Echo

Poker Face

"What's the age of consent in Ireland?" Logan asks as he walks to the bedside cabinet and takes out a deck of cards. Shuffling them like a pro, he walks back to where I'm stood and takes a seat on one side of the small decorative table. He motions to the chair on the opposite side, silently telling me to take a seat. "Because if you're over the age of consent, then might I suggest we play Strip Poker?"

Choosing to play dumb about my poker playing abilities, I cock my head to one side and observe as Logan masterfully slices the deck and re-shuffles the cards. "Age of consent is seventeen so you're in luck, not that Strip Poker will be any good for me," I say, blowing out a short puff of air. Leaning back into the high-back chair, I say, "I might be naked in, what- dress, earring, shoes, knickers- four rounds. That's hardly fair, especially when I can't play poker."

"Would it help if I strip down to four items, too?" Logan asks, his eyes getting dangerously darker as they rake over me. When I nod, he shoots up onto his feet, quickly removing his jacket, shoes, and belt. His tie was the next part to be removed, discarding it on the floor between us. "Better?"

With a small smile, I reach out for his tie and loop it loosely around my neck. Next, I pick up his suit jacket and place it over my shoulders much to Logan's confusion and delight. "I'm not very good at poker," I tell him, even though I'm one of the best in my family. The only person that could beat me was my grandfather, Bartley Delaney, and that's only because he taught me to play. Over the years, I've taught my brother's how to play- without making them too good at the game- and I even taught my cousin, Emma, who is simply the worst card player in the world. The only card game she likes is initiating the fifty-two-card pick-up before storming off because she lost at Snap. "If you're going to beat me, then I'm going to need a few extra items, aren't I?"

Agreeing with my logic- that dumbarse- Logan nods and begins to shuffle out the cards. For bets, Logan decided that we were going to issue IOUs to each other, all of which were recorded on scrap pieces of paper where we'd each have to sign our IOUs. To make my incompetence more believable, I purposely lost the first two rounds, shedding Logan's tie and jacket. The way his concentration was fully on me as I slid the jacket down my arms and slowly pulled the tie from my neck was rather flustering, and as a consequence, I lost the third hand, too. 

"I better not lose these earrings," I say, taking them from my ears and placing them somewhere safe. "Ok, who's turn is it to deal?"

Now that I had lost a hand that I hadn't intended to, my mind was fully on the game, no matter how many times Logan and his lip-licking ways tried to distract me. I'd gathered that whenever he licked his lips, he was deep in thought about the hand that had been dealt him, and when the third finger of his right hand brushed against his eyebrow, he was in Shit Street. When he had a good hand, he adopted this cocky, crooked smile and tended to lean back in his chair slightly, showing his relaxed confidence in the cards he held. 

For my part, I don't have any tells. What I have is a blank face that makes it impossible for others to know what's going on inside my mind. Following in Grandpa Bartley's footsteps, I would move the cards around in my hand, pretending to put some organisation to them but really, just finding some way to throw people off my scent. My habit in doing this confused Logan and he would often stop what he was doing to watch me. Distraction, that's the way to win a game. If you distract them enough from what they're supposed to be doing, they'll miss a trick and the game would ultimately be yours. 

"Ok, Delaney," Logan says, his fighting spirit coming through. In all our previous games, he'd called me Princess or Keira- neither of which I was overly fond of- but now he sat forward with purpose as he examined his possible winning hand. He picks up a scrap piece of paper, writes out his IOU in a messy cursive script, signs it with LL and then throws it to the middle of the pile. "IOU an all expenses paid day trip to the spa of your choice."