She smiled. “Right. The wine. I should have guessed.”
“I wasn’t talking about the wine.” When her face heated up with what must have been the mother of all blushes, he took pity on her and averted his gaze. “Do you mind me asking why he ended it?”
Momentarily distracted by the gorgeous man one bar stool over, she’d almost forgotten she’d started her day in Dr. Batra’s office. Once again, the doctor’s words came back to haunt her.
I would advise you to seek counseling right away. Most women in your position experience a period of grief. I can refer you to a therapist.
“Actually, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Fair enough. How about I just buy you another drink?”
“I’m good. Three sips of this stuff is enough, thanks. I have a lot to think about and I need to keep a clear head.”
Alex stirred his Coke again, seemingly fascinated by the whorls made by the stir stick. Dana watched the movements of his wrist until her eyes began to glaze over. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes, but that was fine. Something about his presence soothed her. She wasn’t sure whether it was because a gorgeous man of mystery was taking an interest in her or because they both had shit on their minds. Either way, her burden seemed lessened.
Unable to finish her wine, she pushed the glass away. The evening opened up before her like a chasm. She didn’t want to go home, where everything would remind her of Tommy and the dreams they used to share. She didn’t want to call her sister, Anise, either. Besides she’d be seeing Anise soon enough.
Once her divorce was finalized, Anise had announced her intention to come to Vegas with some friends to see Dana. She wanted to commemorate her newfound freedom. When she had first mentioned the idea of a week-long divorce party in Las Vegas, Dana had almost spit up her lunch. However, as an account manager for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Association, she knew people visited the Strip for all sorts of reasons. If one could hold a stag party here, why not a divorce party? In fact, divorce parties were big business. Just last week, the papers had been buzzing with the exploits of a certain soap opera actress as she hit the town to celebrate the destruction of her marriage.
Dana had just never expected her big sister to buy into the hype. Personally, she thought it was tacky.
However, if that was what Anise wanted, Dana would give it to her. It was the least she could do. The sisters might not always see eye to eye, but Dana’s heart went out to Anise and her ex-husband.
Thanks to her connections in the tourism world, Dana had been able to arrange a week-long extravaganza at Vice, the best hotel on the Strip. Anise was so excited to stay in the famous casino hotel.
How was she supposed to host a divorce party now? She was meant to be the ringleader, showing off the best of Vegas to Anise and her friends, Bea and Jessica.
Instead, all she wanted was to crawl into a hole.
Or maybe stay right here, quietly drinking next to Alex.
“So,” he said, “would you like me to badmouth Tommy some more?”
“You could.”
“Because I can invent all sorts of interesting crap to say about him and I know some colorful words.”
She laughed. “I bet you do.”
“I even know a few curse words in other languages if we want to give our badmouthing an international flair.”
“It’s tempting. Or maybe we could talk about why you look so sad.”
“I’m not sad. Like I said, I just have one of those faces.”
“Right, and my ex is a wonderful man who loves me more than anything.”
“So now you want to givemea pep talk?”
“Would it help?”
“Nah. Pep talks are overrated. In my experience, they help the people giving them much more than the people receiving them.”
“You’re probably right. I’m not in the mood for friendly encouragement either.”
“Oh, yeah? What are you in the mood for?”
“Is it too much to ask that Tommy gets sucked into a black hole?”
