***All characters are over 18 and are fictional. Any resemblance to any real-life persons is purely coincidental.
... Jenna and Paul were sitting at the hotel bar drinking, trying to figure out how things had gotten out of hand for them. The only reason they originally came to Las Vegas was to attend a friend's wedding; they didn't count on losing their entire life savings in the process.
The wedding was a few days earlier, and they decided to stick around Vegas for a little longer to have some fun. They hadn't been on a nice trip together in a long time, and they wanted to do as many crazy things as they could before they both turned 30 in the next couple of years.
They paid for a couple of extra nights at their hotel room and exchanged their plane tickets for a later date. They went to a couple of shows, visited a few sights, and Jenna even took Paul to one of the more famous strip clubs and bought him a lap dance.
Then, of course, came the gambling, because it was Vegas, after all. The hotel they were staying at also had a gambling hall, which was convenient for them. They set their limits at no more than a thousand dollars each. It was a lot of money for them, but they figured it would be an acceptable loss to have a little fun in Vegas. They hit a few tables in the beginning and won some extra money. They decided to divide up the money between them and split up to play some games on their own.
Paul had some luck at the poker tables and managed to win $4,000 before losing $1,000. He was enjoying the rush of it all, and the free drinks didn't help him make any smart decisions as he kept on playing and making bad decisions. Finally, it was a lawyer from Texas who got him with 4 Queens over Paul's 4 Jacks and took what was left of his money.
Even though he and Jenna had agreed to a limit, he couldn't resist the temptation to try to win his money back. He went to the cashier's desk to withdraw some more money from his bank account, which he lost twenty minutes later. He then took out even more money from his bank and whatever he could from a credit card. A little less than an hour later, he lost everything again to the same Texas lawyer.
He decided to stop after that and keep whatever money he had left in the bank. Instead, he spent the next half hour trying to figure out how he was going to tell Jenna about how much money he had lost. He was hoping that she did much better at the tables than he did to help make up for his losses.
He found her sitting at the table with a drink in her hand, and he sat next to her. He decided to just rip the band-aid off and tell her everything. As he told the story, she had a very disturbed look on her face.
That's when she told him what had happened to her. It was basically the same story; except she was playing the roulette tables over and over again until she lost everything. Not just the thousand dollars she originally had, but more from their bank account and another one of their credit cards.
They sat there for a long time, contemplating what they were going through. They estimated that they had maxed out their credit cards, had less than $300 left in the bank, and had about $200 in cash between them. They were fortunate that their room was already paid for another two days, and they had some money for food and other minor expenses. All they had to do was to stick out for another couple of days in their hotel room until they could get on their plane and go home.
Paul left Jenna at the bar to go outside to smoke a cigarette. While there, he kept thinking of what he was going to do. They had a mortgage and car payments that were coming up soon, and after that they had some serious credit card debt to deal with. The best idea he could come up with was to ask some friends he could trust to keep a secret for a loan until they can get back on their feet. It would be embarrassing to ask their friends for money, but he felt they had no choice.
He walked back inside the hotel and back to the bar. Jenna was still sitting there, and she was talking to some guy who was leaning in too close to her. Paul could tell from the way Jenna waved her hand in that strange man's face that she told him to get lost. The man was gone before Paul got to Jenna.
"What was that all about?" he asked.
"Forget him, he was a creep," she replied. "He thought that I was an escort and tried to bargain with me."
"Seriously? He thought you were a hooker?"
"Yes, and please say escort; it sounds classier," she said with a smile. "And he wasn't the only one; while you were gone, I had three other guys approaching me thinking the same thing."
"Damn, I'm sorry I left you alone like that."
"It's alright," she said. "They were offering me good money, so I can't be that offended."
"What?" Paul said, laughing.
"I'd rather be thought of as an expensive escort than a cheap one," she said.
They both had a good laugh at that comment. It was a much-needed laugh to help distract them from their problems, even just for a moment.
Paul honestly couldn't blame those men for thinking Jenna was a prostitute. She was sitting alone at a Vegas hotel bar and she was dressed way too sexy; from what he heard about Vegas hotel bars, that was often where hookers sat around waiting for potential customers.
Jenna wore a tight blue dress that was too short at the bottom and showed off plenty of her 36D breasts on top. With her stylish blonde hair and the extra makeup on her face, any man would've thought she was either a hooker or a stripper.
Normally, she would never go out looking like that, but she hadn't dressed that sexy since her college partying days and thought it would be fun to dress a little slutty while they were in Vegas. She even brought up the line "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" to describe how much fun she wanted to have during their vacation there.
"I'm going back to our room to rest and clear my head," she said as she stood up from her stool. "You coming?"
"I just want to finish this beer, then I'll be right up."
"I wonder if I'll get any more offers on my way back to the room," she said jokingly.
"If the offers get higher, maybe you should consider it," he replied, and they both laughed again.
She walked away towards the elevators while Paul sat at the bar, slowly drinking his beer, thinking about their desperate situation. A moment later, he was startled when he got a big slap on the back of his shoulder. He turned his head to see a short, dorky-looking man with glasses.
"Hey there, I'm Tim," he said. "I couldn't help noticing your girl. How much does she go for?"
"Excuse me?" said Paul, before realizing what was happening. "Oh, wait, you think--"
"I don't want to sleep with her or anything, not that I wouldn't mind under any other circumstances."
"Listen, buddy, you've got the wrong--"
"Here's my situation," Tim interrupted again. "I'm hosting a bachelor party in a penthouse suite on the 15th floor and I'm the best man. I had a stripper scheduled to come up, but--"
"Let me stop you right there," Paul said. He was trying to set him straight with his mistake, but he just wouldn't let me say a word.
"But the problem is, she suddenly canceled on me about ten minutes ago, and now we've got no entertainment. We've got to have a stripper. Who ever heard of a Vegas bachelor party without a stripper?"
"Listen, I'm trying to tell you--"
"Now I know what you are going to say. She's an escort, not a dancer--"
"No, I'm trying to say--"
"But I'm sure for $3,000 she could dance for us just for one night."
Paul was trying to tell him again about his mistake, but when he heard $3,000, he just wanted to hear more.
"So, what do you say? Can your girl come up and dance for us? I know it's at the last minute--"
"Yes, she'll do it," Paul said, interrupting him this time.
"Thank you, you're a life saver," said Tim. "It's in room 1505, and we need you there in 45 minutes."
"Ok, but just to be clear on one thing," said Paul. "You got the wrong idea about her. She's a dancer, not an escort."
"Oh, I see. Sorry about that," said Tim.
"So don't expect anything else besides a strip show."
"No problem, that's all we want."
"And no cameras," Paul demanded.
"That won't be a problem," said Tim. "I'll see you up there in half an hour."
Tim walked away, and Paul finished his beer, paid the bill, and went to his room. On the way up, he was thinking about the offer he got for his wife to strip for a bunch of strangers, but most importantly, how he was going to convince Jenna to actually do it. They were joking before about how people thought she was a prostitute, but they were having fun with that. This was something completely different.
In the hotel room, Jenna sat on the edge of the bed as Paul told her what had happened at the bar and how much the guy offered just for her to dance naked. She sat there silently as he tried to make a strong case of why she had to do this for them. Finally, she stood up, walked two steps closer to Paul and gave him the hardest slap across the face he had ever had.
"You son of a bitch!" she yelled at him.
"Honey, I understand why you're mad at me--"
"Do you, Paul?" She asked sarcastically. "Do you really? You just asked me to be a whore for you."
"No, not a whore, there's no sex involved, just stripping for a bunch of strangers."
Again, she slapped him across the face. He had to admit that he did have it coming.
"You suck," she said. "What kind of man asks his wife to do something like that?"
"Jenna, listen to me," he said as he put his hands on her shoulders. "We gambled away all of our savings and maxed out our credit cards. We have very little money between us at this moment. We may be able to get a loan from a friend until we can get back on our feet, but we most likely won't get a lot from them."
"Yes, I know, I was thinking the same thing," she said sullenly. "I was even considering selling some of my jewelry when we get home, which I really don't want to do."
Paul continued to say, "You may not have to do that anymore. With the money they're offering us, we don't have to worry about that much. By my estimation, we can use this money to pay our next mortgage, both of our car payments, and a couple of other little things, which could help us save some money in the long run. I understand why you're upset, but under the circumstances, we don't have much of a choice."
"But why do I have to make this sacrifice?" she asked. "You're just as responsible for our situation as I am."
"I totally agree with you. And if there was something I could do to save us, I'd do it," he said. "But right now, you're our only hope."
He took his hands off her shoulders. She stared at him for what felt like an eternity, then finally slapped him hard across the face again to get it out of her system.
"Ok, I'll do it," she said.
"Oh, thank you" he said as he tried to hug her, but she pushed him away to show how angry she still was at him.
"You owe me so much for this," she said.
