Courtney’s Games

Dylan was in trouble. After already losing his car and his clothes to Courtney over a few rounds of poker, his apartment was now on the line, and all because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut when he was supposed to.

“Are you playing or not?” she asked, crossing her tanned legs under the table.

“One moment, I’m thinking,” he replied, eyes darting between the cards he was holding and the inviting deck in front of her.

“You’re wasting too much time and I’m getting bored,” she yawned.

“Hey, don’t we have all night?”

“No, we don’t.”

“What?”

“You have one minute to reach a decision. If you don’t play, I’m out of here.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! You can’t change the rules of the game like that.”

“Do you want an opportunity to win back everything you lost or not?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then I can do whatever the hell I want. Remember, I’ve got nothing to lose, unlike you.”

Dylan bit his lower lip and reached for another beer as he pondered his next move carefully. So far, he hadn’t been able to discover her tells or fool her when he was bluffing. It was as if she had a direct line to his brain and could read his thoughts as he was making them. Tired of being so predictable, he needed a major win to make sure his weekend didn’t turn into an absolute nightmare.

“Well?” she tapped the edge of the table with her perfectly manicured nails. “Thirty seconds and counting.”

Dylan rubbed his eyes and took a sip of beer. He had risked everything until that moment so he might as well do it again. He looked into her gorgeous emerald eyes and said,

“Hit me two cards, please.”

“Two? Are you sure?”

“Positive,” he discarded the pair closest to his right hand and grabbed their replacements avidly. He was now looking at a full house, comprising three Jacks and two Kings. In a normal game, such a combination would get him plenty of pots but there was nothing normal about playing against her as the results demonstrated.

Courtney had two major advantages over him. She was absolutely gorgeous, probably the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life, and she didn’t have a cock to worry about. How was he supposed to concentrate when all she had to do was bat her eyelashes to get him all riled up?

“Show me what you’ve got then,” she grinned.

Dylan laid down the cards on the table and begged the heavens to finally get a win. Courtney touched his right hand before he could move it away and dashed his hopes with a straight flush running from five to nine. “Sorry, but this isn’t your lucky night.”

“Fuck! How are you doing this?”

“What do you mean? I’m just a better player. Your keys, please.”

“No.”

“What do you mean no? That was the bet and you lost.”

“Not until you tell me your secret. Are you cheating? Because it’s statistically impossible for anyone to win as many hands in a row as you did.”

“Now you’re just being a sore loser. Why can’t you admit I outplayed you at every turn?”

“No one is that consistently good, Courtney. I know there has to be a trick somewhere but I’ll be damned if I know what it is.”

“Hmm, are you sure that’s what you want to go with?”

“Absolutely! Tell me the truth, please.”

“Okay then.”

Courtney held the deck in her left hand, threw the cards in the air, and snapped her fingers as they were falling down on the table. Dylan never broke eye contact while this was happening but was surprised to see everything all around them change in real. They were no longer in his flat in downtown Manhattan and he was fully dressed once again. Even his beer had been replaced by a glass of lemon-flavored sparkling water.

“What the hell?” he muttered.” How? Fuck, Courtney, what did you do?”

“I just had a bit of fun with your mind. Congratulations, Dylan, you’re still the best hypnotic subject I ever worked with.”

Dylan facepalmed and laid his head to rest on the table. There was no way he had forgotten she was an amateur hypnotist in her spare time unless that was part of the plan all along.

“You got me… again!” he admitted.

“As I always do. Do you want to play for real this time?”

“Do you promise not to entrance me again if I say yes?”

“No, but I promise you won’t realize it happened until it’s already too late.”

“Kind of like now, huh?”

“Exactly. Are you game?”

“As long as all my things are safe…”

“You have my word.”

He couldn’t ask for anything more. Dylan rounded up all the cards and handed her the deck for her to shuffle. A speck of light bounced off her mesmerizing eyes as he wondered what else could she do when he wasn’t paying attention. When he woke up the following morning, walking with her in a park wearing a dog leather collar on his neck. he regretted all his life choices until that moment but it was already too late to stop the public humiliation. Courtney always wins.

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