Didn't Stay in Vegas

by Chelsea M. Cameron

  As if he’d heard me, Vegas lifted his head and stared at Emma before getting up and going over to her.

  “Time to go outside, sweet boy. Do you want to come with me?” she asked me.

  “Of course I do. You’re not in this alone. I can be responsible too,” I said, a little defensive.

  “No, I know. We’re in this together, because I’m not raising this boy on my own.” I laughed at how much she sounded like a mother just then.

  “I’m not leaving you, or our baby. Am I?” I said to Vegas, who licked my hand. Emma snapped a leash on his new collar (we still needed tags with our numbers on them), and we took him outside and down the sidewalk.

  “Okay, now we wait,” Emma said as Vegas went wild sniffing everything and wiggling all over the place, running away and then coming back to check if we were still there.

  It only took ten minutes, but he did his business and then was properly rewarded and told what an incredible, handsome, genius boy he was, along with a treat that he munched on before we went inside.

  “Good job,” I said, high-fiving Emma.

  “I think we’re going to be good moms. Dog moms,” she clarified. I wanted to ask her if she ever thought about upgrading to human children, but that was another thing we didn’t really talk about.

  I wasn’t having them anytime soon since doing that would probably require a donor and lots of planning, if it was something I decided I wanted.

  Emma and I set up blankets and pillows in the living room and settled Vegas in between us as we watched a new episode of a show. He seemed to alternate between off-the-charts energy and being completely asleep. I could understand that on a deep level.

  “Do you love him?” Emma asked, as I stroked Vegas’s head.

  “I do. He’s perfect.”

  “He is, isn’t he?” she said, smiling down at him.

  “No regrets about getting him, even though it’s going to complicate our lives?” I asked.

  Emma sighed. “I mean, in less than a month I picked up a wife and a roommate and a dog. What more could I want?” Sounded like a pretty great life to me, after things being pretty shitty for a long time.

  “How about a million dollars?” I said.

  “Yes, that would be nice, but this is pretty great too, being here with you and Vegas. And chips.” She held up a bag that we’d been passing back and forth. The trick had been keeping the bag and its contents away from Vegas, which was a challenge, but fun. He’d only been ours for a few hours, but I already couldn’t imagine life without him. Seriously, I would stand in front of a runaway train if it threatened him.

  We took him out again, and this time it took nearly a half hour before he went potty, and I almost fell asleep waiting. The three of us settled onto the pile of blankets and pillows and I snuggled closer to Emma, with a drowsy Vegas cradled between us.

  “How is he so perfect?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. But he’s ours.” He was. Ours.

  I WOKE UP IN THE MIDDLE of the night to Vegas whining. Emma was asleep, so I took him out and did the rewarding. When I got back, Emma was awake.

  “He had to make a tinkle,” I said, and then cringed at myself. “I hate that I just said that. Who am I, my grandmother?”

  Emma smiled drowsily as I set Vegas between us. He flopped down with a sigh and she kissed his head.

  “We should go back to bed,” I said.

  “Or we could stare at him for a few hours.”

  “Yeah, sleep is overrated.”

  We didn’t end up staring at him for hours, or at least I didn’t. The next time I woke up, Emma and Vegas were gone, but as soon as I started to get up, the door opened and she came back in.

  “We had another successful trip, so I think this potty-training thing is going to be a breeze.” The room was filled with light and I grabbed my phone to see what time it was. Too early. I groaned, but I didn’t think I could get back to sleep. There was an adorable puppy to love on.

  “You want breakfast?” Emma asked, putting Vegas down and letting him romp around.

  “Not yet. My stomach isn’t awake. I’m not awake.” I covered myself with the blanket. In spite of the strange sleeping arrangement and the fact that I’d been woken up by Vegas, I had slept fine. I could always nap later.

  “Hey pretty boy, aren’t you handsome?” Vegas danced and made snuffling noises of agreement.

  “We should get him a bowtie,” I said, as Emma came back from the bathroom.

  “I need a shower,” she said, running her hands through her tangled curls. I would never look that good in the morning. I had the feeling I was a complete disaster, but it wasn’t anything Emma hadn’t seen before.

  “You can go first. I’ll stay with Vegas and make sure he behaves himself,” I said. Vegas dashed for one of his toys. I was going to teach this puppy to fetch, even if it took weeks.

  “Cool. I’ll start breakfast when I get out. Do you want to take him on a longer walk today? Start training him with a leash?” That seemed like a lot to put on him since we’d just gotten him home, but he did need his puppy exercise.

  “Yeah, maybe we can carry him if he can’t handle it.” He was still small enough to hold like a baby.

  “Sounds good.”

  We spent the rest of the lazy Sunday chasing Vegas around and making sure he didn’t chew or pee on anything. It was a lot of work and we were both worn out.

  “I think we should leave him out here tonight,” Emma said, but I was completely on board with sleeping on the floor with him again.

  “Just for a few more days? Until he adjusts,” I said, and Emma sighed.

  “I know I shouldn’t agree to this, but I’m going to agree to it just for tonight. After that, we have to teach him independence. He’ll be okay, I promise.” I was pretty sure that Vegas might be okay, but I’d be so worried about him, I’d spend the whole night going out to check on him. Guess it was going to be an adjustment for both of us.

  “What are we going to do tomorrow?” I said.

  “Well, I only have class for a few hours, so we’ll put him in the pen and hope he sleeps. I was looking into doggie daycare, so that’s also an option. It’s not going to be cheap, but I don’t want him to be alone here all day. This is why I wanted to plan more beforehand, Callyn.” She cracked her knuckles three times in succession, and I put my hand on her shoulder.

  “It will be okay. We’ll figure it out. I’ll do some research.” At least I could take that off her plate of worries.

  She waved my hand off. “I’m sorry, I’m just stressed about school and everything. Lots of change.” She gave me a tight smile and I pulled her into my arms. I realized I hadn’t hugged her in a while and I needed to fix that immediately. Emma sighed and fell into me. Her hugs were always perfect. She pulled back too soon, but only because we heard whining at our feet.

  “Sweet boy, we love you too.” Emma picked him up and we squished him between us. Like our little furry son.

  “Precious baby,” I said, kissing his head. I looked up to find Emma looking at me in a way that made my blood feel hot in my veins.

  “I know I seem like I’m stressed, but I just want the best for him, you know? I don’t want to be a bad dog owner.” She put Vegas down and I reached out to stroke her face to reassure her, but then stopped myself. Why would I do that? Stroking your best friend’s face was weird, in any context.

  “You won’t be,” I said, settling for squeezing her shoulder again. “You’re going to be the best dog mom.”

  “I’m not sure about that, but I’m going to try. I mean, I have the additional pressure, what with going to be a vet tech and everything. I feel like I should look everything up in my books about puppies that I can find, but I feel like that’s googling your medical symptoms and I probably shouldn’t.” I laughed.

  “Yeah, maybe stay away from the chapters about canine cancer?” Emma shuddered.

  “We should probably take him out again,” I said. We were getting quite
a workout going up and down the stairs with him. Unexpected benefit.

  “Vegas, no!” she cried and dove to pull something out of his mouth.

  “Where did he get this?” she asked, holding up a mangled toothpaste cap.

  “The trash?” We dashed to the bathroom to find that, somehow, Vegas had overturned the trash and had ripped through it, not to mention completely shredding the toilet paper from the holder.

  “I’ll take him out if you clean up?” I said.

  “I’ll get the broom.”

  I woke up before the sun the next morning (or was it still night?) to find Emma sleeping with her arm wrapped around Vegas, who was completely sacked out between us. Gently, I got up to pee and came back, but I couldn’t go back to sleep again.

  In the weak light, I watched Emma sleep. My best friend and fake wife and fellow dog parent. Things between us had changed so fast and I hadn’t had a chance to even think about it.

  She hadn’t kissed me on the cheek again, so I guess that was a one-time impulse. Not that I wanted her to do it again; that was absurd. I didn’t want to kiss Emma. She was my best friend.

  Just because we were both queer didn’t mean we had to be together or have feelings other than friendship for one another. I loved her, but not in a romantic way.

  Annoyed at myself, I shut my eyes and relaxed my body, starting with my toes and working upward in an attempt to lull myself back to sleep. It took a while. My brain was busy thinking about Emma and Vegas and all kinds of strange things that I didn’t want to be thinking about. Shouldn’t be thinking about.

  I wasn’t. I wasn’t thinking about anything. Just sleep.

  Seven

  “Guess what!” I yelled, as I walked in the door the following Thursday. I’d just gotten an extremely exciting phone call and I was so excited I was shaking.

  “What?” Emma asked, looking up from wiping the floor. Probably another one of Vegas’s accidents. He had his first day of doggie daycare next week, and we’d also signed him up for obedience classes at the same doggie daycare.

  “I got the job!” Emma dropped the roll of paper towels and bottle of cleaner and stood up.

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, I did!” She squealed and ran over to me, sweeping me up in a lung-crushing hug. Vegas jumped up and down at our feet, begging to know what his moms were carrying on about.

  “We have to celebrate. I’d say we should go out, but he’s been here alone all day. Order in? Someplace fancy, definitely. Want to get the fancy pasta?” There was a place near our apartment that sold pasta with truffles on it that was incredible, but was also over fifty bucks a serving. I had had it once before, since only a very special occasion called for pasta that was that expensive.

  “Yes, I need truffles. Do you need truffles, Vegas?” I picked him up and he went bananas licking my face.

  “Thank you for washing my face, buddy. I needed that. Oh, yes, you’re a good boy.”

  I set him down and Emma ordered the expensive pasta and I went to the fridge to grab a bottle of champagne. We’d replenished our stock recently.

  “I’m so happy for you,” Emma said, putting her hands on my shoulders from behind and leaning into me. I leaned slightly back against her as I popped the cork from the bottle.

  “I’m so relieved. I’m going to be making more money, so that’s good, and I really like my new boss. I mean, I like her now. I might not like her in a few weeks, but I’ll burn that bridge when I get there.”

  “No bridge burning,” she said, squeezing my shoulders and then moving away as I poured the bubbling champagne into two glasses. I missed the contact with her body, but I shoved that feeling away and turned to hand her a glass.

  “To us, to new jobs and new careers and to Vegas, the cutest dog in the history of the world,” I said.

  “Agreed,” she said, and we tapped our glasses together before sipping.

  “Do you have more followers now that you started posting Vegas pictures? Because I do,” I said, holding up my phone. My social following had been steadily climbing and I’d been getting more and more comments. Not that I cared about that because I didn’t post that much, but it was still nice to see that other people thought my dog was as cute as I knew he was.

  “Yeah, and I haven’t touched the group chat because everyone has just been begging for more pictures. I think Lara is mad.” I set my glass down and pulled out one of the stools to lean on.

  “Oh, she’s definitely mad. I’m going to be glad when this wedding is over. What are we going to do with Vegas during the bachelorette party, part two?” I had never had to plan my life so much. Neither of us liked to leave him alone for too long, since it seemed mean.

  “We can hire someone to look in on him. I actually have a friend at school whose parents are vets and she grew up training show dogs.” Her phone dinged with a notification that our expensive pasta was on the way.

  “Seriously? What kind of dogs?”

  “All kinds, I think. She was even at Westminster a few times.” Well, she certainly sounded qualified to watch our baby, but I also asked for her social handles just so I could do my own little background check. I was still working on that when the pasta got there.

  “Now remember, we can’t let him have any. It would make him sick,” Emma said, as if I was going to secretly pass Vegas bits of pasta from my plate.

  “I know, Em, I’m not going to give him any.” She put the bags on the counter and I got out the plates.

  “Don’t think I haven’t seen you passing him people food behind my back. You’re like a little kid who doesn’t want to eat their broccoli.” I narrowed my eyes.

  “That’s ridiculous. I love broccoli.” It was true. The best way to have broccoli was to roast it in the oven with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. My mouth was watering just thinking about it.

  Emma still seemed skeptical as we sat down to eat. Vegas whined at our feet and Emma got up and threw some of his toys in a corner to distract him.

  “We need to teach him that he can’t beg. I don’t want him being the bad boy in daycare,” she said.

  “He’s going to be the best boy and get gold stars,” I said, defending him.

  Emma tried to hide a smile as she shook her head.

  “You’re going to spoil him rotten.”

  “He deserves it.”

  Emma made a frustrated noise.

  “You’re hopeless.”

  “You love me,” I said, poking her shoulder with my fork.

  “Yes, I do,” she said and the way she said it made me freeze for a second. I looked in her eyes and there was so much there that made my heart squeeze in my chest. My eyes wanted to fill with tears. I was completely overloaded with emotions and I had to look away before I answered her.

  “I love you, too,” I said, staring into my plate of pasta. Suddenly I wasn’t so hungry.

  I was a nervous wreck leaving Vegas with the dog sitter on Saturday, but we had to go to Lara’s bachelorette party, part two, or else she would disown us as friends and I didn’t want to lose Lara. When she wasn’t stressed the fuck out about her wedding, she was an awesome friend to have around and always made me laugh.

  The dog sitter, Reece, was young, but Vegas raced right up to her and started doing his little happy dance and yipping, so I figured that was a pretty good endorsement.

  “I can send you pictures and updates anytime. Don’t worry, we’re going to have fun, aren’t we, precious?” Vegas licked her face and then started snuffling in her hands.

  “Do you mind if I give him some treats? I make them myself for my dogs and they love them.” Emma and I agreed, like good moms, and chatted a little more with Reece before heading out to catch a car to the tearoom where the first part of the party was happening. I’d decided to go fancy today, and even wore a little fascinator that I’d found online.

  “Where else can I wear this?” I’d asked Emma when I bought it.

  “I have no idea, but I think it would
look cute on you.” She’d declined my offer to buy her one, but she was all dolled up in wide-leg black pants and a gauzy white top that I would never dare wear because I would inevitably spill something on it. My mom had never allowed me to wear anything white and I’d carried that rule into adulthood. My dress looked vintage, but it was new and had a white and green toile print on it and a skirt that swirled when I moved. I loved twirling, but I had to make sure I didn’t twirl too much and show the world my cash and prizes.

  “You look really great today,” Emma said, reaching up to adjust my green fascinator to the perfect jaunty angle.

  “Thanks, so do you. I’ve never felt this fancy in my life. I’m totally ready to meet the queen. I practiced my curtsy this time.” I still wobbled, but I think it was passable.

  We arrived at the teahouse, which was attached to a hotel so fancy I didn’t want to breathe near it.

  “Are you sure we’re allowed to be here?” I asked as we walked to the front desk and were directed to the tearoom.

  “Yes, we were invited. Relax. Act like you belong here.” I didn’t know about that. I was going to have to really fake it. I tilted my chin up and focused my eyes right ahead and tried to walk like an heiress with no discernable talent.

  “I got this,” I said under my breath. Emma reached back and squeezed my hand.

  “You do.”

  We reached the back corner of the restaurant where our group was seated and almost everyone was there. I hugged Lara’s sisters, Lilly, Lila, and Lindsay (what were their parents thinking?), and said hello to a few of Lara’s other family that I hadn’t met before. Some aunts, a few cousins, and then there were several people from her work. Let’s just say it was a more subdued crowd than the Vegas group and there probably wouldn’t be any drunken marriages.

  I still had a little bit of guilt about that, but so far everyone was so focused on their own lives and Lara’s wedding and our cute puppy that no one had asked. Yet. Hopefully the tea wasn’t spiked and I started sharing secrets, as I was wont to do when I was intoxicated.

  Lilly rose from her seat with difficulty (since she was eight months pregnant) and tapped her spoon against her teacup to get everyone to be silent. “To Lara, my youngest sister, on your big day. We are so happy for you and Asa and we can’t wait to see what life has in store for you. To Lara!” We all daintily raised our teacups and laughed as we clinked them together. There were finger sandwiches with things like watercress in them and little cookies that were as light as air and tiny cakes and scones with clotted cream and I decided that high tea was the shit.