'Honey,' Lisa said with a wave of her hand, 'that's exactly the way I feel and that's precisely the way the cards are stacked. The choice is yours-you let it drive you crazy or you just get behind the reality of our situation and go with it. It's either ulcers at a young age or it's settling on second best and what is second best for us is a lot more than most women ever get I've decided.'
By their third year in Las Vegas Toni and Lisa were starting to feel the effects that the life of a chorus girl brings; their work was satisfying but physically demanding day
in day out. The competition among the girls, those already there and the flocks of the newly arrived, was always fierce. This seemed to make the most demands on one, this was what made you look into the mirror every day and ask yourself how much time you had left.
It was difficult to answer that question-to know when your time had come because it involved being brutally honest with yourself and that took a strength that most people who exist on a totally narcissistic plane never develop.
'I've been offered a job in Reno as a manager for a new club that's opening; seeing that all the girls are together, that the show runs like it's supposed to, the whole entertainment side of it,' Toni informed Lisa one afternoon as they rode through the desert.
'Oh yeah when did that come up?' Lisa asked with mixed emotions.
'I was approached last week by this guy who's fronting the whole thing for the money people. It would also involve in about a year's time overseeing a sister club they're building in Tahoe. What do you think?'
'I don't know. I mean did it sound like a legitimate proposition? What's the salary?'
'Great. Four hundred a week plus expenses,' Toni told her, searching her face for some sign of approval.
'Is it something you'd be interested in doing? Because that's going to be the ultimate thing that makes you decide, you know.'
'Oh yeah, I'm sure I could get behind it and really make a go of it. I think it's time I thought about what I'm going to do once my glamour days are over and there's not that much I can do outside of good old show biz.'
'I don't think you have anything to worry about as far as finding work in Vegas for the next couple of years, but after that, well, we all belong to the gods of fate when that day comes unless we make our own breaks.'
'That's for sure.'
'Yeah, I think you should definitely take the job if it's all on the up and up and they offer you a year's contract as security against anything that might happen. Look, it's a lot more than you're making now plus an expense account. I wish someone would make me that kind of an offer.'
'What are you going to do Lisa?'
'I've thought about it honey, but I don't have an answer to the question yet. Save money is what I've been doing about it but believe me I don't want to go on doing this forever. I'll miss you if you go-you know that, don't you?'
'I know. In a way I don't want to take the job. I'm afraid of the change, afraid to make the move after all this time.'
'It's understandable, but don't do anything stupid just because it's something new. If it's the right thing, if it really feels like the right thing, then do it baby. Don't hesitate too long because it may never come your way again.'
The offer was legitimate and after deliberating the issue for another three days Toni signed her contract and a week later left the chorus line, said goodbye to her Line Captain's job, and had a tearful farewell to Lisa.
'I hate to see you go like the song says,' Lisa told her, 'but I'm also very happy that you're going. I'll be up to see you next month when I get my vacation.'
'You better!'
'I promise.'
Lisa brushed off the galloping loneliness that Toni's departure brought on by concentrating hard on her dancing which was something she didn't take all that seriously and something she didn't do very often; and by dating a lot and drinking more than usual. Toni was the only one she had to confide in in Las Vegas and with her gone she had to make a major readjustment in her lifestyle. Toni's newly elevated position in life, her promotion out of the hoofing ranks also brought it home to Lisa with a frightening clarity that the time for a change in her life was absolutely essential.
She was envious of Toni only because she was scared; because they had become such a team that while helping each other survive, they had also conspired to feed a mutual dependence that was now tested by their separation.
A month passed neither faster nor slower than any other month. Throwing her suitcase into the back of her Porsche that was in need of a new paint job and two new hub caps, Lisa joyously gunned the engine and pointed herself in the direction of Reno. She had gotten over all of the nagging fears that had invaded her head those first two and a half weeks after Toni's goodbye; she had worked herself up to a new level of confidence and optimism and her head felt as clear and as uncluttered as the blue sky that stretched over the horizon.
Toni was dressed in a neat little dark blue pants suit with an oversized bow tie that accentuated her femininity in the way that men's clothes on women can do. She had let her regulation page boy haircut grow out several inches and she looked fabulous.
'And wait until you see my office!' she beamed at Lisa with mock superiority. She had her own office and she had furnished it herself and it said a lot for her taste.
'It's gorgeous!' Lisa gasped looking around at the dark brown mahogany and beige curtained and carpeted splendor of the place.
'You almost forget you're in the state of Nevada when you're in here,' Toni told her and Lisa agreed.
Lisa was even more impressed with the club that Toni was managing. 'It's Mafia money behind the whole operation, but then so is just about everything in Nevada and besides they really know how to treat you right.'
The club was a combination Nevada dance palace, with an enormous stage dining area and dance floor, and elegant London gaining room. It was the perfect fusion of two separate cultures existing with the utmost of ease under one roof.
'Shit sakes this really is something else!' Lisa said as Toni showed her around at the height of the midnight madness. 'When you told me you were managing a club I thought maybe, you know a few tables, a bandstand, a few slot machines, but nothing like this. Too much. What are the girls like and the show?'
'Fucking great! The choreographer is a guy named Bobby Lawrence and he really knows his stuff and the girls are gorgeous and hardly ever get out of line or give me any trouble. Mind you I have to work my ass off and there's barely time to go to the bathroom but it's worth it honey. The satisfaction of knowing that it's you that's holding it all together is just such a blast I can't tell you.'
'I can well imagine.'
'To tell you the truth, Lisa, I was really winging it the first couple of weeks. I mean I didn't know shit about running a place like this but faked it enough and got into the kids that work here so that you'd never know it. Come over here I want you to meet the boss. His name is Louie Alfono and he's all right.'
Louie Alfono, dressed to his eyeballs in silk and diamonds, and gleaming black hair looked Lisa up and clown a few times with unabashed pleasure.
'Hey Toni, you never told me you had friends like this! Come on, where you been hiding her? It ain't fair. Lisa it's my pleasure,' he said extending his manicured and buffed hand with a courtly bow.
'My pleasure too,' she said giving him the once over in return and thinking that Toni was right when she said he was all right. Yes sir he was certainly smooth.
'How long are we going to have the pleasure of your company here in Reno?' 'Oh for awhile. I'm on vacation.' 'You're a dancer of course?' 'It's been rumored.'
'They may never see you in Vegas again you know.'
'Really?'
'Could be, could be. You're having dinner with Toni and me as soon as things quiet down a bit, which should be in an hour, so don't even think of saying no.'
'Then I won't.'
'She staying with you?' Louie asked turning to Toni.
'Do you think I'd put my best friend in the whole world up at a motel?'
'Nahh, I wouldn't think that but what do I know. Hey look, I've gotta go right now. See you in an hour kids.'
