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Willow misses the exchange as she’s too focused on her own hand. When it is her turn, she asks for three cards, then Tony lets out a sigh and takes two.
I’m ready to fold but I want to be a part of this hand so I discard everything but my stellar fours and take three cards for myself.
I add them and thumb through my hand This round is looking up. Two kings join my crappy fours and I’ve got two pairs now. I’m sure it’s not enough to beat whatever is in Shane’s hand but that isn’t why I’m still in this round.
As I watch Willow, she seems confident but I get the feeling it’s misplaced as my eyes wander to Shane. He’s stealing glances at her too, but he’s not taking an interest in her like I am.
His stare is predatory.
His head is in the game, and he’s trying to decide if he has the better hand.
I mentally add up the chips she has left and it looks like she’s got about $500,000. That’s close to the same amount she started with so I know she’ll put in the fifty thousand she needs to start the betting, and she does. Tony calls, and adds fifty thousand of his own, and I raise it another fifty to one hundred thousand.
Shane drops his money into the pot and calls. He’s either bluffing or he’s trying to lure Willow into continuing on.
Glancing at the chips she last left, if she calls and wins now she’ll be up around a quarter of a million. It’s enough to get at least one of those mortgages off of her business.
As I watch her look around the table, first at her chips, then adding up the amount in the middle, she takes a deep breath and raises another hundred thousand.
As soon as she slides her chips toward the pot, Tony folds and leans back in his seat, crossing his arms.
I probably should fold, but I’ve had a good night so far, and I have some room to see where this goes, so I drop my hundred grand in chips on the table and call.
All eyes are on Shane, and this time he makes a move. Matching her $100,000 bet, he raises her another $100,000, and everyone around the table hears Hazel’s soft gasp as she sucks in a deep breath at the amount.
She’s out of her league and she knows it.
The pot is now sitting at just over three quarters of a million dollars.
Worry settles into the pit of my stomach as she pushes the last pile of her chips into the center of the table.
What could she possibly need all of this money for?
No one else understands Willow like Shane and I do.
We became close friends in junior high when she transferred to our school. Once we hit high school and our hormones took over, we both fell hard for her. She is the perfect storm. Beautiful, smart, kind and trusting to a fault.
We were the stereotypical boys from across the tracks. Our parents worked hard but that meant they were never around. We always seemed to be the first to be blamed for anything going wrong around the school, and we just barely graduated from our senior year.
We wouldn’t have graduated at all if it wasn’t for her.
Willow took it on herself to meet up with us at the local library to tutor us in the courses we struggled with.
Everyone was quick to label us.
But not her.
And we both loved her for it.
Unbeknownst to Willow, we had a falling out over her which resolved itself in a fist fight and a long heart to heart after.
For Shane and I, our friendship has always come first but more importantly we played out both of our futures with Willow and decided, in the end, neither of us would be able to give her a shot at the good life we wanted for her.
After high school was over, we walked different paths from her.
Shane got a tip on an old club that was going under and we bought it up on the cheap. Don’t get me wrong, we worked our asses off to get to where we are now. The establishment is even above board and caters to some of the city’s finest.
Along the way, we both let Willow go. We were two kids out of high school with no job prospects but to open a strip club. She was too good for us and we both knew it, but she didn’t think so.
