Thursday, September 27, 2007

Chapter 13

The tournament took it’s first break in the early afternoon. They only had twenty minutes and with several hundred people all heading for the rest rooms at the same time Jaime knew it would be crowded. Instead of waiting in line at the closest rest room he quickly walked down through the casino toward the restaurants and the restrooms at that end.

On the way in he spotted Tricia talking to a guy who looked somewhat familiar. They were outside of the Italian restaurant and engaged in what seemed to be an animated discussion. Jaime well knew that when Tricia got going on a subject she could talk very quickly and with a lot of energy.

When he finished his business he looked and Tricia and the guy were still there. She was laughing and had reached over and touched his arm. The flash of jealousy that he felt surprised him. He knew very well that Tricia had been hurt when he’d told her that he was seeing somebody else. Jaime didn’t even think there was anything at all beyond maybe a budding acquaintance here between this guy and Tricia and still it bothered him.

He was debating whether to go over and say hi, knowing his time was very limited though, when the turned and started walking toward him.

Several expressions seemed to flash across Tricia’s face when she saw him. First came surprise, obviously she had not expected to see him at all. Then she flushed a little and looked slightly embarrassed and then came a slight smile that let Jaime know that maybe some of the jealousy he was feeling was showing.

“Jaime!” Tricia said sounding like she was in a good mood. “You aren’t out are you?”

Jaime shook his head. “No, on break and I figured I could walk down here and use the bathroom here faster than waiting for it near the poker room. I’m still in.”

“Ok good!” Tricia said looking genuinely relieved. “How are you doing?”

Tricia and the guy who looked more and more familiar to Jaime had walked up to him by then. Jaime could tell from looking at her now that part of her good mood had probably come from some wine with the lunch they had obviously just finished. That brought a flash of memory which triggered may emotions in Jaime.

Jaime shrugged and said, “I’m doing ok. Better than average chip stack. It’s still early yet. Did you play any satellites yet?”

“Yep!” Tricia said. “I played four between breakfast with you and lunch with Rick.”

That seemed to remind her that Rick and Jaime had not met.

“Oh crap I’m sorry. Jaime this is Rick. Rick, Jaime.”

Rick stuck his hand out said, “We’ve played together. It was one of the $1500 buy in events at the last World Series and Jaime here was bullying the table. He ended up knocking me out when I went all in with Queensand he had Big Slick and flopped an Ace.”

Jaime remembered then, and also remembered seeing the guy in cash games around other poker rooms, from time to time with a woman in attendance. As far as Jaime could remember a different woman. He shook Rick’s hand and studied him trying to decide if he was making a play for Tricia. He really didn’t remember anything to speak of about the guy so didn’t really know if he was a nice guy or not. Jaime assumed that Tricia would not be hanging out with him if he wasn’t. He just hoped she was not going to do anything she would regret. Then he wondered if what he really hoped was that she would not do anything that he, Jaime, would regret her doing.

“I remember now,” Jaime said. “Sorry about that.”

Rick shrugged. “That’s the way it goes. I knew at the time it was likely to be a coin flip. I had to make a move.”

Jaime nodded agreement.

“So Tricia how did you do in your satellites. Did you win four buy ins?” Jaime asked with a smile.

“Hell no!” Tricia said. “It took me four to win one but I’m in tomorrow’s tournament and as it stands now I’m right about even for the trip what with those four satellites. Tomorrow is one of the events I thought would be too expensive for me. I really didn’t think I’d be playing anything beyond the first two cheap events.”

“You obviously underestimated yourself,” Jaime said.

“She’s really pretty good,” Rick said in an almost possessive sounding way that bugged Jaime a lot although he fought hard not to show it. “I played with her in the first event and she did very well.”

Jaime thought Tricia picked up on the way Rick sounded too because she shot him a look of surprise tinged with a little worry.

“I’ve never gotten to see her play except online but I’m sure she’s going to do fine. I’m not in tomorrow’s event so I still won’t I guess. Are you playing tomorrow as well Rick?” Jaime asked.

“Yeah,” Rick said. “I already bought in.”

Jaime just nodded wondering if Rick was bragging about buying in rather than winning a satellite to get in the cheap way trying to impress Tricia, it sounded like it to him.

They heard the tournament director call the players back to their seats and Tricia surprised Jaime by giving him a hug and a peck on the cheek and whispering “knock ‘em dead” where only he could hear it before saying “good luck” as she let him go.

He had to fight hard not to smile at Rick’s look of surprise. He smiled and said, “Thanks Tricia. It was nice meetingyou Rick. I’m sure I’ll see you again sometime on the Circuit.”

As he took his seat Jaime looked back at Tricia and Rick. She looked like she was explaining something to him and she kept looking over his way. He wondered if he was telling the guy about them. He’d be surprised if she was but then you never knew.

Jaime thought about things other than poker more than he knew he should for the next few minutes but couldn’t help it. Seeing Tricia had been more of a shock than he’d thought it would be. He still felt a very strong attraction to her. As time had passed he had thought that most of his attraction was probably just his imagination coupled with the wonderful memories he had. Finding out that, in truth, his feelings about her were as strong as ever had surprised, even shocked him. It was thus little surprise he didn’t like seeing her with Rick.

He wondered if he should try to talk to her and warn her to be careful, tell her that he suspected Rick might be after more than just friendship and lunch. His good sense told him that she probably would not take that well.

Then Jaime’s thoughts shifted to Sharon who he realized he was not thinking of nearly as much as he normally would have. He still felt guilty for talking her out of trying to get here to spend time with him during at least part of his time in Indiana. He’d used the excuse that it was his first sponsored tournament series and he needed to focus. He was surely not doing that he knew.

He had to fight down the urge to compare Sharon and Emily before her to Tricia. At the time he’d told himself that you can’t make comparisons like that and besides he was comparing something that was real and happening to a memory and that seemed dangerous. Seeing Tricia made him realize that Sharon was no Tricia. She was a good friend and good companion but she didn’t evoke the feelings in him that Tricia did.

In his distraction he lost a hand that he should not have and cost him more chips than he liked. That snappedhim right back to the tournament. Seeing the surprised looks on the faces of a couple of the other players at the table at his totally stupid play made him feel embarrassed.

He wiped his hand across his face and struggled to put everything out of mind except the tournament before it was too late.

No comments: