It Happened in Vegas

Chapter I

"Okay, whatever, I'll go with you and your bitch ass boyfriend to Vegas." Dalia rolled her eyes as she wiped off workout benches. Elise squealed with excitement as she sprayed handlebars with antiseptic and disinfectant. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess it could be fun. But, I'm bringing Cyrus. His mom needs me to babysit him." Dalia replied, rolling her eyes and feigning annoyance. She was looking forward to finally doing something on her day off and finally having actual fun on her birthday.
"You need this. This is like, your third day off since we graduated from college?" Elise asked, "You're practically 27 and you haven't started living la vida loca yet!" She added, excited that her best friend has finally agreed to do something other than work or stay in. Dalia scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Whatever, you don't know me, woman." She pulled her phone out and tossed the towel on the hand rest of the eliptical machine. "I'm gonna text Cyrus right now and tell him to pack up for the weekend," Dalia sent the message and pocketed her cellphone.

  "Yes! I'm so excited!  And puh-lease, nobody knows you better than I do." Elise swatted her friend on the hip with a towel. They did, in fact, know each other well. Dalia was a fitness instructor who opened her health and fitness center with Elise when she was 25. She worked hard every day leading up to and after their college graduation to do so. Dalia was determined to make her dream happen early on, which left her with very little time for fun. She allowed herself a total of 4 nights off per month and she usually spent them with Elise or Cyrus. They'd go to Redbox, order movies, eat junk food, drink wine, and binge-watch new tv shows for 2 days straight. Once they crawled out of their ice cream hang overs, they got right back to business as usual.

  There was only one time that they'd veered from their schedule, and Dalia had finally decided to step out of her shell with a little help from Elise. Elise felt that she needed to convince Dalia to go out clubbing or go to different events and concerts but Dalia wasn't a fan of crowds. Since they met in high school, all attempts to get Dalia to participate in activities where there were more than 4 people present was completely out of the question. 'It's time to grow up and grow out, me and Cyrus can't be your only two friends,' She'd say pushing her friend, unsuccessfully toward entrance doors of packed clubs. Though it was a true statement, it still wasn't a good enough reason in Dalia's opinion to be engulfed by a pool of strangers with sharp elbows and bad breath. 

Dalia and Elise walked toward the lunch room and prepared their seperate midday meals. "Wait... did you just say Cyrus' mom asked you to spend more time with him?" Elise asked as she sat with the bowl of spaghetti on her table mat. Dalia nodded, and poured protein powder into her water bottle. "That doesn't make sense, Cyrus is grown. He should not be getting himself into that much trouble to where you still need to be monitoring his ass, but you agreed, so now its too late." Elise said taking a bite of her spaghetti. "Just tell Cyrus he can come as long as he doesn't bring any half-straight guys with him this time." Elise pulled an exra fork out of her lunch bag and sat it next to her bowl in anticipation for Dalia's thefft attempt of her food. "Arson felt hella uncomfortable last time he brought his 'ex' bowling with us." Elise said rolling her eyes and putting air quotes around the word 'ex'.

"First of all, that was his DL-FWB, Down Low Friend With Benefits, whom I may add, was invited. Unlike Arson, who wasn't." Dalia replied matter-of-factly, as she grabbed the fork from the side of Elise's bowl.  "Furthermore, fuck Arson. Who the fuck named him that anyway?" Dalia added, with an obvious look of distaste on her face. In the months that Arson and Elise had been dating, Dalia didn't care for him much and had no problem showing it. Elise rolled her eyes and shook her head with a knowing smile on her face, she'd expected Dalia's immediate annoyance after mentioning Arson's name. Elise knew how Dalia felt about Arson. She knew the exact reaction she would have to the mention of his name and she enjoyed getting Dalia all fired up; she found it entertaining. "You know damn well, it was a club name." Elise laughed as she took a bite of spaghetti.

Dalia looked at her salad and then at Elise's food. She opted for the spaghetti and started twirling her fork around in the dish and  taking a huge forkful. At Elise's shocked face, Dalia shoveled the food in her mouth with a huge and teasing smile. Dalia moaned in delight, the food was fantastic. Elise was an amazing cook and an even better dietician. Every night, Elise cooked dinner, and every day she'd bring leftovers for lunch, enough for Dalia to skim off of.

Dalia was on a diet, trying to prepare for training for an upcoming fitness event so she wouldn't dare carbo-load, not yet. . She, instead, helped Elise eat hers.

Dalia was in love with Elise's cooking. Her food was always healthy and always tasted amazing, which is why they chose to go into business together. It was the efforts of both Elise and Dalia that built their business. Elise was hardworking, just like Dalia but she opted for 6 days off per month instead of 4, that way she had a little bit of time for her own life and friends and her relationships.

"His motorcycle buddies nicknamed him that and you know it," Elise answered, pulling Dalia's attention away from the food. "Whatever, still weird," Dalia replied shoveling one last forkful in her mouth and savoring it. Dalia checked her watch. 2:30 p.m. "Time's up, I got a training class coming in 15 minutes, so I got to go." She stood up, kicked the chair under the table, and headed to the sink to wash and dry her hands. "Oh shit, I almost forgot, Group 3 needs their Individual Diet Plans for the week. They need it like today sooo if you can do that for me that'd be awesome." Dalia said, drying her hands. "Yeah, no problem, most of them are already done, so I'll just finish them by 6 or so and I'll send them out, no worries," Elise answered, finishing the last of her food. "Alright, and after that, can you call our weekend and night managers? Give them their schedules and let them know we will be out of town this weekend?" Dalia asked. "I already did that," Elise answered with a smile. "Before I even gave you an answer? Awfully presumptuous."
"

Nah, I would have just kept bothering you until you agreed," Elise smirked.
"Good strategy, annoy me into submission." Dalia returned the smirk. "OK, see you later. Got people to do, things to see." Dalia kissed her index finger and middle finger and smacked Elise on the cheek with them before heading out of the staff lounge. Elise was washing her container out and smiling ridiculously when her phone vibrated with a notification.

It was a text from Dalia:

"Have your shit packed and tell your broke ass BOYfriend to have a bag packed. We are driving my RV to Vegas and I'm letting Cyrus drive my truck. Pre-trip meet up at your house. Later toots!"
Elise sent a confirmation and got back to work.