Then it stopped. Right on red.
I screamed, full on whooped my heart out, as the dealer doubled my chips and pushed them back at me. The cowboy man slapped me on the shoulder and I hugged all my chippys before shoving them all onto black this time.
“Gracious, darlin’， take it easy there,” the cowboy warned, but I didn’t need advice from a cow man when I was having the time of my life.
I shot a look over at Niall who now had his arm over Esteban’s shoulders, talking animatedly about something as he ordered drinks from a waitress. Esteban seemed to be enjoying the company, and my mom was laughing wildly at something he said.
You don’t get to keep my Niall, you can laugh and laugh for now, but he isn’t gonna be your bestie. He’s playing monster with you.
The cowboy man toyed with a final chip in his hand, contemplating all the spots on the table where he could put it while dabbing at his brow. There were lots of numbers and confuddling thingys, but the easiest ones to choose from were red or black, odd or even. I didn’t know why he was taking so long to decide.
“Last bets,” the dealer called and the cow man kissed his chip and placed it on red.
The dealer man sent the ball into the roulette wheel and it went spinning around it again like it was on a rollercoaster, its little tehehehe laugh giggling around my brain. It slowed, falling into the ring of numbers and colours at the centre of the wheel then stopped.
Black!
I squealed, throwing my arms around my cowboy friend as I bounced up and down and a whole army of chips were pushed my way as I doubled them again.
The cowboy’s lone chip was taken away from him by the dealer’s chip-stealing stick and he stared dejectedly at the table, looking like his whole life had been riding on that chip.
“Well, darlin’。 It’s been a pleasure playing with you. I hope the luck stays with ya.” He nodded to me, turning away as I gathered up all my chips in a huge hug and nuzzled into them, sure they were nuzzling me back.
“Oh, um, Mr Man?” I called after him as he walked away and he glanced back at me, worries straining his eyes. “You can keep playing, if you like.” I scooped up a few chips in my hand and offered them to him, making his big brows pull together in confusion.
“Why in the world would you do that?” he asked.
“Because you look sad and sad people make me sad, especially sad people who wear little dangly metal string thingys around their necks.” I shrugged, tossing the chips to him and he caught them as I turned back to the table and shoved all of my chips onto even this time. That meant all I had to do was get an even number and I’d be in double chippy heaven again.
The cow man moved back to my side, placing one of the chips I’d given him down beside my huge stack then he took his neck thingy off and handed it to me.
“It’s called a bolo tie, darlin’， and it’s all yours.”
I picked it up with a gasp, not even paying attention as the dealer threw the ball into the wheel. My new tie thingy had a silver bull clasping the two strings together and it had a twinkle in its eye that made my heart nearly burst. I’d never ever been given a gift from a stranger before. Most strangers kept away from me, but maybe it was different in Vegas, maybe they liked odd here. Maybe if I’d grown up in this place, I’d have been celebrated instead of outcasted.
“Yes,” he barked suddenly, slapping his hand down on the table and I realised we’d won.
My chip stack was replaced with chips that were worth more so it didn’t get too big, but I still had a nice fancy pile of them as I drew them in for another hug.
“Hello Chippy one and Chippy two and oooh, you’re Chippy Mcpippy.” I kissed that one then another, then shoved them all onto red again.
“Ma’am, if you don’t mind me sayin’ so, you are the luckiest damn creature I have ever had the fortune to meet, but that luck will run out. Are you sure about this?” Cow man placed two chips next to mine and I beamed at him.
“It’s just a game,” I said with a shrug. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“It’s a lot of money, darlin’，” he warned and I shrugged again. “It’s more than a game.”
“It’s all a game, cow man. We’re all just little creatures who made up a bunch of rules, built tiny houses then listened to the big men when they told everyone to play along, go home, go to work, grind to make more numbers and put them in an imaginary world called the internet. But I don’t listen to the rules, I don’t live by the system designed to keep me in a box, and I certainly don’t listen to big men with their laws and their fandangles. It’s free outside the box, cow man, all you have to do is step out of it.”
My chips were doubled again and people around the table cheered. I’d drawn quite the crowd, a bunch of hungry money zombies sniffing out new blood. It was sad really, the want in their eyes, the jealous gremlins peering out of them as they watched me claim my stack of plastic while my cow friend claimed his too.
My gaze moved to the only thing that mattered to me in this whole room, this whole city in fact. And I found him watching me back, a feral look on his face as I smiled at him and Glenda did a backflip in my chest. That was what was real. Me and him and a house far, far away where two beautiful, twisted souls and my cuddly pooch were waiting for me to come home.
Niall winked at me, his hand snaking up the back of Esteban’s neck and suddenly he slammed his face down onto the table, then flipped him off his seat right up onto it. Esteban cried out as my mother screamed and the dealer lurched backwards in alarm. Niall was upon him in the next second, climbing onto the table, pressing his knee into Esteban’s back and yanking his pants down to unveil his ass. He started shoving Esteban’s chips between his ass cheeks as two security men came running from across the room. But Niall wasn’t done, he started playing Esteban’s ass cheeks like a bongo while my mother continued to scream, Esteban flailed beneath him and a bunch of people started recording him on their phones, though the hat that Niall had stolen was somehow perfectly positioned to hide his own face from their nosy cameras like it was in on the joke too.
A wild laugh tore from my lungs and I clutched my sides as I fell completely apart, watching my madman of a husband slapping his huge, inked hands down on Esteban’s ass and playing a pretty neat tune with surprising skill.
“Wendy!” Esteban shrieked at my mom, but she just stared on, like her mind couldn’t quite catch up to what she was seeing.
Niall slapped Esteban’s ass up so good it was turning bright red, and my head bobbed in time with the tune he was playing. I was pretty sure it was Can’t Stop by Red Hot Chilli Peppers, so I started singing the backing singer bit under my breath and filled in the guitar part in my head.
The security men made it to the table, but Niall jumped up fast, leaping off of it and kicking Esteban in the head as he flew over him and landed heavily on the floor.
“Wendy!” Esteban cried louder and my mom finally snapped out of her stupor, lurching forward and scooping piles of chips out of her husband’s ass crack.
I shoved all of my chips at my cow man friend, snatching the tie thingy he’d gifted me and waving him goodbye. He stared at me in shock as I wheeled away and ran to meet Niall as he came barrelling towards me through the crowd.