was the one to suggest it—to honor her son—how could we say no? I’d said no to Will far too many times as it was. I wouldn’t continue that now, with his mom.
We had a full week left in Las Vegas. Between dinner with his parents the next day, the funeral service in a few days and then the celebration of life, the next seven days would hopefully keep me busy enough that I didn’t dwell on being alone.
After Chad said his goodbyes, Seth pulled me aside when Vince moved a few seats down the bar to talk to a group of women. “Are you good?” he asked me, an eyebrow raised and his head tilted toward Vince.
I knew what he was asking. During this trip, Seth had essentially become Vince’s babysitter. It was increasingly obvious that Vince wasn’t handling Will’s passing well—not that any of us were. But Seth had been the one to make sure Vince made it back to his hotel room at night so that he didn’t end up arrested or drunk out of his mind.
Those three words from Seth asked more than they seemed.
I nodded. It wasn’t fair for Seth to be the responsible one the entire trip, especially once Nicole arrived.
“Room 1643,” he said, pressing a key card into my hand. “Down the hall from me.”
I nodded again. I didn’t love the idea of making sure Vince made it back to his room at the end of the night, especially considering the growing animosity he felt toward me, but this was what we did for each other. It made me wonder who had been on Vince duty all the times I’d been absent.
Seth gave my shoulder a squeeze and then wrapped his arm around Vince’s shoulders as he chatted with the ladies Vince had chosen to spend his time with instead of me. Not like I could blame him. I wasn’t exactly the best company.
After Seth left, Vince chatted up the women for a solid hour. I was growing tired, having barely slept since I’d made it to Vegas, but I knew if I interrupted his chats with these ladies, he wouldn’t be a happy camper. So, I nursed my beer. One, two, and then three before Vince finally made his way back down to me. By this point, he was fully slurring his words and his eyes looked half sleepy. He stumbled a bit before collapsing into the stool beside me. “Got another number,” he said, once again waving those ten digits like they were a flag. “You could too if you’d stop looking so goddamn mopey.”
I didn’t say anything to that because nothing I’d say would yield a productive conversation. “You about ready to head up to the room?” I asked.
Vince shook his head and pounded his beer. “The night is still young.”
“We’ve got an early day tomorrow,” I reminded him.
“You know, those girls would’ve totally banged you.”
I breathed in through my nose. “You don’t even live here anymore, why are you getting numbers every single night?” But I knew the answer: to prove he could.
“Just because you don’t know how to have fun doesn’t mean the rest of us are ready to roll over and die.”
He was drunk, I reminded myself. He wasn’t totally responsible for the things he was saying. The poor word choice, given the reason we were in town in the first place, could be forgiven. But still, it rankled. Vince had changed so much after his motorcycle accident and I wasn’t talking about the physical. None of us could claim to know what it was like to lose a limb, to learn how to walk all over again. To endure the invasive questions and stares he always got.
Will had been better at managing Vince and his moods, but Will wasn’t here. And if I thought I could somehow forgive myself for bailing on Will, on that last trip, perhaps treating Vince with more empathy than I thought I possessed would be the way forward for me.
“I know how to have fun,” I told Vince, but the words sounded hollow even to me. Did I even know how to have fun anymore? It’d been years since I’d done anything truly spontaneous, anything noteworthy. Chad was married, had twins. Seth was getting married and had gotten a fucking kick ass job that enabled him to fund a crazy destination wedding. Vince still did daredevil shit, as if his accident hadn’t sobered him. As for me? I woke up, went