The gist of the game was simple, Dave explained. Everyone had to put $50 into the pot, winner take all. The winner of the game would be the winner of a hand of poker who could dare the loser of the hand to do something they would not do. The only catch was in order win the money the person doing the daring would have to complete the dare themselves.
While Dave was explaining the rules and trying to talk us all into playing we were just laughing at him in varying degrees of drunkenness. The girls, in particular, said there was no way in hell they were going to play some idiotic high school game just so Dave could get his jollies. Undeterred, Dave kept pushing at us to play until his wife, Tammy, far from playfully, punched him in the arm and headed toward the kitchen shaking her head.
"Alright! Tammy is in!" announced Dave rubbing his arm and we all just laughed some more.
"You are such an ass!" Tammy said as she stormed into our kitchen to help Laura who was making us all something to eat.
To be honest, I thought the game sounded like it might be fun, but given the mixed moods in the room I wasn't going to be the one to step up and say so. I looked around the group and in spite of the vocal refusals I could see I wasn't the only one who wouldn't mind spicing up the party a little.
Tammy obviously would have preferred Dave to simply drop the whole thing and she had seemed almost embarrassed by her husband's suggestions. My wife Laura had been one of the most vocal against playing the game, but in spite of her protests I knew she would be in like a dirty shirt if the rest agreed. Of those people still in the room, I knew Barry would also play without much hesitation. Hell, I am surprised he didn't suggest it in the first place. Barry's wife Deb, a bomb shell blonde, was being entirely too playful in her refusals to play to be believed, and after the strip tease she had put on at a patio party a few months ago I knew she wouldn't be shy if we did play. The last couple was Scott and Cheryl, the most inhibited couple of the group. Scott looked entirely uncomfortable by the whole idea, but Cheryl had the same look she had at the patio party and I could see she was excited by the idea even though she hadn't said anything one way or the other. It is always the quiet ones, I thought.
The subject of the game was dropped for a while as we moved onto more mundane topics like kids, schools, work, and golf. Deb and Cheryl were discussing the former, and the guys were discussing golf, or more specifically we were speculating about when a certain 'striped feline' would be making his return to the tour and how good he would be after almost a year long layoff.
After about fifteen or twenty minutes Laura and Tammy came back into the room with a huge platter of Laura's 'famous' nachos and a couple of pitchers of frozen margaritas. Before Laura had even put the platter on the coffee table the feeding frenzy began. Dave's first chip was mounded with cheese, sour cream, beef, and peppers and with the words, "Oh yeah!" he opened his maw to take it all in. But before he could get a taste, Cheryl grabbed his arm and steered the small feast into her own mouth. She couldn't get it all in and she ended up with cheese and salsa dribbling down her chin. While all of us laughed at the look of mock indignation on Dave's face Cheryl used her finger to clean up the mess on her chin and made a show of sensuously licking it off her finger and then she sucked her finger into her mouth almost as though she was performing oral sex.
Laura had gone back to the kitchen to get a bottle of Grand Marnier to use as a floater on the margaritas and had returned just in time to see Cheryl sucking on her finger. "Hey!! You guys started the game without me!" she said with a smile.
"No we didn't!" Dave remarked. "We were just waiting for you!" Using this as an opportunity Dave grabbed the deck of cards he had put on the end table beside him. He looked around the group and getting no verbal objections he began to deal the cards. I could tell from the look on Tammy's face that she wasn't happy, but she didn't say anything so the game began.
Dave dealt the cards and in the manner of amateur poker players we each picked up the cards one at a time as they were dealt. I had a pair of Jacks in my first two cards, but was dealt nothing else. As dealer, Dave was the last to pick up his cards, but before he did so he said, "No pay, no play!" As such, before we went any further a few moments passed while we got out our wallets. I playfully pissed off Laura by insisting she ante up her own money even though Dave and Barry had put $100 in for themselves and their wives; Scott only had $12 on him, but Cheryl came up with the rest. Laura only had a $20 bill in her purse and Dave ticked her off even more by denying her request to submit an IOU for the remainder. "No pay, no play!" he repeated.
Angrily, Laura dug into her purse for her cheque book and wrote out a blank cheque for the remaining $30. As she threw it onto the pile she looked me squarely in the eye and said, "There!! Are you satisfied?"
The look on her face told me I had better be and I nodded knowing she was completely into this now. I could only wonder how far she would go.
Dave picked up the deck of cards and turned to Tammy who was seated to his left. "How many?" he asked.
"Four," she said and all the guys laughed.
Dave dealt her four cards and more to each of us before dealing two cards to himself. I didn't catch another Jack, but I did get a pair of fours giving me two pair, so I was feeling fairly confident when we all laid down our hands.
As it turned out my two pair was only second best. Dave beat me with three queens. Laura, who had only asked for only one card, ended up with a nine high having missed her straight. She was the low hand.
"Okay," she said looking Dave in the eye, "what is my consequence?"
Without even a moments thought Dave blurted out, "Blow me!"
All of us except Laura either burst out laughing or reacted in shock, but Laura didn't so much as blink. She pondered Dave's request for a second after we quieted down and after glancing at the pile of money she replied, "No."
"Then I win!" announced Dave triumphantly.
"I don't think so," replied Laura.
"Well, you aren't going to let me eat you, are you?" Dave asked Laura with his eyebrows raised.
"No, that's true."
"Then I win!" said Dave just as triumphantly as before.
"No," said Laura with a look I knew that meant she was feeling clever. "I don't think so. I think that for you to win you have to blow yourself!"
Laughter exploded around the table at that point and then it doubled when Dave sadly looked down at his crotch and he realized he had been outsmarted. He looked at his wife Tammy for support, but she just smiled at him the way only a wife can smile at her husband when she knows he has made a fool of himself and calmly said, "She does have a point."
The hilarity and jests continued for a few minutes until, in defeat, Dave handed the deck of cards to Tammy and said, "Your deal."
With the tone set everyone was very careful in how they worded their consequences. There were some silly ones like Tammy having to crow like a rooster, I had to moon the group, and Scott was made to kiss the feet of everyone around the table, but before long the consequences took on a more intimate and sexual nature. It all started when Scott won a hand and, surprisingly given his shyness, asked Laura to kiss him.
Laura got up from her place and walked around to side of the table where Scott was seated on the floor. She got down on her knees, took Scott's face in her hands, and she looked deeply into Scott's eyes. Slowly Laura bent her head down to Scott's. Their mouths got closer and closer. When their lips were almost touching Scott pursed his and closed his eyes in anticipation of the kiss. Laura promptly kissed him one the nose and went back to her seat while the rest of were all laughing once more. The game really had become fun, even Tammy was enjoying herself, but a corner had been turned.
On the very next hand Dave won and Cheryl was the loser. "Kiss me," Dave ordered and then after a short pause he added "on the mouth."
Cheryl who was sitting on Dave's immediate right had a look of uncertainty on her face. Scott, who was almost as shy as Cheryl had a similar look on his face. Cheryl looked at him questioningly and Scott simply shrugged. With that Cheryl leaned over and kissed Dave gently for a few brief seconds. I could see Dave leaning in for more, but Cheryl quickly leaned back breaking their kiss.
For the next few hands kissing was the theme, and with each subsequent hand the requests became more intimate: "Kiss me on the mouth for 10 seconds." "Kiss me on the mouth for 20 seconds with tongue." And so it went.
Laura had just been in a lip lock with Barry for a full minute and I was still trying to understand how I felt about it when I was dealt a natural flush. Tammy was the low hand with a pair of twos. She hadn't been involved in any of the kissing consequences so I wasn't sure how far she would go. There was every chance she would just tell me to kiss myself, yet...
I had kissed Tammy just once before. It was New Years Eve a couple of years ago when Barry and Deb had hosted a house party and Tammy had had more than a little to drink. She made the rounds at midnight and kissed all the guys in the group for a second or two, but when she came to me I was surprised when her tongue snaked into my mouth and she pulled me to her with more passion than I was expecting. Fifteen or twenty seconds must have passed before she broke the kiss, kissed me once again lightly and said "Happy New Year, Tim!" Then before I had a chance to do anything except wish her the same she was off kissing someone else. So, it was with the memory of that kiss in my mind that I stepped up the ante and made the following request, "Lie on top of me and kiss me for a minute."