I turned and blocked Wendy while she pulled herself together.

"Evelyn, don't you knock?" I wiped my face and laughed to myself. "Look, Evelyn, you need to leave." I started to push her out but she resisted.

"Daryl, we had a deal." She glanced quickly between me and Wendy, raised her eyebrows and tapped her toe.

"Eve-"

"I - we - have an election to win, Daryl. You're up here doing this and I have guests that you need to meet. I had to push off the judge again, and there's an assemblyman that you simply must meet."

"I'll just go," Wendy said, her head down.

"Yes, that would be best. You don't know what you're messing around with here."

"What does that mean?"

"She can't stay here, that's all."

"No, you stay, Wendy. There's a blizzard out there with near white-out conditions and I don't think your car has been towed back yet. In fact," I looked at Evelyn pointedly, "you can stay in my suite. There's an extra room."

"But-"

"Eve, I'll talk to you later -" I pushed her out of the door this time, but she put her foot in the way so I couldn't close the door.

"Daryl, you can't do this. What about Victoria?" she yelled 'Victoria' just as I managed to kick her foot out of the way.

I stopped and closed my eyes. Shit, I thought, that's going to go over like a lead balloon.

"Who's Victoria?" Wendy came around and put her hand on my shoulder and twisted her head to see my face. "Are you married?"

"No, no, it's not like that. I'm not married. Listen, just, don't worry about Evelyn, okay? She's under a lot of pressure with the campaign and she's been with my for a long time. This means a lot to her."

"Does it mean a lot to Victoria?" She put her tongue in her cheek and now she was tapping her toe.

"I've never met Victoria," I said. It wasn't a lie, really.

I felt caught between two worlds just then. On the one hand, I was here to do a job. I had people to schmooze and I just kicked out my campaign manager. There would be a news crew here later to get the marriage proposal on tape, which would cement me as the "family candidate" with the "perfect wife."

But it was a fraud. It was everything that I hated about Vegas all at once.

Then again, you don't get ahead in this world by staying in a small town in New Hampshire. You just don't.

I sighed and sat down at the table.

"Wendy, I -" I wasn't sure where to start. "You know, this town. I don't know why I bought this hotel, exactly. I mean, yeah, it's a great investment, but there are plenty of opportunities that would make me a lot more for the same initial investment."

She looked at me like I was speaking Greek.

"I mean that this hotel wasn't the best use of my money."

"So why'd you buy it? Did you miss me?"

"Actually, yes."

Her face went blank and she fell back into a chair, and it rolled back and thumped against the wall.

"I thought about you often. I was busy, I had things to do, but you were always in the back of my mind. We had this connection, you know?"

"Yeah, of course I know." Her lower lip quivered. "So why'd you leave?"

"Why didn't you tell me you didn't want me to leave?"

"Who says I didn't want you to leave?" She smiled and kicked me under the table.

"Ow, hey," I laughed. I reached for her hands and she put them out to me. "It feels like there's some cosmic force pulling us back together, Wendy. I flew back here and I it just felt right. I drove around before the snow and then again this morning, and it felt like home. Do you know what I mean?"

"Well, I live here, so, obviously... but you didn't answer my question: why'd you leave?"

"You know why. We talked about it - we agreed, right? I was going to the Naval Academy and you were going to - what was it, a state school?"

"Yeah. I... I did agree to it." She looked like she was going to cry again. What was I missing here? We both agreed to it.

"There was nothing here for me after my parents moved to Florida. All our friends left."

"My dad died right after you left, Daryl. I needed you then, and I couldn't reach you. I had to give up my dream of college and get a job to support my mom."

My heart sank. "Oh, my god, Wendy, I had no idea. You could have found me, I mean, you knew where I was."

"We decided we weren't going to have a long distance relationship, remember? And you were so damned determined to run off to the Navy."

My phone buzzed. It was Evelyn again.

"You know what. I want to catch up with you but don't have time right now, I gotta run. Tell you what, let's get you changed."

"You got a closet full of ladies' clothes?"

"Actually, yes."

* * *

The closet of my suite had been used as a temporary place to store clothes for a fashion show last week. The weather had kept them from coming to get them.

Wendy walked in and her eyes got huge. She sniffed the air. "Is that cedar? I always loved the smell of a cedar closet."

"The walls are cedar planks, yes. I had this suite redone when we made plans to host the conference here."

She whistled and started to thumb through the dresses. "This is some quality shit you got here," she glanced at me and went back to the dresses, dragging them down the rod, pulling them out and laying them against her body, putting them back and thumbing through again.

"There are shoes over there," I pointed to the other side of the closet, "but I don't think I can help you with any, uh, undergarments."

She stripped the sweatsuit off and tossed it aside. I stopped to admire her body. She looked back at me.

"What?" She looked down at herself. "Ain't you never seen anyone in granny panties?" She made a kissy face and slapped her ass.

"Of course," I laughed, "but you're rocking it, I must say."

"You're being nice. I know I'm fat. You can say it. My boyfriend did this morning."

"You have a boyfriend? That tells you you're fat? Wendy, I thought you'd be doing a lot better than that."

"You really don't think I'm fat? I mean, I'm no spring chicken." She pinched a hunk of flesh on her side and made a pbbbt noise.

"Stop it, I mean it. And if I wasn't already running late, I'd lay you down for round two."

"I don't know. I mean, your campaign manager was pretty pissed. And what would Victoria say?"

"Okay, stop teasing me or I will slam you raw."

Wendy laughed and went back to the dresses, shaking her ass and peeking back at me. I really had to get going but I was enjoying this. I never had playful fun with women. And I was sure that I would never have playful fun again with a fake marriage.

"You can let yourself out when you're dressed. I know you've got work to do, too. I've got to get downstairs before Evelyn strokes out on me."

I was going to move in for a kiss but thought better of it.

Wendy's tablet rang. It was Lisa calling on Skype. She held up the tablet and turned it away from me so Lisa wouldn't suspect, I'm sure, that she wasn't exactly working right now.

"Where the hell are you, Wendy? This email server is acting up again. I thought you were going to remote into it right after you fixed that WiFi hotspot?"

"Um, yeah, well that job was a little harder than I thought. I thought it had me licked and then I found my way... you could say it came to a good resolution."

I laughed quietly and shook my head. Same old Wendy.

"Why are you talking that way, Wendy? Just get back down to the server room."