Dana was never a girl to be tied down, not as long as I knew her. We first met in this little back room at our school, where a couple kids went to play poker every day. It was always the same crowd: Leonard, whose general habits annoyed everyone as much as his name. Picked his nose, snorted awkwardly mid-conversation, smelled a bit like molding peppers, just an unpleasant kid. Patrick, a pretty boy, quick with his hands, but not exactly the brightest crayon in the box, even if that box was a dumpster. Todd was better, but not by much. Had a quick temper, without the wit or muscle to back it up. The only tolerable kid there was probably Oscar. He was even tempered, knew how to play, and I swear he counted cards. Then, of course, there were the non-players, the kids who dropped in and out, who picked up a game here and there. Evan, Lila, Stephanie... well, it didn't matter, except for Dana.
She wasn't there as often enough to be a "regular," but the girl had a singular talent. Not for the game, no, she was terrible. She couldn't bluff her way past a blind guard dog, and she didn't have a clue when to bet and when not to, but she had the body to play. The body that kept every man's eyes off his cards and drifting right between her breasts, every man's lips positively aching for her skin like the Sahara makes you ache for water. That was her weapon, and she used it well; even I found her always seeming to break even in our games, no matter how much I'd hate to admit it. We'd play and play, and she never really won, but she never really lost, either. We all knew, though, that she came out ahead in the end; anyone in that room lucky enough to keep a girl had to explain moaning the wrong name, and everyone knew it. We shared our dreams like war veterans, all the same subject, always nothing more than dreams. She danced somewhere out of our reach, even when it was only in our heads.
"Fold." Said Todd, throwing his cards down with a disgusted growl. He sat back with a sigh, folding his arms, and looked around before shaking his head and leaning forward again. "This sucks."
"You looking for something?" said Oscar, smirking, "Your pride, maybe? You're almost out of chips again. Distracted?"
Todd shot Oscar a dirty look, and shook his head. "No, jackass. You haven't noticed? I mean, I always thought you were gay, but..."
"Oh fuck off," I cut in, punching Todd playfully in the arm, "We all know you're the one just aching to prance out of the closet. What's eating you?"
He raised an eyebrow, shaking his head at me, "I'd think you of all people would notice. Dana's been gone, for almost a month now."
I threw in another chip, grinning at Oscar. "Call. And it's been two weeks."
Todd shot up, pointing at me, "See? I fucking knew it! You were keeping track too!"
"Hardly!" I shot back, leaning back in my chair, looking up at him with a confident smirk. "I was helping her with her essays, since she's applying to, you know, college, now. We had to write the date so many times on those goddamn forms, and she could never remember it." I was lying through my teeth, but I'd always been good at editing my friends' papers, so it seemed a plausible story to me. Todd bought it, too, sitting back down with a defeated sigh.
"I just think it's weird we haven't seen her, is all. Like something bad's happened to her. I'm worried." He looked around the table, hoping for someone to agree with him. That we did made no difference, since letting him know that would have penned us as whipped by pussy we weren't even getting, and that was an attribute we didn't want to share with him.
"Bullshit." Oscar broke in, leaning forward and smirking at me.
"What the fuck, man!" Todd sat forward, shouting at him aggressively, "Are you saying I don't actually-"
"No." Oscar stopped him, calmly, holding his finger up in a shushing gesture. "I'm saying that Colin's story is complete bullshit." He grinned as I blanched slightly, and looked down to his chips, "Raise." He grinned, dropping the chips to double the bet while he continued to talk. "She's not applying to any other colleges. I know that much. Says she's thinking about just getting done here and 'settling down.'"
Now it was my turn to issue an angry growl. "Okay, fine. Fine, so I noticed too. You caught me, asshole, what do you want, a medal?"
Over to the side, Leonard snorted. "Snnk... Fold." He dropped his cards, leaning back. We just ignored him, and Oscar just shook his head.
"No, I don't want a medal. You know her pretty well, right? You think you're so smooth? Heck, I bet you think you could get with her, too, don't you?" Patrick had already set down his cards, obviously folding, though he'd forgotten to say anything, engrossed as he was in the conversation we were having.
"Yeah, I bet I could." I shot back, and threw my chips onto the stack. "Call!"
"Even with her getting married?" Oscar leaned back, looking self-satisfied, his hands behind his head. The room was absolutely quiet. You could have heard a pin drop, and the sound of Evan flipping the next card was like a thunderclap. I looked down. A Jack. God, that left me with only a single pair. Oscar had forced my hand, and I'd been betting like an idiot. I almost stuttered as I lay my cards down.
"Fold." I looked up at him, and he smirked.
"Not up to the game, Colin?" He made a mocking tsk tsk noise, and shook his head.
"You know what Oscar?" I growled, "Fine. I bet I can get her to sleep with me before she gets married to this mystery man." I smirked, "After all, he can't be that amazing. We haven't even met him!"
Oscar laughed lightly, shaking his head, "Okay, Colin. If that's what you think, how about we make a bet?" he pulled the pile of chips on the table towards himself, counting them carefully into matched piles. "Fifty bucks. I bet you fifty bucks you can't do it. Their wedding is in two months. Clock's a tickin', boyo. Anyhow, I gotta go." He stood up, "I think I won this game anyways." We all looked down at our tiny puddles of chips, then over to the vast ocean he'd just acquired, and nobody could really argue it. "I'll see you all later." With that, he walked out.
As everyone was standing to leave, I reached over, lifting up the corner of his cards, and swore lightly. The Ace of Spades and a King of Hearts stared back at me, like a cryptic tarot reading. He'd just beat the whole table with an ace high.
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I'd made a bet, even if I hadn't really agreed to it. I'd talked big, and Oscar had called my bluff like a champion knocking a poor rookie back into his meager place. I groaned, covering my eyes as I lay back in my bed. How was I supposed to seduce an engaged woman, whose fiancée I'd never met, and whose number I didn't even have? He was right, though, the clock was ticking. Married, though? We were all too young to even think about that... weren't we? I sighed. Obviously that wasn't true anymore. I had a long uphill battle, ahead of me. I just hoped she'd be back in the poker room tomorrow. Every moment seemed like lost time, now, and I wasn't about to just roll over and give up.
As if like clockwork, the next day we all saw Dana's smiling face again, flouncing in with her usual grin and heart stopping wink. There were a few smirks thrown her way, but we'd been lucky, and none of the girls had been there yesterday. Our bet was a gentleman's game, now, and we were honor-bound to keep it a fair game... even if the name of the game was anything but gentlemanly or honorable. As she sat down, I made my way across the room, weighing the odds in my head. I had no reason to, yet; it wasn't exactly a long shot I was going for on this first move, but I was aching for an excuse to just get out of this game early, just call it off. I wasn't going to get that luxury this quickly.
