Night and Day

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life doesn’t give you lemons, take them anyways and put it in your margarita. Besides what the fuck does life need lemonade for? A life of trickery and thievery perhaps isn’t the life that a person should lead. It can lead to many a terrible things like imprisonment or at the most unluckiest of times, death. But this life leaves you feeling so full of exhilaration; its addicting. The money, the glamour, the danger. It’s a triple threat that’ll have you reeling.

Of course you are wondering just what the fuck I am rambling on about, that’s normal.

Hell if I started reading something like this a couple of years ago I’d think the same thing. I’d wonder who the hell would have the balls to live such a life. So let’s start this story from when I was still a normal upstanding citizen.

It all started with a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. I just graduated from university in Phoenix. Some fellow graduates and I all organized the trip. By fellow graduates I mean the crazy guys I call my friends. Andrew, Paul, and Greg were rather rowdy bunch when they wanted to be, we were good humored, liked to have fun and do the occasional crazy night of drinking. Unfortunately last minute the guys’ decided to add their girlfriends to the guest list. Not that I have any problem with their girlfriends but their addition to the party left me the odd woman out.

Being a strangely optimistic realist I kept the smile on and did my best to ignore the nauseating amount of public displays of affection. It was one early morning when I found myself alone on the strip wandering around aimlessly that without realizing it, my life had been changed. And by changed I don’t mean cutting your hair shorter, I mean full on change.

Like a brain tumor, it could go undetected for a long time.

At the time I walked down the Vegas Strip I wasn’t really thinking about much, just observing. It was half past noon and I had been walking around for a while, I craved something cold to drink and I found myself stepping into a bar. Ordering a glass of dark amber beer I sat at the bar resting my tired legs. There was a man that entered not too long after me. He wore a tan suit with a partially unbuttoned white shirt. For a moment my eyes met his bright blue ones. The man was what many would call handsome. Perfectly aged in his mid to late thirties. I passed my stare to the group of men in the back of the bar. They were a different kind of crew. My eyes fleeted back to my cell phone that had yet to receive the call that I had wanted to hear. I had gone on a job interview days prior to the trip and well I wanted the job.

I did get a call though. My cell phone began ringing loudly filling the bar with the sound of Jim Morrison’s hypnotic voice singing the Alabama Song. It was the call I was waiting for. Taking a deep breath I answered giddy with excitement.

“Miss Polanski?”

“Yes?”

“I regret to inform you but the position you applied for has been filled,” the man says.

“Thank you for your time,” I respond with gritted teeth. He had already hung up. Anger bubbled up inside of me knowing that nepotism was involved, that me being a woman didn’t even help.

“Bad news?” a voice says next to me. I looked to my left to see the man in the tan suit. Sneering a bit I turned my attention on finishing the beer. I wasn’t in the mood for what playboy was trying to get at.

“Why don‘t you go back to your buddies, you‘re not going to win that bet,” I counter.

“What bet?” he replies giving me a second look.

“Try to be a little less conspicuous next time,” I state as I paid my tab then left the bar.

I walked back to my hotel and saw that everyone was already gone. Cursing inwardly I opted to take the time to enjoy the view from the room. Las Vegas was a filthy ugly city in the day, the sun showed every imperfection. To compare it, it would be like getting insanely wasted on moonshine sleeping with a stranger then waking up to see that stranger looked like Quasimodo. At night Las Vegas looked like Marlon Brando but by day he was the hunchback of Notre Dame yelling sanctuary begging to get his money back. Yeah Las Vegas was a deceiving little city of sin but got to love a place where even ugly sons’ of bitches can get lucky.

I must have fallen asleep sitting on the bed staring off into oblivion because I woke to the sound of Andrew and Karen entering the room and it the sun was just leaving the sky.

“Hey Ammo we are going to go have dinner, wear something fancy,” Andrew announces with a broad smile.

“Okay,” I murmur as I moved out of bed and towards my suitcase. I pulled out the black vintage cocktail dress and leopard high heels. Taking off the beanie I was wearing on my head I ruffled my hair and began curling several different strands. After my hair was nice and wild I got out of my jean skirt and baggy band t shirt to slip on the chic satin dress that showed that I was actually a female. It had a sweetheart neckline and reached just barely above my knees so it more of a sophisticated kind of sexy dress. A matching thin black belt was just a couple inches below my bust and I slipped on my high heels. Finishing off the look I quickly did my makeup and Karen came out of the bathroom astonished at how quickly I had gotten ready.

“Meet you two downstairs,” I say grabbing my clutch and left the room.

I took the elevator to the main floor and began playing the slots a bit as I waited for the others. Paul and Lydia were the first to arrive. Then Andrew and Karen. Greg and Brittney finally showed up but they had someone with them. He had dirty blonde hair and dark brown eyes, he barely had a neck and was a little on the short side.

“Sorry man, she insisted,” Greg says quietly to me. Then I realized this was a set up.

“Amora this is my cousin Dickie,” Brittney says with a bright smile. I wanted to kill her.

“Man you‘re a hot little mama!” Dickie announces looking me up and down.

Lovely, I was going to have to converse with this kid. I was hungry so I went with it. The meal turned out not to be worth it as Dickie began talking about NASCAR. My eyes flicked to the bar and I saw the guy from earlier. He was observing me obviously amused with how miserable I looked.

“Excuse me, my future one night stand is waiting at the bar for me,” I say knowing I had a way out. Paul and Andrew nearly choked on their drinks laughing as I stood up then left heading straight for the bar. The man had his back to me when I arrived at the bar. I ordered a glass of whiskey.

“Didn‘t take you for a whiskey girl.”

“Didn‘t take you for a stalker,” I counter as I took a big drink of the liquid fire I called my friend.

“Touché,” the man smiles, “The name‘s Derek Easterday.”

“And I‘m Fiona Valentine.”

“You don‘t look like a Fiona.”

“You don‘t look like a Derek,” I respond.

“You are becoming increasingly more interesting the more you talk,” he says.

“Its funny because the more you talk the more I realize you are full of it.”

“So Miss Valentine where exactly does that leave us?”

“Well Mr. Easterday, I‘m just going to do you a little favor and get your wallet back then be on my way because I just don‘t think you are one night stand material,” I reply confidently as I moved away from him and walked towards the other man that was walking away swiftly from the area. I walked ahead of the man tripped him slightly without anyone else to know it was me. The man fell on his face and I kneeled down next to him.

“I am so sorry sir,” I say flashing an apologetic smile at him. The smile distracted him while I took the wallet back that was in his jacket pocket. Helping the man up I flashed one last smile and Mr. Easterday looked at me quite impressed as I tossed him his wallet back. I didn’t say anything just headed towards the casino; I had a feeling I was going to get lucky.

I don’t know what came over me in Las Vegas, I never was so badass. That was the only way to describe how I acted right? Because it was Vegas I felt like I could get away with acting like that. When I got back to Arizona it was back to just being the humorous bitch who was very cautious and slightly uptight when it came to certain things. Things weren’t what I imagined life after graduating college would be. I was working two jobs, one as a receptionist in the day time and one as a bartender at night. That’s my life.