viva las vegas 2025 chapter 2, day 4

LINK: viva las vegas 2025 chapter 2, day 4

I groggily woke up around 11:00. When I opened my eyes, Five Star was already sitting up on her bed, scrolling through her phone, I said, “Good morning. I didn’t hear you come in last night. I was out like a light.” She didn’t answer, so I figured she didn’t catch what I said and repeated myself. This time she looked at me and said a flat “yeah.”

I felt like her tone was off and I felt it. I asked if I snored, because when I’m beyond exhausted I sometimes do. She shook her head and said she’d never heard me snore. When I asked what time she came back to the room, she said it wasn’t until it was almost 05:00. I asked her if she won big, and that’s when things changed. She said no, and she said it in a way that made it clear that she didn’t want to keep talking about it. Instead, she told me she lost a lot after I left.

The way she said “a lot” made me assume it was thousands.

Then she mentioned that the hand pay she got the week before was already gone. Most of it went to her boyfriend, who’s been fronting her money, and to her parents since her dad is undergoing cancer treatment. Then she threw in a comment about how I probably make more than she does, even with her executive promotion. It caught me off guard, because since I’ve known her, she’s lived this five star life. Turns out that she’s savvy about deals and comps, but she’s also been gambling more than I realized. Weekends, weekdays, late nights, comped hotel rooms that make it too easy to go downstairs and play again.

I highly doubt that I earn more money than her. I think she just spends more. For the most part, the times when I live lavishly is with her and she somehow finds these remarkable deals for us. We never pay full price (she’s given me tips on how to find these bargains too.) Plus, I barely gamble and shop at places she would never like Walmart, Trader Joes, or Aldi (places where she would never be caught dead). Sure, I’ll go to Erewhon periodically, but I don’t order UberEats from there every day like she does. I don’t drive a luxury car nor do I have anyone to impress either. Any high end clothing or handbags that I have are from previous seasons, where she buys the latest or is gifted items from her boyfriend’s family (Chanel handbag and purse or Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet).

Anyway, I digress. By the time we had this whole conversation, it was nearly noon and we had to check out and meet her sister and friends for brunch. I packed my things quickly and we dropped our bags at her sister’s room before heading back to Eataly. I have to say that I’ve been clocking in over 10,000 steps before the afternoon is over. When we got to Park MGM, I couldn’t decide what to eat so I ordered the same crêpe and a cup of americano with cream.

I sat with her niece, her sister, and the baby daddy, while Five Star sat at another table with two of her friends. It felt like she was annoyed with me, and I kept replaying the last day in my head trying to figure out if I said something wrong. But I was so sleep-deprived that everything felt foggy. I couldn’t tell if she was upset about losing money, going through PMS, not having enough sleep, or if I had done something without realizing it.

After the other friends left to go to a show, she came to our table but barely looked at me. She kept her sunglasses on, which didn’t help the awkward vibe. Then the baby daddy asked how much she made last night. She snapped that she actually lost money after I left. He tried to lighten it up by saying I must have been her lucky charm but she didn’t respond. Just silence.

Then he changed the subject and we started talking for another hour about politics and the ripple effects of the government shutdown. Meanwhile, both our phones kept sending us notifications about our flights being delayed. Hers was Delta; mine was Frontier. Her sister offered that we could ride back with them if needed, which I appreciated. It was either that, pray my flight didn’t get canceled, or rent a car and drive back home alone.

I decided to head to the airport early. If things got messy, I’d Uber back and join their drive back to Los Angeles. Once I got to the airport, I thought about going to the Centurion lounge, but I wasn’t hungry and I didn’t want to risk dealing with the tram if I needed to hurry back to my gate. So I just went straight there, plopped into a seat, and settled in. There was one more delay, but it looked like my flight would actually take off.

While I was waiting to board, Five Star messaged the group chat saying her flight was canceled. She didn’t want to do the long drive back, but staying another day and possibly having that flight canceled didn’t seem appealing either. She ended up going with her sister and fam.

The flight was uneventful, about 40 minutes in the air and five minutes taxiing around the tarmac. Still, I made it home in one piece.

As soon as I walked in the door, I showered, tossed my clothes in the washer, afterward, I logged onto my work laptop to check messages and deal with anything urgent. Despite being busy with work, I had this strange feeling. I wasn’t sure if things were cool between me and Five Star or not. She typically texts me nonstop throughout the day, but now it was radio silence.

Maybe we just needed a little distance? Maybe it was the money? Maybe it was exhaustion?

Either way, I had to put it on the back burner cause I had work to do and I needed to sleep too.