A restless eye across a weary room
A glazed look and I was on the road to ruin
The music played and played as we whirled without end
No hint, no word her honor to defend
“I will, I will” she sighed to my request
And then she tossed her mane while my resolve was put to the test
Then drowned in desire, our souls on fire
I led the way to the funeral pyre
And without a thought of the consequence
I gave in to my decadence

There’ll be no sleep in here tonight

From Pink Floyd’s “One Slip”

Written by: and

Las Vegas in mid-winter. What a miserable place to be, not cold enough to be called anything but chilly and a near constant wind offering nothing but misery. I didn’t like the city, I didn’t like the weather and I really didn’t like the desert. Don’t get me wrong, I used to like Vegas. But that was a decade or so ago before the corporations took over and Disneyfied the place. Now everything was over-priced, over-extravagant and overly cheap under the veneer. They should rename the fucking city to “Overly”.

But there I was attending an industry conference, why the hell couldn’t they hold this stupid conference someplace fun like New Orleans? Now that was a city I enjoyed, amazing music, food and atmosphere.

I had the misfortune of attending conferences all over the world. I work for a global firm and have to do business in most of the major financial centers worldwide. When I was younger I loved conferences, now I tried to keep the conferences down to four per year. One each quarter and tried to balance them between Europe, Oceania, the Orient and this one here in Las Vegas. This was the main conference and I was scheduled to participate in two discussion panels and attend several after parties.

Back home in Southern California where I wanted to be, the weather was magnificent; I missed it the minute I stepped out of the airport to look for a taxi. Back home I had a comfy little house where a good woman named Trish and her three young sons awaited me. Instead, I was in Las Vegas for four days and I fervently hoped they those days would pass by quickly.

The taxi was fully up to Las Vegas standards, which is to say it was cramped, dirty and had a strange odor coming out of the seat. Why did only London have good cabs? To be honest the cabs in Japan and Germany were always fastidious and clean but the famous London Black Cabs were an entirely different standard.

The hotel room was listed as Five-Star of course, which translates to Three-Star in the rest of the world. Don’t bother ordering room service and the coffee is almost always atrocious. The only thing Five-Star about Las Vegas hotel rooms is the glitter in the house casino and the prices they charge.

Per usual the conference was a bore. The Keynote speaker basically made an overly long sales pitch, the display floors were crowded & annoying, and the first two nights’ parties had the energy of a sleepy snail. Don’t get me wrong, there were beautiful women everywhere but they all had the practiced air of a pitch woman with the accompanying force field that kept the polite men away. Every man with any bit of social awareness at all realized that you weren’t taking that twenty-year-old girl pitching the newest router to you back to your hotel room. I don’t care how many routers you ordered on the spot.

I sat on my discussion panels and professed my latest opinions on current trends and future directions. Only one of the panels was fun, and that only because a heated argument erupted between a start-up founder in the audience and one of the esteemed panel members. That panel member wasn’t me but it was a fun distraction and amused me for the better part of an hour.

On the third night things changed; I attended a vendor party at a newly opened whiskey bar. One of my favorite vices is bourbon; I truly love the taste of quality bourbon and go out of my way to find it. This was a fine example of a great whiskey bar: they offered a massive selection of aged bourbons, ryes and sour mashes with the proper accompaniment of savory hors d’oeuvres. They sold fine cigars and had a small dance floor with a quality live band playing a smooth mix of rock and blues; I fell for the place right away.

Two hours later I was feeling good, I had run into a couple of old acquaintances and had a fun chat about the current state of college football; I was almost ready to call it a night.

I decided there was just one more bourbon I wanted to try and was at the bar fetching it when she walked into the room. I didn’t see her at first, all I saw was that a new group had come through the entrance. New large groups have a tendency, particularly when they’ve been drinking, to dominate the entry way when they first enter a room until they finally disperse and join the crowd. I lit a cigarette and decided it was better to wait for the dispersal than to fight through the crowd.

I was halfway through my cigarette when they finally started to thin out and that was when I saw her. Our eyes seemed to lock the moment our gazes met. I can’t be sure how long that moment lasted before we both quickly looked away in embarrassment – the power of that moment had been surprising.

I turned back to the bar and crushed out my cigarette in the ashtray. I ordered another bourbon and pulled another butt from my pack; my mind was suddenly unclear and I needed to think. Time wasn’t on my side as a velvety voice from my side asked, “Hey, can I get one of those from you?”

I knew better but my mind wasn’t working straight, I should have just shoved the pack to her and made my exit. Instead, I turned, smiled and offered her my freshly lit one. She accepted it and took a long luxurious drag while looking me in the eye; from that moment the deal was sealed. The dance truly commenced from there; I ordered her a drink, we exchanged business cards and we fell into meaningless talk while our eyes dueled and our libidos tangoed.