Beatrice

(4.) All in.

III person POV

The next night after Mardi Gras, Beatrice and Louis went to Fair Play to get some poker in.

They go to the second floor of the saloon and walk to a door. Louis knocks on the door and a man opens a slit in the door to see their faces. After he does, he opens the door and lets them in.

Beatrice walks in first with a straight face. She has a bedazzled roach clip in her hand as she takes a hit from the joint on it. It kept her hands clean. And they needed to be clean in a setting like this.

"You gon' smile fur us, girl?" One white man dealing the cards said to Beatrice as she walked up to her spot at the table.

She pulled up a chair and sat down. "I think I'm good. I gotta keep that poker face, I'm sure you understand." She declined the man's request.

Her eyes widened as turned to the side and saw Lestat sitting right next to her. He looked at her and grinned. She traces forward again and saw Louis sit down.

"Louis, Beatrice. Lemme introduce you to Mr. Lestat de Lioncourt." Anderson said.

Not acknowledging Lestat any further, Beatrice says, "We've met." And takes another hit of her joint and exhaling all the smoke. A look of pure boredom on her face as she waits for the game to start. Lestat turns to her and furrows his eyebrows while tilting his head. A female has never treated him like this before.

"We've already met, Mr. Anderson, sir." Louis says. Beatrice rolls her eyes. 'Always kissing these niggas pale white asses.' She thinks to herself.

"Ahem, are you going to ask this fine gentleman where his head is at, Mr. Du lac?" Anderson asks.

"Now why would I do that, Mr. Anderson, sir?" Louis asks. Then he pulls a cigar from his breast pocket. Beatrice rolls her eyes once again. 'Yes, Massa! Now why would I do that, Massa? Just a slave mentality.' She thinks to herself again.

"I'm telling you, the most discreet negro and the most well behaved negra." Anderson says. Everyone laughs when he says "Negra", except for Lestat. Beatrice noticed this, but thought nothing of it.

"Heh, you say I'm "well behaved" like I'm some kinda dog, Anderson." Beatrice says, looking straight at him. Everyone starts to laugh again. "I don't see what's funny." Beatrice follows up. Louis lightly taps his foot on hers to signal that she needs to back down. She does and moves on.

"Okay people, show your cards." Anderson says. Everyone lays their stack on the table and Beatrice's stack had the highest value, so the chips people put in went to her.

Beatrice took a hit from her joint and as she did, she looked to see what cards Lestat had and she choked on the smoke she inhaled from a laugh that erupted from inside of her. She saw what Lestat put down and was taken aback. She had never seen a hand that bad before. "Mr. Lestat, may I say, that hand is quite atrocious." She says and laughs some more.

Anderson looks to see what Lestat had in his hand and says, "Mr. Lioncourt, your hand is incomprehensible." Everyone starts to chuckle.

"Oh yes? Hah, I'm terrible at cards, did I not mention that?" Lestat laughs and looks a Beatrice, her demeanor becomes more friendly. Louis starts to loosen up as well. "Would you mind giving me more of these uh...money chips." Lestat says, passing a stack of cash to the chip dealer.

Anderson started to talk about being a business partner for this person and he told Beatrice and Louis that he recommended them and whoever wanted the position could get it. Beatrice was on board until Anderson said, "How about 10 percent?" He then looked around at Beatrice and Louis.

"I'm too successful to work for 10 percent of something, so I'll respectfully decline. Thank you, though." Beatrice said. Angry that they would even offer her that little amount of money for a smidgen of her time. She then looks at Louis to see if he would really take them up on such a disrespectful ass offer.

Louis tried to persuade them to up the percentage, but Anderson wouldn't let up on the offer. Anderson even tried to get Lestat to side with him, but that's when Lestat changed the topic and talked about French history.

Beatrice POV

Thank god he started to talk about France and stuff. I'm mad Louis even considered taking that offer, a damn shame if you ask me. I take a hit as Lestat keeps talking. He turns to me,  and looks at me, but his lips aren't moving the same way he is speaking to me.

'It saddens me to see how men and women of your skin complexion are treated in this country.' He's in my head. Am I too high right now? I tilt my head and look at Lestat confused and scared. He makes eye contact with me and puts his hand on my thigh. It travels up higher the more he speaks.

I look back at Louis and he looks at me with a confused expression, then he looks back at Lestat. '10 percent, 15 percent? Do they not know your guys' value? Louis, do you not know your value?' Lestat stares at Louis and then at me. His hand travels up my thigh higher, then he squeezes. I gasp, putting my roach clip down to catch my composure.

I look around and everyone is frozen except for me and Louis. I breathe harder. 'Do you two suffer these dignities for some larger purpose? Do you think that atrocious hand will win this round, Beatrice? Same for you, Louis. Do you think two pair would win you anything?' How did he know I had a bad hand?

I look down at my hand and look back at Lestat again. He makes a face at me and puts his stack of cards on the table, facing downwards. Everyone was still frozen. "I see great opportunities in this city, but to seize it, I need protection." Lestat finally says with his mouth. He takes my whole hand and switches it with a guy that had a full house. Lestat, then takes a jack from Anderson and gives it to Louis in exchange for the 6 of clubs card, making Louis' deck a full house as well.

Lestat puts it in Anderson's deck and hits his hand on the table and it was like he pressed play on a tape. Everyone started to move again. Lestat removed his hand from my thigh and continued to blab on about whatever.

"Alright boys...and girl, show 'em." The fat white man next to Anderson said. I show my hand and everyone at the table says "ooh".

"Full boat, Ms. Bea." The man says. I nod. They give me the chips they owed. "Damn, woman. Are you trying to take all of our money?" Anderson asked, laughing.

I finally laughed along with them too. "Not just that. I'm trying to take your wives too." I giggle. They start to laugh harder and so does Louis. Lestat stares at Louis, then at me. I looked at him and I didn't know what to feel. Hopefully I would find out soon enough.

Fin.