Chapter Seven

Part 3

I didn’t win. Dominic and his friends came to play and I must have been distracted by my desperation, because they razed me. I didn’t pick up on any of their semaphores, and, in fact, I misread quite a few. The more money I lost, the more hampered my instincts became. On one hand, I got Dominic’s tells mixed up with Lucas’s, and I ended up betting the farm on crappy cards, thinking Dom was bluffing. It turned out he had four of a kind, and he collected all my cash, to the plaudits of his friends and lackeys who had turned out in droves.

“You ready to surrender yet, Mikey?” Dominic asked, laughing. He had been inimical toward me all night. Not that I was surprised. I had manipulated him into coming here. I suppose, on some level, I deserved his noxious behavior. It was amazing how much less combative I felt toward him now that I had a girlfriend whom I really liked. His taking Marcy from me no longer seemed like such a big deal. Taking my money, however, was huge.

I glanced at Ian. Dom and his friends had pillaged the cash he had lent me. Now it was either borrow more or go home with my tail between my legs. That feeling of helplessness is indescribable. Only people who have played and lost at poker know how horrible it is. Luckily, Ian was one of those people. He got up and took out a few more stacks of chips. I shot him a grateful look as he handed them over. My best friend had a surfeit of kindness. Or maybe it was just his pride talking on my behalf. Maybe he just wanted me to beat these suckers as much as I wanted to beat them.

“You’re staying in?” Dominic said mirthfully. “Great! After tonight I’m gonna be able to put that new sound system in the Bimmer.”

You would think that hundreds of games of poker with my friends would have inured me to the trash-talking, but coming from this guy it got under my skin.

Ian, who was standing behind me, leaned toward my ear. “Will you take this haughty asshole down already?”

I smiled. “Will do.”

But my confidence was evanescent and, ultimately, ineffectual. On the next few hands it wasn’t just Dominic who schooled me, it was all the tangential players as well. My money slowly dissipated around the table, filling each of their pockets. I just could not get the cards. There seemed to be a plenitude of threes and fours in the deck and not a single royal. At least not for me. It got to the point where I was actually trying to sneak a peak at everyone else’s cards, but as dull as these guys were, they were at least smart enough to obscure their hole cards from view.

Finally, finally, I was dealt a good hand. Between my hole cards and the cards on the table I had four jacks. Four of a kind in royals is really solid. The most solid hand I had had all night. If I wasn’t going to win on this one, I wasn’t going to win on anything. Every time someone rose, I called. The pot grew huge, and I started to salivate, even as my heart pounded with trepidation.

I looked at Ian before he dealt the river. I could tell he was just as nervous as I was. I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if I lost this hand. Not only would I be broke, but I would also be in debt to my best friend—a debt I had no possible way of paying back. Why had I not thought of all this before?

I guess I hadn’t wanted to think about it.

“Dealing the river,” Ian announced.

The card was useless to me. I already had my hand. He dealt a queen and I looked around at the remaining players. I couldn’t read any of their reactions for all the money in the world. My perspicacity was out the window.

“I’m in,” Lucas said.

“I call,” John added, throwing in his chips.

“Me too,” Dominic said, adding his own.

I pushed my own chips in.

“Well? Whadaya got?” I demanded.

“Three of a kind,” Lucas said, tossing his cards down. He had three queens and was a looking a little too confident about it, if you asked me.

“Got me beat,” John said, throwing out his cards face down.

Yes! That left only Dominic. Only his cards could inhibit me from winning the pot. I did the math in my mind. If I won this hand I could pay back both Ian’s loans and still have some money to keep me alive.

Please just don’t let him have the cards, I thought. I need this. I need this more than anything in the world.

“Riley?” he said, raising his eyebrows.

I swallowed hard. My hands shaking, I laid my cards down. “Four of a kind,” I said, trying not to let my terror show.

Dominic sighed hugely. My outlook brightened. I had him! I had him, I had him, I had him!

Slowly he leaned forward and placed his cards down. I stared at them for a moment, as did everyone else. Silence fell as we all tried to work out what he had.

“Oh, sorry,” Dominic said. “That would be a straight flush. Did I not say that?”

“Oh!” his friends cheered, slapping hands and laughing. Laughing at my expense.

I felt like I was going to throw up. I leaned back in my chair as my life flashed before my eyes, my many transgressions of the past couple of weeks acting as highlights. And they just kept celebrating. Celebrating my misery.

“What do you think, Riley?” Dominic asked. “Want to borrow some more cash and go again?”

I glared at him, seething. Did I say I was feeling less combative toward this guy? I lied. I wanted to hit him so badly my fingers itched. I wanted to tackle him to the ground and wipe that recalcitrant smirk right off his pointy little face. I started to get up to do just that, but Ian jumped right out of his chair.

“All right, guys. Game’s over!” he announced. “Let’s get everybody cashed out.”

“What? Tired of bankrolling your little friend?” Dominic asked.

Ian placed a firm hand on my shoulder to keep me from lunging at the guy. “It’s getting late, and this is my house,” he told the guys firmly. “It’s time to go.”

All I could do was sit there and stew as Ian handed over all that cash and Dom and his friends all sashayed out, their wallets full to bursting. Four guys who definitely didn’t need the money. Four guys who would never have to worry about working a part-time job or paying for college.

I hated them. I hated them all. But most of all, I hated myself.