been too busy, or at least she’d felt like she was, to really invest in friends. It sounded terrible put that way… all the book clubs she didn’t join, the organizations she hadn’t volunteered for, the neighbors she’d failed to really know well. Maybe she’d just needed to let go of some chores to make room for people.
She studied her hand and tried to make sense out of a two, a three, one king, a seven, and a nine. It was easier to first look at the cards by number and then deal with the suits. She put the seven down to get another card, still not entirely sure it was time to do that, but Bryan gave her another card, so she had that part down. She fanned out her hand. A pair of twos. She really wanted to say read 'em and weep but hands like that only made the holder weep. "I'm out." Okay, she got to say that.
Annie gave her a pat of pity. "I can spot you a nickel."
She tried not to smile at Annie’s offer. She really was down to her last penny. "I'll go get some change out of my jar for coffee money. If I have to withdraw from caffeine, I’ll know who to blame."
Bryan shuffled the deck, bringing the cards back to the table in that fancy bridge move she'd tried earlier and caused a fifty-two card shower. Clearly the game would go on in her absence.
Gwen's Journal - November 9th, 1989 Monday
It’s really sad that as Max and I begin our relationship, and it deepens and intensifies and just really takes off, things can’t be good for everybody. There are sad people out there who have just lost love, and they really suffer from not being with the one they want to be with. To love someone who’s decided not to love you anymore, it’s hard to see. Very frustrating.
Gwen's life - the morning before…
She stood breathless in the doorway, the towel wrapped tightly around her breasts, the escape from the guys’ bathroom successful. Beside her, Max gripped a towel at his waist. His promise to define interesting for her was making her nearly black out in anticipation.
And there on the bottom bunk, where they’d kissed and touched and were heading for half naked, lay Justin, clutching his girlfriend’s photo to his chest and crying.
Back to U…
Chapter Nine
Dinnertime is critical for bringing the family together.
She'd run to the bathroom to brush dinner out of her teeth, traded her shoes for slippers, called her mother to check on her, and dumped her change jar on the bed to sort out the pennies. Forty-seven was a good number to parlay into a poker fortune. She put them in a clean sock for transport and swung it as she headed back to absorb the rules of bluffing and trash talking, and then her phone rang.
She hesitated since she'd already talked to her mother, and Missy was unlikely to call. Missy could be calling, though, but so could Max. He could call just to gloat over winning the bet, as if she needed to lose any more to the man.
The phone rang again, and she was a gambler now, wasn’t she? She picked up the phone, practicing bold optimism. "Hello?"
"Someone took my picture."
Damn. She sucked at all forms of gambling. But she still might possess untapped skills at bluffing. "Someone took my picture, and I merely retrieved it. I didn't sign a release form, so the photo and any said likeness cannot be used without my express written permission."
Max paused on the other end, and she hoped he would be awed at her use of said likeness and give up, but bold optimism wasn’t working for her either.
"I expect more from you, Gwen. You're not going to weasel out of it like that are you? Really? I'm very, very disappointed."
Okay, she sucked at bluffing, so she’d attempt trash talking. She tried to remember exactly the phrasing Jason and Bryan used against each other. "You think you’re a winner, but you’re going down. You are nothing but a fiery blaze of loserdom, my man--" She nearly dropped the phone when Steve appeared in the doorway.
"Are you tryin’ to trash talk me, woman? You really don't lose well, do you? I had no idea. Again, the disappointment is deep."
"Steve." It had been two months since she’d seen the man she used to see daily, daily for nearly two decades. He was so familiar to her, and