Page 42 of Dissent

I almost dropped to my knees.

“Reassigned for the day,” Wes replied.

The guy on the right leaned back in his chair, draping an arm over the backrest and tilting his head to the side. His skin was supple and dark, with deep brown eyes, and curly black hair that was kept short and clean. “Who’s the girl?”

Wes looked at me as I remained frozen at the tent entrance. I don’t know what I thought I was going to encounter, but this was not it. “Guys, meet Mara. Mara, this is Simon Williams,” he pointed to the right, and then shifted to point to the man on the left, “and that’s Rincon Evans.”

Simon waved, as did Rincon, who looked more bored than anything. He had light brown hair and wore glasses. He looked from me to Wes. “So this is the Telvian, right?”

“Yup,” Wes remarked as he walked further into the room, grabbing one chair and spinning it around to straddle the back of it. “Where’s Charlie? I thought all three of you had PTO today?”

“Nah,” Simon waved him off. “Come on, man. You know half the time they call us in to do bullshit. He got called into headquarters for an assignment. He’s out.”

Rincon patted the table, getting everyone’s attention. “You gonna play, or what?”

Wes smirked. “Deal me in.”

Rincon nodded, grabbing all the cards on the table and organizing them into a neat deck before shuffling. “What about you? You playing?”

It took me a second to realize he was talking to me. “Oh! Uh, sure. What are you playing?”

“Stallion.”

Stallion?“I don’t think I know that one…”

Simon spoke up this time. “Nah, it’s easy. Come on over here,” he said as he pulled the empty chair between him and Rincon closer to him. “I’ll teach you.”

“That’s okay. I’ll just watch—”

He rolled his eyes, but a playful smile curled the corners of his lips. “Don’t be shy now. We don’t take no for an answer around here.” He patted the chair next to him and waved me forward.

Inhaling deeply, I gave in. Stepping around the table, I took the seat he was offering, landing me right across from Wes.

“Now the object of the game is simple,” he started as Rincon began dealing out cards. “There are two decks of cards, and you get five cards in your hand to start. Don’t show anyone, okay? Then, you’re going to pull out all your pairs and put them aside face up next to you. Got it? Then, get more cards from the draw pile until you have five cards again.”

I tried to follow his directions, but I was already losing track of what I was supposed to do. Gathering the five cards Rincon dealt me, I went through them to find pairs. I had two diamonds, so I pulled them out and placed them next to me. “Then I draw two more, right?”

“That’s right. Then keep doing that until you don’t have any pairs left. Now, we’re going to play a round. In each round, we’ll each pull a card from any person you pick at the table. Once you pull a card, you look for pairs, and pull them out. Then you can draw more cards. If you don’t have a pair, you’re stuck with that extra card in your hand. The goal is to have the most pairs in your pile by the end of the game. Each pair is worth one point. But, if you have pairs of queens, they’re worth five points each. And if you have all four pairs of queens, then you automatically win the game because you have a full harem.”

“A what?”

“A harem.”

Rincon spoke up this time, “It’s calledStallionfor a reason. A wild stallion collects a herd of females. That’s the point. You want as many pairs in your pile as you can get, but if you have all four pairs of queens, then you have a harem and you automatically win.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head for a moment. “Okay, so wait. Basically, we go around trying to collect as many pairs as we can, with the goal being to get all the queens if possible, right?”

Simon smiled brightly. “You got it!”

“So, basically, we’re playing a weird version of Go Fish.”

This time, Rincon responded, his brows furrowed. “Go Fish? No…no, this iswaydifferent from Go Fish.”

“Not really. In Go Fish you collect pairs. In this game, you’re trying to collect pairs too. The only difference is that queens are worth more and can automatically win you the game.” I looked around the table while all three guys looked at each other, thoughtful expressions and confusion across each one of their features. “Isn’t that what you all just said?” Rincon lifted a finger to speak, but then promptly closed his mouth. Simon’s smile had been wiped clean, his lips pursed in thought. Wes remained stoic, his brows pinched as he stared at the cards on the table. “Guys?”

Simon finally spoke. “Well…yeah, I guess it’s kind of like Go Fish, but it’swaymore masculine,” he sputtered in defense.

A smile crawled along my face. “Moremasculine?”

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