Getting Lucky (A Lucky Novella)

by Gioertz, Karina

  “Can I help you?” she asked, sounding less polite than one might expect given the friendly content of her actual words.

  “I’m sorry…used to be my classroom… I’m just here to pick up some of my stuff.” The words basically just spilled out of my mouth without any real structure, which might have been fine for someone else, but not ideal, and frankly somewhat embarrassing, from one English teacher to another. Which the woman made no bones about when she crinkled her brow and peered down at me over the tip of her nose – a considerable feat, I may add, since she was several inches shorter than me.

  “So, you’re the one who’s running cross country to be with some man after spending a weekend with him? Yes, I’ve heard quite a bit about you in the last three days,” she said snidely as she turned away and finished clearing the board.

  I was already up to my elbows in my top desk drawer when I froze for a second before shooting straight up into a more upright position a second later.

  “Yes, I’m the one! And not that it’s any of your business, but he’s not just some guy and I’m not running after him. I happen to be from there myself, so I’m really just going home!” Then I shoved the rest of my belongings into my bag and slammed the drawer shut. Before storming out of the room, I turned back and said, “And if you’d seen the size of his penis, you’d know that any woman in her right mind would gladly follow him to the moon and back.”

  It was a slight exaggeration, but who cared. Wasn’t like she’d ever find out for herself anyway.

  It took some improvising and quick thinking on my part, but I managed to make it back off of the school grounds before anyone else saw me.

  After that, I did my best to pass my time while waiting for Noah to call me, letting me know that it was safe to come home, but it wasn’t easy. First, I took every detour I could think of on the way back from the school, but it only added another ten minutes or so to the commute. Then as I was about to make the final turn into Star, I decided to pull over and wander the grocery store. I was getting hungry again so there was no telling what I would fill my cart with once inside.

  By the time Noah finally called I had been in the store for over an hour and my shopping cart clearly represented that fact. While I had initially tried sticking to a few items we might need for the last night here, I quickly abandoned my plans and decided I might as well fill up on snacks we would need for the drive back. Even without having to worry about the moving truck, we still had my car to get back home. Besides, I loved road trips so there was no way I was going to let Noah try to finagle something with the moving guys that might involve us going home on an airplane.

  When I walked into my apartment, I was amazed to find it completely empty. For some stupid reason I had expected to find boxes and random pieces of furniture still spread out around the apartment. Not with these guys. They had apparently been far more efficient at packing up my belongings than I had been. My pride momentarily reared its flashy head as I felt the sting somewhere deep in my soul over having been beat. It’s not that I didn’t know that I was being childish, I did, but it still hurt a little.

  “What do you think?” Noah called down from the loft when he saw me.

  “I think those guys must have called in for back up the moment I left,” I said jokingly, but secretly hoping it was a possibility.

  Noah laughed, dashing my foolish fantasy immediately. A few seconds later he was standing beside me and taking the shopping bags from me. As he went and placed them on the kitchen counter he said, “This isn’t so bad. From the way you were talking on the phone, I expected to see you show up with a whole truck load or something.”

  “Oh, I did. I just couldn’t carry any more. The rest is still in the car.”

  Noah paused.

  “Seriously?”

  I was already unpacking the bags and didn’t even bother looking up to answer, “Ohhh yeaaaahhh.”

  I heard Noah sigh loudly as he put the cereal box he was holding back on the counter and walked out to the car to get the remaining groceries. It took him two trips before the trunk was empty.

  “How on earth are we supposed to eat all of this food?” he asked, staring at the three bags of mini donuts in his hands.

  “Look, I was hungry, okay!? And I wasn’t allowed to come home, so I found a way to occupy myself the best way I could.”

  “By preparing for a natural disaster?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, I would have bought way more water and batteries if that was the case,” I stated it very matter-of-factly, completely ignoring that he was making fun of me.

  Noah just chuckled and shook his head. Then he helped transfer the groceries to some left over boxes without offering any further commentary.

  For dinner we ordered in pizza. It seemed logical since there were no pots or utensils left to cook anything, nor were there any plates left to eat from. And most importantly, because I suddenly didn’t have an appetite for any of the stuff I had just bought.

  We sat outside on the banister of my balcony as we ate, dangling our legs over the side of the building and enjoying the quiet of night that surrounded us. The horsey smell I loved so much about living there was starting to move through the chilly air and I took a deep breath in, knowing that tomorrow I wouldn’t be there to do it again.

  “Smell that?” I asked dreamily.

  “Yeah, but I’m trying not to,” Noah replied dryly.

  “Why not? Don’t you think it smells nice?”

  “Not with pizza, no,” Noah said, making a face.

  I suppose he had a point. The flavors didn’t exactly mix, but it’s not like I wanted to eat the hay, I was merely enjoying its rustic scent.

  Noah tossed the last piece of his crust out into the bushes for the birds to get and swung his legs back over onto the balcony. I watched him until he went inside and then turned my attention back to the sky.

  It wasn’t long until he was lifting himself back up onto the ledge and handing me a small packet. Once I got a better look, I was able to see that it was actually a map. Not just any map, but a map of the entire country. Noah had taken the time to highlight our entire route, making little notes along the way.

  “I thought it might be fun to do more than just drive non-stop. This trip should be more, it should be epic!” he said, excitement flashing in his eyes. It was contagious and I could feel the butterflies taking flight in my stomach.

  “But don’t you have to get back to work? I mean, at least one of us ought to have a job to go back to.”

  “It’s totally fine. I already talked to D,” Noah assured me. He paused. “I guess now is as good a time to tell you this as any.”

  I froze. What the hell had he been hiding from me now?

  Noah saw the look on my face and laughed. “Would you relax? This is a good thing, I promise.”

  I slowly let out the air I’d been holding in. “If you say so.”

  He nodded. “I do. I would have told you sooner, but with everything that’s happened, I guess I kinda forgot. While you were gone, I bought into the bar.”

  “What do you mean, you bought into the bar?” I had heard the words twice now, once from Noah and once from myself and yet they still weren’t registering.

  “I mean, D. sold half of the business to me. Which means I’m part owner…which is important because that means we can turn this road trip into a three month hiatus if we want and I can’t get fired,” Noah grinned.

  Meanwhile, I was so beside myself, I nearly fell off the ledge I was sitting on.

  “What? How? Where did you get the money to do that?” I had a million more questions just like those.

  “Um, okay…so you might get kinda mad about this part.”

  Never the words a girl wants to hear.

  “Go on.”

  “Remember waaaayyyyy back in the day when that chick kicked me out and I had to come and live with you?”

  I raised my brows and rolled my eyes.

  “Obviously.”

&
nbsp; “Well, that’s the thing…that kinda never happened.” Noah squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself just in case I felt the sudden urge to shove him off the balcony.

  “What do you mean that never happened?”

  “I mean, I was never shacked up with some girl. And even if I had been, she couldn’t have kicked me out because it was my place. See, I bought this townhouse a while before I even met you. I kept it all these years as a rental so the place basically paid for itself. Then, after you moved, I was all messed up and trying to figure my crap out. I knew it was time to make some changes so when D. came to me with the offer is was a no brainer. I sold the townhouse and used the money to buy into the business. Well, some of the money. I have a pretty hefty chunk of it left in my bank account. Hence, the moving budget.”

  By the time Noah was done, I didn’t know whether to laugh or scream. On the one hand I was ridiculously excited and proud, hearing about his newest accomplishments and ambitions. On the other, I was pissed that he had tricked me, even if it had been six years ago. The pissed feeling was quickly fading to flattered though as I began to think about the lengths he had gone to in order to be close to me.

  “I’m going to go ahead and let all that settle for a bit. For the moment, I’m just going to say congratulations on becoming a business owner. But I would like to reserve the right to get pissed again at a later date, should I deem it necessary after further examining the situation.”

  Noah chuckled. “That’s fine by me.”

  “Alright then, let’s have ourselves an adventure! So, what were you thinking?”

  Noah reached for the map and opened it up to Idaho, our starting point. With his finger, he began to trace the highlighted route.

  “I was thinking we should go south. I want to stop here and see the falls and then move on through Jackpot. Depending on what time it is, we could stay there for the night and do a little gambling if we wanted, or we could just keep going until we reach Vegas, where we could gamble with our lives…it would be the biggest gamble ever. High risk, but with a possibility of even higher rewards…What do you think?” Noah was looking at me hopefully, but I wasn’t any less freaked out this time around than I had been the first time when he sprang the prospect of marriage on me.

  “Noah,” I started, but he stopped me before I could say anything else.

  “It’s fine if you’re not ready. And I don’t care if you keep saying no, but it’s not going to keep me from asking you.”

  Then he lifted the map from his lap again and continued on with his plans for the trip. He had put a great deal of thought into it, taking little detours here and there whenever he knew it would take us to somewhere or something I had mentioned wanting to see at one point or another. I was stunned at how much he remembered, how much he had been listening all these years, especially when I thought he wasn’t. When his finger landed back in our hometown, he smiled and folded the map back up.

  “Better get this back inside and into my bag. Wouldn’t want to end up on the road without it.”

  He jumped down from where we were sitting and hurried inside. The night air had gotten chilly, something I was now all too aware of since Noah had left and taken the warmth of his body heat along with him. Carefully, I twisted my body back around until my feet were hovering over solid ground again. Then I slid down as well, following Noah inside.

  I could see the light on up in the loft and made my way up the stairs. He was just zipping up the side pocket of his bag. When he saw me, he smiled and wandered over toward the outlet in the corner where he had plugged in his phone earlier. I stood there for a moment staring at the nearly empty space. I hadn’t made it upstairs since coming home with the groceries. Aside from our bags, the only other thing left in the room was my bedding, which was neatly folded and stacked up along the back wall. Automatically my eyes traveled to the ledge on which I kept the urn. There was something stuck on the front of it. I was beyond annoyed and ready to lash out as I stormed over to where it stood, prepared to wage war with whoever had defiled my grandmother’s remains. When I finally stood in front of it, I found myself entirely speechless. It was a note reading ‘EXTREMELY FRAGILE - PLEASE DON’T TOUCH – OWNER WILL PACK’. Slowly my hand moved to retrieve the small piece of paper that had been placed there so carefully to shield my grandmother from the dangers that really only lurked within my own mind. Tears shot to my eyes faster than I could force them back and when I finally spoke, my voice was breaking.

  “You still want to go gamble with me? Because I think I just went all in.”

  Still holding his phone in his hands, Noah stood there starting at me as though I had just spoken in a foreign language he not only didn’t understand but didn’t even seem to recognize as being human. Suddenly terrified that he hadn’t meant for me to take the marriage proposals seriously, I frantically began to search my mind for some funny way to back out of the cheesy acceptance speech I had just made. Before I could come up with anything even remotely believable or redeemable, I heard a thud as Noah’s phone hit the ground where he had dropped it. By the time my eyes traveled back from where they had found the phone to Noah he had already reached me. His whole face was beaming. The only thing more shocking to me than seeing such pure joy on the guy’s face after having just learned that he would only be sleeping with one woman for the rest of his life, was the fact that his eyes while overflowing with excitement were actually glistening. No tears escaped the vortex, but the emotions had definitely stung him in a physical way, one I hadn’t ever seen in him before.

  “You’re sure? You want to do this with me?” he asked, and an unwanted quiver of nerves shook his voice. Recognizing the same fear I had felt seconds earlier, I nodded, finally breaking into a smile and throwing my arms around his neck.

  “I’m so freaking sure, you don’t even know!” I squealed. Then as he pulled me as tight as he could I whispered, “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

  Chapter 9

  Viva Las Vegas Baby

  Both of us had been far too excited to even consider sleeping the night before. We decided there was no time like the present to take the biggest gamble of our lives. So, we packed up the rest of our stuff, along with the two cart loads of groceries I had bought the day before and loaded everything into my car. Well, we did all of this after we spent at least half an hour doing the most ridiculous happy dance I’d ever done with another human being around my bedroom. By the time we hit the road is was almost one a.m.. With only the bright rays of my headlights guiding us through the dark of night, we took off on our grandest adventure yet. Given the cramped interior of my SUV, we decided it would be best to let Noah do the driving, since the floor space on the passenger side had already been filled with a cooler and several food bags, completely eliminating any and all leg room in the process. Not much of a problem for me since I liked to sit curled up with my legs up to my chin anyway, but not so great for Noah who had limbs the length of tree trunks.

  Depending on how he drove, we expected to reach our destination somewhere within the next nine to twelve hours. It wasn’t my first time riding with him, so I wasn’t surprised when it was closer to nine and we arrived in Las Vegas just after ten in the morning.

  Our first mission was to locate a hotel. Eloping or not, we were going to have at least some sort of a honeymoon, even if it was as hasty and unplanned as the wedding itself. After cruising along the strip for a bit, we decided on the MGM Grand, for no other reason than that we both pointed at it at the same time saying ‘ooh’ as we drove by. Seemed as good a sign as any that we were supposed to start there.

  After check in, we went straight to our room. We had decided on the drive there that there really was only one way to do this and that was with the people we cared about most.

  So, while Noah got on the line with D. I was hitting the speed dial for Tara.

  She had barely answered when I blurted, “How quickly can you get to Vegas?”

  “Excuse me? Why Vegas?
Are you in Vegas?”

  “Yes. I’m here with Noah and I desperately need a bridesmaid.”

  After I dropped that bombshell, the line went silent for so long, I thought we had been disconnected. That was, until I heard Tara screaming in the background. Apparently, she had abandoned the phone as she went running to Jason. Even so, I could hear everything she was saying without a problem, which made me suddenly grateful that she had put some distance between herself and the receiver.

  “I freaking knew it! Who told you Lucky and Noah would end up together? That’s right! I did! And now they’re getting freaking married! Yes, she said married! Hurry up and get on the computer – we need to book some flights ASAP!” There was a brief response from Jason which translated into a deep muffle by the time it reached me. Then, the sound of Tara’s heels came clicking across their tile floors as she ran back to retrieve her phone.

  “I’ll call you from the airport. Don’t do anything until we get there!” There was a click and the line was dead. I could picture Tara making a beeline for her closet where she was likely strategically pulling down a suitable Vegas wardrobe and transferring it into her suitcase at that very moment.

  Next up was Gabe. Since we had decided to make him best man, Noah did the honors. The call lasted all of three minutes and when it was done Noah simply said, “Think he’ll still want cash after this?”

  I slugged him in the shoulder and turned before he could see me grinning. Since we had some time to kill until everyone arrived, we headed back downstairs and wandered around the casino until we found a place to eat. When we were done, we ventured back over to the check in counter in search of the hotel’s concierge. Neither of us ever having been married, we hadn’t the faintest clue how one went about doing it. We figured it couldn’t be too hard considering how many people seemed to do it by accident and while intoxicated. If Noah had ever been to Vegas before, I would have been half worried that he was already married and just didn’t remember it.

  The concierge was more than happy to help us, even offering to set up a small ceremony in the hotel’s chapel, but after taking a quick tour of the space, we both declined. Not that it wasn’t beautiful, it was. Too beautiful in fact. Somehow, eloping in Vegas needed to maintain some sort of a trash factor. If it started to appear too pretty or too planned out, it would suddenly go from being spontaneous to half-assed and that wasn’t what we were going for. So, we thanked the lady profusely and then asked her to direct us to the nearest Elvis chapel instead. Strange enough, she seemed to understand completely.