Bets and Debts

Andi didn’t really like gambling.

Oh, it wasn’t anything against it in principle or something silly like that.  It was just… too confusing.  Kaili had tried to explain it to her what felt like hundreds of times…  Anything more complex than roulette was simply lost on her.  Especially poker, which required way too much thought and memory space.  Why would she want to keep track of cards and what made a full house good?  A full house seemed very noisy to her, why would that be a good thing?

Still, she sometimes came along with Kaili to the Wonderland Casino - or to one of the others, when Kaili wanted to avoid Angora.  It was always nice to spend time out with her girlfriend, after all, even when Kaili insisted on her dressing up.  At least some of Peter’s designs had worked out to finally give her a fancy looking suit and a fancy dress that she actually found comfortable enough to kind of enjoy wearing.

Tonight was the suit.  It was a pretty white color, worn with a blue shirt and pocket square that matched Kaili’s colors in a swirling water pattern.  Andi hated ties, so she just wore the shirt slightly unbuttoned.

For a few hours now, she had just sat with Kaili on her lap and her chin on Kaili’s shoulder, watching her girlfriend play hand after hand of poker.  It had been fine, honestly kind of fun, since she was getting tipsy on Angora Sours as she watched… up till Kaili needed to go to the bathroom.  And told her to win the next hand, but she’d be back soon.

She stared blankly at her cards, with no idea of what she was supposed to do.

“Do you call the bet?” asked a woman’s voice.

Andi hadn’t really paid attention to just who her girlfriend was gambling with, but even she could recognize Angora when she finally actually looked.  How had Kaili even gotten to this table?  “Uhh…”  She had no memory of what the bet was, she didn’t understand what the cards meant…  “Sure…?”  She did her best to match the amount in front of Angora.

After a few moments too many of Andi losing track as she counted the chips out, Angora, looking exasperated, separated them out for her very cleanly.

“Do you want to change any cards out?”

If Kaili had said to win, did that mean she was confident in the hand?  It had to… right?

“No…?”

More cards were dealt to them and to the table, and then they flipped to reveal.

“King pair,” Angora said.

“Uhh, whatever this is,” Andi said, showing Angora her cards.

“...that’s a full house.”  Angora sat back in her seat, perplexed.  “You don’t even know what it is and you decided to go with it?”

“...should I not have?”  Andi looked confusedly at the cards, then back at Angora.

“Oh no, you certainly should have, I’m just…  Did you think about your choices at all?”

Andi beamed happily at her, glad to be asked a question she knew the answer to.  “No, why would I do that?”

Angora took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Fortunately, both were saved from further conversation with each other by Kaili’s return.