41

Something was up with Emma when I hooked up with her in Vegas. Not that it was anything new, something was always up with Emma, but that day it seemed bigger or something. We had lunch and I small talked about nothing in general while she mostly chain-smoked and I tried, and failed at, reading her mind. She was totally in a different world that afternoon and even though she was right there with me, she felt like she was miles away. When I was finally out of stupid things to talk about, and believe me that took a long time, I lost my patience and grabbed the pack of cigarettes out of Emma’s hands.

“What the fuck are you doing?” she asked, finally paying attention to me.

“Getting you to pay attention to me.”

“I am paying attention to you. Give those back.”

“No you’re not, and no.” She reached across the table trying to swipe the cigarettes back and I held them out of her reach.

“Give them back.”

“Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

“There’s nothing going on…” she said with a sigh that told me she was lying.

“Bullshit.”

“There’s nothing going on…” she said with a little more conviction.

“That was better, but no.”

“AJ…” She practically whined, I had to hold back a laugh, Emma never whined. I kept my eyes locked with her and stuck the pack of cigarettes down the front of my pants into my underwear. No one ever called me mature, ever.

Emma’s eyes narrowed to a glare and she slid out of the booth that we were in and began walking away. “Fuck…” I mumbled to myself throwing much too much money on the table for the bill before running after her with Marcus in tow. By the time we hit the outside of the restaurant Emma was gone. “Fuck! Where is she?” I scanned the busy casino with Marcus’ help and sighed. “I hate Vegas…”

“There she is…” Marcus said pulling on my arm.

I whined like a little kid whose Mom pulled too hard on their arm in the mall and yanked my arm back from him. “Jesus…”

“You want to lose her or catch up with her?”

Letting out a frustrated sigh I followed him mumbling under my breath, “Didn’t have to pull my damn arm out of joint…”

“I heard that…” Marcus said with a chuckle and kept leading me through the crowds.

“Are you sure you see her? I don’t see her.”

“I’m sure…”

“I don’t see her…” Marcus shot a look at me that he’d been giving me since I was a kid and he first started being my bodyguard. It was a look that in seconds said, “You’re being a pain in my ass and if you want me to help you out of this you better quit it now…” I shut up and followed him all the while looking over his big shoulders trying to see Emma. Finally making it through a crowd of people checking in or out of the hotel I saw her hair and mentally made a note to apologize to Marcus for being a pain in his ass. I jogged ahead of Marcus giving him the international guy thank you of a pat on the shoulder then caught up with Emma. “Hey…” I said as I put my hand on her shoulder.

“Leave me alone, AJ…”

“No… wait…” I said trying to stop her from walking without actually pulling on her, which I knew she wouldn’t like one bit. “Please?” She didn’t answer me and kept walking. “I’ll give you’re your cigs back and buy you more for the rest of the tour…” Yes, I was desperate. I would have kissed her feet right then and there if she asked me to and it would cheer her up.

“I don’t care about the cigarettes…” she said and kept walking.

“Then stop and talk to me…” She didn’t stop and I kept following her. “I’ll just keep following you until you talk to me. You know I will.”

She stopped and gave me a look of challenge that clearly said, “Oh really?” then ducked into the women’s restroom.

“Fuck…” I said again and looked at the doorway. I looked around and saw Marcus standing nearby giving me a shrug as I tried to figure out what the hell to do. “Watch my back…” I told him and then went into the restroom.

It wasn’t the first time I’d been in a woman’s restroom by any means. As a kid my mother was always dragging me into them with my hands over my eyes afraid I’d be kidnapped if she left me standing outside of the bathroom waiting for her. Then as I got older and well, friskier… I spent many a moment in restroom stalls with chicks in clubs not caring which room we made it into as long as the stall door locked and we could get our freak on without anyone watching.

Walking in after Emma though I couldn’t help but gawk though. “Damn…” I said as I looked around the huge bathroom. Granted, we were in one of the best casino/hotels in Vegas and everything there was nice, but I guess I hadn’t expected the damn bathroom to look so nice. A woman looked at me and I gave her my best smile, “My girlfriend is sick… I’m just checking on her. Sorry…” She looked at me like my skin was green and I had antlers growing out of my head but she walked away, thankfully. “Emma?”

I heard a groan that I knew for sure was Emma’s and I followed the sound. “I told you I’d follow you. Please talk to me. I know you don’t like to talk about yourself and I told you I wouldn’t push but you’re freaking me the hell out today. Something’s going on and I just want…” I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. “Emma…”

There was a flush that made me jump and a woman came walking cautiously out of a stall narrowing down the number of stalls that Emma could be hiding in by one. Again I smiled and gave the woman a small wave as if it were totally normal for a guy to be standing in the middle of a woman’s bathroom talking to a bunch of closed stalls. The woman stared at me for a minute then sputtered at me, “You… You’re… Holy shit you’re… AJ…”

Just what I needed, a fan. “Yeah… Hi.” Her mouth hung open for a moment and I waited for her to say something. She reached into her purse and pulled out a camera. I chuckled and she snapped a picture of me then ran out of the restroom without saying another word. Stunned by the flash of her camera and the weirdness of the whole situation I stood there for a moment before remembering what the hell I was doing. Emma. I walked toward the stalls again and bent down to look for her feet. I saw the sneakers that I knew were hers because they were those little canvas shoes that she always wore on our off days and they had doodles all over them in pen from when she’d be sitting around somewhere and get bored. Standing up again I stood outside of her stall and put my forehead on the smooth wooden door, “Please talk to me before some woman calls security on me and I get thrown out of here and wind up in the tabloids.” I waited but she didn’t make a sound. A few minutes passed when she didn’t move I sighed and pulled her pack of cigarettes out of my underwear and slid them under the door to her, “Em… I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone. Just… when you’re ready to talk to me I’ll be ready to listen, okay?” I waited a moment longer, hoping she’d say something, anything, but she didn’t.