‘One night please. A double.’
The clerk, who was a hundred if a day, looked at him and then at Brandon. ‘Hourly? You need condoms and lube?’ He hauled a bunch of sex toys onto the cracked, sticky-looking counter and winked at Dix.
Brandon made a choked sound but managed a pretty dignified-sounding, ‘No thanks. Just the room for the whole night.’
‘We don’t got no doubles. Just a single with a queen bed. You want extra towels, that’s ten bucks more.’
Dix sighed. Unfuckingbelievable. He shoved fifty dollars through the small slot and got a key in return. ‘Come on then, the sooner we go to sleep, the sooner we can wake up and get the fuck outta here.’
The lobby smelt like a porta potty at a three-day music festival, on day three. The ambiance was not spoilt by the presence of the hooker sitting on the plastic-covered couch with his skirt hitched to his thighs, his balls hanging free from the hole in his fishnets or the smeared lipstick bleeding into a face needing a shave quite badly.
‘Hi there, sweet thing,’ he crooned at Brandon. ‘You two looking for some company for your party? I’d do you both for free.’
‘I do appreciate the offer and all, but we’re good. You might hurt someone with that beard though.’ Dix winked as they headed to the stairs, where the scent of vomit joined the medley of urine and spunk.
‘Some people like that, sunny Jim,’ he called back good-naturedly. ‘You two change your minds, I’ll be here a while. These shoes are killing my feet.’
‘They’re very nice shoes,’ Brandon said as they moved towards the second floor.
Once they got into the room, Dix, who instantly decided there was no way he was taking his shoes off on this carpet, turned to Band Boy. ‘Nice shoes?’
‘No harm in being nice. Gross, this room is, um … wow.’
‘If, by wow, you mean disgusting and ridden with filth, I wholeheartedly agree. I’m not sleeping on that floor so you’re stuck sharing with me unless you want to chance a fungal infection from that carpet.’
Brandon looked down, his lip curling. ‘I’ve seen a lot of hotels. Old ones, small ones. But this one is … I can’t imagine how it stays in business. I’m going to sleep in my clothes.’
‘I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think all of you is going to fit on this bed.’ Dix sighed. ‘I need a drink before I can sleep here. Come on, we can go grab a bite and a drink or five. The locks are the only thing in this room that look well taken care of.’
‘As long as you don’t plan on eating or drinking anything in here. We’d have to take some antibiotics for that I’m pretty sure.’
Dix laughed. He liked Brandon and agreed with Kate that he was a good match for Leah. There was far worse in the world than to be stuck in this shithole with a guy with a sense of humour and a glass-half-full sensibility.
‘Is that your phone again?’ Leah asked after taking a sip of champagne.
‘Yes. It’s Dix. Oh I like that colour.’ Kate admired the polish Leah had on her toes as the woman doing her pedicure applied it.
‘Hmm. He’s not a man to be put off. I’m surprised he hasn’t come to beat down the door.’
‘He probably would have if he knew where we were. He knows I’m in Vegas, just not the hotel. I know I need to tell him. Hell, I need to figure out when I’m going back because I promised him we’d spend New Year’s Eve together. But I haven’t been this relaxed in ages and it’s all snowy and cold back home.’ She sat back and drank her own champagne.
She could totally get used to this treatment. But for the moment … She picked up the phone and called him back.
‘Sorry I missed you. We’re getting beauty treatments. How’s Pickles? Has she endangered your virtue yet?’ She looked across the spa to catch sight of a woman in a rubber dress and sky-high heels. The fabric around her nipples was cut out and the rings danced merrily as the attendant applied top coat to her fingernails.
‘By the way, there’s a sex convention here in Vegas right now. Some of them are hot, some not. It’s awesome to see so many people owning their kink though. You’d be in heaven, so many fake breasts and chicks in latex, you wouldn’t know where to look.’
‘Where are you, Katherine?’ Oops, he did not sound pleased.
‘Getting treatments, I told you. Um, the name of the place is –’ she looked around ‘– El Sol Day Spa. El Sol, clever.’ She knew she was pushing his buttons, but it amused her. ‘I was just telling Leah that I needed to think about coming back so we can be together on New Year’s Eve. Did we decide my place or yours?’
‘Surely, darling Katherine, you can hear the strain in my voice. I’m not pleased. Where. Are. You?’
‘I’m not sure I want to tell you when you ask that way.’
Leah laughed and openly eavesdropped.
‘This is me, annoyed. You owe me a very long blow job.’
‘Puhleeze, your ex-wife barged in when we were having sex. If anyone is owed a blow job, it’s me. I was nice and relaxed from my massage and now that’s gone at the thought of her. I’m going to look at plane tickets and I’ll get back to you. We’ll do it at my place because it has a doorman and Eve can’t barge in. Tell her I said hello.’ She stabbed her finger on the screen and smudged her polish.
‘You did not tell me you were having sex when Pickles barged in.’
Kate sighed. ‘It’s unfair of me
