This Changes Everything by Gretchen Galway

he dragged drool strings across his lap.
    “When was this?”
    “When I bought the Las Vegas trip for you. The charity auction in Carmel.”
    “But that’s perfect,” Hugo said. “It’ll be a real double date then. Me and Trixie, you and—”
    “We’re just friends.”
    “I don’t understand. You changed your mind?”
    Sly scratched Mouse’s skull, nudging him away from his balls, a location he’d rather keep drool-free. At least from a dog. “She’s not interested.”
    “Of course she’s interested,” Hugo said. “She must be.”
    “Thanks, but there really are women on this earth who don’t find me irresistible.”
    Hugo narrowed his eyes. “Were you drunk? Maybe she didn’t think you were serious.”
    “That wasn’t the problem.”
    “I never did understand why you spent so much time with a woman you weren’t sleeping with.”
    “It’s called friendship. We enjoy each other’s company. You don’t have to want to have sex with somebody to enjoy her company.”
    “But you do want to have sex with her,” Hugo said.
    Sly looked past Hugo to the sidewalk where a panhandler was talking on his cell phone. “Yes,” he said softly. “It seems I do.”
    Hugo tapped his foot against Sly’s shin. “Weekend after next. Friday flight out of SFO. I’ll set it up and email you the itinerary.” He stood and snapped his fingers for Mouse, who, after shooting a longing glance at Sly, turned to follow.
    “I can’t promise anything,” Sly said.
    “I’ve known you your whole life. You always get what you want.” Shaking his head, he patted Mouse’s rump. “Eventually.”

11
    T he Friday after next , Cleo sat on a plane to Las Vegas.
    “It’s all a setup to get us together,” Sly had told her the week before. “Trixie’s not really interested in Hugo. She made that up to get you to say yes.”
    “Thanks for warning me,” she’d replied. “Now I don’t have to feel guilty about saying no.”
    “Sure you do. Think of poor Uncle Hugo.”
    “But if she’s not interested—” Cleo had begun.
    “Hugo thinks she could be if he gets her away from home. Here she’s got her family and the dogs. In Las Vegas, he thinks he just might have a chance.”
    “Maybe,” she’d said. “But why should I be the sacrificial lamb? Can’t you find a date?”
    “She thinks you’ve got the hots for me.” Before she could hit him, he’d added quickly, “But since we both know it’s not true, that won’t be a problem.”
    No problem. Right.
    She’d finally agreed to go, officially for Hugo’s sake, and here she was. Privately, she’d had her own reasons for coming. Although they’d smoothed the waters since Carmel and things seemed to be back to normal, she regretted the way she’d run away from him after that kiss. Instead of explaining to him with a lighthearted laugh that she wasn’t interested, she’d fled like a coward who had something to hide.
    She was grateful for the chance to show him she didn’t.
    They walked off the plane at the Las Vegas airport into a circular gate area bursting with slot machines and flashing neon lights. Around them, high windows displayed a vista of arid mountains and flat desert. Cleo stopped to gape.
    Sly caught up to her and touched her shoulder. “You OK?”
    “It’s already like a casino. Right here in the airport.”
    “Haven’t you been to Las Vegas before?”
    She shook her head. “Never got around to it.”
    “Why didn’t you say so?” he asked.
    She hadn’t wanted to make a bigger deal out of this trip than it already was. “Didn’t I?”
    His eyebrows rose. “No, you didn’t.”
    “I felt like I already had,” she said. “From movies and TV.”
    “If you find me parked in front of the slots for too long,” Trixie called out behind them, “do an intervention, will you?”
    The four of them paused near one of the empty machines while Trixie bent over to tie her hot-pink minimalist running shoes. A sign warned them that the seats