Chapter Twelve
Big Wins
Crystal
My heart was racing. No one had ever been so persistent over me. It was flattering and terrifying all at once. Especially, since I wasn’t the type to trust my own shadow.
“Let’s see how that pays off, hmm?” He slid out of the booth and held his hand out for me to take. Once my fingers were locked with his, he led me to the lobby and up the ramp to the boat. The security guards posted at the entrance nodded as we passed, and I nodded back.
“They usually try to identify me any time I pass a security check point. I’m not even wearing the stilettos today,” I pointed out, feeling rather accomplished.
“You are little, but I like it. It suits you.” Anthony winked and paused in front of a machine with buffalo on it. “Let’s see your luck.”
He fed a hundred-dollar bill into the machine and stepped aside.
“Me?” I glanced at the handful of buttons on the machine and then at the screen. “I–I don’t even know how to play one of these. I never–”
“You never played the slots?”
“Playing the slots requires having a few dollars to spare.”
He gave an amused grunt and pulled me in front of him like he was about to teach me how to play billiards.
“All you gotta do is pick your bet. Some begin to spin as soon as you bet, others you have to hit the larger button. There is really nothing to it. Slap the big button again if you see something exciting that you want to try and capture on the screen.”
“How do I know how much to bet?” I asked while staring at the numbers on the buttons. The smallest was forty cents, the largest was four dollars.
“A lot of people play small or bet medium wagers, I don’t waste my time with that shit. If I win, I want a couple hundred, not a few dollars.”
“Oh.” I glanced back at the screen and hesitated over the four-dollar button.
“Do it. Play big,” he encouraged me.
Playing big on someone else’s dime felt reckless and rude.
It wasn’t me, but that smile and the excitement in his eyes when I gave him one last look was what set me over the edge.
I slapped the four-dollar button, and the reels began to spin.
Four buffalo were in the first reel when it stopped.
Two scattered in the next row. There were little objects with the symbols X2 on them in the center and another full row of buffaloes on the end.
Big Win, the machine read as coins scattered everywhere across the screen.
I drew my hands as close to my body as I could, somewhat startled that I’d hit anything at all.
“Does that say six hundred dollars?” I exclaimed, before I could compose myself.
“Hell, yeah, it does. Do it again!”
I scrambled to hit the button again and held my breath as the reels spun and came to pause again.
“No buffalo.” I sighed, only for the damn thing to get excited about a couple of foxes.
“Five bucks is five bucks. Go on.” He nodded at my machine and fed some money into the one beside it.
I was as thrilled to win five bucks as I was six hundred, to be honest. It was money, and I wasn’t picky. Not that any of it was mine.
I racked up another two hundred dollars over the next ten minutes, while Anthony lost every dime of the hundred that he fed into his machine. When he finished, he looked at the balance on my machine and asked, “Ready to cash it out and try something else?”
“S-sure?” I shrugged, having never been before, I didn’t really know what else to expect.
He took my hand and led me to a counter where a worker in a brown vest took my ticket and turned it into cash for us.
“Eight hundred and seventeen dollars. Nice work.” She smiled sliding the money across the counter.
“She did great, her first time I think,” Anthony shared, before taking the money and shoving it into my hands.
My jaw dropped and my feet anchored to the floor. “What the fuck are you doing?”
He glanced back, having taken a few steps before he realized my upset. “What? It’s your win.”
“My win. I didn’t put any money in that machine. It’s your win.”
His lips formed a flat, unamused line. “Girl.”
“Boy,” I spat right back and fluttered my lashes for his benefit.
He laughed and held out his hand. “Fine, give me back the hundred I loaned you. The rest is yours.”
I thought about it for a half second before nodding in agreement, that seemed fair enough. I peeled five twenties off the wad and handed them over.
“Alright, let's double that.” He put the money in his pocket and claimed my hand. He led me to a table I’d only seen in movies.
“Roulette is my favorite, even if it is all chance,” he whispered, before setting down on a stool and hauling me in front of him. “Pick some numbers or corners.”
“Numbers or corners?” I looked back at him.
He smiled and hefted a finger out to point.
When he was finished, he had markers on seven, twenty-four, and the crossroad next to number eleven.
Once the other people placed their markers, the hostess spun a little wheel built into the table and a ball danced from number to number until the thing came to rest on five.
“Fuck, let’s try again.” He laughed, before placing twice the markers for twice the coin.
His willingness to throw money at chance made me uneasy for him, even if I was enjoying myself.
I won a tiny haul at the Blackjack table and he pulled another five hundred off the slots before we ventured outside for some air.
“How much have you won?” he asked, while shuffling through little clips of receipts and trying to figure his own winning balance.
I didn’t need to do anything of the sort, I counted every dime I won as it was being hauled. I’d also inwardly warred with myself anytime I fed the machine a bill bigger than twenty.
“Nine hundred and seventy-three dollars.”
“How many nights of work is that equivalent to?”
I flubbed my lips and gave it to him as honestly as I could, “I work the dayshift. That’s three or four days of pay.”
“Almost a week? Get the fuck on. You make more than that.” He studied me like he thought I was telling a joke.
“Day shift isn’t all that busy. Once I get to Texas and get my tits, I’ll be raking in the dough.”
“There isn’t anything wrong with your tits now…” He stared at my chest, and I felt my cheeks color a bit.
“My roommate has a surgeon out of state. That is who did hers and they turned out great. It was a couple of thousand. Once I get back in Jay’s good graces at the club and get back on the schedule it will be an attainable goal.”
We walked along the river, our pace lazy, but the conversation freely flowed.
“So, you still live in Swanwick?” I asked as the sidewalk opened into an area with benches.
He saddled one and I sat in front of him.
“Yeah. That’s where I’ve been my whole life.”
I smiled and shifted my gaze. I didn’t hate Swanwick. I hated the memories and the life I’d left behind. There were still people in that little town I cared a great deal for. Like my sister, and some of my high school friends.
“I left there when I was sixteen. I came here with nothing. A couple of dollars in my pocket and the will to escape. It got me through. I mean, it hasn’t been easy, but… Things weren’t so great for me in Swanwick, you know? It’s better for me here.”
“Your mom is tough to live with, huh?” he guessed.
Mom.
It was such a funny word.
It meant something to me once. When I was small and still thought of her as the almighty protector and provider of our little family of three.
“You know who my mom is,” I accused, if only to save myself from spelling it all out.
“I really don’t,” he denied.
I bit my lower lip and dropped my gaze. “My mother is Charelle Nance.
I knew by the way he stiffened that he knew exactly who she was.
He cleared his throat and slowly turned his head to study me.
“Hot-relle is my mom,” I confirmed.
It was the name her crowd called her. The ones who pretended it was normal to get out of bed smelling like sour, sweaty liquor and whatever man crawled off of her last.
“You know… I never understood why they called her that–” he started, but my humiliation got the best of me and I spoke right over him.
“Shut the fuck up. They call her that because she is a small-town heroin whore. I know it to be true, so there is no need in pretending you don’t know how she got such a name.”
His hand pressed to my shoulder and slowly began to rub my back.
“No. I know who she is. I’ve met her. But– She isn’t a meth addict. Hot railing is for meth… and you’re right, I’ve never seen her do that. She’d rather ride that white horse than tell it to giddy-up.”
I sighed, unable to speak about Charelle.
“If it makes you feel any better, they called my dad Chef, which is ridiculous, since he wasn’t all that good at it.”
“His bad batch blew him and your mom up.” I had no idea where in the recesses of my mind that fact came from.
I’d never met Chef Aviston, or Anthony’s mother. Surely, Oakland O’Brian must have whispered about it to me.
“Yeah, it did.” He cleared his throat, reached around my hip and slid me closer to him, until my legs dangled over his thigh and I was practically on his lap.
“Fuck all that stuff,” he mumbled, while staring at me like some lovesick fool.
It was as endearing as it was ridiculous. No one had ever looked at me like that outside of a club. It made me a little light-headed and uncertain. I smiled up at him and playfully flopped my head against his chest, before agreeing with a sigh. “Yeah, fuck all that.”
He brought his arm up and cradled me like it was the most natural thing in the world. And it didn’t make a lick of sense, but for some reason, I felt untouchable in his arms.
My whole life had been spent in survival mode, but for just a few minutes, on the bank of that river, I flopped my head against his chest and soaked up every bit of it.
His long fingers and warm palm skimmed my cheek like he was handling something precious and I swear he could have talked me into anything.
Thankfully, talking wasn’t what he had in mind. His lips teased mine and firmed into a kiss that devoured me.
I knew better than to do it, once I started, I couldn’t stop.
I let the world melt away and allowed myself to exist without a single worry beyond how breathless I was getting.
“Look at you, you got me making out on a bench like some high school kid,” I teased, once I found the will to pull away.
“We could go inside.” He pointedly lifted his gaze to the hotel across the street, and his thumb feathered over my cheekbone.
It was dark already. The moon was bright.
“What time is it?”
“I don’t know. You got somewhere to be?” he rasped.
I smiled and gently shook my head, “Just an apartment I share with three other women.”
“Then let me spoil you?”
I wet my lips and against my better judgement, gave the subtlest of nods.
“Yeah?” His arms flinched and excitement crept into his tone like I’d surprised him.
“You better spoil me, Anthony Aviston,” I teased, if only to hide my nerves.
“I’m gonna worship you, Crystal. And I ain’t ever gonna stop. I hope you fucking believe me.” He stared into my soul and I was captivated.
I couldn’t speak, all I could do was work my lower lip and pray I wouldn’t lose my nerve before we arrived at the room.