“So, yes or no?” John said, wiping his mouth. “I was going to give you some time, but you just broke my secret rules.”
“Your secret rules?” she said, ridiculing him—although she didn’t want to ridicule him and she instantly looked her fear, to show – she didn’t want to ridicule him.
He said, “I’d be beholden to you. If you came.”
“You wouldn’t make me go back to school?”
He said, “Plenty of time to lock horns over that. Worst happens, you could end up a bitter old gambler like us.” He put out his hand: “Shake on it?”
When she took his hand, it was damp with sweat: a mysterious, adult anxiety passed through his eyes. Then it was blotted out in his usual corny grin. She let go his hand, and she’d been tricked, it was something – Daddy was up to something. They were ganging up.
John cleared his throat: he had his fork up for attention. “Now, you, I recall, were going to ask me a question?”
“Yes,” she said listlessly, “I was going to ask you the same thing. So I can be honest, at least, if no one else can.”
He laughed loudly, looking away at the waitress as if he might repeat the whole thing to her, for her appreciation. Skewering the last corner of his sandwich, he said, “Well, partner. Touché.”
1 John looked after Denise until his death, four years later.
1.1 They ran into Peter once, at the tables.
1.2 The three stopped to chat but no one suggested lunch.
2 The first year, she did nothing, she was in the hotel.
2.1 She studied French, she studied Dutch, she studied Spanish, from books.
2.2 She walked the streets sometimes, but disdained sight-seeing.
3 Then she was in the casino, working-playing. She proved to be a dogged, gifted player:
3.1 she was lucky.