Lara bustled around her apartment cleaning a little bit and getting things ready for her guests. Her roommate had gone to a FUEL conference and so she had the place to herself and had invited a few of her fraternity brother's over to play a friendly game of poker. As she set out the chips and cards and put on some music she wondered if Jeremy was going to come. She had left him a message about the game, and knew he could rarely resist a game of Texas Hold Em' because it usually meant money for him. But then she also didn't know whether or not he would want to spend the evening in the company of a bunch of her fraternity brothers since he wasn't a part of that particular aspect of her life. This was the typical thought in her mind when it came to Jeremy. She always wondered if he would be in the mood to see her, because she was always in the mood to see him. She was always in the mood to create some sort of situation for him to come over so that she could make it increasingly difficult for him to resist putting her into a compromising position. They were similar in the sense that neither wanted a commitment and both were attracted to each other physically. So Lara simply figured there wasn't anyone better or closer to quench her carnal cravings with. Of course that all depended on what particular kind of mood he was in, and whether or not he actually showed tonight. But before her mind could wander any more towards what she hoped would happen after the poker game she heard a knock at the door followed by a familiar voice.
'Open the door bitch, it's fucking cold out here!'
She walked over and opened the door.
'It's about damn time!' said Lucy with a smile in her eyes.
It wasn't unusual for her friends to talk to each other in this manner. They had all taken a road trip to Norman, Oklahoma the week before and it had just become second nature for them to treat each other with affectionate hate. They walked in, Bryan and Amy holding the beer and Jeff with the pizza. While Lara's kitten echo darted around their feet and begged to be pet they all sat down around the table to play some poker. Just as she popped open a beer and sat down to deal she heard another knock at the door. Her heart beat kind of fast as she opened it, hoping... only to be disappointed when it turned out to be Kennedy.
'Thanks for fucking leaving me guys.' Kennedy said.
'Sor hmpf.' Jeff said barely able to give his apology through the pizza stuffed in his mouth.
With that Lara sat back down, resolving herself that it was just going to be a couple of hours of poker tonight. Which in itself she knew would be fun too, just not as fun as what she was hoping would have happened had Jeremy decided to show up. As Amy shuffled and started to deal there was another knock on the door. So she walked over and opened the door to find Jeremy smirking back at her. Almost as if he knew that she would be excited to see him. She couldn't help it though. She had always found cockiness attractive, and she would never be good at hiding that fact. So she had long ago simply resigned herself to taking the chance of being used- but only because she planned on doing plenty of using in return.
After a few hours of poker the game ended with everyone but Jeremy a little bit poorer. With that everyone got up to leave, including Jeremy. Trying to hide her disappointment, Lara resolved herself that it had been a fun night and tried to play off that she had wanted Jeremy to stay. But to her surprise, as she was walking everyone to the door, Jeremy let his hand slip onto the small of her back and whispered into her ear from behind that he was too tired to drive back home and thought he might stay the night. She let the others out with a hug and then closed the door behind them determined not to let a smile of satisfaction come to her face. She didn't want to give too much away to Jeremy. Even if they both knew already it was what she had planned. When she walked back to the table she saw Jeremy shuffling the cards.
'Want to play another game?' Jeremy asked.
'I am far too poor to play you.' She answered, taking the pizza boxes into the kitchen. 'But if you let me pick the stakes, I'll think about it...'
'What would those stakes be?' Jeremy asked, knowing that her mind was probably thinking of something dirty and fun.