“Oh,” is all I manage.
“Now your turn, sweetheart. Tell us whyyou’re here?” Another Elvis in a red jumpsuit with a terrible wig on his head afew seats down asks.
“Oh, um—nothing and, well—everything.” Ilet my shoulders slump, trying to make myself smaller.
“What’s his name?” A deep, burly voicerumbles. My head shoots up, searching for the voice. In the corner, a very big,very muscular Elvis gives me a slight hand wave, telling me he asked thequestion. His jumpsuit is open down his chest, revealing a smattering oftattoos and rippled muscles.
“What?” I hiccup, fear pricking at theback of my neck.
He pounds his fists together. “The guywho left a beautiful girl like you at the altar.” I jump and hiccup again.“Tell me and I’ll hunt him down and pound his face in.”
“Unless that’s why you’re here?” Asks atall, willowy Elvis who’s missing his wig, his blond hair standing on end. “Didyou kill him?”
“What, NO!” I cry. “To either or both.”
“You’re scaring the poor girl.” The whiteand blue Elvis snaps. “Sorry, this is probably a strange sight to see so manygrown men dressed up like Elvis.”
“No, I love Elvis,” My voice shakes, butstill no tears. “Long live the King.”
All the Elvis’s in the room mutter thesame sentiment.
“Then why are you here, darlin’?”
“Because my life is a colossal mess, andI don’t know how to fix it. Everything I do is wrong. I try to do the rightthing and it still ends up being wrong. I’m like a walking time bomb, and evenI don’t know when I’m going to go off. My family thinks I’m a blubbering,naïve, fat girl who can’t make any choices for herself. I have a husband Ilove, who’s afraid he’s corrupting me. But if that’s the case, then I’ve neverenjoyed being corrupted so much in my entire life.”
“You’re married?”
I look at the Blue and white Elvis.“Yes.”
“Just today?” he asks.
“No, about two weeks ago, here in Vegas.But my family didn’t like that we eloped. They want us to have a ring ceremonyand wedding reception. That’s why I was trying on wedding dresses.” I decideit’s not a good idea to tell all these men exactly why I’m in here. I don’tknow any of these people and I’m not really in the mood to have anyone else tryto stalk or kill me. I tell them there was a misunderstanding about the dress,that the bridal shop thought I’d stolen it. “Well, maybe I stole it, I guess. Ididn’t see Olivia pay for it. But money is nothing to her, and I watched herwalk away to buy it.” I sigh, rubbing my hands over my face. “Maybe I can’t doanything by myself. Maybe I’m not naïve, just stupid.”
“Is that really what you think?” I lookup at the Blue sequined Elvis.
“Um—well, no, not really, but theevidence is stacked against me.”
“What’s your name, sweetheart?” he asks.
“Kate. What’s yours?” I look down at myhands that are a grimy black color. Yuck, I look around and then give up,picking up my dress and wiping them on the slip.
“It’s Kent. Nice to meet you Kate.”
“You…too,” I whisper.
“Tell me what brought you to Las Vegas?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, did you come here for work,pleasure?”
“Um…” I think about it for a minute andrealize I’m a long way from the reason I originally came to Las Vegas. “A car.”
Kent gives me a confused look. “You cameto Vegas for a car?”
I manage a laugh. “Yes, when you say itlike that, it seems so stupid.” I tell him my story about wanting to cut backon finances and finding a great deal thanks to my dad’s friend Aaron, but thencoming to Vegas and there being a problem with the car. Which I’m still notsure what that was all about. How Cole came and picked me up as a favor toAaron, and what happened with Cole and me, how we fell in love and the reasonwe married so fast.
“Wow.” He whistles, sitting back.
