The moment he realizes I’ve spotted him, he ducks behind a vendor’s kiosk.
Why?
“Look, Janie, I have to call you back,” I say quickly, ending the call.
I’m creeped out but keep walking.
I pass the same high-end strip club Antoine and I walked byyesterday.
The one with the glamorous marble façade that looks more like the entrance to an upscale restaurant than anything seedy.
The only way someone would realize it's not a restaurant the club's enormous exterior window.
It gives people passing by a full view of the scene inside: gorgeous women dancing on the bar while businessmen in expensive suits watch them, mesmerized.
Like most restaurants and clubs in Las Vegas, it operates on a 24 hours a day schedule.
I glance toward the spectacle, ready to keep moving, when I freeze.
One clean-cut face at the bar makes my stomach drop.
He’s immaculate. Like a packaged Ken doll.
That can only be one person.
But Joseph? In Vegas?
Then I remember what Janie said at the fitness center. That he’d be coming here for a company conference.
I scurry away, but Joseph catches up to me.
"Maddie!" he calls after me, his voice cutting through the arcade noise. "Hold up! It’s not what you think…”
"How do you know what I think?” I say, spinning around to face him.
“And why would I care if you’re at a strip club at ten-thirty in the morning? You left me at the altar two months ago."
"I want to explain myself. I want you to keep your high opinion of me."
"High opinion? Really? Why would my seeing you drinking at a strip club before noon change the already low opinion, I have of you?"
"Do I look drunk to you? I’m here for a financial conference. My plane got in early, so I figured I’d take the opportunity to see what Vegas was all about."
I bite my lip.
Back when we were together, he did admit that Las Vegas was his fantasy. He yearned to buy a table at a club like the “big guys” and slap somedancer’s ass.
We stand awkwardly staring at each other while tourists stream around us.
"I saw in the paper you’re tying the knot with that famous rockstar, Rio. Good going, Mads."
I open my mouth to tell him it’s all fake, but something stops me.
Maybe it’s the way he’s looking at me. Like I’ve finally done something impressive by landing a famous man.
"Thank you. We’re very happy."
Without warning, Joseph wraps his arms around me in a bear hug, his clean-shaven face pressed into my hair.
