Nicole is the Ante

As the group settles, Nicole puts put more snacks and refills the mugs. As she walks past Huck he gives her a hard slap on the ass. She feels her cheeks blush. “You’re doing great tonight, babe,” he says.

“Yeah, so much better than my wife,” Ralph clucks as he sits back in his seat.

“Thank you, honey,” Nicole says as she returns to her spot in the corner behind Huck. She’s ready to watch the drama unfold.

Kevin loads the cards into his card shuffler. He’s playing the role of dealer for this game. The other two men take their seats.

Huck fiddles with his tiny pile of chips for a moment. He takes a sip of his beer before reaching into the pocket of the jacket he has hanging over the back of the chair. Pulling out a small stack of paper scraps he sifts through them and rearranges them. Huck places them next to his chips. He clears his throat. “This is uncomfortable for me, but y’all know I’ve been having some struggles at home, right. It’s left my finances a bit of a mess.” Nicole is surprised by this moment of vulnerability. “And, damn, you’ve all done so well tonight. At this rate, I’ll be tapped out in the first round.”

Vincent chirps, “I can lend you some chips, Uncle Huck.”

Chet tips down his sunglasses. “Seriously, I’m happy to play a friendly no cash game if you’re hurtin’.”

Huck sits up and puts his elbows on the table. He taps the stack of papers. “I’m good for the money. It’s just tied up in some bullshit right now, but I have a proposal.” he hands the stack to Vincent. “Check out what’s written on these pieces of paper and let me know if you agree that each one is valued at $20?”

Vincent sifts through the papers. When he gets down to the fourth his eyes go wide and he glances up at Nicole. She wants to lean in and read what the paper says, but she doesn’t dare move from her spot until someone tells her to move. Vincent swallows and sheepishly replies “Yeah, I guess if the other guys are in, sure.” He passes the pile to Kevin who doesn’t even look. He says “yes” while handing it to Ralph. Ralph quickly flips through the papers “oh hell yes, Huck, hell yes. I hope your bad luck streak keeps up.” His eyes turn to Nicole.

Chet takes the papers and shakes his head. He released a quiet laugh, “damn, you’re always full of surprises, Huck. Yeah, I think she’s good for it.”

Nicole’s previous excitement around figuring out how Huck was scamming his poker buddies deflates. She has a bad feeling about this.

Kevin sets the blinds at 10-20 and deals. For the first round, everyone plays it safe and Huck uses his chips. Nicole tries to read what’s on the first scrap of paper, but Huck’s handwriting is atrocious. After the flop, Vincent raises the bet by 20, surprisingly Kevin folds, but the other three men call. Again, Huck uses one of the chips in his dwindling pile. On the next round, everyone checks until it comes back to Huck who finally pushes the top piece of paper forward. “I raise my slut’s dress,” he declares and Nicole’s blood goes cold.

“Wait...” she says, but the men ignore her. Vincent and Ralph call, but Chet, grumpily, folds. As Kevin places the river, Nicole again tries to protest, “you don’t mean my dress, do you? Honey?”

Huck makes a hushing sound and checks. Vincent with a big grin on his face bets $100. Ralph groans and folds. Huck, with a “sorry babe. I need to fold.”

Nicole watches as Vincent gathers up the pool. He neatly stacks his chips and pulls out the paper scrap. “So what do I do with this?” He asks.

Huck leans back. “Well, you can keep it and use it as a $20 chip or you can give it to the banker and cash it out to collect your winnings.” Huck swallows the last of the beer in his stein.

Nicole notices most of the men have empty steins. She was so focused on the game she failed to keep up. “I’ll take care of the beer,” she says and tries to walk to the kitchen.

“Stop,” Huck says. “Wait a moment. Vinnie, are you trading in?” Nicole freezes in place. She wants to flee.

The look on Vincent’s face is one of internal conflict. There’s clearly a nice boy inside who wants to respect Nicole’s agency warring with a horny virgin wanting to see a cute woman’s body. The horny virgin wins. He hands the paper to Kevin who also plays the role of the banker.

Kevin accepts the paper and raises to fingers at Nicole in a lifting motion. “Girl, give Vincent his dress.”

Nicole is once again struck speechless. For a moment she entertains the thought that Huck couldn’t seriously want her to strip down to her underwear in front of a bunch of strangers, but only a moment. Of course, he’d want that. Still, she looks to him, “Huck,” she starts but corrects herself “I mean, h-honey, this dress cost $200. Do you really want your bet to be of so little value?” She thought playing on his previous admonishments about her spending habits might be a good way to go. Maybe he’d want to reconsider the value of the bet.

Huck shakes his head. “Babe, I lost fair and square. Now stop embarrassing me in front of my friends.”

She sighs in frustration. Even if she fled to one of her neighbors how would she explain why these five strangers were in her apartment playing poker in the first place. She stalls. “What’s on the other pieces of paper?”

Huck crosses his arms. “You guys see what I have to deal with? Sweetie, are you sitting at this table? No. So don’t worry your pretty little head about our game and do what you’re told.”

Kevin is still staring Nicole down. “You have one minute to remove the dress and hand it to Vincent or the bank will need to remove it.”

“Guys,” Vincent speaks up, “you don’t really need to...”

Ralph jumps in, “shush, boy. This is a teaching moment for you. You need to learn to confidently own your place in society. And she hers.”

Vincent softly huffs.