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Ian just sighed. “Of course you do. Jason even told us that you loved math and statistics, and we could have made the leap that you would play the percentages better than we would.”
“But poker is a game of style,” Dell said, still trying to grasp what had happened. He probably wouldn’t figure it out until he’d had a chance to sleep on it.
“And she beat us there, too. As Kenny was dealing out the cards, I’ll bet she was getting the measure of each of us. She played us like violins.”
“I play the cello,” Marsie said, and Jill laughed.
“Whatever.” Ian was still clearly more irritated with himself than he was with Marsie. Come morning, he would probably find a reason to be irritated with Jason for being out three hundred dollars, but right now he knew that he was the one who’d fallen for Marsie’s tricks.
Ian turned in his chair to face Marsie instead of Dell and Burton. “Marsie, as far as I’m concerned, you’re welcome at any poker game I’m invited to. Playing poker with you will only make me a better player. Though I’m curious how well you’ll do now that we all know your tricks.”
Playing poker with you will only make me a better player. There it was. The reason Jason liked to drink his coffee with Marsie. The reason he wanted to know and understand her world, not just the math, but the care and interest she quietly showed for each person she interacted with. Almost like they were numbers and she was calculating their worth, but for her, that wasn’t as inhumane as it sounded, because she loved numbers and figuring things out and she applied the same intense interest to people.
And Jason could learn from her. She could make him better. That thought was more attractive than a nice set of breasts or great legs.
Or the illusion of spark. It had to be the illusion of spark. Because spark happened right away. Like lighting a fire.
Except, you fool, that sometimes you have to strike a match a couple times. And making a fire with nothing but sticks takes time, but the payoff always feels good. Better than a lighter.
Marsie smiled and, for the first time that night, looked soft. “I still have tricks up my sleeve.”
Ian only grunted. “I guess we deserve that.”
“Ha,” Jill scoffed. “I should have come down to watch this. You guys were a pain in the ass when I played. I hope you’re all eating ramen noodles because she took so much money from you.”
Dell shifted in his chair. “Not ramen noodles.”
“Spaghetti with jarred sauce and nothing else is almost as good,” Jill said with a twinkle in her eye and evil delight in her voice.
“We should get together sometime, Marsie. Lunch. Or drinks. You can teach me your poker tricks, and I’ll tell you how to stab a man so that he doesn’t notice.” The sinister edge to Jill’s smile made all the men sitting around the table squirm. “It takes skill in the stab, of course, but there’s also the words you use to distract him. Those words matter more.”
“You never…” Having had all his money taken from him by a woman, Burton was suddenly uncertain about all women it seemed, even Jill, whom he had known for years.
“No.” She waved him off, her face back to the round softness they had all grown used to. “I’m not cruel. But it’s fun to make you think twice about the next time you hear a woman is better than you at something and you decide to ignore the warning.”
“Speaking from experience, it usually takes men several more times being beaten before they realize the woman sitting across the table from them is an actual person with skills and emotions and their own thoughts.” Marsie’s smile didn’t quite make it to her eyes.
“Good,” Jill said with a hard nod. “When we go out, we’ll get a fancy dinner with lots of drinks and a cab ride home. I’ll let the men—by way of you—pay for it.”
“Hey,” Jason said. “I have first dibs on that money. Marsie’s taking me out to dinner.”
“What?” Four men’s heads turned to face him, all with the same expression of pissed-off confusion.
“Sure. I brought Marsie here because I think she’s cool.” There was the understatement of the year. “And I knew she was good at poker. And that some of you would underestimate her and so she would be better. But I figured that if I was going to invite her to a night where she’d win five hundred dollars, then I should get a piece of it.”
