I sat at my desk while waiting for my boss to let me know that the letter I drafted for him was okay and that I could finally leave. I dangled my heel off of my toes as I bounced my foot anxiously while sitting with my legs crossed. I looked at the clock and saw that it almost 3:30. He announced summer hours a few weeks ago which allowed us to leave at 3:00 every Friday as long as we made up the hours during the week. I've been getting increasingly annoyed with him because despite making up the hours during the week I've been staying at least 15 minutes late every Friday. My phone finally rang and I quickly picked it up.
"Nice work, Jennifer, thank you," he said. "Have a good weekend."
"You too, Mr. Axelrod," I replied and hung up.
I quickly shut down my computer, grabbed my purse, and headed for the door with my keys in my hand. As soon as I opened the door I was hit with a wave of heat that was stifling. I loved the summer but today was one of those uncomfortably hot and humid days. My heels clacked on the asphalt of the parking lot as I walked towards my car while hitting the unlock key.
As soon as I was inside I started the engine and cranked up the AC then I slipped off my heels and put on the flip flops that I kept on the passenger seat. After that I grabbed my phone out of my purse to text my boyfriend who I was looking forward to spending the weekend with.
"Can't wait to see you, xoxo" then I hit send.
My phone lit up with a response almost immediately, "Can't wait to see you too, hurry over! :-p"
I smiled and put my phone away. I still find it hard to believe Dave and I reconnected after all these years. We dated senior year of high school but had to break up after my mom decided to move about two hours away shortly after graduation. He was starting college that fall and I was starting a professional school for office administration so we weren't in a position to find a place of our own. We were still teenagers then though so that was probably for the best. Anyway, a new job opportunity brought me back into the area and we just happened to run into each other at happy hour one evening.
Despite being away from one another for over five years things clicked immediately and we started dating again. Thankfully he was single! At this point it's been a few months and I was spending pretty much every weekend over at his place since he lived by himself. His job allowed him to work summer hours too which worked out great because it enabled us to start our weekends together a few hours early.
I pulled into the parking lot for my apartment building, grabbed my heels and purse, and headed to the main entrance. Once inside I took the elevator up to the 5th floor and went into the apartment. Another great thing about summer hours is that it allows me to avoid my roommate! Plus it's nice to be able to start undressing as soon as I walk through the door and that's exactly what I started to do after setting down my purse and kicking off my flip flops.
As I walked to my room I unbuttoned my blouse and untucked it from the waistband of my skirt, then once I was in my room I unzipped my skirt and let it fall to the floor. My blouse and bra joined it in a pile on the floor and then I laid down on my bed to relax. I stretched out wearing just my panties on the cool bed sheets. It felt so good to finally be out of work clothes.
After a few minutes I started to get ready to head over to Dave's. I put on a pair of denim short shorts that I know he likes me in and also a tank top. I put away my work clothes then packed a small bag with a change of clothes and some toiletries. I found the flip flops that I kicked off earlier and grabbed my purse on the way out the door.
I drove over to his place and was there in less than 20 minutes. Another benefit of summer hours! During rush hour it would take twice as long or I'd have to wait a few hours for traffic to die down. I hit the intercom and he buzzed me. I walked across the common area to his door then I rang the bell. He opened the door and greeted me with a big smile as he looked me over.
"You know I love those shorts on you," he said as he leaned it for a kiss.
"Really? I had no idea," I replied sarcastically then gave him a smooch on the lips.
It felt good to get inside his place and out of the heat. He had the air going so it was nice and comfortable. I put my sunglasses and keys in my purse then put it down on the coffee table in the living room. I joined him on the couch and we snuggled for a bit before both dozing off.
When I woke up he was already awake and reading a book. I yawned and rubbed my eyes as I looked at the cover. I couldn't see the title but I could tell by the picture on the cover that it was about poker.
"How long was I out for?" I asked sleepily.
"Just a few hours. I woke up not too long ago myself," he said.
"I'm starving, takeout?" I asked.
"Yeah, sounds good to me," Dave replied. "This heat has me feeling lazy. Wanna get Chinese?"
I nodded and then he called to place the order. I didn't have to tell him what I liked because it was always the same thing. Once he got off the phone we killed some time by watching TV until the delivery guy showed up. I was pretty hungry so when he did I didn't waste any time grabbing my pint of lo mein.
"Since we're just hanging around tonight do you want to go out tomorrow?" I asked as I twirled some lo mein around my fork.
"I've got poker at Danny's, remember?"
"Ah, damn, I forgot," I replied with a bit of disappointment in my voice. If there was one complaint I had about our relationship it was his obsession with poker. He read about it, he played it online, and him and his friends took turns hosting games. I know he needs to have his own hobbies and things to do, but to me it always seemed like there was something poker related going on.
"You should play some time, it's fun," he said as I'm pretty sure he sensed my disappointment.
"I don't know the first thing about playing poker," I said with a shrug, "and I don't want to blow my money doing something I might not even like."
"It's not like we're a bunch of card sharks. Vanessa, Kim, and Ashley all play and they were basically blank slates too. One of them has won a game too, although I can't remember which," he said as he tried to talk me into it.
I gave him an uneasy look and before I could say anything he said, "I'll tell you what. I'll pay for your first few games. If you don't have fun or you feel like you're overmatched you can walk away without having spent a dime. What do you say?"
I still wasn't all that interested in playing poker, but I thought it was really sweet that he was trying to include me so I caved in. "Alright, I'll play, but you have to teach me! I don't want to look like a complete idiot in front of everyone."
"Fair enough, we can go over the basics after we finish eating since we're staying inside tonight," he replied.
"Okay," I said with a smile. I guess I should be more open to playing if he's willing to teach me. Maybe I'll end up enjoying it and it could be something that the two of us do together too.
After we finished eating we cleared off the table and then he brought over his laptop, a deck of cards, and a case full of poker chips.
"Alright, I guess let's start off easy. What do you know about poker?" he asked
"Literally nothing," I answered with a laugh. "My card playing experience is limited to War and Go Fish."
He laughed and over the next hour or so he gave me a crash course in playing poker. He explained the different hands and how they ranked, how Texas Hold 'Em was different than other kinds of poker, and how to play that particular version of poker. He even played some online and explained to me why he did certain things. Watching him play online was a bit overwhelming but it also made me realize how much more there is to poker than I thought.
After he got done playing online he looked at me while the opened up his case full of chips, "And now we'll have a real lesson."
He gave me a stack of chips, one of himself, and then he also gave some to six imaginary players.
"I'll play for the imaginary players just so you get a feel for the flow of the game," he explained.
I nodded and we began playing. The details of every hand aren't important, but I failed at playing poker pretty spectacularly. I think we were playing for maybe half an hour before I lost the last of my chips. To be totally honest it was kind of hard to take seriously so I basically called every bet regardless of what I had and hoped that I either got lucky or that he was trying to be tricky and bluff me.
"I guess I'm not a good poker playing," I said with a bit of a blush after losing the last hand.
"Jen, you called literally every bet," he said and sounded a little frustrated. "There isn't a person alive that will do well at poker with that strategy."
"Sorry. I guess...I don't know...I guess I'm not as serious about it as you are," I said.
His brow furrowed a little and I could see the wheels spinning in his head. After a few moments he said, "What if we raised the stakes so that you would take it seriously?"
"What do you mean?" I asked curiously. I really had no clue where he was going with this.
"Strip poker," he said with a grin.
I laughed, "I've got four articles of clothing on! It would be the quickest game of strip poker ever!"
I could see the wheels spinning in his head again as he thought of a way to make this work.
"How about this," he began to say, "I'll start you out with twice as many chips as me, and we play just the two of us. No fake players. Once one of us runs out of chips they have to start betting their clothes. Clothes are worth 2,500 in chips. The game ends when one of us is naked."
