Rory and Lorelai burn through about eight bucks combined when they come to a mutual realization after they each flush another dollar down the drain, getting nothing but a lemon symbol, a bar, and a seven in return.
"Slots suck," they chorus together, then laugh.
"Would you be up for something a tad more daring?" Lorelai asks.
"Whatcha got in mind?"
Lorelai turns about ninety degrees to the right and points at the stairs. "They've got card tables upstairs. We've gotta play blackjack, right?"
"Sounds fun," Rory comments. She leads the way, sashaying her hips, barely restraining a smirk when she feels her mom's gaze hone in on her ass and legs.
They wander around and simply observe for a few minutes before settling in at one of the tables offering blackjack.
"Ten dollar buy-in," the dealer announces as they sit down, joining a group of four. "New game is just about to start."
He swiftly dishes out the cards, and Rory tries not to smile too brightly at a decent starting hand--an 8 and a 3.
At the same time, Lorelai reaches her right hand under the table and slowly, slowly snakes it under her dress to squeeze her upper thigh.
Rory bites back a gasp at the unexpected touch to avoid interrupting the first person's round and thinks, "Two can play at this game."
So she lifts her left foot out of her high heel, lazily hooks it around the back of her mom's ankle, then runs it up until she's pressing it against the back of her knee.
The first person goes over 21 after taking just one card and the second stays after taking a couple, leading to Lorelai's turn.
"Daring move," Rory comments innocently when she elects to hit with 15.
"No risk it, no biscuit," Lorelai answers with just as much guile, clenching her free hand into a fist and pumping it slightly in approval as the dealer flips over a 4. He busts in his attempt to top her, and Lorelai cheers quietly as her pot of chips increases.
Dory has similar luck, getting another 8 to tack on to her starting 11, and the dealer can't best her, either.
They play a few more hands and come out slightly ahead when Rory nods toward one of the other tables.
"Feel like giving Texas Hold 'Em a shot?" she asks, then, before she can think better of it, follows up with, "Maybe put together a side bet?"
Lorelai's responding grin is all teeth. "What kinda side bet?"
"How about...winner gets to make the first move tonight when we get back to the hotel?"
"Sounds like a plan. Like getting more dessert from the pantry when we get to our floor, right?" Lorelai winks, and Rory deadpans back, "Yeah. For sure. Definitely what I had in mind."
"Well, then," Lorelai joins her in scanning for an open table, "may the best woman win."
She offers her right hand out and Rory takes it, shakes it, tries her best not to consider where it'll be later or what it'll be doing to her.
"How do you wanna do this? Best two out of three?" Lorelai asks while they approach one of the tables.
"Sure. Whoever has the best hand wins that round, even if someone else takes the overall pot."
"Okay," Lorelai agrees, settling into a free seat, and the guy next to her illustrates an appalling lack of subtlety in giving her a once-over. More like a twice-over with how long his eyes have roved up and down her body.
"Can I buy you a drink...?"
"Alex," Lorelai lies, inventing her new name on the spot. "And no, thank you, I'm good."
Fortunately, he accepts her hints, and Rory maintains her neutrality as best she can, willing the smugness of her victory to stay off her face as her mother shifts her seat closer towards her.
The dealer passes the cards out, and both Rory and her mother snap their hands out to grab them, peek at what they have to work with. Their easy, free play of blackjack is gone, replaced by intense competition and stony gazes that refuse to betray either advantages or useless cards.
They've not played games of deception with each other that often, and certainly not in such close physical proximity.
Funny thing is, it probably would've been easier for them to suss out potential tells before they bedded each other.
Because Rory can't stop admiring the show-stopping color contrast between her mother's dark lipstick and her fair skin, and Lorelai notices that her daughter's necklace rests right on the small patch of tasteful cleavage she's chosen to reveal.
Neither of them keep close enough track of their cards to know who's emerged victorious from the first two rounds, but Lorelai takes the whole damn pot the third time around with a full house.
"Time to turn in our tickets and chips and...cash out."
Rory can't suppress a groan at the all-too-appropriate pun.
"First of all, I just won us nearly a hundred dollars," Lorelai says. "And second, you love me."
"I do," Rory agrees easily, naturally, unconsciously, earnestly. "I really do."
___
Waiting to put that love on full display challenges both of them.
Lorelai guns it through a couple of yellow lights on the way back to the hotel, and Rory snaps, "Hurry up," at the three cars in front of them, as they're the only ones that have obeyed the speed limit for more than two seconds during their whole trip.
They breeze through the lobby, stopping just long enough to drop the keys off with the attendant on duty before calling for the elevator, each barely resisting the urge to touch the other on the way up to the fifth floor.
Lorelai fumbles with the key fob to enter the hall for a second, swipes it, then holds the door open for Rory.
They don't run, not in heels, but they nearly speed-walk to their room, glad that neither staff members nor other guests are clogging the hall.
Lorelai gets there first by virtue of her longer legs, presses the key card to the door, and yanks it open just as Rory arrives.
"Put this on," she instructs, reaching around the handle for the Do Not Disturb sign. Rory slides it into place on the door handle, makes sure it's facing outwards, and slips inside.
