I'll Meet You At Stardust (Book 1 Out Of Vegas Series)

I'll Meet You At Stardust

Copyright

Book Title: I'll Meet You at Stardust,

Series: Out of Vegas Trilogy.

Author book: M. A. Thomas

ISBN-13: 978-0-9876406-3-5

© 2021, 10 Leonard Street Toowoomba Queensland 4350

Steam Scene Pty Ltd

info@authormathomas.com.au

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher

Chapter 1

I shouldn't of had that third Mojito.

I'd already skipped lunch today in order to leave work on time to meet my friends. The plan was to meet here for happy hour and bon voyage cocktails. Too bad neither of them bothered to show up on time for cheap drinks. They both sent only brief apologies by way of text messages right on five o'clock to advise me of delays, neither of them actually committing to definitely coming.

The clock on the wall is ticking unnecessarily loud as I glance towards its hands once again. It is ten past seven already and there is still no sign of Joanne or Kelly anywhere.

I should have another drink.

No, I should just head home. Not even tell them I'm leaving, I mean, come on, even with a shower, blowing out your hair and applying make-up they should have made it by now.

I wish they were here already, I need to listen to someone elses troubles rather than focus on my own.

Not that my best friends had lives that attracted drama in droves, like my own seems to.

Kelly is a kind, open hearted person, a dutiful mother and content in her job as the high-school librarian. Despite her sometimes overly conservative leanings in this town of ours, she seems to relish her active participation within the community here.

Joanne is her antithesis a vivacious and strong willed woman, she lives life wholly for herself, she is a person with strong convictions and doesnt let anyone elses judgements cast a shadow on her path.

I also wish they were here already for another reason too. I need someone to keep me from calling or texting Craig, we're taking a break, and everyone knows that really means we're done but neither of us wanted to admit it.

The more I drink the more I want to call him out on this decision, going on separate vacations isn't a fool proof idea to make sure we really should be together. If we really are meant to be together it shouldn't be so hard for us to coexist under the same roof. If we really should be together we wouldn't argue and sleep alternating nights in the spare room instead of dealing with our disagreements. If we were really mean't to be together, he wouldn't tell his work mates that I'm high maintenance and lie to me about his whereabouts nearly every evening.

I looked at my phone. No further communication has come through from either Kelly nor Joanne. I guess I will just keep waiting for them until this place closes. I have nowhere else to be. I scrolled down my inbox further and stared at the image I'd assigned as my boyfriends Avatar. The cover of his favourite bands latest album. I actually kind of really hate his taste in music. I smiled to myself as deleting our entire conversation rid my inbox of that ugly picture as well.

I don't need to stab myself in the heart again reading over our ongoing passive aggressive interactions while I'm on a sixteen hour flight to America. In fact, maybe I should ditch this phone completely while I'm abroad, check out for real from reality for the next few weeks.

Can I give you my phone while I'm away? I sent to Kelly.

Why? She replied immediately.

I'll explain when you get here.

I wish we had nap zones at our airport like they have in international. I could sleep there instead of going home tonight. Maybe I could just sleep in my car out at the long stay parking?

I can't leave though. At the very least I know Kelly will show up soon, I'm sure her son just needed help with homework or something. I'm also over the limit for sure. I better just order a serve of sweet potato wedges and sober up first.

I also ordered another drink, since I'm waiting around anyway, and then I grabbed my table number and headed over to a booth. I hope this next infusion of alcohol makes me feel sleepy rather than angry but I have a feeling it won't. I have a feeling that the reason I'm angry is because I have every right to be, this 'taking a break' concept was all his idea and I'm starting to think it's because he has someone else he'd rather take on vacation.

I sat down in my booth and then I skulled my drink. I felt the tingling in my face ramp up to an unpleasant state. I don't even know where he's going for the next two weeks and he showed zero interest in looking over my own itinerary in California. I've been such an idiot.

"Can I get you anything else mam?" a timid barely legal server asked me as he delivered my meal and collected my empty glassware.

"Some backbone?" I wondered out loud.

"Maybe you can ask on fiverr." he jokingly replied.

"You can find everything on the internet." I agreed, and with a curt nod he turned and started back towards the bar. I watched him pick up dirty plates and cups from a couple more tables and then gingerly make his way to the swinging doors that lead into the kitchen. He was not used to balancing such a load yet. Perhaps this was his first week on the job?

Working in this bar had once been my first paid employment too. I'd met Craig here when I was on shift, it was a Tuesday night and I was the only one serving, he'd be the only patron, so we'd found plenty of time to talk, his business meeting had been cancelled, he'd worked in pharmaceutical sales back then, I was only in my first year of university. I'd been too embarrassed to tell him I was doing a dual arts degree when he'd asked about my tertiary pursuits so I told him I was studying business and tax law. That lie fell apart fairly quickly when we ended up going home together that night and he found my study planner on the fridge making us coffees the next morning.

"Made it." Kelly announced, sliding in beside me and digging into my untouched bowl of fried food.

"Hey,"I choked out, was I crying?

"Are you and the other half fighting again,"she asked, grabbing a tissue from her purse and dabbing at my eyes.

"He's not my other half." I told her, taking the tissue and blowing my nose.

"You're over?" she clarified.

"Pretty sure we are. He's not going to spend half a month away looking for the perfect ring, and if he is, it's not for me."

"Is that why I'm in charge of your phone?"

"It's for the best, we haven't been happy together for a while and neither of us is looking for a way to repair this."

"Taking a break did sound like a load of wimby wamby nonsense." Joann chimmed in as she completed our trio. Straight to the point, that was always her way.

"Yeah, it was."