Chapter Nineteen
“I raise you five.” Finn peeked at his cards once more before tucking them neatly in front of him with a smug grin.
It was poker night, and Theo had gladly accepted the invitation, stopping at the local Metro and knocking on his best friend’s flat door with a six-pack of Corona under his arm.
The group of five – Theo, Finn and two other mates from their university days, Danny and Jono, met up every now and then, when their schedules would allow, knuckle down at one of their small dining tables and gamble their spare change.
Some would say that they gossiped, but to be honest, nothing extraordinary had happened in any of their lives other than Danny getting hitched and divorced and remarried all in the same year. Long story.
Danny sighed, slapping his bad hand of cards on the wooden table. “I fold.”
Theo glanced down at his cards, before meeting Finn’s eyes.
The bugger was grinning his face off, something that Theo knew he did when he had a good hand.
His best friend had a pitiful poker face.
He could read the lad better than his own family sometimes.
One glance from Finn and he knew there was no point playing on with the shameful cards in his hand.
“I fold.”
“Fold.” Jono echoed before slamming his cards down in defeat. “Finn, I swear to God, you better have a good hand. If not I’m gunna have no trouble taking back my twenty from the pile.”
Letting a wicked grin fall over his face, Finn retorted, “That’s against the rules, mate.”
Jono shrugged, spinning his beer bottle between his forefinger and thumb. “We’re playing for fifty bucks and some footy tickets. Not even good ones at that. Fuck the rules.”
Finn groaned. “Oh fine. Come on, guys. You make this so easy.” With one swoop, he laid his cards down.
Groans resounded around the table as they glanced at his royal flush.
If there was one thing about Finn, it was that he was a damn lucky poker player with a shit poker face.
Unfortunately, that meant you had no idea what kind of hand he had been dealt.
It irritated Theo and the others to no measure.
“I’m not drunk enough for this,” Jono stated, before pushing back from the table to retrieve another beer.
“Do you still want your twenty back, mate?”
Jono glowered. “I don’t want your dirty money, Townsend.”
Danny glanced at Finn with annoyance. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”
Finn grinned, his eyebrows raising in contempt. “What can I say? I was taught by the best.”
The best being Theo’s father. He’d have to have a word with his dad about teaching Finn poker tricks.
It seemed unjust. Theo was his son, he should be the one thrashing them at the game rather than staring as Finn scooped the loose change, five-pound notes and tickets to the next England match at Wembley into his hands.
“I’m going to use these tickets wisely. Hey, I might even take a chick to the game.” Finn lifted the football tickets and slapped them into his palm.
“Yeah, maybe you could take Theo’s new girl,” Jono joked.
“Theo’s got a girl?” Danny asked, just as Theo frowned and said, “What girl?”
“You know, the one you’ve been ditching me for, for the past three weeks.” Finn wiggled his eyebrows. “Olivia.”
“She’s not my girl.” Theo took a swig of his beer as all of his friends scoffed. “Plus, you can’t speak Jono, you’ve got that journalist you’re seeing…”
“Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that mate.” Jono laughed. “And Freya is away in the US reporting on that hurricane, so at the moment I’m not doing anything.”
“Or anyone.” Danny laughed.
Theo set his bottle back on the table, before placing a drink coaster underneath as he watched Finn’s gaze focus on the ring of condensation that now adorned his tabletop. “She’s… Olivia is a writer, I’m just helping her find a little inspiration, that’s all.”
Finn grinned, finishing off his own drink. “Yeah, helping her find inspiration in the bedroom more like it.”
“It’s not like that. Olivia is… she’s different.” Theo cracked open another beer as Finn started shuffling the cards once more.
The men had been playing poker for well over two hours, the sky completely dark outside, the sounds of London filtering in through the window. Sirens, drunken laughter and cars could be heard, dim lights littering the skyline view outside of Finn’s open-plan living space.
“I’m helping her find a man. She’s dating guys to come up with ideas for one of her characters.”
“So you’re setting her up on blind dates?” Jono said.
Theo sighed. “Well, yeah, kind of. But she’s not looking for anything romantic, to her it’s just research for her new novel.”
“Who have you set her up with so far?” Finn asked, dealing out the next round of cards.
“You know that guy you told me about, the one in the HR department at your firm, with the blond hair and weird obsession with filing systems?”
Finn choked on his beer. “You set her up with Taylor?”
“Yeah. She said it was a total disaster. Hate-wrote a whole chapter and scolded me about it afterwards..”
“Oh, that’s who you ran off to talk to,” Danny teased.
“I didn’t run off,” Theo said, shuffling the cards between his fingers.
“Nah mate, you totally ran off. One minute you were cheering on the team with the rest of us, the next minute you were hiding in the bathroom, clutching your phone like it was the most precious thing ever.”
“Shut up, man.” Shaking his head, Theo grabbed his drink and took another gulp. If he was busy drinking, he would be less inclined to tell his friends how he really felt about Olivia, and they wouldn’t be able to make fun of him anymore than they already were.
Not giving them any more ammo, he turned back to the table and asked, “Are we playing another round or what?”