The game begins

The cards were spread before us. The huge man that had grabbed the boys did the shuffle.

The boss man kept his eyes on mine. “Do you know what happens if I win?” He asked, drawing my attention away from the amazing skill display of cards the huge guy was doing.

The sight was a bit intimidating. All I knew were the card arrangement and little tricks on how to win. The way he shuffled the cards got me scared. There were lots of things I didn’t know how to do. I was almost sure that I’d lose.

“I don’t know what happens if you win, but if I win, my friends and I are walking out of here and we won’t be owing you a dime,” I said the words with bravery that was faked. My insides were quivering in fear, but I dared not show it.

My dad had said cards to sense fear and anxiety, he that played with shaking fingers will never win.

I took a deep breath in an attempt to banish my fear.

All the men at the table burst into laughter at my words. The sound echoes around the room, making everyone turn to see the little girl playing with a boss.

I became more afraid because we had more audience. People left their games to watch us, other tables were abandoned and ours became the center of attention.

My dad loved to brag to my mom that he was the king of cards, but as much as he tried to teach her to play, she had always sucked at it. When I showed interest, he first assumed I would be as bad as my mom, and that it would be a waste of time to teach me. But with time he saw how fast I learnt and read his hands.

I watched his techniques and learned them. But now I doubted if he was telling the truth about being the king of solitaire or not.

What if he had just been playing hero and his techniques weren’t real?

“If I win. I’ll let your friends go. But you’ll be taking all the debt on you. You will owe me $1m.” He smirked. His eyes were mischievous and his expression devious.

Darcy and the boys gasped. “Don’t do it, Emily. I’ll call my brother. We can call your parent.” Darcy begged.

This was getting dangerous and deadly. how would I explain a one-million-dollar debt to my parent?

“No.” I disagreed.

“Let’s play.” I took the first step of faith. I wasn’t pretending to be brave anymore. I chose to be brave.

I didn’t think my dad would lay down $1m without a fight and I didn’t want to involve my parent in this.

“I’ll lay the rules.” The boss said. I nodded in reply. He continued. “We will play three rounds. If you win one. You win. You just have to try not to lose all three.” He chuckled.

The men behind him chuckled in response.

“A piece of advice kid. Don’t play.” Someone hooted from behind me. It was a piece of good advice, but I was too hyped up in my head to stop now. I really could win this. And what was the worst, that could happen? Would the boss squeeze the money out of me? Send me to court? I knew kinds of stuff like this had to be kept under wraps because gambling was very illegal.

Besides, this guy was young, All the men there talked to him with so much respect, but he was much younger than them all.

If I looked at it more intensely, he wouldn’t be more than a few years older than I was. He didn’t just gain respect from these people in one day. He had earned it. I would earn mine too. He was starting today.

“I’m ready,” I called.

Everywhere became silent.

The game began.

I played slowly, trying to calculate his move, to read his hands, his eyes.

When I discovered his expression didn’t change irrespective of the card he held, I decided to use the people watching his hand. There was a guy with a very expressive face. He looked at me with pity when the boss's hands were good and, his features softened when they were bad.

The first round went on for thirty minutes and we ended in a draw.

He had gone easy on me. I was watching his hands and he was watching my hands as well. While I had been watching the people behind me, he had been watching both me and the people around me too.

“Looks like we might have to change the rules.” He called.

“I agree,” I said. If I wanted to win this, I had to let go of the advantages as well as the disadvantages.

Everyone was sent back to their table yet they still watched us, but there was a distance that didn’t let anyone read our hand.

“Where did you learn to play?” He asked.

“Where did you learn to play?” I asked him back.

That was all we said to each other before the game got heated again. This time, he showed me no mercy. I lost before the game was 15 minutes.

I wasn’t surprised. I had purposely kept my hand back and watched his win technique.

The was quite good.

“Would you like to shuffle?” He asked, stretching the cards to me. He had beautiful hands and well-trimmed fingernails. I almost commented on them but held it in,

“No, I don’t know how to shuffle,” I replied, but I wasn’t totally honest. I watched him as he began to shuffle the card

“If you lose again, you’d be selling yourself to me.” He warned as he shuffled the cards, ready for our third round.

“No, if I lose, I’ll owe you $1m,” I replied, my face cool. “I change my mind; I want to shuffle,” I said, stretching my hands to collect the cards he had been shuffling.

His features seemed to fall before he smiled and released the card to me.

This was something my dad could do but I was yet to learn. They knew how to shuffle cards and still knew the arrangement in their head. They had memorized the even and odds. But now I hadn’t let him shuffle to the end and now I was going to scatter it all.

This third round would be deadly.

He smirked as the game started, it was then I noticed his looks. He had dark blue eyes, I was almost lost in them. For a moment I forgot my cards and kept staring at him. Then he smiled.

That was what woke me up, and brought me back to the game, I knew that smile belonged only to the devil.

The third game ended in a draw, but it wasn’t over because we were both holding on cards each.

“Show your card.” He said at last.