Linda Leigh

6 Months Later

“Shhh. Come on. Come on”, Sera pulls me out of the small reception room. I hear some giggles and there is a good chance Hera and Persephone Argos caught us sneaking out the side door.

Sera leads me down the hall and we move as quietly as possible.  Her starched white suit practically glows in the darkened hall. Her white gold septum ring and blazer buttons occasionally flicker in the dim lights.

“Sera, We can’t just leave our wedding early—“

“Yes, we fucking can.” She decides. 

I'm so busy looking into her mischievous blue eyes that I don’t notice her crash into Mark who is apparently lurking in the hallway shadows,

“Mark,” I start, “What are you doing out here? You’re missing the party.”

“I got a call”, he says while briefly acknowledging Sera. He’d probably loosen up a bit if he knew Sera had paid all his (and Gina’s) outstanding invoices. He looks sharp as always in a dark gray suit.

“I’m glad you came,”  I say while calling the elevator, “I know I left you in a lurch with the DCEC but I was dealing with a serial killer. ”

“The podcast makes that very evident”, Mark says.

“You listened to the podcast ?”

“Everyone is listening to that podcast,” Marks says.

My phone is currently locked in my hotel room. I’d put myself on a tech diet this weekend . I wanted to focus on what I had in front of me. 

Mark clears his throat.

“Paris I was actually just on the phone with one of the committee VPs from the DCEC. I told them where I was and they mentioned that Clark County has two county commissioner spots opening up in 2030.”

“Paris is not working right now”, Sera says in a tone that makes Mark take a step back.

“It’s okay”, I gently pull Sera towards me, “Just five minutes.”

“Two”, Sera says and makes no move to give us privacy. She busies herself with a small mirror and adjusts the strands of her messy blonde pixie cut. I’m pretty sure she is planning on shaving it all off tonight.

“Mark, I just want to celebrate today. I’m still on sabbatical.  I haven’t even decided if I’m going back into politics.” 

Mark keeps cool under Sera’s sharp gaze. She is counting every second of those two minutes.

“Paris.” Mark relaxes his shoulders. “Think about your bottom line platforms. Clark County--Vegas is the perfect hub to start the groundwork on sex workers' rights. Clark county has the highest strip clubs and escort services per capita. We could revolutionize the politics behind  the sex industry in this town just like the gaming industry did in the 1950s. Once we start there we can branch into healthcare, affordable housing and green initiatives.”

“I guess we could do some baseline research—“

“And develop some new policy points.  We can get a small  group together–”

“We could also start collaborating on the local level. I’m good on the local level.  I think I know a few state congress–“

“That’s enough work”, Sera cuts in,  “Paris isn’t agreeing to anything today. Go back to the party and don’t tell anyone we snuck out.”

“Paris—“, Mark begins but Sera gives him a look that cuts him off.

Mark straightens and turns to the reception hall, “You really do have a type, Paris.”

I suddenly realize that If Mark was really up for continuing our political journey together… he and my wife were going to have to learn to get along. 

“You...um... suddenly want to stay in Nevada ?” Sera calls the elevator again.

I don’t know how to respond. 

 We were only in Nevada for the weekend to renew our vows. Then we were going to travel up to Colorado Springs for a honeymoon. It would be weird to stay in Nevada considering we hadn’t stayed anywhere for more than a week.

I’d planned to catch a flight out of  Sedona  6 months ago, but when we got to that rock formation it did shit-all for me. Sedona was a little too quirky. The desert somehow made me even more anxious. Sera insisted we head up to Big Sur and I try the Meridan-Juarez hot springs before going back to New York.

I don’t know if it was actually the hot springs that helped me or the 12 hours we spent driving the back roads through some of the most scenic parts of the country. The 10-mile hike along the coastline to the hot spring wasn’t bad either.

Slipping into the hot spring eased away all the busy thoughts in my mind. My back even started to feel a little bit better.  I sat there for hours while Sera traced the indents left on my skin from where the bullet had hit the calcite.  We’d found more heart-shaped calcite at a shop in Sedona. She'd helped me sew a stone in the pocket of every shirt I owned. It felt like good luck.

After the hot spring it just made sense to spend Christmas in Baja since it was snowing back East.Then she suggested we drive through Minnesota so I could see what could have been. Lake Duluth was as beautiful as the pictures Sera had shown me.  Then we detoured to  Louisiana because it was almost Mardi Gras and I’d never been. I also survived my first camping trip in the Georgia foothills.

Somewhere along I-49 towards the Outerbanks I realized I was never going back to New York. A few hundred miles after that the divorce papers disappeared before I could file them. For the first time in my life I didn’t have a plan and I was mostly okay with it.

Sera started replacing the landscape photos on the walls of her RV with pictures of us in the same locations. The space between us in each picture kept getting smaller and smaller. Somewhere along the Blue Ridge mountain trail that space ceased to exist. 

I was still getting used to how unpredictable she could be in her own quiet way. She was way very decisive and perhaps a little too used to everything being her way.  According to her I was still too uptight and anxious but I was better at managing it.

She still lifted and I learned to embrace her erratic training schedule and demanding diet. I spent many hours in Planet Fitness parking lots writing my memoir and starting a second book about my experiences surviving violence. I had to literally sit on my hands so I wouldn’t try to manage her competitions.

Sera accepted that deep down I was an East coast elitist who sometimes needed to visit a big city and spend a few nights in a nice hotel with a good bar, shower and a luxury mattress—which came in handy when we decided to start having sex again.  She’d bailed me out of my immediate debt and I’d be repaying every cent with my mouth and tongue for the foreseeable future.

My lack of knowledge about cars and the monstrous RV had led to one to many roadside fights. We tried to not re-ligitage the past, but every now and then those lost 7 years came up. That space was always going to be between us. The case was also always going to be hovering over our lives. So far there was no movement. It could be decades before Madison Dodson stood trial.

The closer it got to June— I think  we both knew what we wanted.  

It would have suited to have a vow renewal in that same small chapel from 20 years ago. It was still there—pink velour altar and all-- but it wouldn’t fit our humble party. Instead we’d rented a ballroom at the Bellagio and filled it with all the faces from Sera's photos; neighbors from Harrison County, The Argos family, a couple of Sera’s Sisters, A handful of my Brothers, Larry (with Granger), Sera’s friends from Boston, New York and D.C. 

“Sera, I  know we  aren’t supposed to be talking about work right now, but Clark County could be the right move for my career. I think I’m ready to get back out there. You don’t have to settle down with me--“

“I just put my ring back on you. You really think I’m letting you out of my sight ?”

“I just want to do some good. Do something I believe in. This might be the place to do it.”

The elevator closes before we can get into it.

“I’ve heard there are a lot of good gyms here.” She says more to herself.

“There is also a big market for sex work. You could pick up a ton of clients if you want.  High rollers.”

“Oh. I know."

 “You know in the 2010s I always had this dream of opening up a West Coast New Aeterna location. Technically we still own the name.”

Sera calls the elevator again, “I do miss having a real dungeon.”

“Think about it. It could be right on the strip.  I could probably pull some investors--” 

“Let’s take it slow.”

The elevator doors open and we finally get inside.  Sera shrugs off her blazer and pulls off her one shoulder white beaded blouse to reveal a red bustier top that matches the oversized red teardrop diamond ring she’d brought herself. Her finished tattoo sleeve now stretches up her arm and extends across her collar bone. The ink glows a little from a  thin layer of shimmer dust that I hope is edible.

She presses the button for the lobby

“I thought we snuck out to go back to the room.”

“We’ll have plenty of time for that later. Tonight I’m feeling lucky.” She holds out her hand and leads the way.