BOOK V - THE ODD COUPLE
Chapter 1
George ate a late breakfast again on Thursday morning; the memory of the lovely Marge in her snow white under garments haunted him. He got a hard-on just thinking about removing her bra or getting his hands inside her panties. After eating, he tried to call her apartment but there was no answer. The events of this day began rolling and there was not time to dwell on Marge; she was filed away for future reference.
After a successful afternoon meeting, George was invited to join his new customer for dinner and an evening of playing poker. George was not an avid poker player, but he did know the game and enjoyed it on occasion. Anyway, after three strenuous nights in a row, he was a little weary of bar hopping.
George and his companion, Jory, dined at a run of the mill steak house and talked business over dinner. Jory was about fifty, solidly built with steel gray hair. He had owned his own chemical business for twenty-five years. He acted overly self-assured and outgoing, doing most of the talking. George took a liking to him almost immediately.
After dinner, they arrived at a downtown hotel at around seven-thirty; it was just two blocks from George's hotel. George realized that the hotel they were entering was the most exclusive and expensive in the city. They took the elevator to the top floor, sixteen and knocked at the door of 1601.
A man of around fifty opened the door and invited them in. He shook hands with Jory and after being introduced as Bill, he shook George's hand too.
"Jory turned to George, "Bill and I have been doing business for ten years or so. He sells data processing supplies, tapes, disks and so forth. We've become pretty good friends over the years, been to Vegas together a couple of times. Whenever Bill comes to town we line up a game to exchange a little cash and shoot the bull."
Bill had dark black hair, probably tinted. He was also stocky, about thirty pounds overweight, and dressed in an expensive looking suit. He invited his guests to have seats and asked them what they would like to drink.
"Beer, poker and beer," Jory ordered.
George nodded agreement, "Sounds fine with me."
As he waited, George inspected the hotel suite. It was exquisite, furnished very expensively with heavy wooden French provincial furniture, a plush gold carpet and impressionist oil paintings on every wall.
George got up and asked Bill, "This is a terrific suite. Do you mind if I take a tour?"
"No, help yourself."
George had been in the living room and could see a large recreation room off the living room, sunken two steps lower. It had a large television set and a bookshelf full of hard cover books; a card table with four chairs was set up in the center of the room. More paintings adorned the paneled walls.
George poked his head into the kitchen where Bill was opening three bottles of beer on the counter. Then he walked down the hall, past a bathroom and found two large bedrooms. Each had a king size bed, dresser, chest of drawers, television set, and bed table. Paintings covered the bedroom walls too. The two rooms shared another bathroom. George was impressed.
When he got back to the living room, he asked, "Is this the honeymoon suite or what?"
Bill answered, "No newlyweds could afford the tab. It's called the penthouse suite, and it is booked solid year round. You need to reserve it about two months in advance. I never use it except when I bring Kathleen along. She likes this suite better than anywhere else we stay."
Jory explained, "Kathleen is Bill's lovely wife. Will she be here later, Bill?"
"I guess she will. She's just out shopping so whenever the stores close she'll have to come home."
"Who else is playing?" Jory continued.
"Tim, you remember him don't you. I had him in here about a year ago."
Bill turned to George, "Tim's a young salesman that I'm training to be my replacement. He's super, already sells half of what I do."
A knock on the door proved to be Tim. He was introduced to George, reintroduced to Jory, and offered a beer. Bill was anxious to get the game going. As soon as he handed Tim his beer, he herded the three guests into the recreation room and sat them at the card table.
There were no ashtrays, which George was relieved to see. He hated smoky rooms. There were two unopened decks of cards; he picked one up and broke the seal. He un-wrapped the fifty-four cards, removed the jokers and began to shuffle them noisily. Tim duplicated George's efforts with the other deck.
Bill explained the rules of the game to George, "We keep it simple, straight poker, five card draw. There's a limit of twenty on raises and a limit of three raises per player per round. You can play as long as you have cash. We don't intend to cause any enemies here."
George nodded that he understood and they cut for first deal. Tim won with a queen.
The game seesawed back and forth through a series of small and medium pots. The host was the only one of the four who almost never won a hand, yet he seemed to be the player enjoying the game the most. As they played, they talked, about the current news events, about football and hockey, about themselves, but never about business.
The beer flowed freely and it was approaching nine thirty when they heard a key in the door lock and a woman entered the room carrying a couple of packages. She walked over and looked down at the men and their game.
Even though they were in the midst of a hand, Bill jumped up, "Hide your cards." He took the woman by the hand and drew her down the two steps to the poker room.
"This is my wife Kathleen. Dear, this is George Thomas and you know Tim and Jory."
The three men stood up. Jory walked over and gave Kathleen a peck on the cheek. "Hi, Kathleen, you look stunning."
George and Tim just smiled their acknowledgment of Kathleen. She was a real knockout, tall and slim, a gorgeous face and dark hair. She reminded George of Jaclyn Smith of "Charlie's Angels."
Kathleen smiled at the group. "It's nice to meet you George, but you'd better watch out for these sharks. Tim, I like your sport coat. Jory, when are we going to Vegas again?"
She turned to her husband, "Bill I'll be happy to serve the drinks, whenever you need another round."
