Thursday, September 27, 2007

Chapter 22

Tricia’s first two satellites went badly but the third was going better. She ended up all in against the player in third place and when the dust settled she had nearly doubled her chips and was almost exactly even with the only other player left. She had played with him in the first tournament she had played and had been the one to take him out. Apparently he remembered that because as soon as he found himself heads up with her with equal chips he proposed they split even. Tricia might not have accepted choosing to try to win outright except that the first two satellites of the day had not gone very well and splitting now would leave her with at least a modest profit for the day so far. She accepted the deal and took the offered cash, leaving the other player with the tournament entry chips.

The first she was aware that Gary and Sandy had been watching her play was when she got up and nearly ran into them.

“Well hello! How long have you been there?” She asked, surprised to see them.

“There were six left when we got here,” Gary said. He was wearing the same Harley Davidson shirt he’d had on the first time they’d met, he was smiling and looked very happy.

“You look happy, what’s up?” Tricia asked.

“Oh,” Gary seemed momentarily confused. “I won enough between some of the smaller satellites and cash games that I just paid for my entry into the main event but that’s not what we wanted to talk to you about.”

“Hey that’s great!” Tricia said. “I’m still not sure if I’m ready to just buy in and I have not won quite enough yet. That $5000 buy-in is pretty intimidating to me.”

Gary looked at Sandy and laughed. Sandy just shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“What’s the joke?” Tricia asked, confused.

Gary chuckled and said, “Well what I wanted to ask you to do was to convince Sandy to play in the Ladies only event on Sunday. Are you going to play?”

Tricia shrugged. “I don’t know. In a way it seems sort of insulting. It’s like they think we can’t play with the big boys. I may not be blowing their doors off but I think I’ve been competitive.”

“Sure you have!” Gary said. “But it’s being offered, why not take a shot? It’s even cheap. It would be good experience and good fun for Sandy too. I even offered to pay the $200 buy-in for her. She’s trying to chicken out on me.”

“Maybe she just wants to be here with you Gary, not play herself.” Tricia said then looked at Sandy. “I guess you never said if you ever played yourself.”

“Sometimes.” Sandy shrugged. “I’ve done some little tournaments at the casino back home and I’ve played really little ones online.”

“Well I know I’m prejudiced but if somebody was paying for me to play I’d play.” Tricia said.

“If Sandy agrees to play too,” Gary said with a smile. “I’ll pay your whole buy in for a 50% share of your winnings Tricia.”

“You’re kidding right?” Tricia asked in shock. He looked serious but she didn’t know him well enough to know if he was kidding.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to give up half her winnings,” Sandy said to Gary, sounding a little irritated. “You shouldn’t just spring things like that on people.”

“It’s ok,” Tricia said. “I’ve never had anybody offer me any kind of deal before.”

“Well you should get used to it,” Gary said. “If you keep doing this then you’re going to want to make saves and deals with somebody just to help keepyour expenses down.”

“I’m not even sure exactly what you’re talking about,” Tricia said. “I’ve kind of heard about stuff like that but have never really had anybody to explain it to me.”

“It looks to me like you’re moving in some pretty big circles here,” Gary grinned. “I saw you a couple of times talking to Kevin James and some friend of his who’s name I don’t remember. I know he’s an up and coming player though.”

“Jaime Devlin,” Tricia supplied the name and glanced over at Sandy who gave a little smile and a slight shake of her head that Tricia took to mean she had not told Gary about the talk she and Tricia had had about Jaime.

“Yeah,” Gary said. “Well ask them. They can tell you all about it. Better than I could. So what do you think? I really want Sandy to play this Ladies event. I think she really wants to she is just chicken. Having a friend in it might help her. What do you say?”

“You really want to pay the buy in?” Tricia asked. “You know there is no guarantee I’ll cash. It can’t be going to have all that many players so it may not pay more than 9 or at most 18 spots.”

“First of all it’s only $200 and second of all I have faith in you,” Gary said.

“If you have faith in her then do it for 25% of her winnings,” Sandy said, grinning.

Tricia looked at Sandy in shock. “Sandy!”

Sandy held her hand up, stopping Tricia. “Come on Gary. I’ll play if you pay Tricia’s buy in too and only take 25% of her winnings.”

Tricia would have expected Gary to look angry but he just looked amused. “Ok but then I get 25% of your winnings too.”

“Well shit,” Sandy said with asmile. “It’s a deal since I don’t think I have a chance of cashing.”

“So how about it?” Gary asked Tricia with an amused look on his face.

“I don’t see much of a downside for me,” Tricia said. “This is ok with you Sandy? Really?”

“It’s his money,” Sandy said and then added with a smirk. “Besides I am starting to like the idea of giving it a shot.”

“Why do I think I’ve been had?” Gary asked with a grin.

“Because dear, you have been. You should know better than to try to out fox even one woman much less two of them.” Sandy said making Tricia laugh.

Tricia saw Rick walking up looking toward her uncertainly. She wasn’t sure if he looked uncertain because of what happened the night before or because she was talking to somebody he didn’t know.

She waved him over. “Hey Rick! I hoped I’d see you before you started to play. How long do you have?”

He glanced at his watch. “About half an hour so I can’t dawdle. I want some time to get focused. I’m glad I ran into you though. I was looking for you in the cash game area and didn’t find you.”

“That’s because I was playing satellites,” Tricia said.

Then she looked at Sandy and Gary and said, “Rick is about to play the final table of yesterday’s event. He’s even the chip leader!”

“Hey that’s great!” Gary said enthusiastically.

Sandy was looking at Rick appraisingly and then looked at Tricia and raised an eyebrow in question. Tricia felt herself feeling warm and wondered if she was blushing. She hoped not.

She then introduced Rick to Sandy and Gary and they all shook hands.

“Tricia I really should get over there,” Rick said looking anxious. “I just wanted to say hi before I started.”

“I’m glad you did Rick,” Tricia said. “I’ll be along. I was planning to watch you. Don’t worry. And when you win maybe you can buy me another drink…but only one this time!”

Rick chuckled and agreed. Gary fell in beside him as he went toward the final table area and Tricia watched them go.

“That would be a nice mouse for the cat to play with,” Sandy said with a smile.

“Sandy!”

“I’m not blind Tricia. There is something there. He wasn’t looking at you that way just because you’re good looking. You are but there was more to it. I won’t pry though.”

Tricia sighed and then chuckled. “Maybe I was hoping you would. Especially since it seems you can keep things to yourself. You didn’t tell Gary about what I told you about Jaime?”

Sandy shrugged, “It didn’t come up and he wouldn’t care one way or another I don’t think. So what is up with you and Rick? Some kind of problem?”

“Hell I don’t know Sandy,” Tricia said. “I don’t know what I expected with Jaime here but it isn’t happening. He is sticking to the promise he made eight years ago and I can’t fault him for that. He wants to be just friends.”

“And you want more?”

Tricia blushed then. “I feel like a slut but yes I want more. Matt hasn’t been paying me all that much attention in the past couple of months and I’m feeling a little….”

“Horny?” Sandy finished with a smile. “There’s nothing wrong with admitting it.”

“But there is if you’re married and you do something about it with somebody not your husband.” Tricia said.

“Well it obviously wasn’t Jaime so I’m guessing it was Rick.”

Tricia nodded. “Sort of.”

“What does sort of mean?”

“That’s the problem. I’m not sure what it means.” Tricia said with a sigh.

“Why don’t you tell me about it. Maybe if you talk it out you’ll understand what it means.”

Tricia gave Sandy the bare bones of how she’d seen Rick playing last night and after they broke for the night they went to the bar and then to his room.

“He seemed better than I’d have expected,” Sandy said. “Guys get very sensitive about that kind of thing. I happens though.”

“Has it ever happened to you?” Tricia asked. “I mean….oh hell. That is way too personal Sandy. I’m sorry.”

Sandy chuckled. “So you think I’m willing to listen to you spill your guts about your personal life and you can’t ask about mine? Come on Tricia!”

“Yes,” Sandy said. “It has happened to me a couple of times. Guys drink too much or they just get plain nervous. The first time I sort of took it personally. I thought maybe he wasn’t really attracted to me. It didn’t help that he didn’t take it well. That one ended really badly. The next time it happened the guy was great about it. He was embarrassed of course but then he pretty much made me not care if you know what I mean. I didn’t feel like he wasn’t attracted to me, he proved he was and he took very good careof me. Eventually it all worked out anyway.”

“When it happened I did wonder if it was me,” Tricia said. “But then like you said he kinda made me forget about it. I got to wondering more this morning but seeing him just now he didn’t seem any different really other than he seemed a little nervous. That could be just going into the second day of his tournament as the chip leader though. I know this is the best he’s ever done.”

“Well I’d say go with the flow,” Sandy said. “How are you feeling about it? I mean from what you’ve said to me a couple of times I’d wonder if you were going to be feeling really guilty about it.”

Tricia shrugged. “I do at times and then I don’t. Shit I don’t know. I’m really not a slut Sandy but it just happened. Of course I didn’t try at all to make it not happen.”

“Well if you want my advice just be careful and have fun while you’re here.”

“I’m really here for poker you know.”

Sandy laughed. “I know you are. Trust me it shows. So what if something else happens. It sounds like you are getting something you needed. Maybe when you go home you’ll be more relaxed and things will be better.”

“Maybe,” Tricia said. “I had a weird talk with Matt this morning.”

“Weird how? You didn’t TELL him about what happened did you?”

“Good Lord NO!” Tricia said. “You would have to know Matt but after he found out about me and Jaime way back he got where I had to check in all the time. He would check the cell phone bills, he checked my email even. I had to account for every second of every day. That slowly got better but he’s still been kind of…possessive”

“Sounds like a control freak to me,” Sandy snorted.

Tricia shrugged. “Yeah, a bit of that too. But he let me go on this trip and not only has he not been checking on me he’s even been kind of hard to get hold of. I just get the feeling something is going on but I don’t know what.”

“Surely you’ve wondered if maybe he’s not been paying attention to you because he’s having a fling of his own.” Sandy said bluntly.

“You know I never thought that before coming here,” Tricia mused. “I know he was working hard. I do his books. Sure he could find time. Hell I probably could have even when he was checking on me so much. The thing is I didn’t think that was the problem.”

“But now you wonder?”

Tricia shrugged again. “I can’t help but wonder but it doesn’t feel like that. Maybe though. I just can’t believe Matt would do that considering how upset he was at me for doing it.”

“Honey you might be right. It might be nothing but it can happen to just about anyone.”

“I guess,” Tricia said. “It’s just weird how he’s acting. How trusting he is being. He even says he sees no reason I can’t do this three or four times a year.”

Sandy smiled and raised an eyebrow, intentionally misunderstanding what Tricia meant.

Tricia laughed. “I mean play the circuit events! You are so bad!”

Sandy laughed. “Well you could do both. Who knows maybe if you do this three or four times a year Jaime will thaw out and you can have some fun with him.”

“You think?” Tricia asked before she could censor the thought.

“Well you never know what might happen. Maybe he will find out about you and Rick andget jealous and want you for himself.”

“And maybe he will find out about it and never speak to me again.”

“Well that would be his loss,” Sandy said. “I wouldn’t recommend just telling him at any rate.”

“God no!”

“So what are you going to do later when Rick either busts out or wins? Are you going to console him or celebrate with him?”

“Definitely,” Tricia said. “At least I hope so.”

“And if things go the way they did are you going to give him a chance to redeem himself?”

Tricia blushed. “I wish I could say no. But I can’t. I don’t know Sandy.”

Over the PA system they heard the announcement of the second day of the Event from the day before. Tricia turned and looked toward the final table area.

“Lets move over there,” Sandy said. “I need to find Gary anyway. As for later just go with the flow Tricia but hell if it happens just enjoy it girl.”

They walked toward the final table area with Tricia thinking just about exclusively about later and what might happen. She admitted to herself that she hoped she got another chance with Rick. She felt plenty of guilt but it was being outweighed by lust at the moment. A part of her, she realized, still wished it was Jaime who wanted her.

No comments: