Georgia’s car stopped me before I went inside. It was as fancy as mine. Her license plate read PEACH. I twirled the ring around my finger for a second, then took it off and dropped it in the pocket of my Dynamic work shirt. I wasn’t ready for the questions or comments. I didn’t want to tell the truth, and I didn’t want to lie either. I had to figure all of this out before I kept it onthatfinger.
Vinny and Sam were sitting at a table eating when I walked in. The slight bit of sun left lit their faces as the door closed. Vinny kept it on the dark side for ambience, he’d said. I thought he just didn’t want an outrageous light bill.
“There’s the little jail bird.” He lifted his beer to me. “How’s it feel to be free and back inside of this palace?”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Vinny. I was looking forward to three hots and a cot. The food, I’m sure, is so much better.” On that, I was just messing with him. The food at Dynamic was amazing.
Sam grinned and shook his head. Vinny told me to earn my keep, then shoveled more pasta in his mouth.
“Hey, Vinny?”
He looked up.
“Thanks for bailing me out.”
“Yeah. Yeah.”
I grinned as I opened the door to the back of the place. Girls were moving all over, preparing for the shows. Some of them sang. Some danced. And even though none of us were living the big time we had hoped for, we had damn good shows.
“Hi, Leo!” Penelope (aka Peter) looked up from painting her nails. She narrowed her eyes. “What happened to your face?”
“What about it?” I looked in the nearest mirror and made a show of searching it. I didn’t want to have to retell the story. “Oh. I must have had a heavy hand with the bronzer. Good thing it’s dark.”
“You want me to fix it?”
“Nah. It’s good enough.”
She smiled and went back to painting. She looked up as the new girl, Raquel Barcelona, who we all called Rocky, took a seat next to her. She was fixing her hair.
“So…” Penelope nudged her. “What do you say? Are you in?”
“I don’t—”
“It’ll be fun. Domenico Casino is going to be singing and everything!”
“Domenico Casino…? Oh, he’s in that group…the one where they have an older vibe but to a newer beat, right? Sort of like a new-age Rat Pack?”
“Yeah! They’re all so fine.” Penelope rubbed her arms and shivered. “I swear, you’ve never seen anything like it. Tell her, Leo.”
“Tell her what?”
Penelope smiled. “About Paradiso. How beautiful the entire casino is, and how fun it is.”
I couldn’t lie about it. It was one of the most stunning places along the strip, next to Portofino. The bar was so exclusive, you had to have a special ticket. If it was golden, it was lifelong and had to be transferred at the time of death or it wouldn’t be valid. A regular at Dynamic, who loved Vinny, left it to him when he died.
Vinny said the entire place was too rich for him and let us use the card whenever we wanted to. I’d taken it, planning to stop at the bar to see Georgia’s husband, Joe. I thought maybe he could talk me out of what I was going to do, or at least prepare me. He lived the life of a mobster.
I’d seen him with another woman, though, and that was when I left. It felt like a best friend’s code to confront him, and a silent woman’s vow to tell Georgia, but she knew. She was totally blasé about it. I left it alone, but it still pissed me off. I was going to live the same life, and I hated it.
“Leo? You have the ticket?”
Snapping out of my brain fog, I dug in my bag and handed the card to Rocky. “Full moon tomorrow night…be extra careful out there.”
I wished I had something like a full moon to blame my wild night on.
“Leo.”
I turned at the sound of Georgia’s voice. She was sitting on a barstool prop, sewing what looked like a ripped skirt, and she looked ghostly. I hadn’t noticed it before, but the light made it more apparent. She was losing weight. Her bones pressed against the underside of her skin. Georgia was beautifully full figured, and I had no idea why she would want to lose any of herself.
