Chapter 14
Cherry
Standing barefoot at the kitchen counter, Cherry muddled a large measure of Butler’s whisky with freshly squeezed lemon juice and sugar syrup, poured it into a highball over crackling ice cubes and topped with a serving of soda water.
Plucking a maraschino cherry from the jar in the fridge, she speared it with a cocktail stick and slipped it into the glass.
A long whisky sour: the perfect refreshment after seven hours sweating it out in an online tournament.
She padded out to the garden, unlatched the weathered wooden doors of the summerhouse and spread them wide as if airing her house for the spring.
Inside was like a chaotic antiques sale, but she found two rickety wooden chairs, one to sit on and the other to rest her feet on.
From under a myriad of random boxes, she located a small metal table upon which to place her drink.
Who needed poolside in Vegas when you had this?
Facing the garden and the warm afternoon sun, Cherry picked up her phone and messaged her old Edinburgh schoolfriend Kirsty McGee.
Over the years, their contact had dissipated.
Looking at Kirsty’s profile photo – a toddler in cute blonde bunches – she feared they may have grown apart. No harm in testing the waters, though.
CHERRY: Hey, McGoo! I’m back in Scotland. Got married a couple of weeks ago. How are things? Xxx
The reply came quickly.
KIRSTY: Paradise! Welcome home! Married?
!Whaaaaaat?! Amazing! Congrats! Who is he?
Tell me more! Send pics of the big day. So, so, so good to hear from you.
Things are full on with a three-year-old and…
wait for it…another one on the way! Due Christmas day.
Soooo, besides snagging a husband, how is party poker queen life treating you?
Let me live vicariously through you. Xxx
Cherry laughed but her heart caught in her throat.
She knew Kirsty had one child, but it had been remiss of her not to prepare for another one.
Of course, she was delighted for her friend, but baby news always required recalibration.
And ‘party poker queen’. Did Kirsty really envy Cherry her lifestyle?
Or did she think that, at thirty-seven, she should have all that out of her system by now?
Those could be your own insecurities.
CHERRY: Congratulations! I’m so excited for you. We’ll have to catch up before the little one arrives. I might be through in Edinburgh soon, working out what’s next for the party poker queen. This is me and hubby. Xxx
She attached a wedding day photo to the text but didn’t mention the annulment. It was too complicated for text.
KIRSTY: Wow! I can see why you might be thinking of ditching poker for married life. ;) Hope you’re still honeymooning like there’s no tomorrow. Would be so awesome to see you, if you’re in town. K xxx
Honeymooning like there was no tomorrow. They hadn’t honeymooned at all. What a waste.
Cherry turned at the clicking of the patio doors. There he was, her non-honeymooner in crime, in the sentience-addling workwear of dirty jeans, grease-stained t-shirt and what her gran would call tackety boots. The herculean pull towards him never seemed to abate.
‘Alright, Paradise, you found the summer-cowp then.’ Sean moved into the doorway of the summerhouse, eclipsing the sun with his broad frame.
And as if that weren’t enough, he stretched up and gripped onto the top of the door frame whilst surveying the inside of the summerhouse.
A quick glance, and she could hardly miss his t-shirt hanging forward and showcasing those glorious abs and the tantalising strip of hair leading to the land of her fantasies.
Fuck! He was so disarmingly hot.
‘I like this place.’ She lifted the rim of the glass to her mouth to disguise her gawping. ‘The junkyard aspect makes it all the more charming.’
‘If you say so.’ Thankfully, Sean released his hold on the door frame and some of her self-control. ‘But I could sort it out for you, if you want to hang out here. Could even make it into a wee gaming den.’ He pulled up an equally rickety chair, facing her, his back to the sun.
‘You’d do that?’ She put down her drink.
He laughed. ‘I’m not offering to build a replica of the Taj Mahal. Just to clear some space in a place that badly needs tidying.’
‘That’s really kind.’ Cherry glanced back into the summerhouse, trying to imagine working here. ‘Casino Cherry – the world’s most rural, one-woman casino.’
‘Is that good?’
‘It sounds good, although maybe it’s a bit weird.’
‘Oh, aye. How so?’
She let the verdant scent of the overgrown garden envelop her, cast back to her younger years. Gardens were her happy place.
‘Well, having a casino surrounded by a forest of weeds and foxgloves is a break from the urban grind. But playing online is making me realise that live poker is sewn into my identity. I’m used to being a presence around a table: reading tells, sharing banter, listening to the sound of chips being raked.
Online, I’m an avatar and the banter is crap.
They are two completely different lifestyles.
The online one’s not me, not like the other one is. ’
Sean was listening intently, a few creases around his eyes appearing from squinting in the light. ‘You said you were jaded with live poker, though. Would you go back?’
‘I am jaded. But what else would I do? I have my maths degree, although I spent a fair whack of time that I should have been in lectures sleeping off nights spent in the casino.’
‘You could coach poker. Or even maths. I reckon you could sell beach umbrellas in December.
Cherry tilted her head and smiled at him. ‘Thanks. I have some decisions to make while I’m here. Anyway…’ She stirred her drink with the cocktail stick. ‘Poker tourney with the lads tomorrow night?’
‘Aye.’
‘Are they any good?’
Sean put his feet up on the edge of Cherry’s footrest. It was intimate but not awkward.
‘They’re a mixed bag. We’ve got daft Billy, who plays every hand and bets aggressively.
Tommy’s kind of the same. The other three are a bit more cautious, but I wouldn’t say patience is the name of anyone’s game. ’
Men who played amateur poker often wore it as a badge of masculinity. Cherry wondered if Sean would be the same. How would he behave in front of his workmates with her there? Would he ramp up the lads’ act or tone down whatever his usual playing mode was?
‘You want some tips?’ A little test right now would give her a clue for tomorrow.
‘You offering?’
‘Yep. We could go through some starting hands. Of course, it depends what everyone else is holding and playing, but I can give you some scenarios.’
‘I’m up for that. Grateful to have a professional coach right here.’
‘Brilliant! One minute.’ Cherry ran into the house, grabbed a pack of cards and laid them on the table between her and Sean, alongside the whisky sour.
‘Most men don’t listen,’ she said, selecting two cards from the deck for him.
‘They don’t want to learn from a woman, so well done for not being one of them.
’ She gave the pair to Sean. ‘Okay, let’s say you’re playing with me and tomorrow’ night’s crew.
Billy has gone all in before the flop, possibly without even looking at his cards.
Everyone else has folded. You’re in the big blind. Would you play this hand?’
Sean glanced his cards for about three seconds. ‘Aye, I’d play this. It’s a good hand. It’s a really good hand.’
Cherry nodded. ‘Okay, in this case, you’ve made the right call. Billy is being a numptie, so I’d take a chance on King-Jack suited. But just so you know, with seven players, this hand’s win rate is about twenty-four percent, so it’s not the pot of gold you think it is.’
‘Alright, Coach, I’m learning already.’ Sean took the deck and, possibly to show off, shuffled it confidently.
Cherry was more impressed at the way he was taking the tuition – he was good-natured and willing to listen and learn.
‘Let’s try another one.’ She selected a pair of twos from the deck. ‘You’re in the Big Blind. Everyone else has called a bet of fifty quid. Do you fold, call, raise or go all in?’
Sean chewed on his lip. ‘Honestly?’
‘Of course.’
‘I’d probably call, at the least. I might even raise.’
Cherry slapped her forehead.
‘What?’ He laughed, nervously.
‘You do not raise on this, Butler. If you stay in and another deuce comes up, then maybe a raise, but the only reason you’re staying in is because you’ve paid the big blind.
You can call it, but that is all, do you get it?
In our game, this card would have a win rate of fourteen percent Don’t be fooled by the pretty swans. ’
Sean examined her with admiration and wonder. ‘Sheesh, I get it.’ He lifted her glass. ‘Keep going. I’m having fun.’ As he drank, he pulled a face. ‘Phew…you know how to put the sour into whisky sour.’
‘Sorry. Have my cherry to take the edge off.’ She held out the cherry on the cocktail stick, but Sean planted his tongue into the side of his cheek and raised his eyebrows suggestively. ‘You’re alright, Paradise. I’ll have your cherry another time.’
‘Alright then.’ Cherry found the King of Hearts and the Queen of Hearts and passed them to a delighted Sean.
‘Do you know why I gave you those cards?’ she said.
‘I have a fair idea.’
‘The first thing was to test your poker face, and you failed.’ She playfully slapped his hand.
Sean’s grin broadened, and he tried to rein it in.
‘You can’t let emotion guide you in this game, Seany. It’s all about the odds. Don’t be distracted. What is the win rate of this hand?’
He stared at the cards, like the king or queen might whisper the answer to him. ‘I dunno. It seems good to me, so I’d say ninety percent.’
‘Righto.’ Cherry did her best not to laugh out loud. ‘But wrong. King-Queen suited is about twenty-five percent in a seven player game. Not as much of a royal wedding as it might seem.’
‘The King of Hearts seems like a strong card to me.’
‘Yes, King is a strong card, but it’s stronger with another King or an Ace.’
‘Ach, it’s how you play the hand you’ve been dealt.’
Something told Cherry Sean wasn’t talking about poker anymore.
‘In life, yes,’ she said. ‘And in poker, some of it. So what would you do with this hand? It’s coming to the end of the night, you’ve lost a lot of chips, it’s your turn to act before the flop after a raise of seventy quid and four others acting after you. You’re tired and want to go to bed––’
‘Am I going to bed with you?’
‘Not if you interrupt me like that… So, what do you do? Do you stick everything in, hoping it will all go your way, or do you quit to avoid going on tilt if it all goes Pete Tong?’
Sean thought about this for a good thirty seconds. Cherry wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t go all in simply because of the King of Hearts aspect.
‘I think I have a chance,’ he said. ‘It’s a decent hand. At the least, I’d call.’
She nodded. ‘Fair play. Yeah, I’d call this and hope something came up for me in the flop.
But I’d also know when to quit if I didn’t get what I was hoping for.
’ This hand was a bespoke test and Sean had passed it, although with a slight wobble, which she had expected.
He was a romantic, guided by his heart. How could she fault him for that?
And there were signs he would come through when the chips were down.
She was looking forward to seeing more tomorrow night.
Cherry drained her drink and picked out the cocktail stick with the cherry on it. She held it out to Sean.
‘You passed Level One. Have a cherry.’
And this time, he didn’t refuse. He took the cocktail stick, stuck it between his teeth and slid the cherry off, keeping his gaze fixed on her the whole time.
Oh dear. Cherry Paradise, the poker queen, might be in a whole lot of trouble.