Thursday, September 27, 2007

Chapter 12

Tricia looked at the phone and the message light wasn’t blinking. She had no message on her cell phone. Her feelings about what Jaime had told her at breakfast, which she realized were mainly driven by jealousy of an intensity that surprised her, gave way to a mixture of curiosity that Matt had not called to check up on her or to at least say good morning and a bit of anger and disappointment that he hadn’t called.

She speed dialed his cell phone from hers, really expecting to get his voice mail as she seemed to lately. When he answered she was a little surprised.

“Oh hi Matt. Did you try to call me here? I was at breakfast.” That much, she figured was true. She wasn’t ready to tell him she’d talked to Jaime. She didn’t know if she ever would.

“Ah no,” She heard Matt say sounding surprised and distracted. “I guess I was waiting like you asked me to and lost track of time.”

“Well it’s not that late.” Tricia said. “What are you up to?” Something about the way he sounded was odd, she thought.

“Just the same old same old,” Matt said so casually that it raised red flags with Tricia, especially since he tended to hate if she asked what he was up to like that. “So tell me about your tournament.”

Tricia thought about trying to ferret out what was going on with Matt. He was just not acting like she had come to expect. Then she told herself that she shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. He was actually being nice to her and seemed to be trusting her. She wasn’t sure right then if she deserved it though. She allowed him to change the subject because she didn’t want to fight with him. She couldn’t take it now she decided. She spent a few minutes recapping the tournament for him. He listened patiently and made the appropriate noises but it made Tricia even more curious because something about the whole thing was feeling slightly wrong. He never listened to her so patiently. He generally always rushed her through anything she had to tell him as if time was about to run out on something and he had to get going. It was just his personality. And now here he was being so solicitous and patient, it made her very curious.

Somewhere along the line in talking to Matt though she stopped feeling nearly as angry about Jaime. She told herself it was because she really was trying to be a good faithful wife and thus what Jaime did was his business and didn’t matter to her anymore. She wasn’t really sure she believed it but it was working for the time being. When she finished talking to Matt, the conversation having gone way longer than they’d talked on the phone in ages, she decided it was time to go to the poker room and try her hand at another satellite or two for an entry into the event the next day.

Just inside the poker room she thought she heard somebody call her name. She looked around and saw Rick moving toward her.

She was surprised he was seeking her out but then remembered she didn’t know how he’d gone on to do in the tournament after she got knocked out and left. “Hey there! So did you win it?”

Rick laughed. “Not hardly. Actually nobody has won it yet. The final table is going now. I finished in twentieth.”

“Hey that sounds pretty good!” Tricia said encouragingly.

Rick shrugged. “I guess I’m not complaining considering how many people entered it.”

“I was happy with my results I think,” Tricia said, “of course once I made it that far I started to have visions of how it would be to win the whole thing but I think I did pretty good.”

“I think so. You played very well and you should be proud of yourself,” Rick said. “That’s actually what I came over to tell you. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t disappointed or anything. You looked that way last night and I understand but you really did do well. You still look a bit disappointed or something actually.”

Tricia was surprised but realized that she was disappointed about Jaime. She shrugged. “It’s not that. It’s something else. It’s not related to poker. Not really anyway.”

Rick looked at her and then said, “Well if you want to talk about it sometime I’m a good listener.”

“I’m sure,” Tricia said. “We’ll see. I am planning to play some satellites for tomorrow’s event. Even with the money I made yesterday I would rather not just buy in to the tournament tomorrow.”

“That sounds like a plan,” Rick said. “I’m actually in a really great side game. I need to get back to it before all the fish run out of money. I just wanted to make sure you were ok.”

“I’m fine,” Tricia said smiling. “That’s sweet of you.”

“Ok then,” Rick said.

“Good luck,” Tricia said turning to leave.

“Good luck to you too Tricia,” Rick said as she started to go toward the satellite area.

“Tricia?”

She turned back toward him.

“Would you like to have lunch? I mean if you don’t have plans?”

She was surprised but oddly pleased. “Well I had a kind of late breakfast but if we could do lunch a little late that would be great. I can play a couple of satellites first.”

“Sure. How about 1:30?” Rick asked.

“Sounds ok to me,” Tricia said. “Where do you want to meet?”

“How about in front of the Italian restaurant in the casino? I forget what it’s called.” Rick said.

“Ok. I didn’t know they had one but it sounds great. I’m sure I can find it. I’ll see you there at 1:30”

“Great,” Rick said smiling. “See you then.”

He walked off and when Tricia turned around she nearly ran into Sandy, the wife of the guy named Gary who she met the first day.

“Well hello,” Tricia said. “Sandy right?”

Sandy nodded and then gestured with her head toward Rick as he made his way deeper into the cash game area. “Setting up a hot date?”

Tricia blushed. “I’m married Sandy. I met Rick when we were in the tournament together yesterday. We’re just going to have lunch.”

Sandy smiled. “Well when the cat is away the mice will play and that would be a nice mouse to play with.”

Tricia couldn’t help but chuckle. “That’s terrible.”

“Just life,” Sandy said.

“What if you weren’t here and that had been Gary talking to me? Would you still be thinking the same thing?”

Sandy smiled and shrugged. “Up to him. As long as he comes back to me he can do what he wants if he’s alone. If I’m here though he’d better darn well pay attention only to me.”

Tricia looked at Sandy with surprise. “you’re kidding right?”

Sandy shook her head. “Nope. So how’d you do yesterday? Good I hope?”

“Well I made the money,” Tricia said, willing to move to a safer topic. “I was pretty pleased with the way it went but by the time I went out I was already having visions of winning the whole thing so I was a bit disappointed.”

“That’s great honey!” Sandy said giving Tricia a hug. “You’re going to play another one right?”

“Oh yeah,” Tricia said enthusiastically. “I am just about to take a shot at a satellite for tomorrow’s event.”

“It’s none of my business,” Sandy said sounding cautious, “But Gary and I were in the buffet this morning and saw you there talking to yet another guy. Most of the time you looked like you were ready to jump him but toward the end you looked really upset. I’m not trying to pry but if you wanted to talk about anything or if I can help somehow, well I’d be glad to. Gary told me to just mind my own business but I’ve never been very good at that.”

Tricia knew she blushed and was about to just turn Sandy down politely but then she thought what the heck, talking to somebody like Sandy who she thought would listen but who didn’t know anybody she knew so that nothing could get back to Matt or anyone back home had some appeal.

“You know I might take you up on that Sandy but right now I really want to go play a satellite or two and I am having lunch with Rick but maybe some other time. I could kinda use to talk about some stuff maybe.”

“Well honey that’s fine,” Sandy said. She reached into her purse and pulled out a business card and wrote on the back. “There’s my card. My cell number is on the front and I wrote out room number on the back. Call me if you want to talk or maybe we’ll just run into each other again.”

Tricia thanked her, put the card away, and moved toward the satellite area wondering if she had lost her mind for even considering talking about Jaime to a near stranger. Still she wanted to talk about it and knew that if she called Mary Beth, the only friend back home who really knew the whole story about him, that she would say she should come back home right now before she could be tempted. She realized that she did need to call Mary Beth but she sure as hell was not going to tell her about seeing Jaime here. No way.

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