“Now that
we’re all introduced, hopefully we can become friends.”
“Well isn’t it my lucky
day.” I said as I shifted my martini just to make sure that my dripping
sarcasm wouldn’t fall into it.
“Feel free to ignore his
sarcasm. And you already know the limits of our friendship.” Bella
said as she flashed me a look that I guessed meant, please play nice.
“Me, not playing
nice? Bella you wound me.” I said with perfect sincerity.
While still addressing her I turned my head just enough to look at them both
easily enough. “I’m always eager to make new friends. With that
said I prefer to make friends with those who are polite.”
Bella grimaced at my
words, though to be honest I felt no desire to hide my attempts to poke the
bear. She wasn’t stupid so she backed up ever so slightly.
He was here for me.
So when his eyes turned my way they were still a pair of green lifeless orbs,
betraying nothing. “Marcus you’re not deaf are you, because I was fairly
certain that I did ask.”
I had been hoping for
some kind of reaction. A wavering in his face, a twitch of an eye, a
tremor in his voice. I mean I would take an oddly flickering strand of
hair, anything. I had known that it was too much to hope for but hope is
still hope. It didn’t take much to realize that he was a master at
controlling his emotions. It also looked like he was a master of
compartmentalizing those emotions so he would only feel what he wanted to feel
at any given time. So he was better than I was, and that was not the
worst of it. The worst thing was that Patrick knew he was better.
There are certain times
when you just know something about someone, you have absolutely no reason to
know it but you do anyway. Patrick was quite simply going to be one of
the better players, if not the best who was going to enter the room.
Every year I try to watch the World Series of Poker, in order to keep up on the
top players in the business, but I have never seen Patrick’s face before.
And his confidence told me that this wasn’t his first time playing at this
level. He had the air of someone who was capable of winning this tournament.
Going up against him wasn’t going to be easy, and I found myself hoping that he
would get knocked out of the tournament before I had that pleasure.
If I did meet him once we
started I certainly wasn’t going to waive a white flag just because I knew he
was better than me, not a chance. Now I just needed to make sure he knew
that, so I attempted to match his tone as I retorted. “But you didn’t
wait for a reply did you? No you just sat down. You may as well
have not even asked, Pat.” I wasn’t all that sure I managed to keep my
face quite as impassive as I had hoped for. But then again I was pretty
sure I didn’t do as poorly as I had feared.
With a slight smile
Patrick responded, “True that would have been polite, but it wouldn’t have been
nearly as much fun.”
The smile on his face was
infuriating, if this were a football field there would have been a flag thrown
for taunting. I tried to respond with as little emotion as
possible. “Fun?”
“Well it certainly was
fun for me.”
Breaking into the
conversation with a laugh Bella managed to ease the mounting tension between us
with a few soft spoken words. “He has you there Marcus.” With a
shrug she also admitted that she was quite entertained by the scene.
“I’m glad I could help
entertain you Bella.” I said as I attempted to waive down a passing
waitress.
As the one continuing to
walk right past our table another one appeared right beside me straight out of
thin air and asked, “What can I do for you sir?”
Looking up I instantly
recognized the waitress. She was the one who had fetched my current and
now mostly empty martini. I offered her a glowing smile before
responding. “My dear, I would love for you to get me another martini from
Simon.”
we’re all introduced, hopefully we can become friends.”
“Well isn’t it my lucky
day.” I said as I shifted my martini just to make sure that my dripping
sarcasm wouldn’t fall into it.
“Feel free to ignore his
sarcasm. And you already know the limits of our friendship.” Bella
said as she flashed me a look that I guessed meant, please play nice.
“Me, not playing
nice? Bella you wound me.” I said with perfect sincerity.
While still addressing her I turned my head just enough to look at them both
easily enough. “I’m always eager to make new friends. With that
said I prefer to make friends with those who are polite.”
Bella grimaced at my
words, though to be honest I felt no desire to hide my attempts to poke the
bear. She wasn’t stupid so she backed up ever so slightly.
He was here for me.
So when his eyes turned my way they were still a pair of green lifeless orbs,
betraying nothing. “Marcus you’re not deaf are you, because I was fairly
certain that I did ask.”
I had been hoping for
some kind of reaction. A wavering in his face, a twitch of an eye, a
tremor in his voice. I mean I would take an oddly flickering strand of
hair, anything. I had known that it was too much to hope for but hope is
still hope. It didn’t take much to realize that he was a master at
controlling his emotions. It also looked like he was a master of
compartmentalizing those emotions so he would only feel what he wanted to feel
at any given time. So he was better than I was, and that was not the
worst of it. The worst thing was that Patrick knew he was better.
There are certain times
when you just know something about someone, you have absolutely no reason to
know it but you do anyway. Patrick was quite simply going to be one of
the better players, if not the best who was going to enter the room.
Every year I try to watch the World Series of Poker, in order to keep up on the
top players in the business, but I have never seen Patrick’s face before.
And his confidence told me that this wasn’t his first time playing at this
level. He had the air of someone who was capable of winning this tournament.
Going up against him wasn’t going to be easy, and I found myself hoping that he
would get knocked out of the tournament before I had that pleasure.
If I did meet him once we
started I certainly wasn’t going to waive a white flag just because I knew he
was better than me, not a chance. Now I just needed to make sure he knew
that, so I attempted to match his tone as I retorted. “But you didn’t
wait for a reply did you? No you just sat down. You may as well
have not even asked, Pat.” I wasn’t all that sure I managed to keep my
face quite as impassive as I had hoped for. But then again I was pretty
sure I didn’t do as poorly as I had feared.
With a slight smile
Patrick responded, “True that would have been polite, but it wouldn’t have been
nearly as much fun.”
The smile on his face was
infuriating, if this were a football field there would have been a flag thrown
for taunting. I tried to respond with as little emotion as
possible. “Fun?”
“Well it certainly was
fun for me.”
Breaking into the
conversation with a laugh Bella managed to ease the mounting tension between us
with a few soft spoken words. “He has you there Marcus.” With a
shrug she also admitted that she was quite entertained by the scene.
“I’m glad I could help
entertain you Bella.” I said as I attempted to waive down a passing
waitress.
As the one continuing to
walk right past our table another one appeared right beside me straight out of
thin air and asked, “What can I do for you sir?”
Looking up I instantly
recognized the waitress. She was the one who had fetched my current and
now mostly empty martini. I offered her a glowing smile before
responding. “My dear, I would love for you to get me another martini from
Simon.”
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