Page 92 of Holiday Home 3
“I could do without having my loss be immortalized like that,” Victoria said, softly smiling. However, it then froze in place. She wasn’t the first member of the table to swivel their head toward their dealer, though her expression was the sternest.
“What?” she asked, batting her eyelashes innocently, even though she knew full well why what Victoria had said had made her the center of attention.
“You’re not filming or recording us somehow, are you?” Anna said.
“No, so all of you chill out,” the sultry woman said, dismissing their concerns with a wave of her hand. “The game’s just for us. Promise. Besides, with how easily Liam’s been wiping the floor with the lot of you, I don’t think any of you three would want to relive things.”
“I nearly took fourth place this round,” he protested, finding himself in the unusual situation of defending his opponents from the game’s dealer. At the very least, he hoped everyone was having an okay time. A good time could rapidly descend into a miserable time when all you did was lose, especially if you felt helpless about your chances to change that.
“There’s only one more chance to dethrone him,” Avril announced. “Or he’s going to have bragging rights for months.”
“It isn’t as though this is an unexpected outcome,” Tess said. “We’re up against someone far above our skill levels. So long as we’re all having fun, that’s what matters. We’ve all dressed up, got nice drinks, and got nice company.”
“I’m enjoying myself,” Anna said. “Though I’d like to do a bit better than third, at least once.”
“There’s nowhere for me to go but up,” Victoria pointed out.
“See, everyone’s having a good time at your party, Avril?” Tess said, staring at her with an unspoken meaning that Liam detected but could not decrypt. “Isn’t that what matters?”
Avril held her hands up. “You’re right, you’re right. As long as we’re all having a good time, that’s all I care about.”
Liar,Liam thought. Based on the subtle upward curve of lips from the rest of her player base, he knew he wasn’t alone in that thought.
At around eleven-twenty, they took their final recess of the night. Limbs were stretched, some snacks were pilfered from the kitchen area, restroom breaks were visited, and Tess and Avril each attempted to make the other’s drink better than before. Anna and Victoria had retired from alcoholic beverages, joining him in appreciating the other options behind the bar. They all absentmindedly watched the news, more so for the countdown in the top right than the actual programming. They’d likely still be in their final round of play when the new year kicked over.
Just don’t let me find out this was all a modern-day Cinderella reenactment,Liam thought. He had far too many hopes for what the new year would bring to survive a return to how things had been before this winter break. Many “first of the years,” but also many “first of his life” events still awaited him. Forward, not backward. Full steam ahead. It was the only direction he was interested in.
Once they reconvened at the table and stacked their chips in front of them, and once Avril opened the final sealed deck of thenight, she placed it on the table. The unexpected delay piqued eyebrows and raised wariness levels across the table.
“Before we get started, this final round has a special rule. Just wanted to let you all know that in advance.”
“What rule?” Anna asked.
“You’ll find out when it comes up.”
“Whatkindof rule?” Victoria said, eyeing the younger woman adamantly.
“A fun kind. A bit of a truth-speaking rule, if you’re going to twist my arm and make me give a hint. It’ll allow people to stay in the game when they’d otherwise be out. So, we can just say that this third round is more about us havingfun.”
Tess didn’t seem particularly amused as Avril smiled coquettishly at her. Liam and Anna conveyed the same thought with a shared look. There it was. The twist. A matter of when, not if. They’d all known it had to have happened.
“Honestly, the fact that we managed to get two proper rounds of play in is astonishing enough,” Tess said. “I’m all right giving one round to Avril. She did put all this together for us.”
Tess’s endorsement proved enough to sway the room. One by one, they all agreed to give things a try. The redhead with a penchant for troublemaking beamed at them, and that was enough for Liam to forgive her for whatever prickly situation she was bound to drop him into at some point.
“This’ll be a speed round too,” Avril added, card stock thudding against card stock as she shuffled. “No more small blinds or big blinds.Everyonemust ante up two hundred at the start of each hand, no matter what.”
“Sounds like we’ll all be falling prey to your new rule quite often, then,” Liam noted, tossing his two hundred in with the others.
“Exactly!” Avril beamed, beginning to dole out cards.
As had plainly been her aim, the next round involved far more activity than its predecessors. Mathematically, folding immediately when you had weak hole cards was still probably the optimal decision, but who wanted to sit out and just watch the potential bloodbath unfold? Most of them tried to hang in at least until they saw the three community cards before bowing out, and Liam was no contrarian. Even if it wasn’t the best way to get his threepeat, it was the most fun way to play this final round. Besides, he might still win, which might very possibly inflict Avril with an aneurysm.
The game was messy, chaotic, and tumultuous. Tess ended up running a straight after starting with a two and a five, a hand no one in their right mind would have ever stuck with in a standard game, big blind or not. Victoria, in a hand where all four of them stayed in the entire time, managed to beat Anna’s flush with one of her own, all because of her ace high card. She exhaled afterward, relieved that at least that hand had gone her way. It probably still didn’t make up for what had happened in the last round.
It was a wild time, and Victoria reneged on being done with alcohol. While she made herself a simple margarita, which allowed the rest of them to continue playing, effervescent conversation flowed among them all.
“Wow, I lost that?”