Page 65 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

Annie placed a ten dollar bet on the number and held her breath. The ball spun and bounced and landed on five.

Annie deflated in one long breath.

Fisher put his hand on her shoulder and whispered, “That’s why they call it gambling.”

“But I was so sure,” she said. “I’m still sure. Six is going to come up.”

“Let’s play it again,” the cowboy said. The woman on her other side patted Annie’s arm while she stubbed out her cigarette. Annie watched as the cowboy and the smoker put their chips on, around and beside number six. Feeling obligated, Annie put another ten dollars down on six.

This time it came up! Cheers went up and Annie watched as the dealer pushed a huge stack of blue chips in her direction. This was fun. They ordered more champagne and took turns predicting what the next number would be.

Having won and lost three chances at the wheel, Annie took a second to savor her surroundings. The tables were full to bursting with gamblers and the surrounding slot machines clanged and rang in a never-ending cacophony of success and failure. She felt as if she were in a James Bond flick. All she needed was a handsome, older man asking her to blow on his dice and the scene would be complete.

Feeling someone watching her, Annie glanced to her right and saw a man at a blackjack table looking at her. He was wearing a white suit over a black silk shirt that was unbuttoned to his navel. Amidst the gray chest hair on display was a huge gold medallion. His hair was slicked back into a stubby gray ponytail at the nape of his neck, and he wore yellow tinted glasses that covered the upper half of his face. As their gazes met, Annie was startled by a sudden sense of recognition, but she couldn’t place him. Who was he? A customer? A friend of her parents? Who?

“Are you all right?” Fisher asked from behind her, and Annie turned to him.

“Oh, fine,” she said. “I just thought I saw someone I recognized.”

She glanced back at the blackjack table, but the man was gone. Curious.

An hour later, Annie was woozy from the champagne and down to her original five dollars. She glanced around the casino and found Fisher leaning against a slot machine behind her.

“Well, we gave it a hell of a run,” the cowboy said and the small woman nodded. They both had piles of chips in front of them so Annie didn’t feel too bad about their abrupt turn of luck.

“We sure did,” she said. She tipped the dealer with her last five dollar chip and wobbled over to Fisher. “That was a hoot. What should I play next? Poker? Craps? Blackjack?”

“How about ‘Now I lay me down to sleep,’?” he asked.

“Oh, very funny.” She snorted. “Are you telling me it’s bedtime?”

“Yes, I am,” he said and took her elbow to lead her out of the casino.

“Just because we’re married don’t think you’re the boss of me,” she teased.

“If I were the boss of you, we wouldn’t have spent the past hour in the casino,” he said.

“We wouldn’t?”

“Well, let’s see, given a choice between losing my shirt on games designed for just that purpose or losing my shirt in the process of making love to you, I think I would definitely choose the latter.”

“Oh.” Annie felt her knees wobble.

Fisher flashed their room card at the security guard and the man pressed the elevator button for them. Annie weaved into the elevator as soon as the doors opened.

She didn’t know what to expect tonight. They’d become lovers the night before last, but with all that had happened were they still? To go from the role of would-be girlfriend to wife in less than two days left her floundering. Now that they were married, she wasn’t sure making love to Fisher was such a good idea. It might confuse things. Confuse things? Ha!

Fisher used the card key to open their door. It was a big suite with a sitting room and a hot tub, set in a wide tiled ledge beside the windows. One mammoth king-size bed filled the main room. Wow!

Annie glanced away. The couch in the sitting room looked comfortable enough. She could sleep just fine in there.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

“No, thank you,” she lied, plopping herself down on the plush arm chair. She heard Fisher pick up the phone to order room service. Her stomach growled but her pride refused to let her change her mind and order anything. She picked up the remote control and began to flip through the TV channels. A docu-advertisement told her all about the Palms.

She heard Fisher finish his order and then place another call. Curious, she turned down the volume. Fisher was on the phone with Brian and she shamelessly eavesdropped, wanting to hear if anything had happened with their perp. Fisher hung up before she could glean any information. She surfed through a few more channels, looking for a good movie.

Fisher came to stand beside her just as she flipped to an adult entertainment channel. A long-haired, big-busted, sweaty woman wearing nothing but a hot pink thong and a smile was moaning in full Technicolor glory. Horrified, Annie pressed her thumb on the remote trying to change the channel. She inadvertently hit the volume and the woman’s moans filled the small suite. Frantic, Annie hit the power button and the screen went black.