Feeling his moment to impress slip through his fingers, Brik searched his mind for any way to hold on to the moment. “And if there’s anything that you need, anything at all, you can call down to the concierge desk and ask for me. My name is Brik and whatever you need, I can get for you.”

“Thank you,” the good looking man said dismissively as he returned his attention to his work.

“I mean it, anything at all. Anything you need, just call me. No matter how difficult to find, I’ll find it for you,” Brik said talking to hide the fact that he was overstaying his welcome.

When it became clear to Brik that the wealthy man wasn’t about to say anything else, he acknowledged that his opportunity had passed and that it was time for him to go. “All right. Have a good night,” he said as he turned to leave.

“Wait,” Roberto beckoned, still not looking at him.

“Yes?” Brik said with a faint hope.

“You said that you can find me anything?” The good-looking man said still staring at the table.

Excited, Brik bounced on the balls of his toes. “Yes, anything. Just name it.”

The man paused, took a breath, and then turned to Brik. He looked both tired and a little desperate. “You think you could find me a muse?”

Out of all the things that the man could’ve said, this was the last thing that Brik ever imagined coming from his lips. “Did you say a muse?”

“Nevermind,” the man said embarrassed.

“No. Please, wait. I just wanna clarify. You did say a muse, right?”

Roberto looked at Brik doing his best to hide his vulnerability. “Yes, that’s what I said. So, is there a department in the hotel that has one of those?”

Brik stared at Roberto unsure of what to say. As he looked, everything about the clothing designer became clear to him. This was a man who had booked a month long stay at a casino, requested all of his work material be sent to the penthouse, and was frustrated in a way that Brik hadn’t understand before.

Clearly what was happening was that this world-class clothing designer was having some type of creative block and he was unable to work through it. He had come to Vegas to escape. He had probably tried everything else and was now down to this. He had even become so desperate that he asked the concierge to find him inspiration.

For the first time, Brik saw the wealthy man as inescapably human. He was now even more attractive to Brik than when he first saw him.

“So, what do you say? Does the Four Queens have a muse on staff?” Roberto asked only half serious.

Immediately, Brik realized that this was his opportunity. “Yes,” he said. “The hotel does. Me.”

Roberto shifted his head unsure of what Brik was telling him. “You. You’re the hotel’s muse?”

“I can be,” Brik said not know what he was getting himself into.

“You?” Roberto said again. This time he turned his body towards him, crossed his arms, and sat on the table intrigued by what was going on. “How are you going to amuse me?”

It was then that Brik realized that he was in way over his head. He was just saying words at this point. The meaning or consequences of them were a distant memory. “That depends. What would you like?”

Brik watched as the good-looking man swallowed. Brik couldn’t imagine that Roberto was nervous but there was something about him that hinted that there was more going on beneath the surface than the good-looking man was letting on.

Roberto turned his face toward his female friend without taking his eyes off Brik. “Gemmi, do you think our friend here -- I’m sorry, what is your name again?”

“Brik. Brik Evander.”

“Do you think our friend, Brik, Brik Evander is good-looking?”

Brik was taken back by the question but tried not to react.

“He’s gorgeous,” the scantily clad woman replied.

“Do you think you’d want to have sex with such a gorgeous man?”

Brik’s skin tingled as if zapped with a bolt of electricity. Did the man just ask his half naked girlfriend if she would want to have sex with him? That couldn’t have just happened. What the hell had he gotten himself into?

“You know I would, sweetie. I told you that before.”

Wait, did the drop-dead beautiful woman just say that she had told her boyfriend that she would want to have sex with him? Had he just stepped into an episode of ‘Red Shoe Diaries’, or what? Brik felt his young body become excited as he began to consider what might happen next.