Chapter 11 #2
As we step out onto the deck, a soft breeze dances over my face.
There’s almost no one here, so there’s plenty of space for Theo and me to soak in all of the sights.
The Bellagio fountains’ final display of the night comes to life as the clock strikes midnight, and the view from up here is even more alluring than on the ground.
Together, we work our way around the deck, admiring the dazzling lights and late-night chaos of Sin City below.
We can see all the way from the very tip of the Stratosphere at the north end of the strip down to Mandalay Bay at the south, and everything else in between.
Seeing the hotels from above like this really homes in on just how huge each resort is, and I get that overwhelming feeling again that there simply isn’t enough time in one weekend to explore all of the attractions before us.
“The Sphere is winking at us,” Theo says, as the wraparound LED screen of the giant spherical entertainment venue that sits behind the strip changes to a yellow winking emoji.
“This is way better than abusing my eardrums in the club,” I comment, hooking my fingers over the fencing. I release a sigh. “I fear I’ve gone rogue, Theo.”
He laughs. “Rogue?”
“Yes, rogue,” I say. “I should be with Addy and the girls, making sure she’s having the time of her life, because that’s kind of my role as her maid of honor and bachelorette planner, but if I can’t do that, then I should definitely be holed away in my room rewriting the final chapters of my book .
. . But instead of doing either of those things, I’m winging it on the Vegas strip with you, and I don’t wing things. ”
“And is it that bad? Winging it?” Theo asks, inching closer to me. “Nothing’s going wrong. We’re having fun, right? I mean, I’m definitely having fun, and I’d like to hope you are too.”
“Yes, I’m having fun,” I admit shyly. “I just feel a tiny bit guilty.”
“How about we enjoy this view for a little longer, and then we’ll head back to your room to get some more writing done, and then we’ll join the others in the club for the end of the night? That way you’ve covered all of your bases and have nothing to feel guilty about.”
I turn my head toward him and my breath hitches when I realize just how close he really is, his bright blue eyes already focused on me.
I don’t know how Theo understands me, how he seems to just know exactly what I need in order to keep my brain from spiraling.
I need reassurance and solutions when I worry, and I need quiet and calmness when I’m overstimulated and overwhelmed.
Lots of people know that about me, like my parents and Addy and my coworkers back in the dental practice, but Theo?
Addy’s annoying little brother? How does he know what I need to function?
“That sounds like a really good plan,” I manage to say with a nod. “When did you become so emotionally intelligent, anyway?”
“Probably when we lost Grandma,” he answers very seriously and not in the witty, clever way I expected him to. His gaze dips to his hand pressed up against the fencing, a delicate, dainty sliver of a gold chain on his wrist.
Addy has an identical bracelet, and Evie too.
If I remember correctly, the three of them got matching bracelets with their grandmother, which were permanently welded onto their wrists right before she was moved into hospice care.
Addy is extremely sentimental about hers, so I imagine Theo feels similar.
“Ah, yeah,” I murmur awkwardly, because I never know what I’m supposed to say in response to these kinds of things. It wasn’t that long ago that his grandmother died—I attended the funeral to be there for Addy. “Has it been a year already?”
“Yeah, just over,” he says, lifting his eyes back to the view of the Bellagio fountains across the street. “I’m still a big goofy idiot, as you’ve probably noticed—”
“Hard not to notice.”
Now he’s the one to roll his eyes for a change.
“—but losing Grandma changed the way I viewed people. I realized there were so many things about her that I didn’t know.
Like what she appreciated the most in life, what she valued and longed for, what her struggles were.
The real stuff. I feel like I didn’t know her, so now I make the conscious effort to really understand the people I care about. ”
Something flutters in my stomach. It feels like Theo understands me, but I’m not anyone he should care about. I smile at him. “What’s Addy’s coffee order?”
“Trick question,” he says. “Addy hates coffee. Matcha every day, any day. That was too easy, Hails. Ask me something deeper.”
I take my lower lip between my teeth. Perhaps it’s too loaded a question, but if Theo is as observant as he says he is, then I’m curious to hear his thoughts on a question I struggle to find an answer to myself. “Do you think she’s truly happy with Liam?”
“Oooft.” Theo sucks in a breath and releases it again as a low, single whistle. “They look great together, and they’ve known each other since high school. They both want to start a family sooner rather than later. They literally work together. On paper, they make a lot of sense.”
“But not on paper?” I press, my voice quieter, because I can tell there is a lot being left unsaid.
Theo shrugs, and he considers his reply for a moment before he finally admits, “Sometimes she doesn’t quite look like Addy when she’s with him. Like, there’s this distant, faraway look in her eyes that I don’t recognize as the Addy I know and love. Do you know what I mean?”
I nod somberly, because I know exactly what he means.
I see that look in her blue eyes sometimes, too.
It’s ghostly and wary, like her infectious spark has been stolen from her, and it only ever happens when Liam is around.
That’s what makes me wonder if things aren’t as picture-perfect as they seem, but then in the very next moment, Addy will gush about how excited for the wedding she is, or affectionately pull Liam in for a kiss, or show off the glitzy pair of earrings he’s just bought her .
. . and I’ll convince myself I’m imagining things, and that perhaps I’m just jealous that she’s in love and enjoying her fairytale ending while I’m perpetually single, writing fictional love stories rather than living my own.
So it’s interesting to me that Theo has the same concerns I do. Maybe I’m not imagining anything, after all.
“But there’s no way she’d be marrying the guy if she wasn’t happy,” Theo says, lightening his tone, “so yeah, I do think she’s happy.”
Good point. Addy’s a people-pleaser, but not to the extent of marrying someone.
We’re all out here in Vegas right now because she and Liam are in love and excited to begin forever together, and we shouldn’t be doubting their relationship.
We should be celebrating this special occasion with them, yet we’re standing up here in this replica Eiffel Tower instead.
I turn to Theo with a small smile. “Shall we get that writing session under way so we can join them in the club sooner?”
“Eiffel Tower, check,” Theo says as we turn back toward the elevator.
“Is there anything specific you have in mind that you’d like us to see tomorrow?
Maybe we could start at the south end of the strip and work our way up, touring each hotel on our way?
I don’t think we’ll manage the entire strip in one day, though.
It might have to roll over into Sunday—”
The laugh I let out silences his excited rambling, and he stares at me blankly. “It’s okay, Theo. We won’t still be handcuffed together tomorrow, remember? Melissa will unlock us later.” I shake our hands as though to remind him.
Now Theo understands. As he pulls me into the elevator, he smirks. “And how does that change anything, Hails?”