Page 9 of Just A Trip


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“What questions? Like, about me?”

“Yup.” She pops the ‘p’ at the end of the word.

I’d rather give her money. “Why?”

She shrugs. “I like learning about people.”

Thatsoundsinnocent enough. But this is the girl who tried to give Michael a tattoo with a sewing needle. “Can I reserve the right to decline questions I don’t want to answer?”

She raps her fingernails on the bar. “I’ll give you five no’s.”

I can work with that. “Alright.” I put my wallet away. My phone buzzes and I read the notification on the screen.

Sean:I’m in the casino. Where are you?

I need to get out of here before he finds me and gives me a guilt trip about abandoning him. After the harsh things I said to him, I might just cave. But for once in my life, I’m not going to give in first.

“Well, should we go?” I ask.

“Now?” Karli turns and blinks a couple of times. “It’s like ten at night.”

“I’ll drive. I slept the whole way here. I’ll be awake for days.”

“No can do. No one drives but me.”

“Okay,” I tap my knuckles on the bar. “Then when can we leave?”

“We can leave soon,” Karli says, scooting off her stool. “But I have to do something first.”

Hopefully, her thing doesn’t take too long. I want to be on the road, far away from here, from Sean, as soon as possible.

***

I thought Karli was joking when she said she was going to break into her mom’s place until she started climbing the trellis outside a dilapidated apartment complex. The trellis and the complex appear like they could give out at any moment.

“This is not what I had in mind,” I whisper-yell up to her as she scales the rickety wooden railing. She’s moving pretty fast and all I can see is her backside. Not that I’m looking.

“It’s Vegas. Whatdidyou have in mind?” She picks a broken piece of wood off and tosses it over her shoulder.

Valid argument.Right about now, I planned to be at home asleep. But look how that’s turned out for me. Helping a woman I barely know break and enter.

It’s necessary though, we need a vehicle if we are going to drive home so we took an Uber here to pick up her van.

Karli pulls herself to the second story and pushes on the window. It doesn’t budge.

This was a bust.

But instead of coming down, Karli retrieves something from her back pocket and shimmies it under the window. Is she…? Great, she’s breaking in.

I scrub a hand over my beard and pace along the crumbling sidewalk, my blood pressure escalating, along with my stress. I’m going to get arrested. In Vegas. I might have been safer had I stayed with Sean.

“Should I be concerned you know how to do this?” I ask, instead of saying what I really want to say, which is, ‘Are you sure this is your mom’s apartment, and can you possibly hurry?’

“My mom was very responsible growing up and locked us out all the time. I got really good at picking locks and stuff.”

A man walks out of the building, lighting up a cigarette and coming to stand by me. He scans the building, his eyes coming to a rest on Karli.

“Uh…” I scratch my neck. This is bad. This is so bad. What can I possibly say right now to get out of this?