Page 7 of Good Vibes Only
“Dude. You stole the goalie’s water bottle off the net and threw it into the stands,” Cale said, one eyebrow raised.
I snickered. “Yeah, and what happened right after? He lost his mind and let in the very next shot.You’re welcome, by the way, Connor.”
Connor winked at me. “Thanks for the assist, Showtime.”
“Anytime, bud. You know I’ll do anything it takes to win.”
“Which, to be fair, is what makes you a little dirty,” Brock said.
“But that’s why we love ya,” Connor said.
“And that’s why you’reShowtime, man,” Tank said. “You’re always putting on a show out there.”
“Sounds like I might have to put on a show over at Good Vibes Only,” I said. “Because Vegas isn’t big enough for the two of us.”
The boys mumbled and grumbled:
“Oh, lord.”
“Here we go.”
“We’re definitely gonna be hearing about this again, aren’t we?”
I picked up my cards and looked over my hand. I liked what I saw.
“You boys ready to lose all your money or what?” I asked and threw a handful of chips into the pot.
3
McKayla
With a sigh, I plopped into my office chair and started typing.
“Due to the ongoing construction next door,” I wrote, my fingernails tapping on the keyboard, “holding workshops in our classroom is unfortunately impossible at the moment. We will be canceling all future classes until further notice, and refunding your class fees. We’re so sorry to everyone who was excited to attend these amazing workshops! As always, we’ll update you as soon as . . .”
Having to cancel our workshops seriouslysucked.Having to refund the class fees was one thing—but the part that really hurt was missing out on all the purchases the attendees madeafterclass ended. That’s where therealmoney was made on these workshops.
Not only that, but ever since construction began, in-store sales were down twenty percent. As it turns out, customers don’t enjoy shopping when they’re subjected to a soundtrack of constant banging and hammering. Our customers no longer lingered to talk and browse and get inspired; instead, they were in and out of the shop within minutes.
Who knew the sounds of construction would not inspire sexy thoughts?
The worst part was there wasn’t anything that could be done about the noise. Every time I went over to ask the construction workers if they could lower the noise, they just shrugged it off and gave me some answer like,“The work’s gotta get done, honey.”Trying to explain my situation—that I ran the business next door and the noise was hurting my bottom line—didn’t help at all. A guy with a big bushy beard—the foreman, maybe—just snickered, said,“Ohhhh. You run that smut shop?”and made a scene out of running his eyes up and down my body while he licked his lips. Like, because I ran an adult boutique, I was clearly a total nympho slut or something.
Oh, and if all that wasn’t bad enough, Raven and I had been nursing a migraine going on two weeks now.
But if you ignored the fact that my business was being destroyed before my very eyes and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about any of it, and my life and mental health were in shambles … well, everything was just peachy!
Sigh.
I needed a break. Or a new perspective. Or some friggin’ luck. I don’t know what I needed, but I knew I needed itrightnow.
My phone chimed.
It was a text from my best friend, Sofia Miller.
“Hey, stranger!”
Sofia’s been my best friend ever since we were kids in Minnesota. After college, we reunited in New York City, where we did the whole “young professional working an office job” thing, until that got old as hell. Sofia’s the reason I moved to Las Vegas two years ago—we both wanted to change up our lives.
