Snippet: The Card Game

"Hey, glad to see ya! Thought you wouldn't show up." Mac shuffled the cards again, his fingers twirling them easily.

"Yeah, well, I changed my mind," Austin said.

"I'm glad you did," Mac Replied. His eyes met Austin's directly across the card table, his blue eyes to Austin's brown. Mac's dress code was comfortable, but casual, so he wore his lucky sweats. Bren, to his left, still had his knit cap perched on his head like an obnoxious helmet. 'Admiral' Drake proudly wore his flight jacket and 'USS Enterprise' cap. Thomas the Nerd wore a ridiculous smoking jacket. Adela, the lone woman, a dark overcoat.

But Austin, Austin was different. A white polo shirt, tailored slacks, all nice and neat. Definitely not the type you'd find around the poker table in a seedy apartment. Certainly not in Mac's apartment. As Mac gazed at him, he saw a fellow predator. A fellow rebel. A fellow risk-taker. One of his own kind.

Austin saw the gaze and smiled.

"So," Mac said, finally acknowledging the other players. "You all know the rules. Opening bet is fifty."

Chips flew and landed in the center of the tagble. Austin waited till he was the last, then he placed a single chip. It was red, not yellow.

Five hundred.

"Cocky, aren't we?" Adela asked him as she batted her eyelashes. She deliberately took a deep pull of her Guinness and put the bottle on her open chip box.

Austin's smile widened. THere were chukles all around, except for Thomas, who only glared at Austin.

"Only when necessary."

Mac smirked. "Let's start."