by Jade Kuzma
“The grand prize… Yes… Well, Emerson, I can assure you that there’s nothing for you to worry about. I have the grand prize in the bag.”
“You seem quite confident about that.”
“I’m very confident about it. So confident that I’m gonna celebrate tonight. Faye.”
“Yes?”
“Make sure my room is ready. I’m leaving to get ready for the celebration. Double the amount of champagne.”
“Yes, sir.”
I bowed my head to him and watched Alvarez walk off into the distance.
Emerson remained in front of me, looking me up and down.
“You’re Alvarez’s assistant,” he said. “Faye, is it?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“How do you like working for a man like Alvarez?”
“Well, I—”
“Be honest,” he said with a smirk. “You might work for him but I’m the one who owns the casino. Tell me the truth.”
Emerson kept smiling at me. It was as if he was testing me. Not sure what to say, I bit my tongue instead of telling the complete truth.
“Alvarez is a busy man,” I explained. “He needs an assistant to take care of his scheduling. He pays me well.”
“Ah, yes… It’s always about money, isn’t it? Tell me something, Faye. Do you think he’ll win this tournament?”
I looked over to the side and saw Hunter sitting at his table. Everybody else had already left but he just sat there, his chin resting on his fist as he stared off into the distance.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m not much of a card player.”
“In any case, it’ll be interesting to see who wins. I’m sure that if Alvarez comes out on top, you’re looking at a nice bonus from him.”
“I would appreciate that.”
Hunter turned and looked at me from a distance.
“Well, I’m sure that you’ve got more errands to run for Alvarez,” Emerson said.
Emerson bowed his head to me then took his woman in his arm. They’d only been gone for a second when Hunter was suddenly standing in front of me.
“Hey!” I said.
I couldn’t fight a smile from coming to my face. I reached forward and wrapped my arms around him. Hunter did the same but his embrace wasn’t very strong.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s… nothing.”
He wasn’t smiling. He couldn’t even look me in the eye. There was something clearly distracting him.
“Hunter… Even if I haven’t known you for so many years, I can still tell that you’re hiding something from me.”
“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “I guess I’m just nervous about heading into the final table tomorrow night.”
“You? Nervous? I don’t ever remember you being nervous. Remember Julie?”
“Julie?”
He arched an eyebrow at me in confusion.
“Julie. From high school. She was the prettiest girl on campus. I remember guys used to shake in their shoes whenever she walked by. But you walked up to her and talked to her like it was nothing.”
“Oh… Julie…”
“Yes, now you remember.”
“I remember her. Yeah. It wasn’t a big deal to talk to her. Then again, she wasn’t really the prettiest girl at the school.”
It was nice to see the subtle smirk on his lips even though it started to make me blush. I shook my head and laughed to distract myself from how hypnotizing his stare was.
“Even if she was, that’s nothing compared to this,” he said. “There’s a lot of money on the line. If I win this tournament, I pocket more than a million dollars.”
“That’s a lot of money…”
“Every tournament I’ve ever played in, it’d never been more than a few thousand. This… This is big, Faye.”
He didn’t look nervous but there was a bit of concern in his eyes. Something was still wrong. As close as I was to him, I wondered how I would get it out of him.
“Thank you, Faye.”
“Thank me? For what?”
“You’re the reason I’m here. You’re the reason I even got this opportunity.”
“Oh… Well, I… I was just doing what anybody would do for a friend—”
“I know. You’ve said that before. It doesn’t matter why you did it. What matters is you did it. You deserve all the credit for this.”
“It…”
I looked away from him as I had trouble finding the words to say.
“You don’t have to thank me,” I said. “I really just wanted to do it for you.”
“For me…”
He put his hand on my chin and gently forced me to face him. He leaned forward and kissed me, letting his lips linger on mine. I didn’t care that we were in the middle of the casino and anybody could see us. Every moment I had with him made me feel like I was floating without a care in the world.
“I was thinking about doing something tonight,” he said. “Relaxing a bit. Maybe a celebration. Getting to a final table, especially a tournament like this… It’s not something that happens very often.
“That sounds great. But… Alvarez wants me to take care of some errands for him. He’ll be celebrating himself tonight. I have to make sure that things are in order.”
“Right… Alvarez… You’re his assistant…”
“Yeah… I’m his assistant,” I sighed.
Hunter gently pulled his hand away from me. I could feel his disappointment the same as mine.
“What about tomorrow?” he asked.
“The tournament is tomorrow night,” I said. “I’ll see you then.”
“What about tomorrow afternoon?”
“Afternoon? I… I have some work to do for Alvarez.”
“He can’t keep you busy for the entire day, can he?”
“Alvarez is an important man. There’s always something to do. I… I’m sorry, Hunter. I can’t.”
Hunter sighed in resignation. He smiled softly at me but the disappointment was still in his eyes.
“Faye…”
“Yes?”
“If something was wrong, you’d tell me, right?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering what he was getting at.
What’s he up to?
“What kind of question is that?” I said.
“I mean, you’d tell me if there was something wrong. You’d be honest with me, wouldn’t you?”
“I’ve told you everything, Hunter. I don’t see any reason why I would lie to you about anything.”
“No… I guess not… You were never the type to do something like that.”
“Where’s this coming from?”
Hunter looked away from me. I raised my eyebrows in curiosity, waiting for his response. He suddenly chuckled softly to himself.
“It’s nothing,” he said. “I guess it’s just nerves. Thinking about you in the gallery watching me play tomorrow night is gonna put even more pressure on me.”
“I don’t care if you win the whole tournament or you lose on the first hand. I’ll always be here for you.”
Hunter was so tall that I had to reach my head up to kiss his cheek. I whispered into his ear to calm the tension I felt coming from him.
“No pressure…”
He gave me a nod before slowly turning and walking away. I wished that I could join him but Alvarez was waiting for me. I had to find someone who was willing to celebrate with him. It was going to take me the rest of the night to do that.
Chapter 21
FAYE
Spending an evening with Alvarez wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Sure, I didn’t enjoy much having to get bottle after bottle of champagne. The bimbos by his sides weren’t much for conversation. And Alvarez’s boasting grew tiresome quickly. But there was always something to do. By the end of the night, I was able to give myself some comfort in knowing that I’d done my job.
The result of that was seeing the smile on Alice’s face the next day.
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“Yes!”
She pumped her fist when she saw the small paper bag I’d brought for her. I laughed at the enthusiasm on her face that appeared so quickly.
“Gimme, gimme, gimme!”
She reached her hands out enthusiastically and snatched the bag from me. She fumbled with the lid and opened up the pint of ice cream so fast. But as soon as the first spoonful hit her mouth, she paused like she was in slow motion.
“Mmm… Cookie dough…”
“I wish that I could savor ice cream the way you do.”
I sighed and collapsed on the seat next to her bed.
“What do you mean?” she asked. “You don’t like ice cream?”
“Sure, I like ice cream. I like it a lot. But you seem to enjoy it a lot more than I do. I wish I could appreciate the same as you.”
“Maybe you’re just eating it too fast.”
“Maybe,” I said with a laugh.
“Here. Why don’t you try some? I’m sure you’ll love it.”
“Not good for me. I’m not as young as you, Ally. Besides, that ice cream is all yours. Three pints of your favorite.”
“Yeah…”
She sighed in satisfaction then shoved another heaping spoonful into her mouth. She stared at the television in front of her. The cartoons on the screen and the ice cream in her mouth were enough to distract her from everything else. Seeing the innocent look in her eyes hurt me in a way that I didn’t want to think about it. But there was no way around it.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“I feel great. This ice cream is so good.”
“Did the doctor say anything to you?”
“No,” she said with a shrug. “He just said that things are the same and I’m doing fine.”
The same…
I didn’t expect things to change after a few days. Alice needed the surgery and there was no avoiding it. Even though I knew the costs, I was confident that working for Alvarez would give me what I needed. I smiled in knowing that Alice was going to be just fine regardless of what I did.
“Hey, Ally…”
She didn’t look at me, her eyes focused like she didn’t want to hear what I had to say.
“…It’s only going to be a few more weeks. You have to stay strong, okay? Then once you’re feeling better, you’ll get out.”
“Yeah, I know. I can’t wait.”
“I’ll tell you what. As soon as we get out, we’ll eat whatever you wanna eat. How does that sound?”
The grin she had lit-up her entire face.
“Anything?” she said.
“Well, not anything. I think you’ve had a little too much ice cream.”
“How about some pizza?”
“Pizza… Okay, pizza sounds good. As soon as you’re feeling better, we’ll go out for a nice big pizza.”
“I want a giant pizza! A pizza the size of the moon!”
“I don’t think they make pizzas that big but I’ll double-check to make sure.”
She went back to shoveling the ice cream into her mouth, licking the spoon clean with every scoop. I relaxed in my seat and sighed a deep breath. It was a peaceful moment to be able to sit there and not have to worry about anything else going on in my life. Alice was the only thing important in my life.
A sudden knock at the door made me straighten up. I turned around and expected to see Dr. Johnson. Instead, I saw the last man I ever expected to see.
Hunter stood there with his hands in his pockets. It was strange to see him as calm as he was. His demeanor was the only thing that made me believe that he was right there in front of me.
“Hunter.”
I jumped up from my seat and walked over to me.
“Hunter, what are you…”
I checked to make sure that my sister was all right. She was still distracted by the television.
“Gimme just a second, okay, Ally? I have to talk to this guy.”
“Sure,” she said, not paying any attention to me.
I tugged on Hunter’s arms and pulled him out of the room. The door shut and I whispered to him, trying not to raise my voice too much.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“This is what you were hiding from me—”
“Answer the question.”
“I followed you.”
“You followed me,” I sighed. “Of course…”
“Faye, what’s going on?”
I closed my eyes and put my hand to my forehead.
Great.
The last thing I needed was more complications. I wanted to just tell him to go away but there was no point now. He knew. I couldn’t hide it from him any longer.
“Tell me,” he said.
I sighed a deep breath and finally looked back at him.
“It’s my sister,” I said.
“Alice… She was so little the last time I saw her.”
“It was six years ago. She’s grown a lot since then.”
“What’s wrong? Why is she in the hospital?”
I didn’t like telling the story. The details upset me even though they were the reality I had to deal with. Just thinking about it was enough to bother me so much that I had trouble speaking.
“Alice… She… She just wasn’t feeling well one day… I thought she might’ve been sick or something. Like a cold. I took her to the doctor but they couldn’t find anything wrong with her. But she kept complaining. They ran their tests and they eventually found a tumor. It’s the reason she’s been feeling so sick lately.”
“Faye…”
I swallowed to keep everything down then shook my head to clear my thoughts.
“They tried all kinds of treatment but it’s not working. The doctor said that surgery is the best way to deal with it now. She has to get it soon before it gets any worse. If they do it now, she’s got the best chance to live a full, healthy life.”
“Then she’s getting the surgery, right?”
“I’d do anything to make sure that Ally is all right. I’d do the surgery myself if that’s what it took.”
I looked up into Hunter’s eyes and saw the understanding. As rugged and uncaring as he might have seemed, I knew that Hunter was a good man. There was someone kind in his heart. I wouldn’t have been his friend for such a long time if that wasn’t the case.
“I’m all she has now,” I said. “When we lost our parents in the accident, I was the only one she could depend on.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. You don’t play as much poker as I do without being able to put everything together.”
“This isn’t some card game, Hunter. This is real life.”
“I know that. Why else would you work for a man like Alvarez? Why else would you drop out of school? It’s for Alice.”
He closed his eyes, his mouth open like something was on the tip of his tongue.
“Why would you do that?” he said as he looked at me.
“Do what?”
“Why would you tell Alvarez to let me back into Eden and risk your job like that?”
“Because you’re my friend, Hunter. I did what you would have done—”
“Faye, you haven’t seen me in six years. You have every reason to not give a shit about me. Alice is the only person that matters now.”
“I couldn’t just let that gangster kill you. Not when there was something I could do about it.”
He kept staring at me. His lips twisted like he was trying to figure out what to say. Suddenly, he started nodding softly at me.
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay?”
“I know what I have to do.”
“Hunter… I don’t know if I like the sound of that…”
“Just trust me. Let me handle this.”
He turned his head and looked at the door to the hospital room.
“Can I say hi to Alice?”
I didn’t know what Hunter was thinking. But looking at him now, all I could do w
as smile at him.
“Yeah… Okay…”
I opened the door back up and walked in behind Hunter. Alice was still sitting straight up, her eyes locked on the TV while she polished off her pint of ice cream.
“Hey, Ally,” I said. “I want you to meet someone.”
She greeted Hunter with a grin.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hey, Alice. I’m Hunter. I’m your sister’s friend.”
“Hey, Hunter…”
She shifted her eyes toward me then back at him.
“…Are you her boyfriend?”
My cheeks immediately started to blush.
“Ally…” I muttered as I gritted my teeth.
Alice laughed at herself. Hunter seemed to get a laugh out of it just the same as her.
He took a seat next to her bed and leaned in close to her.
“I don’t know if I’m her boyfriend,” he said. “But let’s just say that she and I are really good friends.”
“Really good friends… Okay… Then I guess that makes us friends, too.”
“I guess it does.”
“Hey, Faye. Is Hunter gonna go out for pizza with us when we leave?”
I couldn’t refuse the enthusiasm in her eyes. All I could do was laugh.
“Sure,” I said. “Two moon-sized pizzas for each of you.”
“Yes!”
Alice pumped her fist with the biggest smile she’d had all day. It was nice to see Hunter smiling the same as her.
“I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to finish all of this ice cream before it melts,” she said. “My sister doesn’t want any. Do you want some?”
“Your sister doesn’t want any ice cream?”
Hunter eyeballed me, a smug smirk on his lips.
“Figures,” he said. “Your sister never liked to have too much fun. Back when you were younger, she would always tell me to study instead of watching cartoons like you’re doing now.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Faye was always so serious.”
“Hey!” I interrupted. “Stop lying to her.”
Alice laughed. Seeing her smile was enough to make me do the same, even if it was at my expense. Hunter and Alice opened up their own pints of ice cream while he continued to make up stories about what I was like in high school.
I sat in silence, enjoying and enduring all of it. I had to appreciate this for as long as I could.