Out having fun.

I only wanted to see if I had lost or not. He seemed so confident. We both knew he had tried to use his looks to distract me.

When he refused to lay his card, I dropped mine. I wanted this to be over.

“A queen of spades.” He read my card aloud.

Then he dropped his. It was a king—a king of spades. The king was greater than the queen.

I had lost.

“Don’t give me that look. A king is as important as his queen.” He smiled, playing with the cards.

He placed them side by side and turned them to face me.

“What do you think?” He taunted.

I wished I could look into someone else’s eyes, but everyone seemed so far away. When I looked up, I noticed the boys were gone but Darcy sat where she had been sitting.

At the same time, the door opened, and her brother busted in, fury written all over his face. He went straight to his sister and tried to pull her away, but the huge guys blocked him. I couldn’t hear the words they said but he was mad that they wouldn’t let go of his sister. Hell, he was mad that she was even here in the first place. We had a million explanations to do. The guys were still missing, and I wondered if they had sneaked out or if the men had let them go.

The boss that sat on the table with me waved a finger at one of the huge guys and he let go of Darcy. Her brother pulled her away, leaving me alone.

I had lost and now I had been abandoned. I didn’t miss the apology on Darcy’s face, but it didn’t change the fact that she didn’t even try to tell him about me or make any attempt to help.

“They were free the moment you agreed to play. You’re on your own, Emily. Who will come for you?” He asked, taunting me with the last words.

He couldn’t have been able to tell how deep those words hit.

“The King is higher than the queen, stronger. Of more value.” I answered his first question, ignoring his second question. My dad would never look for me as far as a place like this, the worst he would do was to drop a missing report at the police station. I doubted he would miss me.

“Do you want to know what I think?” He asked, pulling both cards away from me and closer to himself.

I said nothing but raised my brows like I had said, “What?”

“I think the queen is as strong as her king.” He smiled. A little bit of hope shimmered in my heart.

“Meaning?” I asked. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. I wanted him to say the words clearly.

“Let’s just say you didn’t lose.” He said finally.

I jumped up. My seat scraped the floor and made a loud noise that called everyone to me. “I didn’t lose,” I screamed.

It was the first time I made such an achievement and I felt on top of the world.

“You’re quite good.” He commented. My dad wasn’t bluffing after all.

The boss didn’t tell anyone the condition of my winning but only said I won the last round. They all looked at me in awe and I felt like I had found the respect I wanted.

It felt awesome.

I was no longer a debtor. I stayed around to play with three other big guys, I won two of them but lost to one. I had more than a $100 winning when I decided to go home.

“Here.” I handed it to the boss when I was done and ready to go home. “I know I didn’t win, so take. It’s the highest I can give you.” I told him.

“You think that I’d have let you go if you were a bad player and was holding a bad card?” He asked, disbelieve evident in his voice.

“Maybe not.” I stammered in reply. He had a point, but I was still hesitant about the whole thing. He didn’t look like a good guy, why was he nice to me?

“Definitely not. Now, don’t you have a home to be?” He snapped at me. That called me back.

Oh my God. My dad or maybe my mom was going to kill me. What was I going to say? Would di say the truth or tell a lie? It was getting dark, and I ran as fast as I could. I turned back to see the boss still watching me. He had probably stood there till I was out of sight.

I wondered who he was. There was this sadness in his eyes, beneath all the macho and brave look. Maybe I would see him again.

When I got home, I was surprised to see my mom and dad sitting together. I had expected a look of panic, or even worry, instead, they sat together in the dining drinking cold yogurt.

As soon as my mom heard me come in, she looked up and smiled at me. “You’re late Emily, were you having fun with friends?”

My dad hadn’t even turned to look at me, he lifted his hands to clean the smudge of milk on his wife’s face.

“Yes, Mom. I did have fun.” The words came out of my mouth like they had been programmed to.

They had not been worried. Had they even cared at all? Were parents usually worried when their child came home late?

No one asked me what exactly I had been doing.

It was three weeks till I summoned the courage to go to the coffee shop again. This time, I went alone. Darcy and I didn’t remain friends but she was no longer dependent on her brother. Now, she had other friends and we often smiled when we saw each other. She was the only one that asked if I lost or won. I didn’t tell her the whole story, but I did say that I won.

Unfortunately, the shop had changed. There was no longer a hidden mini-casino. It was just a plain coffee shop. The inner part was now used as a salon. No one looked familiar except the man who served coffee. Surprisingly, he recognized me at one.

“Here. I was asked to give you this if you ever came back.” He took me to his desk and gave me a folded note.

Although I was curious about what it was about, I didn’t open it till I was home and in my room.

Written boldly on the note were the words, “JUSTIN. CALL ME WHENEVER YOU NEED ME.”

Beneath the words was a phone number.

<<<<<end of flashback>>>>>