Page 8 of Ice Palace Prince
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“‘Bout time you managed to get your ass out here,” said my friend José as he opened the door. “Poker night isn’t the same without you.”
“You just don’t clean up as well when I’m not here,” I shot back.
He grinned. “Isn’t that what I just said.”
I punched his shoulder lightly. “Asshole.”
“Come on,” he said, laughing. “Everybody else is already here and we’re ready to deal the first hand.”
I followed him to his dining room, where our friend group from high school and college were gathered around his table.
We’d started as a tabletop RPG group, and had added poker nights when school or work kept us too busy for a good gaming session. It had held us together when so many other friends had drifted apart over the years.
I dropped onto a chair and collected my chips, then tossed a few onto the pile for the buy-in.
“Finally done with the holiday thing Lowell?” asked another friend, Chase, as he dealt the hand.
I nodded and peeked at my first—disappointing—cards. It looked like it was going to be a night for poker-faces. “Mostly. We’ve got a few bits left, but all the major stuff is done.”
“Not gonna try to drag it out?” asked José. “Make it take a few more days?”
I looked over at him. “Huh? Why would I do that? We’ve got some volunteers, but I’m still paying guys. I need to get them back to regular job sites.”
Chase laughed. “Come on. You’re really going to make us say it? Being at Civic Plaza all day increases the chances you’ll run into Sean Billings. It’s not exactly a secret that you’re still carrying a torch for him.”
I groaned and scratched my jaw. “It’s not like it matters.”
“Still a damn fine view,” José said. “I’d try to stay near if it meant possibly seeing him.”
“I’ll drink to that,” laughed Chase, holding up a bottle of beer.
“Seriously though,” added another friend, Frankie. “He’s single isn’t he? Why not shoot your shot?”
“What’s with everybody badgering me about dating Sean today?” I huffed.
“Everybody?” José asked. “That implies that somebody before Frankie asked. Who else?”
I sighed. “His boss, Elaine. She told me to ask him to be my date for the opening of the Winter Village.”
José roared with laughter. “His boss told you to ask him out? What the hell man?”
I grimaced. “Elaine is… Elaine. I can’t explain it, but she has a knack for seeing right through you. It’s creepy as hell until you realize that’s just how she is. She’s not a gossip from what I hear, she’ll just tell you to your face what you’re thinking.”
“And she told you to ask him out?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know why.”
“Maybe ‘cause he’s single and hot,” suggested Chase.
“But he prefers female alphas. Come on, we all know that. Jessica let us all know, and kept reminding us that they were together.”
José scratched his jaw. “Yeah… about that. It kinda always bothered me, but I didn’t want to say anything at the time. I don’t recall ever seeing them together outside of cheer events. Like… they never acted like a couple. Hell, you remember that guy I dated, Wade? Even he held my hand in school, and he was extremely shy about any public affection. If anything, Sean seemed annoyed by Jessica whenever I saw them, like he put up with her but that was all.”
Chase nodded. “And it seems especially strange that they only danced at homecoming and prom after they were named king and queen. But one dance was it, then they’d disappear.”
“And she’d come back to class the next week bragging about how she knotted him all night,” I argued. “Made me want to vomit, the way she’d talk about him.”
