Sal pinched the rim of his nose, closing his eyes. “What do you plan on doing Vin? I know you don’t expect me to be okay with you going over and hanging out at her apartment when no one else is there.”
“Nah, man. I keep telling you. She’s not like that. We can go grab something to eat, then maybe catch a show. Which brings me to my next request.”
Sal still didn’t open his eyes. “What’s that?”
“Can I get an advance on my pay?”
A chuckle escaped Sal, even though his lips could barely form a smile. “Yeah, but our deal still stands.”
Vince exhaled heavily. “You better never tell her I told you any of this. Rose would be so pissed if she knew. It’s just not right.”
Sal walked into his house. “Save that conscience of yours for when you’re alone with Rose and you get any funny ideas, Vince. You’re gonna need it if you wanna stay in La Jolla for the summer.”
This time it was Vincent who chuckled. “Trust me. After seeing her tonight, I ain’t doing shit to risk getting sent home.”
Sal knew that last sentence was meant to give him reassurance that Vincent wasn’t going to step over any boundaries with Rose, but it did just the opposite.
***
Friday morning Sal got the call. It had been two days since Romero had any news for him—two days since Vince had told him about Grace’s date tonight. He was just about to start his car and head to the restaurant when he saw Melissa’s name on his caller ID. He almost let it go to voicemail but something made him want to talk to her. Maybe it was the desperation of any revelation that might possibly shed some hope on his situation with Grace. Whatever it was, not only did he answer, he decided he’d play nice.
“Good morning, Melissa.”
She didn’t speak for a moment. His civil voice obviously took her by surprise. “Good morning, Salvador.”
If she’d made any attempt to conceal her slurred speech, it was a very poor one because she butchered his name. Sal wondered if she was drunk this early as she’d often been in the past when she left him messages or if it had anything to do with the heavy meds Romero had mentioned she was on. “Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay.” The slurring was less prominent, until she spoke again. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
“Just asking,” he said, careful not to sound condescending. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
She giggled then hiccupped and Sal deduced that it must be liquor making her slur, but this early on a weekday morning? She did have a job. “I was just thinking about you… about us. I just never understood why it didn’t work out for us. We were perfect for each other.” She stopped and he heard her sniffle. “Can you just tell me what I did wrong?” On that last question her voice had been reduced to a high pitched whine.
If there was ever a moment to try to get the truth about that night in Vegas it was now and Sal sat up straight. “Sure I can tell you but first I’d like you to tell me something if that’s okay.”
She sniffled again then her voice was a near squeak. “What?”
“That night in Vegas is still foggy for me. I really wish I could remember more of it. Can you refresh my mind about exactly what happened? How did we end up in my room together?”
More sniffling and Sal held his breath wondering if she’d be honest. “You’ll probably never remember, you were so drunk.”
Sal feigned a weak laugh. “I know, I was feeling it for days after. That’s why I was surprised I was able to text Grace that night but even more surprised when you said I’d been amazing the next morning.”
Silence.
Sal gave it a few more seconds before speaking again. “Melissa?”
“It’s your turn to answer my question, Sal.” She was doing a better job of hiding the slurring, or maybe that last comment had sobered her up.
Sal squeezed the steering wheel, feeling a rage in him like none he’d ever felt, but he was too close to blow this. Had she really played him and concocted the whole thing? He had to stay calm—had to keep her talking. “I think maybe it was bad timing for us.” It was a struggle to not speak through his teeth and he gulped big chunks of air to try and stay focused. “Maybe we can try again another time.”
“What about Grace? Why wasn’t the timing wrong for you and her?”
He recognized that venom in her voice. It was the same one from when she’d shown up at his place. He had to calm her down too if he was going to get anything more out of her. “Oh, it was. Things didn’t work out for us either. It’s this whole expanding the business thing. It has me real tied up right now. But tell me, Melissa. That night in Vegas… was I really that amazing or were you just saying that to make me feel good?”
The silence was like thunder. It took everything in him to not yell into the phone what he wanted to yell at the top of his lungs now. His life had been torn apart by what had happened in Vegas and now here was near proof that nothing had happened.
“It’s okay, Melissa. You can tell me the truth. Maybe I could make it up to you.”
“Really?” He could almost picture her smiling.
“Yeah, really. Just be honest.”
“Well, I actually don’t remember either, but since you’d always been amazing before I just thought—”
“Nothing happened. Did it Melissa?”