Chapter 1

It was all my fault. I won Salesman of the Year and they sent me and my wife to Vegas, where we got the VIP treatment.

Then we just got the treatment.

Amanda and I met about a year ago. She worked for the ad agency that handled one of the sales campaigns I kicked ass on. She was fresh out of college and still innocent. She wasn't the kind of woman I usually went after. She was about ten inches over five feet tall, with cinnamon red hair and so many freckles that she looked tanned. In reality, though, she had the palest skin, because she kept out of the sun with an almost religious fervor. Additionally, she was slim, having breasts you might expect to see on a thirteen year old, and hips to go with them. But regardless of the fact that she was lacking in the curves most men look for, there was something inherently sexy about her that made me want her from the first time I saw her.

She resisted my seduction and I thought she was playing hard to get, so I redoubled my efforts and finally got her to go out with me. I wined and dined her with a vengeance, and bought her expensive jewelry, but couldn't get her into bed. She'd only had one boyfriend, and had only let him fuck her once. It apparently hurt a lot and she broke it off with him. It took proposing to her to get in her panties, but it was worth it. I admit I hustled her a bit, but hey, I'm a salesman, right? Sometimes the way to make the sale is to wear them down.

We set the date and then I convinced her to change it when I won Salesman of the Year because a trip to Vegas was part of the bonus that went with winning. I told her Vegas could be our honeymoon. So she agreed, even though we had to move the wedding up because the trip had to be taken before a certain date.

She wanted a big wedding with a big reception. She had a lot of relatives and they didn't get together all that often. But I had waited as long as I could to get her naked and in bed. So I paid the limo driver under the table to show up an hour after the reception started. She was all upset, but I told her she could see her aunts and cousins any time.

"It's kismet, baby," I said. "Vegas awaits! And our honeymoon starts just as soon as we get in that limo!"

So that's why we had go straight from our wedding to the airport. We did detour to my apartment where, in the confusion, I forgot to load one of her suitcases into the car. By the time we realized it, it was too late. I had thought we could get an earlier flight, but that didn't pan out. Then, when we finally got on our flight there was a mechanical delay, and we sat on the ground for an hour and a half. She didn't care, because she was with me and we'd just gotten married. I was in a hurry to unwrap my present, but because of the delay they gave us free booze, so I managed. I just whispered, in detail and technicolor, what I was going to do to her once we got there.

When we finally got to Vegas and got checked into the hotel, I couldn't wait any longer. I admit it was a wham, bam, thank you ma'am event, but I just couldn't wait, you know. She only complained a little, so I thought it was all right. I knew I could make it up to her later, when I wasn't on such a short fuse.

I got up to get dressed and she asked where I was going.

"To gamble, of course," I said. "Come on."

"I'd rather stay here with you," she said.

"I'm not going to be here," I said. "I'll be gambling. You need to come gamble if you want to be with me."

Of course looking back on it now, I know I was stupid. I wasn't used to being married. I wasn't used to thinking about the feelings of the girl I was with. And I didn't realize it hurt her feelings.

Amanda was from a small town in Oklahoma. I think her graduating class had seventeen seniors in it. So she wasn't helpless. By that I mean she hadn't been pampered by rich parents or anything. She didn't get mad easily, and I was to learn that when she did get mad it was sometimes hard to tell at first. I got my first lesson that day. She told me to go gamble.

I did, and I lost big.

But because we were on a sponsored trip, I was classified as a VIP, so they let me lose big.

I got most of it back, and then, over a four or five hour period, lost it again. Amanda never watched me play. She said it was boring. She tried the quarter slots a couple of times, but usually just got something to eat and drink and then went shopping or something. I didn't pay any attention. Later I'd recognize what a putz I was being, but not then.

Then I lost bigger, and the next thing I knew they were into me for $25,000.

I got invited to the casino manager's office. He spoke to me for maybe fifteen minutes, during which it sounded like I was at a neighborhood party somewhere. There were no threats, and nobody standing around smacking fists into hands. No gorillas hovered nearby frowning at me. He told me to call him Mister Krebs, but of course he called me John. Finally he got to the point.

"You owe me twenty-five large, John."

"Yeah," I said, feeling sick.

"You can't pay."

"Well, not right now, of course," I said. I put a puzzled look on my face. I was pretty good at looking puzzled when I wanted to. "I don't know why I lost so much. I don't understand that. I usually have much better instincts than that. But I'll find a way to pay you off, I swear."