jasper
Two and a half years earlier
“What is this place?” she glanced around the dingy basement and frowned.
I grinned. It was my turn for our ‘friends’ date and I was getting payback for her making me look stupid in that stupid matchbox car of hers.
“You ever played poker, BG?”
She nodded her head. “Just not particularly well...”
I chuckled.
This will be interesting.
“Did you bring cash with you like I asked?” I raised my brow at her.
She’d been a pretty good sport so far. All I’d told her was to dress up nice and to bring some money. She’d actually managed to do what she was told for once.
She opened her bag and held it out for me to look. It was stuffed with hundred-dollar bills.
“Holy shit, Han, how much money did you bring?”
“Ten grand…” she replied sheepishly.
I gaped at her.
Oh shit…
“I thought we might have been going to some big super secret Gucci sale or something, I didn’t want to risk being under-prepared.”
“Gucci? You seriously thought I was taking you shopping?”
She sighed and looked around. “A girl can dream.”
I shook my head and laughed at her.
“You see that table over there?” I pointed out one table among the others.
She nodded.
“That’s Will, Dave, Craig, Hayden and Kev.” I pointed out the five men sitting around it.
“Cool… why is this place so dodgy looking?”
I chuckled. “It’s a high stakes poker ring, barbie, we like to keep to ourselves.”
Her eyes widened. “Poker ring? No shit…”
* * *
“Which one’s better again, a flush or a straight?”
“Flush,” the guys all replied in unison.
This was the fifth time she’d asked this particular question, and I could have sworn she was doing it on purpose.
At this point, it was collectively agreed by everyone here, that Hannah was either bat-shit crazy or making a damn good show of acting it.
She stared hard at the hand in front of her, like she didn’t know what to do.
“Ugh too bad I don’t have either of those anyway.” She tossed her cards down. “I’m out.”
“You fold,” Dave corrected her.
“Meh, whatever.” She waved away his correction.
I laughed into my glass.
She was just taking the piss now.
This was a serious game. Well, it usually was.
Not tonight.
I’d warned Hannah that these guys took this pretty seriously and that they didn’t do much in the way of joking around.
She’d shot me a devilish smirk and announced that she would be ‘sorting that out, real quick’.
She had.
She had the guys looser than I’d ever seen them. She was joking and laughing, and I was enjoying watching her far more than I was playing the game.
Even if I was up five grand.
“You didn’t think to check if she knew how to play before you brought her here?” Kev asked me.
“Hey! Who says I don’t know how to play?” she faked outrage.
“Ah, logic, common sense and reason,” Will drawled. “That’s who.”
“Maybe I’m doing that pretending thing… what do you call it again? Bluffing?”
Craig leant across the table in her direction. “Normally when people bluff, they do it to win, not lose.” He winked at her.
“Thanks for the tip.” She smiled sweetly at him while giving him the middle finger.
I laughed loudly this time.
“There’s only one thing for it then,” she announced. “Deal us a new hand.”
I sipped on my bourbon and watched her with amusement.
We were playing Texas Hold’Em tonight, but I doubt Hannah even had a clue what that meant.
She was down about two grand already, but she didn’t seem concerned.
She had the worst poker face I’d ever seen, the one round she’d been dealt a good hand, she’d smiled like the cat that got the cream, so everyone had folded and she’d only managed to take away a couple hundred bucks.
She’d been working on her ‘game face’ ever since.
“Last round,” I announced. “I’m getting her out of here before she either goes bankrupt or one of you lot lose your shit.”
Hannah rolled her eyes. “You’re such a spoil sport, Lollipop.”
“Yeah, Lollipop, stop raining on her parade.” Kev smirked.
I gave him a ‘shut the hell up’ look. These sharks would take her for all she had, given half a chance.
Hayden shuffled the cards and dealt us all two cards each.
I picked up my hand.
A three and a ten.
Terrible hand.
I watched as Hannah slowly picked up her cards, shooting sideways glances at the guys to make sure they couldn’t see.
She smuggled them in her hand up to her face so she could look at them.
A pained look crossed her face.
She’s got nothing.
I glanced around, everyone was watching her intently, smirks on all their faces.
They knew as well as I did that she was screwed.
“Bets in, ladies,” Dave drawled.
I knew I wasn’t going to be winning shit with these cards, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t attempt a bluff.
Kev bet five hundred to start.
“Raise you five hundred.” Will tossed in a wad of cash.
“Call.” Craig tossed his money in too.
“Raise you another five hundred.”
Dave added his money – the bet was at fifteen hundred now.
“Call.” I threw my money into the centre of the table.
“Raise you a grand.” Hannah smirked.
“Are you sure you wanna do that?” I whispered to her as she added two and a half thousand dollars to the pool.
“Oh, I’m sure.” She winked at me. “Go big or go home, right?” she added, her voice cocky.
She really was a terrible actress.
“The lady’s sure, Jasper.” Hayden smirked before calling and chucking his cash onto the stack.
Hayden dealt the flop.
Queen, nine and a four…
I’m screwed.
We went another round of betting with everyone calling.
If my maths was right, there was twenty-three thousand dollars in the middle of that table right now and I could safely assume that neither Hannah nor I would be leaving with it.
Hayden dealt the turn.
A king.
“Fold.” Kev threw his cards down.
“Call.”
“Call.”
“Call.”
“I’m folding, boys.” I smacked my cards down on the table.
One of them was bound to have a decent hand and bluffing was getting me nowhere. Most of them were hell bent on staying in, sucking every cent they could out of Hannah now.
We all looked expectantly at her.
“Call,” she announced.
I groaned.
There goes a whole shit tonne of money she’ll never see again.
Hayden laughed. “Oh, there’s no way I’m getting out now, call.”
“This was a terrible place to bring you, BG,” I grumbled.
She just grinned up at me as though she didn’t have a care in the world.
Hayden dealt the fifth and final card – the river.
Another nine.
“I’m out of money,” Hannah told the boys. “I’ve got five hundred bucks to my name, unless I take a loan from Lollipop here…”
“Not happening.” I shook my head.
She was going down in a blaze of glory and she was going down alone.
“What do you boys say, you willing to let it ride this round… winner takes all?”
After some bartering back and forth and my refusal to let this evolve into a game of strip poker – Hannah’s suggestion, they agreed to a five hundred dollar, last round bet.
“I fold.” Craig shrugged. “I’m just here to see what the hell happens next.”
He wasn’t the only one. I didn’t know which one of my poker buddies was going to rob Han blind, but whoever it was; I was never going to hear the end of it.
“You three in?” Hannah asked Will, Dave and Hayden.
“Hell yeah.” Hayden smirked.
They all threw their money in the middle.
“This is not how I thought this night would go,” I muttered to myself.
“Show me.” Hannah lifted her chin at Will.
He laid down a jack and a ten – a straight.
That’s that then.
It wasn’t the best hand you could get, but it wasn’t going to be easy to beat on this draw.
“You…” She motioned to Dave.
He laid down a three and a four – two pairs, he was out.
“Bad luck.” She poked her tongue out at him.
“You wanna go next?” She batted her lashes at Hayden.
He sighed and tossed his cards down. “Three of a kind,” he grumbled.
He was out too.
It was all down to Hannah now. She might have been doing a fantastic job of building suspense, but I wasn’t expecting a lot from the cards in her hand.
She bit down on her lip and glanced around at us.
“Get on with it, barbie girl.” I chuckled.
She laid one card down – a queen.
I sat forward in my chair, right now she had two pairs, which if I was being honest, was more than I’d expected her to have.
“I got a bad feeling about this…” Will groaned.
“Boo-ya, bitches!” she cried as she revealed her final card – another queen.
“What’s that called again?” she feigned innocence, a huge smile on her face. “A full house or something, right?”
Well I’ll be damned.
Will laid his head down on the table and groaned.
“Why do I feel like I just got played?” Dave asked, his eyes blinking in shock.
“Now, I might not ‘know how to play’, but I’m pretty sure a full house beats a straight, am I right?”
“I did not see this coming.” Hayden rubbed his hand over his eyes as though he still couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
He’s not the only one.
Hannah reached into the middle of the table and made a show of dragging the huge pile of cash she’d fleeced off my buddies towards herself.
“Pleasure doing business with you, boys.” She grinned.
I laughed long and loud. She’d fooled us all.
This woman has no idea how incredible she is.