, there’s no need to be embarrassed, is there? You two are obviously exclusive now. Where are the rest of those candy gummies?’
My cheeks instantly flame brighter as she digs around the central bar area in the limo in search of something. Her attention span, perhaps?
‘Do they have these sweets in the hotel? I need more. They’re so lush.’
‘Have you added Sister Kevin to the WhatsApp group?’ barks Tash. ‘He needs to know when we’ll be singing so that he can come and watch every performance.’
Sister Kevin almost chokes on his bottle of beer as he tries to disguise his disappointment. But it is the cold, steely energy emitting from Birdie that causes the atmosphere to drop.
‘I would like to see you perform,’ she says, making it sound like a mild threat. ‘After all, Matteo has told me how amazing you are. I need to see it for myself. Apparently, you will have me in tears.’
‘Erm, thank you.’ I smile weakly and carry on. There’s no way I am including her in our group chat. No way on this earth. ‘I’ve also emailed you each a copy, and I’ve saved it to the cloud just in case anyone loses their phone, or forgets their passwords, and I’m going to ask reception to print out copies to send to your rooms.’
They stare blankly back at me as though I’ve just informed them that I’ve sent the itineraries by carrier pigeon.
‘Has no one opened their emails?’ I ask incredulously.
What’s the point? Of course they haven’t.
Big Sue, however, is more than pleased with this level of administrative thoroughness. ‘Nice job, Big Guy. Nice job.’ She is manspreading in her Gangsta Ken fluffy white coat, black vest top and medallion and appears to have drunk several bottles of beer which have given her a New York accent. She winks at me.
Big Guy?I hope to God that she will not persist with this nickname. It’s wildly unsuitable on so many levels. Liberty sniggers next to me. I risk a peek at Matteo, who also appears to be fighting a smirk.
‘Okay,Big Guy. What’s the plan before we get out of the car?’ Liberty all but yells. I roll my eyes at her. For her own amusement, she will make sure this new nickname sticks.
‘It’s not Big Guy. Never was,’ I say, facing the group. ‘The plan is to check in at reception, drop our bags in our rooms and meet back up to stay awake for the jet lag. Because we’re in a new time zone, the internet says we should ideally try to adjust our eating and sleeping times to Las Vegas time. Which means we need to stay awake and sleep with everyone else.’
Liberty is quick to interject. ‘You heard the boss.Big Guyis saying that we need to dump our stuff in our rooms and then start sleeping with everyone. That might be a struggle, even for me!’
The Dollz start hooting with laughter at my mistake. I feel my face burn even more. I’m clearly not very good at this leadership stuff.
Tash yawns openly. ‘Sod that. I’m off to bed. And there’s only one person I’m sleeping with.’
‘No,’ I say. ‘You can’t. We must stay awake, otherwise tomorrow you’ll be wanting to sleep when we’re supposed to be on stage.’
