Bet on It (4)

Aja’s face heated, and suddenly she would have traded the possibility of ever winning a bingo game just to be swallowed whole by one of the cracks in the fabric of her weathered chair.

“How old are you, Aja?” Walker saying her name made her eyes close briefly. Between her embarrassment and the way his voice made her feel, she was in the beginning stages of being totally overwhelmed. She was used to intense emotions and racing thoughts and flip-floppy feelings, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed it when they happened all at once.

“Twenty-eight … twenty-nine in six months.” She looked at Ms. May. “Then I’ll only be the youngest by nineteen years. If we’re right about Patty Kinnaird’s age, that is.”

Aja forced herself to joke like she hadn’t been thrown out of her comfort zone. She’d never really talked to Ms. May about her anxiety, and the woman wasn’t afraid to ask well-meaning but invasive questions. If she let it show that Walker’s presence had thrown her for a loop, it might cause a whole chain of ridiculous events that led to her admitting how a dented box of Hot Pockets had been the catalyst for her spending the last three days in a lump under her bed covers.

That was the last thing she wanted. She didn’t come to bingo to talk about her anxiety—her virtual therapy sessions on Friday afternoons were for that. She came to feel normal. It was a crappy thing to think, she knew. Problematic and self-hating. She understood logically that normal was subjective. She even hated herself for thinking how much she wanted it sometimes, but that didn’t make the desire any less real.

“Well, now that I’m here, you’re only the youngest by a little over a year.” Walker winked.

Her face heated again. The action shouldn’t have flustered her. It should have been so corny that it made her cringe. But she’d be damned if it wasn’t charming as hell.

She didn’t get a chance to respond, thanks to three chimes sounding over the speaker system, signaling the start of the first game. She took her seat, noticing that Ms. May had pushed her chair farther away from Aja’s and used her legs to scoot another one in between them for Walker.

While Walker was busy stacking the bingo papers the way his grandmother had instructed, Aja caught her friend’s look. Ms. May’s smile was full of false innocence and Aja narrowed her eyes in response before she started setting up her own pack.

The bingo caller had barely gotten five balls out of the roller before Ms. May started fussing at Walker for not being fast enough locating the numbers.

“Look, it’s right there,” she said in that loud whisper of hers. “You’ve got to be quicker than that, Wally. Keep up!”

Aja caught a glimpse of his exasperated expression before he turned it on his grandmother. She had to smother a laugh.

“I’m tryin’ to find the numbers on eight different cards, Gram. It’s impossible to be that quick.” His whisper was much quieter than his grandmother’s but more frustrated.

“Well, Aja seems to be doin’ just fine.”

Aja tried to convey sympathy on her face when he swiveled his head to look at her cards. She definitely hadn’t had any issues. Jim Collins was the caller tonight and he was a slow talker, much to the dismay of her fellow players.

“And look, little miss Anita is movin’ right along. Arthritis and all.”

Walker grumbled, “Little miss Anita is movin’ so fast it’s almost like she already knows what numbers are comin’ up next.”

Ms. May flicked his earlobe and he gave an exaggerated wince. “You watch it, Walker Abbott. People have been kicked out of this bingo hall for far less than accusin’ one of its most esteemed members of cheatin’.”

Most of the players were well over fifty and had very little patience for inefficiency or what they considered to be tomfoolery. Bingo callers who walked too slowly down the aisles to confirm winners were met with ornery yells to “move it the hell along.” She’d even seen two elderly women nearly come to scraps over a bingo ball that had gotten stuck in the spinning cage. Aja lived in fear of causing a holdup in the game and bearing the brunt of that fury. Luckily, it hadn’t been an issue. In the eight months that she’d been coming to Wednesday night bingo she hadn’t won a single game. If the thrill of gambling had been her sole reason for being there, she would have turned in her daubers and headed to the state’s only casino a long time ago.

Walker turned to Aja, a curious eyebrow raised and a gossipy look in his eyes.

“It’s true,” she confirmed quietly, one ear still glued to the caller. “They got Stanley Jones out of here because he told the concession stand lady that she needed to change the grease for her fries.”

Walker’s eyes widened.

“The second anyone steps out of line,” Aja continued conspiratorially, “they come together like a swarm of wasps to push them out.”

“Exactly.” Ms. May nodded. “And I’m not tryin’ to drive all the way to damned Port Royal for my Wednesday night bingo games, so you’d better stay in line, little boy.”

Aja couldn’t help but snicker. She’d been on the uncomfortable receiving end of his grandmother’s scolding and seeing it from the outside was hilarious. Walker grumbled under his breath but focused his attention on the bingo sheets, his face moving closer like it would help him see better.