Three Years Later

by Casey McMillin

  "What are you telling me right now? Are you breaking up with me? Are you dragging me to a formal banquet and leaving me in front of everybody? Am I supposed to walk through that crowd of people after being dumped by my boyfriend, my long-term boyfriend?"

  "I'm sorry. You have no idea how hard this is. I thought I'd never see her again, and—"

  "For Christ's sake, Collin, stop talking about her!"

  "I'm sorry. (a pause) It's just that I have to break your heart right now, and I don't know a pretty way to do it. There's something with her that I can't ignore, and I—"

  "Holy hell Collin. You just can't stop yourself from spouting off about her can you? So is this it? Is this how it's going to go down? You just leaving me during the middle of a party?"

  "I guess it is, Beth. Yes. There I said it. Did you have to hear me say it? I'm leaving you. I'm sorry that it went down like this but I'm not going to lie to you or her—"

  "Uuhhhh, are you kidding me? Fuck her. Fuck you too Collin. I guess I'll find my own ride home."

  She stood to her feet, turned on her heel and stormed out the door. I felt like I should call out to her, stop her and try to help her, felt like I should offer her a ride home. I hated to hurt her and I wanted to make it better, but I knew the only thing that would make it better in her mind was for us to work things out and that wasn't an option.

  The least I could do was offer her transportation. A plane ticket home would probably be the easiest. I'd call her cell phone in a few minutes to make arrangements and pay for her ticket, but first I had some explaining to do. Josh and Ethan watched Beth storm out, and were now coming into the room to have me fill them in.

  "First of all," Josh, (ever the practical one) said, "Does one of us need to follow her? Is she going to be okay?"

  "I'll call her in just minute. I figured you guys should know what's going on first."

  I explained in under a minute about how I met Rachel at Disneyland, and ended up losing her but never forgetting her. I had been carrying the wallet-size picture of us at Disneyland in my wallet for the last three years. I tried to throw it away over the years, but I just couldn’t make myself toss it. I took it out and showed them.

  I must have somehow conveyed just how much I loved her, because by the end of my brief explanation, my friends were totally on board with the transition from Beth to Rachel.

  "How can we help?" Josh asked. "I can drive your truck home and give her a ride if you want. We can leave now."

  "Hold up, hold up," I said. "We'll come up with something. I'm not sticking you in the truck with Beth. She's not too happy right now."

  "Let's go back to the room and talk to her," Ethan said.

  "You guys don't have to come back with me. I'd hate for you to miss the party."

  "Nothing's going on here anyway. There's only so much dancing you can do to a jazz band." Ethan was lying through his teeth. His parents made him take years of ballroom dancing classes when he was younger, and he loved nothing more than to ham it up on the dance floor.

  "You guys are just hoping to see a cat fight." I said, smiling.

  "You got that right," Ethan said.

  "Uh-huh," Josh added. "And they would make one hot catfight." The two of them high-fived each other, knowing they were sharing the same mental image. I had to laugh at them.

  "If you two weren't such dorks, I'd kick your asses right now for having thoughts about my lady."

  "Which lady?" Ethan asked, mock confusion on his face.

  "Very funny. Seriously, though, you guys should just stay here while I take care of this. It's my mess and I don't want you to miss the party."

  "Naaa," Ethan said, "We were wanting to hit the casino anyway. We'll go with you to run interference with Beth then we'll hit the Black Jack tables. If we walk in wearing these tuxes, they'll think we're high-rollers and give us free drinks."

  "You actually think that's going to work?" Josh was looking at Ethan like he was off his rocker. "So stupid Ethan, I bet half the people in the casino have tuxedos on. They don't know where we came from. We could've been the background dancer in one of the shows or the groomsmen in some guy's wedding."

  "That's it!" I said. I couldn't believe I hadn't already thought of it.

  "What's it?"

  "A wedding. A Vegas wedding. I'm gonna find her and marry her."

  "The new girl?"

  Ethan was gonna learn her name real quick. I slapped the backside of his head. Not hard enough to make him bite his tongue, but hard enough so he'd remember my next word.

  "Rachel." I looked back and forth at my two friends, excitement starting to build thinking about finding her and never letting her go again, excitement about marrying her. "Let's go."

  Chapter 13

  Rachel

  Gretchen had me by the arm, thank God. Who knows where I would've ended up if I had been leading the way. We scurried down the hallway toward a set of stairs on the far end of the balcony. I could hear a female voice calling after us.

  I felt like I was in a movie or something. Surreal. Nobody had ever yelled fighting words at me before, and I wasn't too keen on it. I felt sick. I was terrible at confrontation, thanks to my overly passive parents.

  Gretchen and I were trying not to stand out in the crowd, so we slowed our pace to a brisk walk once we knew the girl in red wasn’t following us anymore. I still wanted very badly to get out of there, but I thought running through the ballroom was perhaps a bit much.

  "Just let me do the talking," Gretchen whispered as we approached a group of people. One of the people standing in the group alerted Joel to our arrival, and he turned to greet us.

  "I've been wondering where you—" His words died out as he took in my appearance. Was I really that bad?

  "What's happened?"

  "Oh, nothing, she's fine. Just not feeling so good. I think it was the seafood."

  "Well, what can I do?" Joel asked.

  "I'm gonna get her back to the room, but we'll be fine. You go ahead and stay here. She's fine, really."

  Joel looked me over, assessing my condition.

  "You sure?" he asked.

  "Yeah, we're good. I have her phone if you need to reach us, and you know the room number." Joel reached out to put a comforting hand on my shoulder.

  "Sorry you got sick," he said. He was looking right at me, worried, and I knew he just wanted to see for himself that I could speak a coherent word before he let me walk away. My voice came out funny, but at least it still worked.

  "I'm okay. I just need to lay down, or drink some ginger ale."

  Joel smiled at that. "I'll come check on you in a little while," he said. "Call if you need me."

  "We will," Gretchen said, and I guess she thought he needed a little more assurance because she called out, "She's fine," as we walked away.

  She led me the rest of the way across the crowed room and out the door. I was so glad we didn't have far to go to make it to my room. We were able to avoid other people, for the most part and when we did have to make small talk, Gretchen handled it.

  "Okay, let's have it," Gretchen said once the door to my room was securely fastened behind us. We sat on the edge of my bed both of us still dressed to the nine.

  "Where do I start? Well, you remember what happened last time right? Three years ago… with the girl who called him?" She gave me a nod. I let out a huge sigh at the prospect of rehashing the whole story. I hoped I could get it all straight in my own head. "Do you think I should get out of this dress first? Get comfortable?" I asked.

  "What are you, eighty years old? It's not even nine o'clock, and you're in Vegas. And you still look hot." She tucked a stray hair. "A few little pokes and prods and you'll be good as new. Come on Ray, you can't tell me whatever happened in that five minutes was bad enough to ruin your night. You can't just throw in the towel. You're Rachel Coleman, remember? Tell me the whole story."

  I told Gretchen everything. I told her how he caught me in the hallway and how he kissed me like
his very life depended on it. My heart lurched just thinking about that kiss. I told her that as far as I could tell, he loved me and I thought I loved him back.

  Gretchen figured out all by herself that the girl in the red dress was Collin's girlfriend. I knew he had some things to work out with her, but I heard him say he would come for me. I really didn't know what to expect exactly, but for some reason I still had a good feeling about things working out between Collin and me.

  I tried to remember specific things he said to me while we were in that room, but I couldn't for the life of me recall his exact words. I tried to assure myself that he seemed like he wanted to be with me. I knew while I was in that room with him that I had the general feeling everything was going to turn out great (you know, happily ever after)… right up until the other girl started beating the door down.

  It was just a lot to take in at once, but I was already feeling better just for having shared it with Gretchen.

  "Do you want to be with him still, even with the girl?" she asked.

  "Yes." My answer came without hesitation. I didn't want anyone else, hadn't wanted anyone else for three years and counting. "I think it's okay for me to trust that I'll see him again," I said, with the hint of a smile touching my lips.

  "Thaaat's my girl. Oh yeah, you're okay. I'm so glad I didn't let you get out of that dress."

  "I don't know… I mean, I definitely don’t want to run into her or anything. It's probably best if we just let them work it out. I think he'll find me when he's ready."

  "This has nothing to do with him. You won't run into them, and you certainly don't have to stay holed up in your room just because he's doing whatever he's doing tonight. You found your man! You think you're going to end up together in the long run, so you do get your happily ever after. Yeah, there's a slight complication, but you found him, and he wants you! We should still be able to still have fun tonight, celebrate even. Come on, the hard part's over. You're beautiful in this. Don't waste Vegas."

  Gretchen could sell ice to an Eskimo. Fifteen minutes ago, I was faking sick in front of who knows how many people to escape a mortifying situation, and now I had forgotten all about it. I was rip-roaring to go by the time she finished her little spiel.

  All right, so maybe rip-roaring was a bit of an overstatement, but I no longer felt like I needed to crawl into a cave and never come out.

  I was relieved to see that my reflection in the mirror wasn't as bad as I anticipated either. The people at Bliss had styled my hair half up with lots of waves, and nothing disastrous had happened on that end. As for my face, I'd never been so thankful for having worn nude lipstick. Just think if I'd been wearing red, I thought. After that kiss, my face would've probably resembled a child's finger-painting.

  I called out to Gretchen from the bathroom. "You want to text Joel and see what he's doing? I'm sure he'll be at the banquet for a while longer, and I don't want to go back there, but we can see what he has planned after that and maybe meet up to hang out. I think he knows his way around Vegas." I could hear her footsteps as she crossed the room. She stood in the doorway of the bathroom while I finished up.

  "Yeah, that sounds fun. He's a good guy, don't you think?"

  I gave her a mischievous grin. "I know you think he's a good guy, I can see you checking out how good he is."

  "Ha-ha, very funny. I am not checking him out." Then, she used the oldest subject change trick in the book. She brought up something that would most certainly distract me.

  "Does Collin know how to get in touch with you?"

  I had to think about that for a minute.

  "I don't think he knows my room number or anything, but he knows my last name and where I work so he'll find me when he can. I know he's got stuff to take care of tonight, though. But you know what? I really don't want to even think about that."

  "You're right. He'll get in touch when he can. Do you want me to contact Joel?"

  "Yeah, grab my phone from the coffee table if you want."

  At that, Gretchen was gone from the bathroom doorway. She retrieved the clutch I'd been carrying, and came to stand next to me at the vanity where she began digging for my phone. "How do you fit all this stuff in here? It's like a clown car." She finally found my phone and pressed the home button. "Woah, that's crazy… Joel's texting you right now. He said he's only staying at the banquet for an hour tops and he'll be coming by your room to check on you." Gretchen took her eyes off the phone long enough to look at me when she said, "I'm just going to text him back and see if he has anything in mind for later tonight. I'll tell him you're feeling better."

  "Perfect, thanks. Is this better?" I turned to let her see the repair work I did on the makeup.

  "Gorgeous sweetheart."

  ****

  Thirty minutes later, Joel knocked on the door. (He had sent a text, so we knew to expect him.) Gretchen and I were sitting on the sectional sofa at the entrance to the room. The door was unlocked so we just called him in. Both of us started to stand as he walked in, but he gestured for us to keep our seats.

  We could see now that Seth Sparks was walking in behind him. The two of them came in and took a seat on the opposite side of the sofa. Joel wore a concerned expression like he couldn't believe the text about me feeling better was true. "You feeling better?" His eyes roamed over me. "You look good. What do you think happened back there?"

  Part of me wanted to play it off. I was hesitant to get into the whole story or to even know how much to tell him. But the other part of me, the part that was still overjoyed about finding Collin, had to spill the truth.

  "I sort of ran into an old, um (what was he exactly… friend? fling?) a guy I knew. It's a long story, but suffices to say we liked each other a lot. Anyway, we thought we would never see each other again, and he's got a girlfriend now. He was here with another girl, I mean, and she sort of caught us. Well, she didn't catch us, we didn't do anything, or not what you're thinking, but—"

  "I heard something about this," Seth said, interrupting me and surprising us all. "Yeah, I saw Ethan Erickson on his way out." He paused, thinking back. "He said he and Josh were leaving to help Collin… something about him finding his soul-mate and dumping his girlfriend and a catfight or something."

  "Oh God." I said, groaning. I covered my face with a hand.

  "So it's Collin?" Seth asked. "Collin Blake? Is that the guy?"

  "Yes, it's Collin." Gretchen answered his question so I wouldn't have to. "But there wasn't, nor is there going to be a cat fight. We're gonna just wait for all this to blow over, wait for Collin to straighten out whatever on his end, and then catch up later. No more drama."

  "So you found your soul-mate, huh?" Joel asked, a smile playing on his lips.

  I didn't care if I sounded like an idiot for saying it… "Yep. Looks that way," I said with as much confidence as I could muster. Even though I was almost certain everything would turn out fine, I couldn't help the flush that covered my face as a result of all this Collin talk. Joel must have taken pity on me because he didn't say anymore about it.

  "Paul Smith has a penthouse room at the hotel next door, and he's having a party after the banquet." Joel said.

  "The chlorine guy?" Seth asked.

  "Yep," answered Joel.

  "Why didn't he just get a room here? I thought they gave a discount to everyone coming to the banquet."

  "You think he cares about a discount, Seth?" Joel wasn't trying to make Seth feel too bad about the stupid question, but it was funny. I even let out a little laugh.

  "Okay, I guess I'm the only person who doesn't know who Paul Smith is," Gretchen said.

  "He basically owns the rights to chlorine," Joel said, looking at her. "No, I'm just kidding," he continued, "But SmithChem, his company, is the largest manufacturer of pool chemicals in the world. God made water. Paul Smith makes it clear." Joel said.

  "Well I say we go to his party." Gretchen said. "Sounds fun."

  "I'm in," said Seth.

  "Me too," I
said.

  Joel was beaming. "Well, all right," he said. "Let me text him and make sure of the room number and we'll head over. We should probably give ourselves a little time to gamble on the way up there, though, don't you think?"

  "I'm feeling lucky," Gretchen said to him, and I could see the slightest hint of challenge in his expression as he regarded her. He offered us both a hand and we left the room for round number two.

  Chapter 14

  Collin

  Take care of Beth and find Rachel. Take care of Beth and find Rachel. Find Rachel. This was my new mantra. Everything seemed so overwhelming, but somehow, repeating this phrase it made me feel better.

  "What'd you say?" Josh was looking at me from over his shoulder while he walked. I hadn't realized I was speaking the words out loud.

  "Nothing. Just talking to myself."

  Josh and I were headed upstairs to meet Beth in the room. We assumed she was still up there, but she wasn't answering her cell phone so there was no way for us to be sure.

  Ethan stayed behind to make excuses for us. I asked him to get Joel Perrin's phone number if he could, or at least let him know I wanted to talk to him and wasn't trying to be a flake. I didn't have much hope that Ethan would rub any elbows on my account, but honestly I didn't care at this point. There was only one thing on my mind. Rachel.

  But first I had to think about Beth. I had no idea how long it was going to take to get the Beth situation squared away… no idea what to expect from her. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl; I hated to think about how she must be hurting right now. I should probably be ashamed to admit it, but those feelings paled in comparison to the utter excitement I felt at the thought of Rachel. My hands ached to touch her again. I couldn't wait to see her. Knowing she was in this town, probably even the same hotel was causing my chest to tighten. The waiting was almost painful.

  I held my breath as I slid the room key into the door. I was somehow both relieved and disappointed when I saw Beth sitting on the edge of the bed, still wearing her red dress. Was it cowardly of me to be glad that Josh was here, being my wingman for all of this?