Page 161 of King of Envy

I hadn’t played since my fifth-grade Spanish teacher used the game to teach us vocabulary words, but I had a surprisingly great time. X’ing out squares on my card was quite therapeutic.

“B24!” the caller announced. She’d barely finished speaking before Vuk shoved a sheet of paper in the air. It saidBINGO!in big black letters.

“And we have a winner!” the caller said amidst a cacophony of groans. “Let’s break for intermission. The next game will start in ten minutes.”

“Goddammit.” A white-haired woman at a neighboring table banged her fist against her armrest. “That’s the third time in a row I’ve lost!”

“Shut up, Fran,” the man next to her said. He had a hunched back and a raspy voice. He looked like he was at least ninety. “You used to swindle tourists with rigged card games in the park. This is karma.”

Fran cackled but didn’t deny the accusation. “Only people I swindled were those stupid enough to fall for it.”

Fran and Tom,Vuk said in response to my curious glance. I guess he was okay with talking now that the game was over.They’re dating.

Oh! Well, good for them.

“I see. Congratulations. You beat a room full of seniors,” I teased. “You must be proud.”

I told you.Vuk appeared quite pleased with himself.I always win.

“Uh-huh.” I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling. “Tell me. When did the big, bad Vuk Markovic first enter the thrilling world of competitive bingo?”

Big and bad, huh?He looked even cockier than he had a second ago.

I kicked him playfully under the table.

He laughed, but he gave me a serious response a moment later.

A few years ago, I was trying to close a big deal with a subsidiary. The father of the CEO at the time was a resident here. He loved Friday bingo nights, so the CEO tried to play with him at least once a month. We were down to the wire in negotiations, and Friday night was his last night in the city before he left on a long trip to Asia. I offered to close out our negotiations here.

I tilted my head. “You negotiated a multimillion-dollar deal with another Fortune 500 CEO at a senior center bingo night?” I asked doubtfully.

Vuk smirked.It’s not any better or worse than closing deals on a golf course or over dinner.

Okay, valid.

His father passed soon after the deal closed, but I enjoyed our bingo night so much that I came back the next week, and the week after that. Like I said, it’s nice to unwind with something that doesn’t require much thought or strategy.

“The center lets you play even though you don’t have family here?”

Vuk just looked at me.

“Right.” I shook my head. Did anyone ever say no to him?

Some staff members were wary at first, but they got used to seeing me here. I also donate a lot of money to them every year, and I paid for a professional bingo setup. I think…He was quiet for a moment.My father would’ve liked it. Not the nursing home part, but the fun and camaraderie. He loved playing games, especially with strangers. He used to sit in the park and challenge passersby to checkers or chess. He almost always won.

My heart twisted. “You must miss him very much,” I said softly.

It was Vuk’s first time discussing his parents. I read somewhere that both of them died of different illnesses a while ago.

It’s been years. I got used to his absence.Despite his efforts to hide it, I caught a glimpse of pain in Vuk’s eyes.

He obviously didn’t want to talk about his family anymore, but I felt compelled to share something equal in return.

I toyed with the edge of my bingo card, debating, before I said, “My father’s the reason I signed with Beaumont. When Hank scouted me, my family was going through a tough time. The restaurant hadn’t quite taken off yet, and my father’s hand got injured in a kitchen accident. It was…horrific. He needed extensive surgery and physical rehab after. His insurance only covered a fraction of the costs; we had to pay the rest out of pocket or forgo rehab altogether. But the doctors warned us that if he skipped rehab, he might never regain full use of his hand. He wouldn’t be able to cook like he used to.”

Memories collided with the ghost of helplessness. Vuk listened, his eyes never straying from my face.

“He already gave up one of his dreams,” I said. “He’d studied engineering in Ethiopia, but once he immigrated to the U.S., his degree was worthless. So he turned to his second love, cooking. If he lost that too…it would’ve devastated him. Wehadto make it work.” I ripped off a corner of the bingo card. “Liya and I were both in school at the time. My mother and Aaron worked at the restaurant, and it was all they could do to keep it afloat in my father’s absence. We tried our best, but we didn’t have enough money to cover the medical bills. Not even close. When Hank came along and offered me this glamorous modeling career, it seemed too good to be true.”

---