After their meal, Kate and Trevor went in separate directions.
He headed towards Omnia in Caesar’s Palace and Kate went back to the Bellagio to round up the troops. As she walked through the casino, Kate felt more torn than ever.
Had Trevor truly meant all that he said? Had he really built everything for her? It was a romantic thing to say, of course, but how genuine was it? She had believed he was doing all this to torture her, to ruin her life in pursuit of revenge, yet his intentions had been pure all along. Why hadn’t he just been honest about his motives from the start?
And would it have killed him to grab her and kiss her?
No, she couldn’t think like that.
Christ, she was a hot mess.
She needed her girls.
The Four Lokos
Kate: Where is everyone? X
Natalie: we’re at a bar in the bellagio called baccarat
Siobhan: There’s a situation with Chloe . . .
Kate: OMG, what happened?
Natalie: she’s being a drama queen
Siobhan: We’ll explain when you get here.
Kate: On my way x
Kate walked through the Bellagio and followed the signs towards Baccarat. She tried to collect her thoughts but her head was in a tizzy. What would she tell the girls? Where would she even begin? She felt like she was losing her mind, but the girls would surely ground her. They always had the best advice. Well, unless that advice involved alcohol.
‘KATE, OVER HERE!’ Siobhan shouted as Kate walked towards them.
‘How’d it go?’ Natalie asked. ‘Did Trevor sign the annulment?’
‘Not yet. He wants us all to go to Omnia to see his set. He booked us a booth,’ Kate explained as she took a seat beside them. ‘Chloe, what’s the situation with you?’
‘Oh, how about me being a complete laughing stock on the internet!’
‘What happened?’
‘Somebody screen-recorded the livestream of me pissing myself and sent it to one of those meme pages. They posted the video and tagged me in it. Look!’ Chloe said, handing the phone to Kate.
Kate looked at the screen and saw the video. In it, Chloe could be seen landing on the ground, covered in her own pee. And then, after a few seconds, she began throwing up in front of the camera. It was the first time Kate had actually seen it. She had still been in the sky when it all went down. She tried with every ounce of her willpower not to laugh but she couldn’t help it.
‘KATE!’ Chloe snapped. ‘IT’S NOT FUNNY!’
‘Yeah, funny doesn’t do it justice. Hilarious is the right word,’ Siobhan laughed.
‘My life is over! Look at the comments. They’re calling me PISS GIRL!’
Kate scrolled through the comments to see what people were saying. They were brutal.
Piss Girl. Piss Face. Miss Piss.
Just some of the many new names Chloe had been christened. Kate looked down at the bottom of the screen and saw the view count.
‘Chloe, it has 1.2 million views!’ Kate said.
‘WHAT? It only had 900K five minutes ago,’ Chloe cried as she grabbed the phone back.
‘Definitely viral,’ Natalie said.
‘And the worst part is, now everyone is following me because they tagged me!’
‘How many followers do you have now?’ Kate asked.
‘10.5K.’
‘Chloe! This is what you’ve always wanted. You hit 10K! You’re an influencer!’
‘I didn’t want to be an influencer for PISSING MYSELF!’ Chloe screamed.
‘Be careful what you manifest, sweetie,’ Natalie laughed.
‘There’s no such thing as bad publicity, Chloe. Enjoy your fifteen minutes of shame. Sorry, fame,’ Siobhan said.
‘But who screen-recorded it and sent it to the meme page?’ Chloe said.
‘Probably some randomer.’
‘OMG! I bet it was Casper! He probably wanted to get back at me for keying his car! That bastard!’
‘Well, at least you’ve learned your lesson,’ Natalie said.
‘No, I haven’t! I’m going full Beyoncé Lemonade on his car as soon as I get home!’
‘I’m starting to think you two deserve each other,’ Siobhan laughed. ‘I can already see the headlines. Piss Girl lemonades all over ex’s car.’
‘I can’t even deal with this right now. Kate, tell us more about Trevor – I need a distraction.’
‘Well, there have been a lot of developments,’ Kate explained. ‘My head is all over the place. I have no idea how I’m feeling.’
‘Do you wanna wear my mood ring?’ Natalie said, taking it off.
‘No, Nat,’ Kate sighed. ‘Trevor just told me that everything he’s built, he built for me. He said he’s spent the last nine years hoping I would find my way back to him so he could give me everything he never could back then. And now I’m freaking out because I think he’s telling the truth!’
‘Jesus,’ Natalie said. ‘Men will literally build an entire empire instead of going to therapy.’
‘OMG! You’re his Daisy! You’re his green light!’ Chloe said, out of nowhere.
‘Chloe, you’ve read The Great Gatsby?’
‘It was a book?’
‘Dear Lord,’ Natalie sighed. ‘But Kate, this is big. Did you tell him that he broke your heart?’
‘No.’
‘Ugh, Kate, you are such a headwreck!’ Siobhan said. ‘Why won’t you just have an honest conversation with him?’
‘I’m afraid! I don’t want to relive that experience. I’d probably have a complete meltdown. I don’t want him to see me cry!’
‘But you’re making the same mistake you made nine years ago. You should have confronted him back then, but you ran away instead. Now you have another chance to confront him and you’re trying to run away again! I told you on the plane you can’t just block people out of your life.’
‘Siobhan is right, Kate,’ Chloe added. ‘You’re the smartest of all of us but you have the emotional intelligence of a toddler. When someone hurts you, you tell them why they hurt you. You don’t just dump them and block them before they can reply. That’s not how you get closure.’
‘Okay, okay, I hear you all,’ Kate agreed. ‘I don’t know why I’m so afraid to have that conversation with him. I’ve spent nine years trying to move on from that moment. I think I’m scared of opening up the scar again because it took so long to heal.’
She was finally facing it. It was terrifying. But necessary.
‘But that scar would have healed a lot faster if you got closure back then,’ Natalie said. ‘Get it now while you can, or you never will.’
‘Okay. Thanks, girls,’ Kate smiled. ‘There’s just one teeny tiny problem.’
‘What?’
‘I’m falling for him all over again!’
‘Called it,’ Siobhan muttered.
‘OMG, KATE! REALLY?’ Chloe said, ecstatic. ‘I mean, I saw it coming a mile away, but really?’
‘On the Eiffel Tower, I wanted him to kiss me. Even though I wouldn’t have kissed him back. Oh God, what is wrong with me? I’m going to hell,’ Kate said, bowing her head in shame.
‘Kate, don’t be silly. We’re in Sin City. God doesn’t see what happens here. It’s a moral blind spot,’ Siobhan said, trying to comfort her.
‘But what am I supposed to do now? I’m marrying Norman in three days! Everything is planned. I can’t let everyone down. I can’t ruin the happiest day of my life for someone who cheated on me! That’s beyond insane. Falling for Trevor broke me. But Norman put me back together again.’
‘You’re not Humpty fucking Dumpty, Kate,’ Siobhan said.
‘I know that, but I also know I wouldn’t survive being broken by Trevor Rush twice. I have to listen to my brain telling me to go home and marry Norman.’
‘But what’s your heart telling you?’ Siobhan asked. ‘I mean, I don’t have one but if I did, I’d listen to it.’
‘Yeah, do you think it could work with Trevor?’ Natalie said.
‘It could have worked if it weren’t for him cheating. Like, yes, he’s making me feel everything I felt back then. The euphoric high of being his. But what about the way he made me feel when he betrayed me?’
‘So you don’t think you could ever forgive him?’ Chloe asked.
‘Even if I did forgive him, how could I ever trust him again? I still carry the scar of his first betrayal. I don’t think I’d survive another wound like that. And think about his lifestyle. All the parties with all those half-naked Instagram models. Could any woman trust a man surrounded by so much temptation? I gave Trevor my heart once and he smashed it into a million pieces. I’ve spent nine years gluing it back together and I’m not going to let him smash it again.’
‘Then it looks like you have your answer,’ Natalie said.
Kate felt like her choice was clear. There was no place for her in Trevor’s life. She belonged back home. ‘Okay, here’s the plan,’ she said.
‘Third plan’s the charm,’ Siobhan said, rolling her eyes.
‘We’ll go to Omnia and listen to Trevor’s set. Then afterwards I’ll tell him he broke my heart when I saw him cheating on me with that Viola woman. Once he admits it and hopefully apologizes, I’ll be able to get my closure. Then he’ll sign the annulment and we can fly back home so I can marry Norman. Sound good?’
‘It has a lot of steps; maybe you should make an itinerary,’ Siobhan said, sarcastically.
‘Very funny, Siobhan,’ Kate said, giving her a look. ‘Finish your drinks, girls. This crazy ride began in Omnia. And that’s where it’s going to end.’