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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

As the year turned to 1998, Lovelle returned from Las Vegas with a nice bit of pocket change. He had only bet on favorites, and without a point spread, so he didn’t exactly make a killing. But it more than made the trip worthwhile.

He also had a very good time with his girlfriend. She was very low maintenance, which was perfect for Lovelle at that time. By all measures, that trip to Vegas should have been the beginning of something good for them. Instead, it was the beginning of the end. It
was
the beginning of a love affair, but that love affair was with the city. Lovelle loved the weather, the night life, the restaurants, the mountains, and most of all, the lure of easy money. They hadn’t even stepped off of the plane in Detroit before he was planning his next trip.

At first he thought he would become a regular visitor, revolving around major sporting events. But that idea didn't last long. Shortly after his return, he received a call from Lisa. She had gotten herself involved in some pseudo psychological self-help brainwashing cult. For the mere price of half of her savings account she now had a guru. The shaman insisted that she had to secure her ex-husband's forgiveness and bring him back into her life. When she explained this to him, Lovelle proceeded to tell her, in less than delicate terms, that he had no intention of forgiving her or of even talking to her if he could avoid it. He also told her exactly how he felt about brainwashing cults that drain their clients’ bank accounts then convince them that they need to drag every friend, family member, enemy, or random stranger they can to one of their seminars so they can be raked over the coals as well.

Lisa calmly answered him, “I knew you would be hostile at first, but, I’m not going to give up.” She went on to tell him how she had left her boyfriend because she knew that Lovelle was her “soul mate”, and that she was determined to wait until he could see that too. Getting away for a while started to seem like a pretty good idea.

Then, at the end of February Lovelle’s boss called him and the other two salesmen into his office. He informed them that he was selling out to one of the national competitors in town. He told the trio that the new owners would probably be adding one of them to their existing sales force, but that they would have to interview for that job once the buyout was complete. In the meantime, they wouldn’t be signing any new accounts. He generously offered to pay them their base salary to continue servicing existing accounts until the deal was done. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Rather than compete with one of his coworkers for a position with the new ownership, Lovelle decided to bow out.

Over the next few weeks Lovelle said his goodbyes. As expected, some were tearful, and some were more casual. One, was awkwardly so. His girlfriend seemed utterly unaffected by the news. He had expected her to ask him why, or maybe to express surprise or even sorrow. Instead, all he got from her was a simple “good luck”. Not ‘I’ll miss you’. Not ‘I’m sorry to see you go’. She didn’t even mention trying to stay in touch. She simply let things end. Lovelle did not know what to make of her reaction. He could only assume that they had no future anyhow, which actually made things easier for him.

Probably the most difficult goodbye was with his father. Just like everyone else, his dad couldn’t understand what he was doing. Lovelle had no good explanation for them. But, while everyone else was just curious about his motivation, his father was clearly disappointed. He thought his son was running away from adversity instead of facing it. And, in a way, he was right. But, Lovelle hated having him feel that way, especially in light of the limited time his father had before he would become ill. In fact, that was the only thing which gave Lovelle pause about the move. But, his parents were fans of Vegas, and he knew they would visit often. And when they did, they would spend all of the time together, rather than the occasional dinner. Besides, he knew that his schedule was going to allow him frequent visits to Detroit, even if he couldn’t say so right now.

Although he shouldn’t have been, he was most surprised by the sorrowful farewell with Trina. Since his divorce, they had been less in touch than at almost any time since his second life began. They still talked on the phone regularly, but they only saw each other sparingly. More importantly, the sense of closeness they had experienced for so long was just not there anymore. He had not concealed his lifestyle from her. She did not approve, and she let him know. So they had agreed to disagree.

Under the circumstances, Lovelle didn’t expect her to be too upset about his leaving. He was wrong. She was concerned that this was going to be the end for them. She had been more upset than she’d let on about how their relationship had changed recently, and she believed that she was becoming less and less important to him. Now, she was afraid that the distance would cause them to completely drift apart. He broke the news to her over the phone, which added an exclamation point to her concern.

“I don’t suppose I can talk you out of this?” She implored.

“Oh, now you’re gonna give me a hard time too?” he kidded, not realizing how serious she was. “Have you been talking to my parents?”

“I just can’t believe you’re not going be around anymore.” She sounded like she might be about to cry.

“What are you talking about? I’ll be home so much everybody is going to be sick of me.” He tried to reassure her lightheartedly.

“Yeah, and when you are, your family is really going to want you hanging out with me.” She replied sarcastically.

“Trina. I love my family, but, since when have you known me to spend that much time with them? I promise you, you’re going to see me.” He reassured her again, now feeling guilty for underestimating her commitment to their friendship. “Besides, we talk on the phone more than anything. I’m gonna have one of those unlimited long distance plans. I’ll talk to you just like I do now.” That little reminder of the turn that their relationship had taken was not helpful.

“But I don’t want to just talk to you on the phone. I don’t like it now, but, at least I can always hope we’ll get back to normal. If you go away then we don’t even have that chance.”

Realizing the error of telling over the phone, Lovelle made arrangements to pick her up for lunch the next day. She started crying almost immediately. With their history, and his soft spot for crying women, it was all he could do to keep his own composure. He was surprised at how she was acting. Trina was neither overly emotional, nor typically irrational. But here she was, seeming to be both. He had no intention of letting their friendship die, and he thought she would know that. Besides, she had never been the dependent one in their relationship. She had never before seemed so concerned about them, nor, to his recollection, had she actually cried over anything he had done, even when they were kids and he had rejected her.

He wanted to stop the car and embrace her. He promised her again that she would see him every time he was in town. “Trina, you’re freaking me out. I’ve never seen you get upset like this. Especially not over something so silly. Is there something I’m missing here?”

“No.” she sniffled. "I’m just gonna miss you.” Then she shot him an irritated look, “I can’t believe you think this is no big deal. My best friend is moving across the country. I may not see you all the time right now, but it’s a big deal to me that I can if I need to.”

That really caught him off guard, and he pulled onto the next side street so he could look her in the eyes. Never before had she called him her best friend. Not once, going back to their closest days in school. Never, in all the times that he had called her that, had she even hinted that the feeling was mutual. It had always reminded him of those couples where the one partner professes their love while the other scrupulously avoids the word for fear of reinforcing the feeling.

Lovelle couldn’t believe that this was some slip of the tongue. Neither could he entertain the idea that she had just had some epiphany regarding their relationship. For her to tell him this after all of these years, she had to be sending him a message. It was like playing this great trump card she had been holding in her hand forever. For reasons he didn’t understand, she wanted him to know how seriously she was taking his departure. She had to know that he would catch the comment, and probably expected he would take it for the signal it was and leave it at that. But, he was not about to let such a revelation pass.

“Excuse me?” he questioned once the car was parked. “Did you just call me your best friend?”

“Of course.” she answered, like it was the most obvious statement ever uttered.

“Don’t give me ‘of course’.” he half chuckled. “We’ve been friends for more than twenty years. You’ve never said that before. Did you really think I’d just let that slide by?”

“I’ve told you that before,” She protested, pretending to be indignant.

“Whatever!” he replied incredulously. “Like I wouldn’t have noticed that. I’ve been wishing for that for my whole life, do you really think you could have said that without me noticing. There is no way you have ever said that to me before, and don’t bother pretending that I’m wrong.”

She said nothing for a long while, weighing whether to try and press the lie or to let it go and hope he did as well. Finally she decided that continuing the lie served no purpose. “Are we going to get something to eat, or what?”

He let it go at that and they proceeded to lunch. There she cried a bunch more before finally letting him go with a long sobbing hug.

*****

All of his goodbyes behind him, Lovelle left for Vegas the day after his employer handed over the company. He went without as much as a clue to where he would be living. He had enough money in the bank to store his U-Haul worth of property in a storage unit and live in a hotel for a few weeks. Had he wished to cash in his stocks he could have lived that way for much longer, but he did not want to field the questions about how he was affording such a life. So he set up shop at a nice little local’s casino, bought himself a used SUV, and started the process of settling in. By day he looked for a place to live and some type of job that wouldn’t cramp his style, and by night he started his gambling career.

Lovelle arrived in town in early April just in time for the Kentucky Derby. While horse racing was not a sport that he followed, he was, like many people, aware of the results of this particular event. When the time came, he remembered only one name from the racing form, Real Quiet. His confidence that he would only know the winner’s name was pretty high, so he placed bets around town for several thousand dollars. When it came in at about 9 to one, his year was pretty nearly made.

Fortunately, by that time he had just signed an apartment lease. If he hadn’t, he might have been tempted to use his windfall on something quite a bit more extravagant. As it was, he was more than a little irresponsible with this money. He traded in his newly acquired used SUV for a bigger, fancier new one. He went out and bought an extravagant entertainment system, the likes of which he had been eyeing for years. And he quit bothering to look for any kind of day job.

In July he decided to go home for a visit. Without having a job, he had to lie to explain how he could afford it. He told everyone that he had hit a progressive jackpot. He made up a story of winning 50 grand on a slot machine, which he knew would buy him some time with his parents. It was summertime, and Lovelle was no great fan of baseball, and knew very little about it except possibly the outcome of the World Series. This left him with nothing pressing to do in Vegas, so he spent a full week in Detroit. He would have liked to have stayed longer, but he thought that might be pressing his luck with his already disapproving parents. He had lunch with both Katie and Trina, and tried to arrange a dinner with Trina and Paul as well. But Trina insisted that she didn’t want to share her time with him and they went to dinner alone. Having been true to his word about both calling and visiting, their goodbye was tear free this time.

When he came back to Vegas, pre-season football was about ready to start. Although he really didn’t follow any sports closely enough to be considered a fanatic, he was surprised at how much he did remember, and how well he could turn that knowledge into profit. Once the regular football season started he was able to make a lot of bets. These bets didn’t pay the way that horse racing did, but, he knew enough to more than earn his way.

Lovelle weighted his wagers based on his confidence in the outcomes. This allowed him to turn a 75% average in picking winners into a much greater return on his investment. For Monday Night Football, which were games he had usually watched, he would go sit in the sports book and not only wager on the game’s outcome, but make proposition bets if the game seemed familiar enough.

Meanwhile, Lovelle found himself work as a substitute teacher. This was the most legitimate of the low stress part time positions he had come across. The only requirement was a college degree and flexibility. It worked out well because he could pretend that he was working more often than he really was and no one in Michigan would be the wiser. This would help to make it believable that he could live on the earnings.

Now settled in his new home, Lovelle visited Detroit again for a few days in November to tell his tale. To his relief, his parents didn’t give him any hassle. Eventually, he knew he would have to do better, but, he could cross that bridge at a later date.

*****

Then things got really interesting. It was soon time for the Kentucky Derby again, and this time Lovelle had some serious money to bet. He had been squirreling away his winnings, not wanting to make any obvious show of wealth. And now he was as certain as anything that Charismatic was going to win. Once again he was laying bets all over town. When the race was over, this 32 to 1 long shot had very nearly made him a millionaire.