Welcome to Corbet's Inlet, North Carolina, where the teenagers act like adults and the adults act like teenagers. It's Griffin Connolly's favorite place in the world. And while she may not be good at making decisions when it comes to her own life, s...
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It was, in fact, a poker set. But to a dude like Drew Sardis, it was Christmas in July.
"Remember the Hold'em tournament we had last summer?" he asked Evan. "It was fuckin' legendary!"
Evan leaned forward over the hatchway to high-five him. "Fuckin' legendary, man."
Drew whipped back around. "You remember, right, Griff?"
"I remember hearing about it," Griffin said flatly.
He gave her a confused look, then his smile dropped. "Ah, shit. My bad, G. That was after you had to leave for tennis stuff, wasn't it?"
"Yep," Griffin said, popping the 'p.' "But no worries. All the Snaps and Instagram stories I got made it feel like I was there."
In reality she'd been on her way to a pre-season tournament for her high school team, absolutely furious she was missing out on it. Griffin loved Texas Hold'em.
"OK. Who's down to play?" Drew asked. He glanced around deviously, making a show of counting all the girls aboard. He wiggled his eyebrows. "Ooh, wait. No. Who's down to play strip Hold'em? We've got about even numbers. Who's with me?"
Evan burst out laughing.
Mary Kyle was horrified. "You're kidding, right? That's so cliché."
"On the contrary, love," Drew set the silver briefcase on the cockpit table. "Everyone always talks about playing strip poker, but then they never actually play strip poker. So, technically, it'd only be a cliché if we don't play now. Yeah?"
Matty started to argue, stopped, and cocked his head. "That...weirdly kinda makes sense."
Drew fist pumped and unlatched the silver briefcase, but Mary Kyle still wasn't sold. "Yeah, but you guys and Lauren are already at an advantage because you're wearing more clothes. Griffin's in a romper and I'm in a dress. How's that fair?"
Griffin figured Mary Kyle was only using her to prove her argument because she didn't want to play. It was still true, though. And a fair point. Hold'em and alcohol and cabin make-outs aside, Griffin had no intention of letting anyone see her underwear choice tonight. They weren't even matching.
Drew was setting out stacks of white chips. "How about we play you only strip if you wanna buy back in, MK?"
"Even then, Griffin and I should still get some kind of handicap..." she said, frowning.
Evan held up his hands. "Or, you know, you could maybe just not lose?"
Mary Kyle flipped him off, just as Lauren yelled up from the cabin, "Um, hello? I can't carry all this by myself."
"Ah, sorry, Lo." Drew turned back toward the cabin stairs to help her.
Charlie, who'd been quiet the whole time and was not the first person Griffin would've expected to be down for this, suggested, "How about regular Hold'em, but we designate certain stipulations for each chip color? Like, clothes are worth one type of chip, a shot's worth another, so on."
