Bluffing the Devil(7)

"It would be nearly impossible to pick which direction we should skip at any given time, though I am partial to South," Carly added.

"And those West coast boys just do it for me," Vic added.

"Yep, see? I personally like South and East coast boys, so the North will just have to suffer until our beloved returns with a fresh set of man-candy scoping eyes!" I added and chuckled at our random bout of weirdness. There was never a shortage of those moments with us!

As soon as our bestie-huddle felt like it was in a good place, I took a step toward the casino and reached for the door. A shadow swooped in front of me as a strange hand reached out and slowly opened the door. The cool blast of air from inside snapped me out of my temporary grouchiness. Just as I was about to curse the stranger for rushing in front of me, I looked up and saw onyx eyes I had come to know so well.

"Good evening to you, my darling," Rey said with a deep bow as if I were royalty.

I rolled my eyes dramatically and heaved a breath. "What do you want? Why are you here?"

"For the same reason you are, sweet. We have a game in just thirty short minutes or have you arrived here for other reasons?" he asked with a glimmer of playfulness in his eye.

"You know why I'm here. I meant, why are you here holding the door open for your opponent as if you are some knight in shining armor? I don't need you holding doors for me. I am capable, thank you very much."

His hand flew to his chest as he said, "Your sharp words tonight are rough on my heart, puddin. Earlier you wound me and now this? I merely was coming to the same place you were and thought to be a gentleman and assist you with the door. I am sure you don't need such things, but it is my honor to do it for you. As for you being my opponent, I would gladly bow out of this game if you would agree to go out for drinks with me. We would have far less stress tonight, save ourselves so much money, and could find out more about each other. Isn't that a splendid idea?"

Sharp intakes of breath and giggles behind me reminded me that we were not alone. I glanced back at my friends to notice Victoria was completely not herself. She was smiling and blushing at Rey. Carly also had a cat-ate-the-canary look going on. Of course, damned chicks! Can't depend on them to be a hard ass when your nemesis is there luring and taunting you!

"Oh my, how rude of me, I apologize. I am Rey, a friend of Alexia and you are…?" Rey asked as he took the hands of my girlfriends and gently kissed them. Of course, he would be all sugary sweet to them and want them to think he's not the creepy, predatory nuisance that we was.

"Carly, nice to meet ya," she offered and took a step away from him quickly and back behind me a bit.

"Oh, Vic. Victoria. I'm Victoria," she stuttered and tripped over her own name as if it were new to her.

"Great now that everyone knows everyone else. Can we please get inside?" I asked, exasperated by the entire ordeal. It was almost like Rey waited for the perfect time to throw me off by appearing, wooing, being all nice to people. He might be able to fool everyone else, but he wasn't going to fool me! No one else could see his nature, but I could see plain as day behind his mask.

"Certainly, peach. Let's head over to the registration table to retrieve our badges and things, shall we?" he said as he pulled the door open again and waited for us to filter through.

"I picked mine up this morning when I arrived," I said as I breezed past him. "I am going to head on over to the tables, and wait for start time. Thanks though. Good luck." I grabbed a friend in each hand and dragged them with me away from the vile creature they both seemed so interested in at the moment.

"Good luck to you as well, cookie!" he shouted across the packed casino entrance. How embarrassing! I felt like I was a walking bag of sugar. Every name he called me made me feel nauseous.

I stopped when I reached the roped off section of the casino floor where the game would take place. Spectators had a designated area to sit and watch, so I had reserved seats for the girls just in case they wanted to stick around.

"Hello? Earth to chickies!" I snapped my fingers in front of Victoria's face, and she slowly looked over at me.

"What? What happened? Hi! Oh yay its almost time for your game to start. Are you nervous? I would be nervous. What can we do? Are you guys hungry? I'm starving! What should we do while you play? Do you want us to wait, or meet up with you later? Are you okay?" Vic's rapid fire questioning was not unusual but made my head spin. As the only girl in a house full of boys, earlier life, and in her chosen profession, she tended to speak quickly and get out everything she had to say at once.

"We've been here for a few minutes. I'm not nervous, I'm anxious to get started. You can sit over there," I gestured toward their seats, "I just had a sandwich, remember? Ummm, you asked too many questions, I forgot the rest."

"I asked if you were okay. That was the most important one," she said suddenly seeming much more like herself.

"Yes, I am great. Are you okay?" I asked suspiciously. "You seem a bit anxious. What's up with you?"

"Nothing is up with me, I'm just excited for your big night. This is a huge game and you’ll know if you’re on to the next step, and I know you want this really bad so it's just cool! Aren't you excited, too, Carly? This is just so cool!"

"Yeah, cool," Carly said with mock enthusiasm. "I know this is your thing and I’m all about it, but you’re right, Vic is being weird. Maybe I should take her to get a snack or something?"

"That sounds like a really good idea. I can get to my seat and calm my mind with some tunes. We should get started in the next 15 minutes or less, I'm sure."

"Great. I’ll also give Rhea a shout while I’ll be able to hear. It's sorta loud in here," Carly gently took Victoria's elbow, and started to lead her toward the entrance. She turned and said "Good luck, kiddo! You can do this! Make 'em sorry they ever looked you in the eye!" She winked, and headed out with Victoria in tow.

I watched them walk away for a second and grinned slightly. Those girls hated poker, but were always right by my side to support me in every way they could. They’re my "Coven of Crazy" as I call them. The coolest, weirdest, nerdiest chicks I knew. One moment we would be discussing sci-fi movies, the next heading to some strange new obstacle course, thrill ride, or adventure. No matter what, though, we were always in it together.

Yeah, Carly was "the new girl" in our group, but something about her always kept me paying attention. I liked knowing she was going to be close. She was a great companion and constant confidant. I usually told her the dark-secrets that I didn't think I could tell anyone else first. I really wished I could tell her about Devin and everything going on in my dreams, but there was never a moment that we were alone and I didn't want the other girls to think I was a complete whack-job. I knew she wouldn't judge me. I took a mental note to talk to her about it later.

I wasn't sure if I could make anyone "sorry" for anything like Carly said I should, but my confidence was at an all-time high and if she had faith in me, I must be able to do it!

I turned walked toward the tables as I pulled my badge from my back pocket to show the guard at the rope leading toward the players-only section.

The guard took my badge, looked at me, back at the badge, back at me again. Almost as if he was trying to memorize my face or make sure I was who I said I was. It was another strange part of the day. He said something into his little wrist microphone, and waved me through after handing my stuff back to me.

"Good luck, miss," he managed when I was about five feet away.

"Yeah, thanks."

My father always told me that if I was going to do something, I should do it right the first time so that I don't have to start all the way over and waste my time. This game was the prime example of that training. Why come in, play lame and not know what I'm doing when I could study, practice, train, learn, and think ahead of time. Knowing facial expressions, understanding betting and human behavior all aided my abilities much more than I thought.

I had been training for this one game for months. I spent hours, days, and weeks playing online poker. I had read all I could on the subject, played live games, watched other live games, watched videos on the internet of past events, and really just lived and breathed the game for the past few months. Everyone close to me had started to call me "obsessed", but it’s not an obsession, it’s a dream. If you want something bad enough, you go after it with all you have and don't let anyone or anything get in your way, right? Well, I want this victory.

I want to do something out of the ordinary for a woman. I want to try something that challenges my mind, and is not only about the luck of the draw or about how well someone does their desk job. I want to live on the edge a bit. Cards are like that. You never know what you will get dealt. One hand you can have suited connectors and the next hand, you can have absolutely nothing. What you do with those cards, regardless of what you are dealt, shows your true skill.