Page 9 of Her Paramedic
“Yeah. It might be fun.” She smiled at the other two men, and Slate wondered if they knew what was in store. He’d seen them play while they’d been putting on their act, and they were good, but he knew he and Talia were better.
“She wants to play,” the second man stated.
Slate shrugged. “Okay.”
“I’m Phil; this is Hank. We can play two games one-on-one for, say, fifty bucks a game.”
“I’m Talia. That’s Slate. Let’s make it a hundred,” she countered, racking the balls. She placed the cue ball in the rack, and Slate didn’t miss the amused looks Phil and Hank displayed at the action.Poor fools.
“Not that one,” Slate stated, pointing to the cue ball.
“Right. I need this one to hit the other ones. I almost forgot.” She was playing clueless far too well, and he was now positive that she’d done this before. Hustled someone out of money by pretending she didn’t know how to play. He took people’s money all the time, but they always knew what they were getting into.
“Why not? A hundred it is,” Hank stated.
Talia sat on a stool at the pub table, grabbed her drink, and turned to him. “You can go first,” she said.
His game went as expected, and he could tell Hank wasn’t a happy camper when Slate picked up the money they’d both put on the side of the table. He also knew he likely depended on Phil to beat Talia, so they would break even.
He grabbed his drink while Phil and Hank pulled the balls out of the pockets. Talia grabbed his wrist and moved him to stand between her legs, blocking her view of the other men.
“You think I should play with him first?” she asked, looking up at him.
“I’d prefer you play with me, but since we’re talking about pool, there’s no need to play with your food.” He smirked and saw a spark of mischief in her eyes.
“But what if I like to play with my food? In a different setting?”
“You want to break, Talia?” Phil asked before Slate could respond.
“Sure,” she responded, still looking at him, and Slate held one of the hundreds he’d picked up towards her.
He took the seat she vacated while Hank sat at the other end of the table with a smirk. Phil would need to play better than Hank if he wanted to win, and Slate didn’t see that happening.
She lined up her shot, rocketing the cue ball toward the cluster of balls and sinking two solids. “I guess that means those are mine,” she stated, moving to the cue ball and sinking another solid.
The look on Phil’s face was priceless, and Slate watched the realization sink in. He could feel Hank’s eyes on him, but he paid the other man no mind, drinking his Jack and Coke.
“Iwish I could have seen their initial reactions,” Talia laughed as they sat across from one another.
After Phil’s defeat, the two men accused them of hustling them, to which Talia responded, “Like you were trying to do us?” It ended the conversation, and they returned to the table they were at initially. They then played four games against one another, which ended in a tie, and instead of a tiebreaker, Talia wanted to get food. He’d followed her to the restaurant they now sat in.
“It didn’t take them long to understand what was happening.”
Slate didn’t realize Talia hadn’t seen their reactions because she was focusing on lining up her shot. It wasn’t until they were halfway through dinner that she said something about it.
“I take it you used to hustle people?”
She smiled at him. “When I was younger, not all people, just men. I like that they underestimated me, and I especiallyenjoyed beating those who immediately volunteered toteachme to play when I walked in.”
“I’m sure you took great pleasure in putting them in their place.”
“Oh, I did.” She paused. “How long were you enlisted, and how long have you been a paramedic?”
“Enlisted for twelve years, and I’ve been a paramedic for almost four.”
“You enlisted right out of high school?”
“I did. How long have you owned your salon?”
