Awkward Meet Normal

Chapter Nine

Annabelle

The address Ryan had sent me in the morning was a townhome. Most of the places we had played poker had been in apartments. Townhomes were in short supply in New York City, and if you wanted one, you were paying a pretty penny. This townhome was listed as being in Manhattan, meaning it was more than a pretty penny.

The regular group was Ryan, Kyle, Dave, Jack, Tyler, and myself.

Ryan and I had started Poker night in college, except the players were constantly changing. We hustled, and we knew it. The fact that I was a girl helped.

Once Ryan settled down and I got a big girl job in the Marketing World, we did away with our side hustle. But we missed it; we had fun playing it. Poker night was generally held on Tuesday night, never a Monday because Mondays were the worst day of the week.

Ryan introduced me to Kyle, and we had been friends. Dave was in our Fantasy Football league, one of the Fantasy Football leagues I was in. Jack and Tyler were twins; we randomly met one night at a March Madness viewing party.

We liked to bet on March Madness games, and the twins were wickedly good at betting. They also wanted poker, even though in most games, we had to have whatever athletic event was playing on. The twins did not have real jobs, they bet, and that was how they made money. I tried to follow it the one time when Jack gave me a run-down, but there was way too much more to betting than I could ever wrap my head around. There were parlays and high and low. It was too much work, and I stuck to betting only once a year, during the first round of March Madness. Otherwise, I would go broke.

Ryan had texted me to come inside; everyone was out back. I had been running late. My project after FancyFeast was a new teething device on the market for babies.

I loved my job; I really did. It was always something different, and I didn't get bored.

However, the new mom who was in charge of the company had a lot of ideas. A lot, and she made the meeting go thirty minutes longer than it should have gone.

I stepped out on the back porch to cat whistles. I looked down at my attire. Usually, I would come over in my favorite blue jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt; typically, poker night was done inside. But since the meeting ran long, I did not have enough time to swing by home; it also did not help that it was in Manhattan. I lived in the Bronx. Someday I would move out of there, but the Bronx felt like family to me now, so maybe I wouldn't.

Who the fuck knew. I didn't have a crystal ball.

I was in a black pen stripe skirt, with pantyhose to make my legs look better, and tall black high heels. On top, I wore a white short sleeve ruffled shirt.

"Have you guys never seen a woman in a skirt before?" I said, turning around to shut the patio door.

"Yea. Just not you," the twins yelled out. I turned around to swat them but got sidetracked when I saw who was sitting at the far end of the outdoor poker table.

"Hi, Annabelle," Dash said, standing up to take my purse from me. He leaned in and whispered. "It is good to see you."

I wanted to mouth "drop in" to him, but technically, I was at his house.

I turn and walk and sit between Dave and Kyle.

"I see you are trending on Twitter again," Kyle said, and I could hear Ryan kicking him under the table.

I flick him off and turn to Dave.

"How is daddy life going?" He had not been to Poker night in a while. He looked tired and had bags under his eyes. He was the first of the group to be a dad. The twins and I were the only single ones in the original group.

"It's kicking my ass," he said, taking a swig of his beer in front of him. Dash sat back at the table and started to shuffle the cards in front of him. I took this moment to look around his backyard. He had a backyard in Manhattan. Hell, he had an outdoor seating area that put my small apartment deck to shame. I felt slightly embarrassed now that he had seen my apartment.

Dash catches me looking around the outside area. The poker table was set up outside on a patio. On the townhome wall outside had an outdoor TV that was playing women's tennis. I was guessing the twins were betting on that at the moment. When I said they bet on everything, I meant everything.

"Thanks for hosting us," Kyle said to Dash.

"No problem. I was happy you called and asked me." Dash said. He looked over at me. "Annabelle, can I get you anything to drink?"

"I'll have what Dave is having."

He stands and gets me a beer from the outdoor kitchen. His patio had everything. I could live on his patio and die happily until winter came. Then I would be a giant pansy you ever saw.

"So the trending," Jack, the twin with blonde hair, said, "are you going to monopolize on that?"

"What?" I asked, choking on my beer.

Breathe Annabelle.

The twins bet daily but also had social media pages and blogs on how they did it. They were trying to create a brand for themselves, which I could get behind. I didn't need it for myself.

"Ok," he shrugged as I got my money out and threw it onto the pot. Ryan gave me my poker chips.

It was the end of the first round, and it came down to Dash and myself. They asked if he wanted to call again, and he folded instead.

Ryan groaned.

And I was annoyed. Did he fold because it was me or because his hand sucked?

I wanted to flip his cards over but knew I could not.

Ryan groaned because he knew I had just gotten a lead over him. Most of the time, it came down to the two of us in the end. A couple of times, I wondered if I could be a professional poker player.

"Do you play racquetball often?" Dash asked a couple of hands in, and my eyes shot to his. He had seen the newest saga of my Twitter fame.

Kyle grunts. "Couple times a week. She has a gym at work the company pays for. If she doesn't make it to her sessions, she's a maniac."

I turn and glare at Kyle. "It was one time, and I was having a week."

It was one of the worse weeks of my life. Pluto, our family dog, had passed away. He was sixteen, and it was the hardest thing I had encountered.

I missed racquetball all that week. I barely made it to work. It was a feeling I had never felt before.

We had poker that week and Ryan said I had to go. Benny even intervened and said I had to go.

I shouldn't have gone.

"What was one time?" Dash asked. His eyes sparkled with excitement. His asking about racquetball was the first time he had addressed me since the start of the game.

"She sideswiped Ted's car," Kyle said, laughing.

"He's no longer a part of the group," Ryan said as a matter of fact.

My father was mad. My mother had said I, "Anna, it up." The only one that understood was Benny. My parents had lost plenty of animals before us, but Pluto. Pluto was ours.

"He was an asshole," I said, talking about Ted, standing up to get another beer.

"Giant one." Ryan agreed. I threw him another beer, and he caught it mid-catch.

"You guys seem close?" Dash said, watching the two of us.

"She's my best friend," Ryan said. We were a lot to take in. No one ever understood it. Kyle always acted hurt when Ryan said this, but it was true. And one thing Ryan and I did was never mince words.

Dash didn't respond to this. He watched us on and off the rest of the night, and I wanted to know what he was thinking.