"Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Maybe some good will come of this after all. Thank you both for coming here today. Let's eat our dessert and then work the floor for a while. After that, we'll go upstairs and brainstorm like we used to do in the old days."
"Hear, hear!" Billie said.
Across the street in a windowless room, men, impeccably clad, took their seats at a highly polished table. An elaborate centerpiece of fresh orchids sat in the middle of the table. To the left of the floral arrangement was a sterling silver coffee service. To the right, an identical sterling silver tray with crystal decanters containing one-of-a-kind cordials and old brandy. Crystal ashtrays and fresh packages of cigarettes were at each place setting.
The man at the head of the table, a Harvard graduate, opened the meeting simply by raising his hand for silence. His voice was cultured and resonant. "If my information is correct, The Emperor of Las Vegas is no longer with us. Do you see a problem, gentlemen?" The men shrugged as one. "How did it happen?'' was the second question. Again, the men shrugged.
The man at the head of the table poured coffee.' 'The incident that occurred last night did not affect any of us. Business-wise, we made money. I understand that the explanation for the incident was that Mrs. Thornton was making a statement. I think we would all be wise to take that particular statement at face value. Mrs. Thornton is in total control of Babylon. I do not believe Mrs. Thornton has any desire to cross over to your side of the street.
"Mrs. Thornton has a sterling reputation, as did her mentor, Sallie Thornton. The Strip, this town, needs her. As long as
your gentlemen stay on your side of the street she gives all of you respectability. The lady has class, power, and wealth. To my knowledge, that power and wealth have never been abused except once. All of you felt that abuse because some of you tried to cross the line and pull an unsavory business deal."
"A deal is a deal. We buckled under to a woman," a voice at the end of the table snarled.
"You conducted a business deal. Your tone of voice is not appreciated, nor will it be tolerated. You are not hoods, you're businessmen. You knew the ground rules when you hired me. Remember that."
"Mrs. Thornton is in the rag business. What does she know about the gambling business?" someone asked.
"I would imagine you'll find out very soon. Mrs. Thornton is a lady ... of her word, as you all know. You might be wise to work behind the scenes to aid her endeavors if those endeavors turn out to pertain to something other than the gaming business."
"That would be aiding the enemy. Ash Thornton was the enemy."
The man at the head of the table sighed. "Ash Thornton was your competitor, not your enemy. All of you here need to recognize that the old days are gone forever. There's a new game in town called 'the legitimate way.' Are there any questions, gentlemen?"
"With The Emperor gone, what do we call Mrs. Thornton?"
"Mrs. Thornton sounds appropriate." The voice at the head of the table held a rich chuckle. A hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"If there are no questions, we're adjourned."
Marcus Reed stood to shake the hand of each man filing past him. His job here was done.
Fanny sat down at a small table in the Harem Lounge. She wished she could kick off her shoes and remove her hose so she could wiggle her toes. How in the world did Ash do this,
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night after night, week after week? She couldn't ever remember being this tired. She reached out to accept a glass of ginger ale from the bartender.
"It gets to you after a while, doesn't it?" a man at the next table said. Fanny watched as he unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and yanked at his tie.
He looked like a contented customer. She needed to smile and make polite conversation even though it was doubtful the man knew who she was. "It's these shoes. I'd give anything if I could take them off and wade in one of the pools."
The man smiled. "What's stopping you?" The tie was in his hands and then stuffed into his pocket. "I feel about ties the way you feel about your shoes."
"I think I'll just get lower heels. It was a lovely tie." He was flirting with her. Fanny felt her face grow warm. He was handsome, middle fifties, dark hair tinged with gray at the temples, classic features, winsome smile. Winsome? He was wearing a magnificent suit, custom-tailored. She knew a thing or two about fabric.
"I like the idea of wading in the pool better. I wonder if anyone has ever done that."
It was Fanny's turn to smile. "I rather doubt it. Did you win or lose tonight?"
"Actually, I broke even."
"That's not good for the house."
"Do you work here?"
"In a manner of speaking," Fanny said. She tried wiggling her toes inside her shoes. A corn was forming on her little toe, she could feel it start to burn. Three more hours to go. How did Ash do it?
"What does in a manner of speaking mean? Marcus Reed," he said, extending his hand.
' 'Fanny Thornton,'' Fanny said, reaching for his hand. When she didn't see any acknowledgment of her name, she said, "I more or less watch over things on the floor. It's an education in itself. I might enjoy it more if my feet didn't hurt so much."
"That does it." The man was off his chair in the blink of
an eye. In the time it took her heart to beat twice, Fanny found herself slung over the man's shoulder and whisked out of the Harem Lounge to the stunned surprise of the bartender. "One pool coming up."
"You need to put me down, Mr. Reed. People are staring and gawking at us. This is not funny. What if someone takes a picture. My rear end is in your face," Fanny said, her head bobbing up and down.
"So it is, now that you mention it. Here we are. As someone who once wanted to be an architect, I can appreciate the work and beauty of this pool. There you go, Fanny Thornton. Doesn't it feel good?" he said, standing her up inside the pool. "I'll hold your shoes until your feet cool off. Nylons dry in seconds according to my sisters."
"People are staring," Fanny hissed.
"Then let's give them something to really stare at." Marcus stepped into the pool. "Good lord, there's fish in here."
Fanny doubled over laughing. When she raised her head, Marcus splashed her. She splashed back. A crowd gathered, Billie and Bess in the front line. Fanny laughed harder at their startled faces. "I'm, ah ... what I'm doing is ..."
"Having fun," Marcus Reed laughed. "Well, as much as I'm enjoying this, I really have to leave. I have a plane to catch. It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Thornton."
"I'm sorry about your shoes and pants."
"Don't be. I haven't had this much fun in a long time."
Fanny watched Marcus walk away. She was suddenly aware of the people staring at her, of her friends Billie and Bess. It took her a second to realize she was seeing spots in front of her eyes. Flash bulbs.
"Did you have fun?" Bess asked.
"Actually, Bess, I did. My feet feel better, too. I don't think I've ever done anything quite so public before," Fanny said, stepping from the pool.
"I say we call it a night," Billie said.
Fanny picked up her shoes to follow her friends. She waved to the onlookers and grinned.
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"Who was that man?" Bess asked in the elevator.
' 'He said his name was Marcus Reed. I met him in the Harem Lounge when I went in to rest my feet. He seemed like a real gentleman."
"Well, his three-hundred-dollar shoes and thousand-dollar suit are ruined. He didn't seem to mind," Billie said, a thoughtful look on her face.
"I have a feeling I'm going to be in the morning papers," Fanny said.
"Do you care?" Bess asked.
"Too late now," Fanny said. "They'll probably call me the Mermaid of Babylon or something equally silly. Ash will throw a fit."
"Life goes on," Billie said, the same thoughtful look still on her face.
"Okay, let's have some coffee while we go through the personnel files. Tomorrow is
another long day."
Fanny snuggled beneath the flannel sheets. It dawned on her, just as she was drifting off to sleep, that she could get up out of bed and turn the air conditioning higher. She adjusted the thermostat and climbed back into bed just as the telephone rang. Please, God, let it be Simon. Please. But it was her ex-husband's voice on the other end of the phone.
"Ash, why are you calling me at quarter to four in the morning? You are the last person in the world I want to talk to right now. Furthermore, you said you were walking away and you didn't care what happened. You're calling to find out what happened, right?"
1 * Wrong, as usual. I just wanted to see how you were. I used to wind down about this time every night. It will get easier as time goes on. I think I really called to thank you. I don't suppose that means anything to you. How is Simon taking it?"
Fanny felt her throat constrict. "Simon won't be joining me here in these sumptuous surroundings which really aren't so
sumptuous right now. I smashed up the place last night, Ash. Then I turned the power off."
"Way to go, Fanny."
"Tonight some guy from the Harem Lounge tossed me over his shoulder and stood me up in one of the pools because my feet hurt. Someone took pictures. I'll probably make the morning papers, so be advised."
"Did you have a good time?"
"Sure. My feet feel better, too. No one knows how to work the generators. Perhaps you should tell me how to start them."
"There's an On/Off switch. You turn On and voild. You got light. I would have thought you could figure that out. When the generators are working, they only juice the first three floors."
"I didn't try. Your people made it sound mysterious. They said you were the only person who knew how they worked."
"I didn't want anyone messing around with them. One klutz, and three million bucks would have been shot to hell. Run that business about Simon by me again."
"I said he wants no part of this. He won't be joining me."
"So what's the big deal? You can go up there weekends or he can come down to Vegas. Constant togetherness in a marriage causes it to erode. I'm glad you made it through the first day."
"Oh, yeah. I even called a meeting. Do you want to know how it turned out?''
"No. Listen, I hear Polly whimpering. I want to get to her before Sunny wakes up. She had an elevator put in for the two of us. Is that something or what?"
"Yes. That's something. Take care of your granddaughter, Ash."
"She takes six ounces. You should hear her burp!"
"Good-bye, Ash." There was no response.
Fanny buried her head in the pillow and sobbed. "You're dying, and you're finally happy. How am I ever going to understand something like that? I don't wish you ill, Ash, truly I don't. Just take good care of Sunny and the kids. When you can't to do it anymore, I'll step in if she lets me."
Damn, she was wide-awake now.
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Fanny picked her way through the debris in the living room on her way to the kitchen, where she brewed a pot of coffee.
What are you doing, Simon? Are you awake? Of course you are. I'm sitting here thinking of you and I know you're sitting on the glider thinking of me. If it wasn 't so tragic, it would be funny. Change your mind. Simon. Maybe this won't be forever. If we Jove each other, we should be able to make it work. I cannot desert my family no matter how much I love you. I just can't. A man flirted with me tonight Simon. I enjoyed his attention. Oh, Simon, what's going to happen to us?
Careful not to make any noise. Fanny made toast. She really didn't want or need the coffee. She was already one big jangling nerve.
Fanny leaned her head into the palm of her hand. She stared at the stark white refrigerator. She thought about her husband and her family. She wished she was young again, back in Shamrock. Pennsylvania, knowing what she knew now. Such a foolish thought. She thought about Sallie: she always thought about her mother-in-law when she reminisced. No matter how hard she tried, no matter what she did or didn't to do. Same's life paralleled her own.
Fanny's thoughts took her backward in time to the day her father-in-law had his stroke and Sallie went to Devin Rollins to break off their twenty-year-long affair. Devin had pleaded with Sallie to no avail. With his love lost to him he'd committed suicide that very evening. Sallie gave up her life to take care of Philip, and, in the end. her guilty, sick devotion to a man she didn't love had killed her. Now. Fanny thought she was doing the exact same thing, following in Sallie's footsteps. She screamed her despair, banging her head on the glass-topped table.
Bess and Billie leaped from their beds to race to the kitchen. "What happened 0 " they asked in unison. They listened to Fanny babble incoherently, their eyes wide with disbelief.
"Don't you see. no matter what I do. no matter how hard I try. it always comes back to Sallie and me. It's almost as if she cloned me when I wasn't looking. I don't know how to
break the chain. Just look at the similarities. I'm taking over for Ash, doing something I absolutely hate, because he's dying. Sallie gave up Devin to devote her life to Philip, out of guilt. We all know I'm giving up Simon for the same reason. It's never going to end. Never!"
Billie and Bess dropped to their knees. "It isn't the same thing, Fanny," Billie said gently.
"Oh, Fanny, please listen, Billie is right. Sallie wasn't divorced. You are. Sallie didn't remarry. You did. Sallie didn't have a daughter with a progressive disease. Devin committed suicide because he was a weak man. There is nothing about Ash that is weak. Ash has taken the horns of his bull and he's dealing with it the only way he knows how. All he asked of you was to take over his job. It's totally different, Fanny."
"This is a new time, a new place. You hate this business, Sallie loved it. That alone should tell you something. Sallie was locked into a situation of her own making. She wasn't smart enough to climb out of the trap. She gave up. We all loved her, but that doesn't make what she did right. You haven't given up on Simon. He has to be man enough to recognize the sacrifice you're making for your family, recognize that he loves you. If he chooses, and choose is the right word, Fanny, and does not accept it, then he isn't the man you thought he was. Do you agree, Bess?"
"One hundred percent," Bess said.
"How can a person exist twenty-four hours a day doing something he or she hates with a passion? It can't be emotionally healthy. What's going to become of me?"
"If you go into something with a negative attitude, everything you do will be negative. When things are at their worst, they have to get better. Jump into it, embrace it, and remember our goal. Think of this as opening-night jitters. Bess and I are here for you. I'm staying for a full month because my wonderful guy recognizes that I need a separate life. Bess is going to be right here with you all the time. If you falter, we'll pick you up. It's up to you to do the rest, and you can do it. Right now you're still smarting over Simon's attitude, and the way your
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marriage was the past two years. You've committed, but you haven't committed one hundred percent. When you do that, you don't look back. It will be whatever it's meant to be. Let's go back to bed now," Billie said.
Fanny allowed herself to be led back to bed. "What would I do without you two?"
"You'd do just fine. We're just moral support." Bess smiled. "Do you want us to tell you a story or sing you a bedtime song?"
"Only if it has a happy ending," Fanny said, punching at her pillow.
"No guarantees, Fanny," Billie said softly. She turned out the light and closed the door.
Fanny drifted into sleep. Her dreams weren't of her ex-husband or of her husband. They were of a dark-haired, dark-eyed man splashing water on her as goldfish tickled her feet.
In the room down the hall, Billie kicked off her slippers. "I don't see a happy ending to this chapter in Fanny's life. What do you see, Bess?" Billie's voice was so fretful-sounding, Bess punched at her pillow as though she was pummeling dough in preparation for
making bread.
Bess nodded. "Who was that man in the pool? I saw the way he looked at Fanny. You wait and see, he's coming back. Fanny's vulnerable right now." She punched the pillow again, so hard that feathers sailed upward. "I would have thought Ash Thornton was a foam-rubber man."
Billie reached out for one of the feathers. "Maybe it's an omen of some kind. I believe in stuff like that. Do you, Bess? I can't sleep. I'm too wide-awake now."
"Me too. Billie, all that stuff we told Fanny before . . . did we lie? It's getting downright spooky. Fanny's life really does parallel Sallie Thornton's. Sometimes I think Sallie choreographed the whole thing and she's ... up there saying, yes, no, this is wrong, this is right, do this, don't do that. Am I nuts?"
"Well, if you are, then I am too, because I feel the same way. What we have to do is convince Fanny it isn't so."
"That makes us traitors," Bess murmured.
"I prefer the word friends looking out for another friend. We need to get some sleep. Tomorrow, today really, isn't going to be much better than yesterday. Our first order of the day should be getting that living room cleaned up. Maybe Fanny will let us decorate this place. If I had free rein here, I could turn this penthouse into something Fanny would never want to leave. Maybe that's not good, though."
"For now, it's wonderful. Billie, who was that man? He was no ordinary customer, was he?"
Billie was quiet for so long, Bess repeated her question.
"I think he's Fanny's true destiny. If that sounds corny, I'm sorry. When I saw the way he looked at her I got goose bumps. Look at my arms, just talking about him gives me the chills. We need to go to sleep. Fanny's private life is not our business. I'm already spooked, so let's not talk about it anymore, okay?"
"Okay. He had a sense of humor. I like that in a man. Simon takes life too seriously. Ash doesn't take life seriously enough. In my opinion the Thornton men are misfits. I always said that."
Billie snorted. "It's in the genes. The two Coleman men I knew were misfits, too. It's Fanny's and my infusion of blood that made our kids the people they are. Good night, Bess.''
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