I stared at the large black man across the table. His name was Bear but I wouldn't say I knew him well. A friend of a friend kind of thing. He was at our poker game because Luke had brought him. Apparently they worked together. Luke and Kyle had both vouched for him, so I figured he was cool. The other guys were upstairs raiding the kitchen, having given up for the night, while we sat in the basement around the card table. Ashley was sitting at my side, looking at my cards over my shoulder.
It turned out that this was the last hand of the night and it was just Bear and myself left. I looked at my hand, wondering whether I should meet Marcus's raise. I had a pretty good hand but I didn't know him well enough to know whether he was bluffing or not. I never caught his real name, just Bear. When I say he was large, I wasn't kidding. He had to be six foot four and go around two fifty, maybe two sixty. Black hair and goatee made him look a little bit like Ice Cube. Maybe Cube's big brother. I overheard him telling Josh that he worked as a DJ, which was cool. He told us about some of the celebrities he met in the business
I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.I just couldn't decide. The man had no tells. I was surprised he hadn't cleaned up on us. Maybe just the luck of the cards. I folded my cards together, ready to toss them in the pot when Ashley touched my arm and shook her head no. I raised an eyebrow at her and she smiled. That was good enough for me.
I looked at my cards again and tossed my chips into the middle of the table, looking at Bear, trying to gauge his reaction. He didn't blink. Damn. I tossed two cards onto the table in front of me and Bear, as the dealer, gave me two cards. We didn't play Texas Hold 'Em or any other variations. For us, it was five-card draw, deuces wild. Period.
I used my last good luck charm, which was for Bear to take his one card from the deck before looking at my own. One card. That meant he either had two pair or four of a kind. He could be trying to draw a straight or a flush but I had been playing with him long enough to know he was smarter than that. He wouldn't have raised if he didn't have something worthwhile.
I passed, giving the bet back to Bear. He grinned that Ice Cube like grin and shoved the rest of his chips into the middle of the table. I raised an eyebrow again and he just sat there, that shit eating grin on his face. I turned and looked at Ashley again and she smiled and nodded. She had more confidence in me then I did.
I was one the fence, trying to make myself push my chips into the middle. As I put my hand out to move them, Bear stopped me.
"Tell you what, man. Since this is the last hand, what do you say we raise the stakes?" I have to admit I was surprised by his speech. Looking at him, you'd think he was a thug, any second breaking out into street slang. His hair was shaved close to the scalp and he wore a tight black t-shirt and jeans. His arms and shoulders were large, even bigger than Luke's, whom the rest of us were measured by.
I looked into his dark brown eyes. "What did you have in mind?" He took a deep breath, probably not wanting to offend me in my own house. His eyes darted over to Ashley and I had a feeling of what was coming.
"If I win this hand," he started, locking eyes with me. "I get to have sex with your wife. You get to watch."
I turned and looked at Ashley, whose eyes were open, wide and bulging. She looked back at me and blinked, not sure of anything to say. I turned back, looking down at my cards.
"Bear, you seem cool and all. I mean it. You're welcome back for the next game but this is a serious wager. I'm going to have to talk this over with Ashley before I agree to anything."
"That's cool. If you decide not, then I'm cool with that. It's just that she's beautiful and I've never done it with a redhead before."
Ashley turned about eight different colors of red. I took her hand under the table. "We'll be back in a minute," I said, standing. Marcus nodded. I picked up my cards and walked across the room to talk to Ashley privately.
"Will, I don't know about this. He's huge," she whispered in my ear.