Excerpts
An upper management meeting was scheduled for 10:00 A.M. the next morning to reevaluate our strategy on extending huge limits. Mr. Royalty was on a run that ultimately beat up not only Las Vegas but casinos as far south as San Diego and as far north as Indiana for more than $25 million. You can talk all the theory and percentages you want. We were losing real money. If Mr. Royalty wasn’t stopping at any other casino but The Nugget, we could’ve taken the entire $25 million beating. And who knew when it was going to end.
The meeting was about to start. No Tim.
Calls put through to his office weren’t being returned. He wasn’t answering his home phone. He wasn’t picking up his cell.
I figured he needed time to recover. I figured he’d catch up on the details with Johnny D. over lunch. I knew it was painful for him, much more complex than simply taking an $8-million beating. He knew in his bones he was right. He knew he just had to ride it out. Maybe he wanted to be by himself because riding it out alone made it easier.
I didn’t think like a gambler. And he had to be feeling some guilt over how the beating was tearing me apart.
Lunchtime came and went. Johnny D. hadn’t seen Tim. The more people couldn’t find him, the more they called me.
“Hey, Tom, where’s Tim?”
“Where’s Tim?”
“Where’s Tim?”
“Where’s Tim?”
“Where’s Tim?”
I couldn’t tell if I was frustrated or nervous.
Finally, I took the elevator up to the Steve Wynn suite where Tim occasionally spent the night. I slipped my master key into the lock, opened the door and stepped into a haze of smoke. Cans of Red Bull energy drink were scattered around the room. Ashtrays were full. There was Tim — lying under the covers in bed. He hadn’t shaved. His clothes were wrinkled. It looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks.
In that moment, all of the money and the limits and the strategy went right out the window.
I pulled a chair up to the edge of the bed: “Are you alright?” I asked.
What followed wasn’t exactly a golden moment in our friendship.
But maybe you’ve got to go through moments like that to make a friendship golden in the first place.