At The Cal
The day was January 24th, 2009, and I had booked us a room at the California Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, this was the same place where we first happened to have met a little over a year ago. I told my wife about booking a hotel room for us at our old place and she was happy. The previous week before the booking, my wife just started a new job -- making only $7.50/hr doing tedious tasks and listening to incompetent trainers. I figured she needed to get away from it all, so did I.
I've been collecting unemployment since Christmas time due to the current recession and my job no longer needing me to come into work. I can't say I've done too much between then and now other than going to the sports book to place some bets, drink beer, clean the house, watch the dog, and fill out a few applications here and there for jobs I didn't want. Still, the fact of the matter was that it all had to change sooner or later, it was a trap, the 40 hour work week, before it was easy to find a job to get stuck into, a working-mans routine, society liked it when you told them that you did something rather than nothing, but now with the current economy, more people were doing nothing.
The day begin as usual, we decided to stay at the house until close to check-in time At the Cal, so we did our last minute things before leaving. My wife did her workout routine, while I had a beer and cigarette outside. We were both looking forward to staying the night at The California Hotel, we've both been feeling stressed out, taking life too serious and forgetting to enjoy each others company. I put a change of clothes in the suitcase, while my wife packed her clothes, high heels, and the other necessities like toothbrushes and toothpaste. It felt like we were going on a long vacation and leaving all our troubles behind.
We loaded up the car and got inside to make the five minute drive downtown to the California Hotel. On the way we decided to pick up a bottle of Spumante to drink and celebrate in the hotel room. I could tell by the look on my wife's face that the emotions and memories of our first time being there were overwhelming her. We parked the car on the 3rd floor of the parking garage and begin to walk into the casino lobby where the hotel check in desk is located. As we got closer my heart began to pound faster...
"What's your last name?" The hotel clerk asked me.
"McDougall," I responded.
"Thomas?"
"Yes, that's me."
My wife stood to the left of me as I showed the clerk my ID card and credit card for the billing. He began typing the information into the desk computer and printing up the room receipt and shoved the room keys into an envelope and handed it to me.
"Your room number is 2226, we hope you enjoy your stay at the California Hotel," he said politely.
"Thank you," I told him back.
We grabbed our bags off the floor and began to walk towards our hotel room. My wife lead the way saying,
"Our room is over here, just follow me."
So, I let her lead me through the maze of compulsive gamblers and casino slot machines. We arrived at the elevators doors and pushed the button waiting for the elevator to descend down the shaft. Ding! It arrives and we get on and press the button to our floor. We arrive on our floor and get out, looking around at the new but familiar hallway, we walk down the long path looking for our room number, above us are mirrors and we look up and stare at ourselves for a second then keep walking.
"This is our room," my wife says.
I pull the key from the envelop and slide it in the key slot, we see the green light come on and hear the door click and unlock, turning the knob, we walk inside and begin to look around the room. It was a little different than our previous room, but had a familiar feeling, it had two beds, like the first time we stayed there, even though we only ended up using one. It also had a better view out the window looking down towards Main Street. We didn't bother to unpack our stuff being that we only were only staying one night, we figured we'd just change out of the suitcase. We put the Spumante in the mini fridge, along with some bottles of water and a tall can of beer. We then kiss, kiss, and kiss. It felt great being there and being together. This was the place where everything began, this is the place where I feel in love with my wife.
We climbed into bed, wasting no time, and began to undress each other, I kissed my wife on her neck and began to touch her body. We made love. When we were done we laid in bed naked under the blankets just holding each other and kissing. It felt good to be with her, life felt good.
"I love you Thomas," she'd tell me constantly.
"I love you too Val," I'd tell her back.
Every time I looked into her eyes they seemed to be full of love, they looked at me like her heart was melting.
I asked her if she was okay and she said,
"I'm just happy!"
After the sex my wife was sleepy and I was hungry, I hadn't eaten anything all day. So, I told her that I was running downstairs to the casino to pick-up some food and that she could rest for a little bit until I got back. She looked up at me with her eyes half closed and said okay. I put my clothes back on and checked my back pocket for my wallet like I always do, it's a habit I've had ever since I lost it last year at the pool hall. I kissed my wife on her mouth and told her that I'd be right back. She kissed me back, saying, "I love you too," while laying naked in bed under the blankets.
As I walked out of the elevator into the casino lobby, it felt like I was really on vacation, away from it all. Everything seemed brand new, the neon lights, the people, the bad Hawaiian t-shirts they were all wearing, the sound of people hitting jackpots. I walked through the casino to this take-out food place and got in line. I ordered the tempura shrimp with onion rings and two egg rolls. The cook dropped my order and smiled presently telling me to pay at the cashier. I walked to the cashier, a short Hawaiian girl who didn't understand when I told her my order, I repeated myself two more times, she finally placed the order and took my money.
When I got back to the hotel with the food, my wife was still in bed with the television on. I put the food down on the table and went over to her to give her a kiss. She got out of bed and sat with me at the table to eat the food. It felt good to be with her, I leaned from across the table to kiss her while her mouth was full of food, she kissed me back. I took out the bottle of Spumonte from the mini-fridge and poured us both some into the hotel room plastic cups. We made a toast to our being together forever and our love for each other and drank from the plastic cups.
"What do you want to do?" I asked her.
"We can walk the downtown strip and get a margarita at the Fremont casino."
"We can do that," I told her.
That night we walked down the downtown strip arm in arm, kissing along the way, life was beautiful with the canopy of the Fremont street experience as our tunnel of love.
We walked into a bar we've been into a few times and found two seats at the end of the bar.
"We'll have a Budweiser and a margarita," I told the bartender.
"Can I see some ID?" he asked us.
We showed him our ID's then he went to get our drinks. As he went to get our drinks we talked... about everything. My wife stayed close to me, she was very beautiful and I felt very lucky to have her as my wife. I held her close and rubbed her thighs as we talked. We drank our drinks slowly enjoying each others conversations. The night was long and belonged to us. We drank and talked for about an hour before we left. We had plans to go down to another restaurant called Triple 777, where we planned to eat some sushi rolls.
AT Triple 777, we were seated at a more intimate table where we could sit side-by-side next to each other. My wife loves sushi and went directly to the sushi menu, I browsed the items but decided I wasn't too hungry and to split her order. She ordered three rolls, our favorite being the Unagi roll. I decided to try something new and ordered an oyster shooter mixed with a shot of tequila. The waitress who took our order looked at me when I asked for the shooter, asked me if I was older than 21, I told her, "Yes," she thought about carding me, then placed the order without checking my drivers license.