Page 101 of Love or Leave

She braced herself with a deep breath and opened the text.

Antonio: Don't tell me you're playing Scrabble to distract yourself before Poker.

She pulled back from shock, then glanced up on instinct. He wasn't there, was he?

She scanned the room, and it only took a second before their eyes connected. He was standing at the bar, waiting for a beer. He gave her a smile and a wave before looking down at his phone.

How the hell did he know she was going to be there?

Antonio: Your poker face isn't as good as you think.

She rolled her eyes.

Antonio: Eye roll = You're annoyed with me. Save me a seat.

She glared at him before responding.

Absolutely not,she wrote, but before she could hit send, he was already on his way over to her.

He took the seat to the left of the dealer, directly across from her. He set down his beer and pulled out his phone.

Antonio: Act like we don't know each other.

She wanted to throw her drink at him.

Cara: I'm here to play poker. Not your mind games.

Antonio: Poker is a mind game, beautiful.

Cara: Don't call me that.

Antonio: This reminds me of the bus. Best weekend of my life.

Okay, that was it. That was the straw that broke her camel’s back.

As she was about to stand and walk out, a grisled old man took the last seat, put down his cane, and told the dealer to hurry and deal, as if everyone hadn't been waiting on him.

Cara put her phone on mute, shoved it into her pocket, then forced herself to think of the physics equations she'd been using that day in her lab to keep a neutral expression.

Maybe sticking around and taking all of Antonio's money would be cathartic.

She glanced up at him while the dealer ran through the rules and found him smiling like a dope around the table.

"Is it deuces wild?" Antonio asked the dealer.

Interesting. He was taking the noob approach.

"This is Texas Hold'em," the dealer said. "Nothing is wild. Are you sure you're in the right place?"

If his plan was to appear incompetent, it was working. He widened his eyes and looked around, then shrugged and pushed his gigantic pile of chips to the side to draw attention to it.

"I'm just gonna build the plane as I fly it, so to speak. I've always wanted to play poker."

Cara kept quiet as Antonio sold a lie to the table that he was a dummy with deep pockets. And they all gobbled it up.

The dealer dealt the hand. She peeked at her cards. A king and a jack. Both hearts. Not bad.

Antonio looked at his cards and let the corner of his mouth lift. He picked up a chip and tossed it into the center of the table. But before the kid wearing the hoodie could call or raise, Antonio reached back into the center to pick the chip back up.

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