Free The Vegas Diaries: Romance, Rolling the Dice, and the Road to Reinvention by Holly Madison

sell a TV show, I spent all my free time doing press and appearing at events. After my three months were up, I wanted Peepshow begging me to stay on.
    My schedule was about to go from packed to absolutely insane. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up with it anymore, so I hired Angel as my assistant to help with the day-to-day things that could have easily fallen through the cracks. I became so busy that her help was well worth the money. The flexible schedule was perfect for her, since she had just given birth to her adorable son, Roman. Laura had arrived in town shortly before Roman was born and we had raced to the hospital with bags of Taco Bell (her favorite) in tow for the new mommy. The happiness I felt for Angel and the closeness of our little family of friends helped me feel less alone than I had in a long time.
    With the top of my newly purchased convertible down, I cruised down Las Vegas Boulevard feeling the dry desert air on my skin. There would be bumps in the road, of course, but I was on the road to becoming the woman I always dreamed of being. At the end of the Strip next to the I-15, a glittering black-and-red billboard shimmered from above: PEEPSHOW STARRING HOLLY MADISON! And there I was, standing twenty feet tall.
    Was this really my life? I thought. I couldn’t believe how quickly the tide had turned for me and how fortunate I felt. Along with a new job and a new city, I felt like my personal makeover was nearly complete!
    My life was finally beginning . . . and I was in for a wild ride.
    W ITH MY NEW FRIENDS as my partners in crime, I made it a point to maximize my free time, going to as many shows, dinners, and events as we could squeeze in. If I was going to help make Peepshow one of the most popular shows on the Strip, I needed to know what we were up against. Nancy suggested we all check out a new nightclub featuring live dancers. She assured us that we wouldn’t want to miss her best friend Lindsay, who was performing there that night. I knew that my dancing skills had been sharpened thanks to my time on DWTS , but I didn’t have nearly the sort of professional training that many of these Vegas showgirls had. I felt intimidated that I’d be compared with them, but I was ready for the challenge and figured I needed to do my research. When I looked around this particular establishment, I saw a few dancers positioned on banquettes around the room. They were dressed in spangled bras and skimpy, cheap-looking boy shorts. One of them listlessly threw around a small, beat-up pair of feather fans. I knew there was better in the city that I had yet to see, but still hoped I could learn something from that night’s performances.
    After we ordered a round of drinks, Nancy, Hannah, and I dove into a debate about who were the most eligible bachelors in Vegas. Right around the time that we were each taking a stance on whether we would ever date one of the more notorious (and handsome) nightclub promoters in town, Lindsay made her entrance. A hush fell over the restaurant as the longest pair of Wolford-covered legs I’d ever seen stepped one by one onto a platform in the center of the room. This bewitching woman was tall and ballerina thin, with a silky mane of dark blond hair tumbling down her back. Obviously a trained dancer, she performed a slow, sensuous number with the help of a well-tailored men’s white dress shirt. Her routine was elegant and clearly took skill—particularly because she performed it in the most towering pair of Brian Atwood platform stilettos I’d ever seen . . . without even so much as a single wobble.
    “Now, that’s a dancer,” Hannah whispered to me, gesturing to the lanky beauty. She was right. This woman seemed so untouchable compared with the other performers who had populated the club earlier in the evening. What could she possibly be doing here? When her routine finally concluded, the room erupted into applause and the swan glided off her stage.
    As she walked by,