she’s the one with the brother, right before she gets out of the car in Nevada, she goes, I’m definitely gay. Because if kissing you didn’t turn me straight, nothing will.”
“Really,” Gillman said, clearly not believing him. “If I emailed her and asked, she’d tell me that wasn’t just something you made up?”
Chick raised the bet ten dollars. Was he really going to attempt to bluff after looking at his hand as if it was something he found at the bottom of a year-old pile of dirty laundry?
“Why would I make that up?” Izzy asked as Lopez folded. “Now if I told you that with Maddy and Peg, I’d enjoyed the best three-way I’ve had in years …”
“Yeah, like you’ve had a lot of three-ways,” Gillman scoffed, raising the bid even higher. He didn’t look at any of them, definitely afraid his tell was something they’d see in his eyes. He looked at the pile of cash in front of him, or his cards. Nowhere else.
“What, Gilligan, you haven’t?” Izzy countered, using Gillman’s least-hated nickname. When Izzy called the other SEAL Fishboy, that really pissed him off. “Not on the isle, with Ginger and Mary Ann?”
“We’re not talking about me, asshole.”
Jenk knew that the not-looking-at-anyone thing was pretty much a tell in and of itself. If Gillman had a great hand, why would he be worried about giving that away? Unless he was bluffing about bluffing, so that Jenk would see his raise and …
“Not even with Thurston and Lovey?” Izzy just did not know when to let a subject drop. Gilligan was going to knock the table over, and they’d have to start the hand again. Of course, maybe that would be a good thing.
“Just shut up.”
“You know, it’s okay that you haven’t—”
Jenk cut in. “I have,” he said. “And it was kind of weird. The other guy had a really hairy back.” Yeah, that had caught their attention. Even Gillman was staring at him. Chickie was the only one who didn’t look up. “I’m kidding,” he told them.
“You scared me for a second there, M.” Izzy tossed his cards down. “I’m out. Too rich for my blood,” he told Gillman, adding, “Even though it’s obvious as shit that you’re bluffing.”
Gillman refused to take that particular bait, his eyes solidly back on his cards.
It was down to Jenk and Chickie, and it was Jenk’s turn to play. See Gillman’s bid, raise Gillman’s bid, or fold …
Chick’s phone must’ve vibrated. “Shit, sorry, I gotta take this call,” he announced, standing up and going out onto the motel driveway, which was fine with Jenk. It gave him a little extra stall-time to try to psych Gillman out.
Jenk leaned back in his chair. With enough time and a little effort—keep talking on the phone, Vlachic—maybe he could get Gillman to forget about the poker game. “My weirdest lesbian encounter was when I spent Christmas with three drag queens.”
Gillman looked up again at that. Eye contact. He immediately looked back down, but it was definitely a start. “Drag queens can’t be lesbians. Drag queens are guys.”
“But they refer to each other as she,” Jenk pointed out. “And if they’re into each other …”
“Whoa, good point,” Izzy said. “So it’s a lesbianish thing on the surface, except they’re really chicks with dicks. As opposed to guys with a surprise.”
“Guys with a …” Now Gillman made eye contact with Izzy. He had to in order to give him a properly disdainful WTF look.
“A female cross-dresser,” Jenk explained.
“There’s no such thing,” Gillman said. He actually put down his cards. “I mean, yeah, maybe back in the nineteenth century, when women had to wear hoop-skirts, sure, but nowadays women wear pants all the time.”
“There’s pants,” Lopez said, “and there’s pants.”
Gillman wasn’t convinced. “But—”
Izzy cut him off. “They exist, Wendy. Take my word for it.”
“Wendy?” Now Lopez was confused.
“I think it’s a Peter Pan reference,” Jenk told him.
Gillman was easily outraged, especially by statements made by Zanella. It was interesting, this intense rivalry or personality clash or whatever it was between the two men. Jenk had been out in the real world, on dangerous ops, with both of them; they worked together in perfect harmony, no hint of any animosity, cogs in a well-oiled machine. But during R&R … Look out.
“Now you’re saying Wendy was a cross-dresser?” Gillman challenged Izzy.
Iz laughed his frustration and disbelief. “I’m saying you’re a fucking idiot, and that yes, there are female cross-dressers here where I live, outside of Never-never-land.”
“What, do you know