friends and don’t care if it hurts you. She couldn’t let that happen. No it was best to keep her feelings well hidden.
“So do we hit up the casino first or do we go to dinner and the club?”
“It’s still pretty early so why don’t we go to the casino for a couple of hours. I heard about the new one they just built near Port Maria, it’s about 20 minutes from here.”
“Was that in the advertisement?” she grabbed for the brochure. “How did I miss that?”
“Don’t know but maybe we could have dinner there, say about eight or nine. The club is opened all night long.”
“That is so true,” she read on amazed at how much more of the island they had to tour.
“Just be ready to go in about five minutes.”
“Ten! I have make-up to do.” Kemah ran to her room to ready for the outing.
They went to the casino where they had so much fun. Kemah liked the tables whereas Shyla liked the slots, but not just any slots. It had to be the multi lined slots and have some kind of funny bonus to it. You hardly ever had any luck winning on the one lined ones, but fate was good to them both that evening.
Kemah hit a jackpot for eleven thousand dollars and then Shyla turned right around and hit a jackpot for over thirteen. They had to wait there until one of the cashier managers and a cashier of the casino came to give them their winnings. They each put a one hundred dollar bill in their machine and played it until it was time for dinner or until the machine ate up the funds.
“How are you doing over there?” Kemah asked Shyla.
“I still have forty-eight dollars. What about you?”
“I’m just about tapped out. I have five dollars left.” An hour later they headed over to the Reggae Lounge for dinner and then to Club Vodavi in Ocho Rios. The machines decided to keep them playing a little while longer, each cashing out with more than fifty dollars in their machines. They chose to give it to the counters at the cashier window and the waitresses for tips. Kemah couldn’t leave without putting something on the tables. She bought twenty dollars in chips for roulette, played it all on black nine, and won. She put her four hundred dollars’ worth of chips in her bag and strolled out the door. No sense in staying to play it. Tomorrow would be another day. Besides they were starving.
“Girl, damn, have you ever seen so many good-looking men in one place?”
Shyla looked around, admiring the view. “Yes, at the clubs in California.”
“Let me rephrase then. Have you ever seen, so many good-looking Jamaican men, in one place?”
“Actually I have. Not.”
“I know that’s right,” she tapped Shyla on the hand. “Don’t look now but there are two good-looking men walking this way. How do I look?” she primped her hair.
“Like this chick named Kemah McGovern that I know. Calm down, you look fine.”
“Hello ladies. How are you this evening?”
“We’re fine, thank you.” One took Kemah’s hand in his and kissed it the other took Shyla’s hand and kissed it.
“I am Joe and this is my brother, Jacob. Would you ladies like to dance?”
An obvious lie, Shyla thought. “Actually,” Shyla was saying before Kemah cut her off.
“Yes we would but we need to go to the ladies room first. Would you please excuse us?”
“We will be waiting right here,” the tall bulky good looking gentleman with the heavy accent said.
Kemah pulled Shyla along with her to the ladies room.
“Shyla do not flake out on me. It’s just a dance.”
“I wasn’t going to flake out. I just wasn’t feeling up to dancing at the moment.” She looked into the mirror and applied a layer of gloss on her lips. “You do know that they are lying about their names.
“Who cares? You probably won’t see them again after tonight anyway. Look I know he isn’t Zackary but he will have to do for the time being.”
“Please let’s not start that again. I’ll dance, all right. But I will not slow dance with that man. You know I don’t like just anyone’s hand all over my body.”
“Just Zackary,” Kemah laughed, but it was short lived when Shyla gave her an evil eye. “Okay, okay. I’m done teasing. Now let’s go have some fun.”
When Kemah and Shyla were on the dance floor they had several observers, one in particular, Zackary. He couldn’t keep