Love Is the Drug by K. E. Saxon Page B

his hand out to Jason. “Hi, I’m Lou. Lou Davis.”
    Jason shook the man’s hand and gave him a brief nod.
    “Hey, sorry you lost it all on that last roll, little lady,” Lou said. “I’d be lyin’ if I said I’d never done the same.” His gaze moved back to Jason’s then. “I’ve come to Vegas once a year for the past twenty. Came here this time to celebrate my retirement from the Post Office—35 years of service—and this is my first night here.” He pointed in the direction of the lounge. “I’d love to buy you two a consolation drink—what say?”
    “Sorry, Lou, but we’ve got plans,” Jason told him.
    But Julie felt sorry for the older man. How sad that he was here all by himself to celebrate his retirement—and after so many years of government service. “We have time for one drink, though, don’t we Jason?”
    Jason gave her a sharp look, but said, “Yeah, alright. I guess one drink won’t hurt.”
    “Great!” Lou said. “Hey, I didn’t catch your name, little lady.”
    “Julie,” she said, “and this is Jason.”
    “Glad to meet the both of you.”
    * * *

CHAPTER 7
     
     
     
     
    “ Wake up!” Julie bounced on the edge of the bed and shook Jason at the same time.
    “Stop rocking the boat,” he grumbled.
    “Jason!”
    He finally cracked an eyelid open and lifted his head from the pillow. “What time is it?”
    “It doesn’t matter—look at this!” She held the document up to his face. He blinked at it, clearly having trouble focusing. 
    “It’s a marriage certificate! Ours! I—"
    “What the hell?” He bolted upright and grabbed the thing from her.
    “I just woke up and found it on the bed between us!”
    “How?”
    She knew what he meant. “I don’t know! I was hoping you would.”
    He rubbed one eye with the base of his palm, still studying the document. “Shit. Let me think.”
    “Jason, this is not good. The last thing I remember with any clarity is sitting in the lounge with that retired postman—what was his name?”
    “Lou or something, I think.”
    “Yeah. Lou—Lou Davis.”
    “That’s the last thing I can remember, too—except… shit, shit, shit! ” He dropped the document onto the bed between them and grabbed hold of her shoulders. His eyes were wild. “Do you remember Elvis?”
    “Elvis?”
    “Yeah—or, maybe I dreamed it, I don’t know—but I’ve got a couple of sketchy visions floating around in my head of you, and me, and that postman in a limo driving down the Strip—and then Elvis. He’s talking to us, but…I can’t make out the words.”
    She grabbed hold of his arm. “Jason! I remember that too!”
    His eyes did a quick sweep of her torso, then his own. “I’m still wearing what I had on last night. Even my shoes. God, that’s a first.” He pointed at the shorts and tank she wore. “How about you—did you wake up in that?”
    “Yeah. What happened, Jason—this is scaring me.”
    He got up and strode toward the door leading into the other room. “My brain feels like it’s going to pound out of my skull—I gotta get some aspirin.” After another minute, he came back in carrying his shaving kit and went straight through to the bathroom. Then, as he rummaged in the kit, he picked up the thread of their conversation. “Look, Julie, I think we enjoyed ourselves way too much, got stupid-drunk, and became another embarrassing statistic.”
    “Statistic?”
    He peeked out the doorway at her. “Yeah. Drunken-marriage-in-Vegas-followed-by-quickie-Divorce statistic.”
    “ Oh. Yeah.”
    “Well, more like annulment, since it’s clear we didn’t do anything but pass out on the bed together last night.” He looked at himself in the mirror and shook his head. "Shit, what the mother fuck was I thinking to allow either one of us to get that smashed?" Then he popped two aspirin in his mouth and ran some tap water into a glass tumbler.
    He’d just swallowed it down and was filling it again when his cell phone started