Page 12 of Gamble
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”
He felt Kent’s glare on him, but he didn’t turn to give him the satisfaction of looking him in the eyes.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I told Avery our date would need to wait a few weeks because I have a trip out of town coming up first.”
“I thought you were filming in town at the studio. You have another gig on-location?”
“Naw, I’m taking an old friend to Vegas for his birthday,” he answered, sipping from his own drink.
It was the way Kent said it that put Elijah on edge. He’d been ignoring the upcoming date on the calendar, determinedto make turning the big 5-0 just another day. The last thing he wanted to do was make a huge deal about hitting his fifties.
He played dumb. “Oh? Have a great time. You always loved Vegas.”
“You used to, too, if I remember correctly.”
His friend wasn’t wrong, but since he didn’t gamble and he could hook up with random women at Black Light, his desire for trips to the debauchery capital of the country had gone down.
“Ancient history,” Elijah confirmed, hoping to put an end to the conversation.
“Bullshit. I’m not gonna let you curl up and just wait to die. I may call you old man, but you have another good twenty-five years in you.”
“Ha, when was the last time a stuntman made it to seventy-five?” Elijah asked.
Being the smart ass he was, Kent spent the next two minutes naming off an impressive list of still living previous co-workers, some in their eighties.
Maybe the asshole had a point.
“Hey boss. That Dom that’s visiting from the East Coast club is wanting us to green light him to use the latex breath play table. Spencer doesn’t have an approval process in place like we do to make sure he’s qualified to lead a breath play scene. What do you want me to do?”
Thank goodness for Tyler’s interruption. Maybe it would get Kent to change the subject.
“If I remember, he’s been a Black Light member for over two years, right?”
“Yeah, according to his membership file.”
“Then he’s good to go. Maybe move over closer to his station and keep an extra eye on him. I’m just wrapping up my visit with my old friend. I’ll come in to help in a few minutes.”
Always friendly, Tyler reached out to shake Kent’s hand. “Any friend of the bossman is a friend of mine. Tyler.”
“Kent.”
The interaction should have ended there. It did not.
“I’m glad you came over, Tyler. I need your help.”
Elijah felt a headache coming on.
“Sure, anything.”
He gave Kent a dirty look, but it didn’t stop his friend from proceeding with his request.
“You may not know it, but your boss here is about to turn the big 5-0 next week, and while he would love nothing more than to sweep the whole thing under the rug, I feel obliged to make sure he celebrates the achievement properly. After all, birthdays are always an occasion to celebrate when you have someone with the number of accidents he’s had in his past.”
“Wow, that’s great! But I thought you were already in your fifties,” Tyler added before his smile turned to a frown after realizing what he’d said. “I mean… not that you look old, just that you’re so wise and…”
“Fuck off,” Elijah groused, trying not to feel even worse than he had before.
Kent chuckled before adding, “So, I know he’s going to say he’s too busy and there’s no way he can get the time off work, but I also know him well enough to know he has a couple years’ worth of vacation days accrued he hasn’t used. Any chance you and your co-workers could do without him here next weekend? I have a bunch of old stuntmen friends lined up to go to Vegas with us for a long weekend.”
