Twilight Outtake: Alice and Edward visit a Las Vegas Casino

This Stephenie Meyer-written outtake is a delight — and a great example of her luxuriously extended dénouements. Provided as a favor for the mighty Twilight Lexicon, it adds a story to the original Twilight manuscript, when “Bella, Edward, and Alice stayed behind in Phoenix while she healed and then drove home passing through Las Vegas on the way. This scene takes place in an unnamed Las Vegas casino. Bella still has a cast on her leg. ENJOY!!”

The next morning, we went to the casino. Natural light never came close to touching the gaming floor, so it was very easy. Edward told me it was generally expected for them to go lose some money in the hotel—a suite like ours was reserved for that special class of visitor known as high rollers.

As they walked—and I rolled in my wheelchair—through the acres of elegantly decorated casino floor, three times Alice paused at a particular slot machine and slid a card through the scanner. Each time she did this, sirens would blare, lights would revolve, and an electronic simulation of coins dropping indicated that her prize had been credited to her room. She tried to get me to do it once, but I skeptically shook my head.

“I thought you were supposed to lose money,” I accused her.

“Oh, I will,” she assured me. “But not until I make them sweat a little.” Her smile was sinful.

We reached a more lavishly decorated division of the huge casino, where there were no slot machines or casually dressed tourists with plastic cups full of change. Plush chairs replaced the swiveling bar stools, and the voices were quiet, serious. But we continued still further, through a set of ornate gold doors into another room, a private room, more opulent yet. Finally I understood why Alice had insisted on the raw silk, emerald green wrap around dress she’d tied on me today, why she was wearing a long, white satin sarong—with a short lace top that bared her flat, white stomach—and why Edward was overwhelming and irresistible in another light silk suit. The players in this room were all dressed with an exclusive splendor whose expense was far beyond my imagining. A few of the impeccable older men even had young women in glittering, strapless gowns standing behind their chairs, just like in the movies. I pitied the beautiful women as their eyes swept over Alice and Edward, realizing their own deficiencies as they measured the first, and the deficiencies of their partners as they ogled the second. I was the enigma, and their eyes slid away from me unsatisfied.

Alice glided off toward the long roulette tables, and I cringed as I thought of the havoc she would wreak.

“You do know how to play black jack, of course,” Edward bent forward to murmur in my ear.

“Are you kidding?” I felt the color drain from my face.

“Knowing your luck, I couldn’t lose any more thoroughly than by letting you play,” he chuckled. He wheeled me toward a table with three empty chairs. The two immaculately dressed, exceptionally dignified Asian men glanced up in disbelief as Edward lifted me gently into one of the empty velvet chairs, and took the seat next to me. The delicate oriental beauty who stood at the end of the table watched with insulting incredulity as Edward caressed my hair possessively.

“Only use one hand,” he breathed almost silently in my ear. “And keep your cards over the table.”

Read the conclusion at the Twilight Lexicon site here. Delightful!