Free Down 'N' Derby by Lila Felix Page A

Discovered this baby in my bag halfway through the night.  I’ve got my stuff ready to go wash.  Let’s go.”
                  We did our laundry and while we did, made plans for the day.  We skillfully ignored the elephant in the room: Falcon and Reed would get married tonight and I felt like shit for missing it. 
                  We got packed up and I thought about calling Reed one more time, knowing that even if she were in the middle of wedding plans she would answer my call.  And Falcon would be so shocked when he found out that Reed and I had concocted a month long honeymoon for them in Charleston, South Carolina.  I shook my head, trying to rattle myself enough to stop thinking about them and how much I missed them. 
                  “Ready,” I asked Nixon as I slipped in the passenger seat.
                  “For Vegas? Hell yeah.  I looked up the car show on the internet early this morning and those girls are hot!” He sang the ‘hot’ part opera style and it cracked me up. 
                  “Ok then.”  This was a new thing with Nixon, the girl crazy thing. 
                  We finally arrived in Vegas about five hours later and found a pricey but nice hotel near the strip.  We wanted to go all ‘Hangover’ and stay someplace expensive but you had to be 21 to stay in those places.  We rushed over to the car show since there was only five hours left.  We parted ways at the entrance and I headed straight for the classics.  I saw Nixon head in the other direction for the new, innovative cars the ones not even on the market. 
                  Lines of men and some women formed before each car with its own model waiting to take their picture with them.  The models with the future cars matched the style of car they were paired with.  Long, sleek, and covered—barely.  But the models by the vintage cars matched their vehicles as well.  Beautiful lines and curves, class and style all mixed together.  I wouldn’t go so far as to stand in line to get a picture or a lame autographed poster but a guy could look, right?
                  The prices on the cars made me scared to even touch them and after a few hours I was done.  I waited by the exit for Nixon and he wasn’t far behind.  We found one of those infamous all-you-can-eat buffets and Nixon got twelve of everything fried and then blanketed the whole thing in ketchup.  I’d never seen so many people in one place before.  I wasn’t small town by any stretch of the imagination but this was overwhelming.  There were probably a thousand people in my line of sight.  We didn’t talk while we ate, mostly because we couldn’t hear anything over the people, like hives of bees constantly humming.  There was no use in trying.
                  The waitress put the ticket right in front of me and as I turned it over to see how much it was it said ‘On the house’ and it had Lydia and a phone number in chicken scratch.  We had already paid for the buffet before coming in so the ticket was only for our drinks.  But still, I hope she didn’t get in trouble for that act of flirtation.  Especially since she wasn’t getting anything in return.  Nixon rolled his eyes and mumbled something about me always having the best luck.  We got up from the table and made our way out when a hand grabbed my wrist and I struggled to not immediately jerk it away.  I turned to find the owner of the hand, Lydia twisting her hair with the opposite hand and smiling up at me.
                  “Just making sure you enjoyed your meal.  I left you a note on your ticket.” I gently removed my wrist from her clammy hand and answered her as gentlemanly as I could. 
                  “I got the note.  Thank you.  But I’m involved with someone.”
                  She answered after fixing the disappointment on her