(Author's Note: All rights reserved. All sex is with adults. I know - another Las Vegas story. This one has a little bit different slant. It has five parts.)
It Started in Vegas
Part I. Johnny and Annie Get In Trouble
Johnny
I still think it was a great idea. The plan was to celebrate our third anniversary with a trip to Sin City. We hadn't spent my five-thousand-dollar Christmas bonus, and my thinking was that we'd have a great time in Las Vegas, see some of the famous shows, have some good food, do some gambling, and maybe catch a few shows with a little kind, nude dancing, and so forth.
Annie and I had gotten married just after graduation from college and after our honeymoon in the Texas Hill Country, started work at our good starting jobs in North Dallas. We had purchased a nice starter home in Collin County, with our parents helping out with the down payment, and life was sweet.
We had an eclectic mix of friends, some from college or high school, some from one of our workplaces, and some members of our young couples' group at church. Sometimes I played poker with some of the guys; sometimes the wives and girlfriends came along; sometimes not. Similarly, the girls would have bridge parties, which the guys went to. Sometimes we would go clubbing, just Annie and I or with a few other couples. We often had parties at one of the couple's apartment or home. We were young and fun-loving, so we would also on Friday nights have guys' night outs and separate girls' nights out. Either would usually have two carloads but could be more or less.
We pretty much ignore skin color although most of our friends are in Anglo-Anglo relationships. Within our group, we also have friends of African, Hispanic, and Asian heritages. Almost a third of the couples are of mixed heritage like us.
Life was sweet. We were saving money for a larger house and for the college educations of the children who we both hoped would be coming in a couple of years. We justified blowing some money in Las Vegas, because we were only using our yearend bonuses.
Annie
My name is Mary Ann Ramirez nee Smith. I never liked Mary, so everyone calls me Annie or Ann. I married Johnny while we were in college. He has a Hispanic heritage, I don't. I met him at the International Club, but we are both native-born Americans. Johnny's appearance shows that he had Indian ancestors. His name is actually Juan Ramirez, but everybody calls him Johnny. My skin is a little darker than average, but I don't know which ancestor or ancestors it came from. I look like I have a tan when I don't. When I do have a tan, I'm a bit darker. I have a good body, but not outstanding. Johnny teases me that my boobs are just the right size to provide a handful for him. He likes playing with my butt, too. It's not big, but it's not small. Johnny says that it's just right.
On our first date we danced and drank wine. I never went to bed on the first date with a guy, but when Johnny asked me to stop by his apartment, I was so ready. It was one of those walk in the door and start ripping each other's clothes off. After that, he was the guy for me. We were together most of the time we weren't in class.
After college I started working as a sales representative for a soap company, while Johnny started working as an accountant for a law firm. Neither job paid huge money, but it was enough for a nice apartment and our twice a year vacations, usually one domestic trip, and one trip out of the country - Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, ... . As we approached thirty, we were starting to think about children, but we were yet to make a commitment.
We flew into Las Vegas Friday night, and a hotel limousine picked us up along with another half dozen or so people headed for the same hotel. We checked in and went to our room which was nicer than we expected. So far, our trip was looking pretty good. We went to dinner in the hotel casino restaurant and of course, started doing some gambling after dinner. I played some blackjack with ten-dollar chips; Annie played the dollar slots. At the end of the night, she had lost around thirty dollars; I had lost over two hundred dollars.
The next day we started off with some pool time; Annie wore her revealing white one-piece. After lunch, we gambled a little while and then went to a matinee show.
The afternoon gambling started off well enough; we were a little ahead on the craps table. We crapped out three times in a row, so we went to blackjack. Four out of five hands the dealer had blackjack. So, it went for the rest of the afternoon. Every table we tried we would lose more. Soon we were a little over several thousand in the hole; we still had a few thousand dollars.
Late afternoon we went for a nice dinner. After dinner we went to a different casino. Annie began playing roulette and keno. I found out about The Poker Room.
It was actually a number of poker rooms with different buy-ins. The minimum buy-in was above the door in blue lights. The number of positions available was indicated by a series of squares below lit in red, if taken, or lit in green, if available. There were from six to eight seats available.
I joined one of the tables with a buy-in that was affordable and started playing on the next hand. After I joined there were seven players. Everyone was very friendly, and I was looking forward to a fun night. I won three of the first ten hands and was significantly ahead. After that it seemed that my luck changed; I was still winning a fair share of the hands, but it seemed that the pots were small when I won. If I bluffed, someone always called. There were some hands that I felt I had a good chance but eventually felt that I needed to drop out. On some of these I wondered if I had stayed in too long.
Suddenly, it seemed that I was out of money. I felt like I could play with these guys, but that I was having a run of bad luck. One of the players advised me to go to the 'Bank', or cashier's window, and ask for a marker. After I gave them a credit card number, they gave me an additional five thousand dollars in chips. I thought that might be necessary since the two thousand dollars I had started with meant that sometimes I didn't have enough chips to play with. After two hours I had only a few chips left. I went back to the 'Bank', They gave me another ten thousand dollars, but I had to give them both a credit card and a debit card. With this stake, I did a little better, but after three hours of gambling, that was gone, too. It was three o'clock in the morning. I knew I shouldn't gamble any more on this night. Annie and I went to the casino restaurant. Annie had lost two thousand dollars. We had a snack and a drink. I was sure I could win my losses back, but I would have to get another stake. For an advance of ten thousand dollars, I had to give my credit card and Annie's debit card. Annie felt like her luck was about to turn, also, and she got an advance based on her credit cards.
After gambling all night, around six the next morning we were seated at a booth in the hotel restaurant. We figured out that we had lost more than forty thousand dollars. Our credit cards were maxed out and our bank accounts emptied. After all that we still owed around twenty-five thousand dollars. We had some non-qualified investment accounts we could tap into by getting a check from the brokerage house but that would only be a few thousand dollars, nowhere near enough to pay the casinos off, and they were already making implied threats. I held my head in my hands, while Annie softly wept.
Annie
Sunday morning, we were seated in the hotel restaurant, and we were trying to figure out what we were going to do about our huge debt, but we were not coming up with any answers. There was a fellow seated at the next booth. He spoke to Johnny, "I overheard your problem, and I might be able to help you out."
Johnny asked me if we should hear this guy out. I replied, "It doesn't cost anything to listen."
Johnny moved over to sit beside me, and the fellow sat down on the other side of the table. He introduced himself as "Mac" McCutcheon.
Johnny introduced us as Juan and Annie Ramirez.
"I bet Annie is not your first name," Mac replied.
