Maybe or maybe not

“Maybe I have, maybe not,” you reply with a sly look on your face. “Maybe if you win her, I will tell you.” Hoofer just huffs and looks at your dad.

“You sure he’s just an associate? He sounds just like you did when we first met.” Hoofer shook his head and marched into the game room while his characters followed close behind with Belle giving your dad a quick peck on the cheek. You could see your dad touch where she kissed and followed her with his eyes.

“Anything you want to tell me?” You gave your dad a side eye.

“No comment,” he replies as he enters the game room after dismissing the maids lining the hallway. You chuckle and follow after him. Inside the game room, your dad’s friends were greeting each other and caught up with each other. You could see that the bartender Tifa was already running out drinks for people. You could also see that your briefcase of money had already been exchanged to a pile of chips

You ignored that your pile of chips was much smaller than the others and brought the poker chips over to your chosen seat at the table. You organize your chips to cover your preparation to start listening to the plants around the room. You wish you spent more time with the plants in the room as at least half of them have already forgotten the card names.

Some plants are being very helpful, as one of them pointed out an odd necklace Collins was wearing. They could feel something off about it but couldn’t tell what. Others noted some odd bulges in Don’s jacket but nothing could be discerned.

You drink a raspberry margarita while talking to Don Hanover about a few things here and there. The two of you mostly discussed stuff about Rein Corp such as unruly customers you’ve encountered. Don Hanover got a kick out of the customer whose wife trapped him in a Raven’s mind mirror before she returned the Raven; the customer had apparently gotten the Raven without telling her.

“Okay, since we have a newcomer tonight, let’s go over the rules,” Your dad says as he starts doing card tricks and everyone takes their seats. “Rule number one! No betting your wife or girlfriends or character spouses or fiances.” He then pointed to Frank Collins who sighed and answered.

“Rule number two, no side bets in the game itself.”

“Right, no betting on who wins and no betting how much someone wins or loses.” Your dad then pointed to Hoofer.

“Rule three, no betting marriage contracts.”

“Marriage contracts?” You questioned giving Hoofer and your dad strange looks.

“Don’t worry about it, when we get in the drinks, bets have gotten weird,” Don Hanover chuckled before he chugged a frozen banana daiquiri. “Rule four is no betting entire companies, locations sure but not the whole banana.”

“I am starting to think I didn’t bring enough money,” you comment, looking at your relatively small chip pile.

“For rule five, we follow Tet rules. So it's not cheating if you don’t get caught.” Your dad moves on with the rules. “If you get caught, you surrender the pot and if you use a character to cheat, you lose that character as well.”

“And finally, we are not playing strip poker. You are getting cut off of drinks if you start taking stuff off,” your dad deadpanned as he finished shuffling the cards. He looks pointedly at you and he gestures to your chips.