Chapter 2 #2
They were young – probably mid-twenties – one blonde and the other brunette and both were undeniably attractive.
They were also looking for a sugar daddy or two to foot the bill for this weekend, if I had to guess.
They both appeared to be extremely high-maintenance – just like both of his ex-wives – and I didn’t even want to imagine what kind of story Mitch had spun about himself to get them to come up to the room with him.
He was in commercial real estate sales and raked in the money on commissions, but thanks to his own spending habits and the alimony he paid to both of his ex-wives, I doubted that he would be able to keep up with these two for long.
“Ladies, this is the friend I was telling you about. Ryan, this is Lydia and Katerina.” Mitch slid his arm around Lydia, who turned and whispered something to her friend.
The brunette eyed me up and down as she sauntered across the room toward me, swaying her hips and exuding confidence with every step.
A flicker of unease went through me as she held out her hand, pushed out her ample chest, and flashed me a flirty smile.
“It’s very nice to meet you,” she said, clinging just a little too long to my hand as I returned her handshake.
She moved in closer until mere inches separated us, and I instinctively took a step back as I extracted my hand from her grip, flashing Mitch a death glare over her shoulder.
He grinned at me and waggled his eyebrows, then bent his head to nuzzle Lydia’s ear.
“Mitch told me so much about you that I feel like I already know you,” Katerina gushed, not picking up on my body language at all as she ran her finger down over the buttons of my shirt.
I reached for her hand and gently removed it from my chest, then stepped back even farther.
“I’m going to assume that he forgot to mention that I’m married. Very happily married,” I tacked on for good measure. Her eyes widened momentarily, then narrowed as she spotted the wedding band on my finger.
She swiveled her head to frown at Mitch, who in turn scowled at me when Lydia rolled her eyes and shook her head as she slipped out from under his arm.
“If you’ll excuse me, ladies,” I said, sidestepping the two visibly annoyed women and shoulder-checking my pissed-off best friend as I crossed the room and opened the door.
“I’m heading down to the casino,” I tossed over my shoulder to Mitch, giving him a look that conveyed that we’d be having a conversation about this bullshit later.
I exhaled noisily as I pushed open the door to the stairwell with a little more force than necessary.
“Fuckin’ Mitch,” I muttered under my breath, lightly jogging down the stairs to the casino on the main floor.
This wasn’t the first time he’d tried to rope me into being his wingman, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Actually bringing a woman up to our suite for me was taking it too damned far, though.
He found me at the blackjack table ten minutes later, sliding onto the stool next to me and nudging my elbow in silent greeting.
There was only one other player at the table – a young guy who barely looked old enough to legally gamble.
He and the dealer ignored us as Mitch immediately launched into an explanation that was part an apology, but mostly a complaint.
“Look, man, I know you’re pissed, but she was a sure thing. She didn’t want to leave her friend alone at the pool though, so I figured you would do me a solid and keep the other chick company while the blonde and I had a little fun.”
“Her name was Lydia,” I pointed out, tapping my finger on the table for the dealer to hit me with another card. “The blonde…her name was Lydia,” I clarified when Mitch just gave me a blank look.
“Whatever,” Mitch rolled his eyes.
The dealer laid a queen down next to the ten and four I already had showing. Busted. I dropped my head momentarily, then shrugged and smiled faintly as the kid on the other side of table hit on twenty-one and celebrated with a discreet fist pump and a muted “Hell, yeah.”
“I still don’t understand why you couldn’t have just played along for a little while,” he groused.
“I know you love brunettes. If you didn’t want to fuck her, fine, but would it have killed you to flirt with her a little and make conversation for a while?
It’s not like Melanie would ever know. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, man. ”
I motioned to the dealer that I was out, then stood and tossed a chip his way as a tip, not sparing a glance at Mitch who scrambled off his own stool to follow me back out onto the casino floor. I rounded on him, pointing my finger in his face.
“I don’t ‘love brunettes’, I love my wife, who happen to have beautiful brown hair.
I don’t play around on Melanie, and you damned well know it.
Whether Mel would ever know or not isn’t the issue.
I would know, and I’m not going to flirt with another woman just so you can get your rocks off with her friend,” I said, angrily.
“And what if you’d come in with them while I was on the phone with Mel, or worse, on FaceTime with her?
Can you imagine how my wife would have felt at seeing two women in bikinis hanging out in our hotel suite?
How the hell would I have explained that? ”
“All right, I get it,” he said, holding his hands up placatingly. “I fucked up, OK? I didn’t think about getting you jammed up with the little woman.”
Jesus, it was times like these that made me understand exactly why Melanie couldn’t stand this guy. He could be a condescending prick sometimes.
“Look, just knock it the fuck off, OK? No more pushing women my way, and no more digs at my wife.”
Mitch sighed and nodded, then clapped me on the shoulder. “You’re right. I’m just looking forward to cutting loose this weekend and I got carried away. Let’s go grab some dinner. My treat,” he coaxed.
“Fine,” I conceded, then warned, “but I’m getting prime rib and the biggest lobster tail they have.”
He winced, before his lips turned up in shit-eating grin. “See, I’m not the only one interested in getting tail tonight.”
I shook my head and left him standing there laughing like an idiot at his ridiculous pun. Just for that I was going to order the jumbo prawn appetizer, too.