He glowers at me and goes to park the vehicle.
“Is he coming with us?” Ryan asks.
“Probably.”
His brow shoots up. “Into the apartment?”
“No, he’ll probably stay in the hallway.”
“He can come inside if you need for him to.”
“No,” I tell him. “I want you all to myself.”
He grimaces. “That might be difficult.”
We go up the elevator and I can’t figure out what he means by that, until we open the door.
There’s a poker table in the middle of the room. “Poker night,” Ryan tells me.
There are four men sitting around the table, and each of them has a small pile of chips in front of him. They don’t look up when we walk in, and then I realize they’re all deaf.
I tug Ryan’s sleeve. “Are you sure you want me to be here right now?”
He nods and smiles at me. “I’m positive. You can meet my friends.”
“Really?” My heart feels like it has grown wings inside my chest.
We walk closer to the table and someone finally sees us.
“Where have you been?” the blond one asks. He points to the empty chair at the table.
“I’m not playing tonight,” Ryan says. He points to me. “This is L-A-R-K.” Every last one of them lays their cards down on the table and I suddenly feel like I’m on display. I step closer to Ryan.
I wave at them and say, “Hi.”
Ryan points to them each in turn, telling me their names, but his fingers move so fast and I’m so damn nervous that I miss most of it. “Nice to meet you,” one of them says.
I make a Y shape with my hand and move it back and forth between them and me. “You too.”
“You want to play poker?” one of them asks. He points to the empty chair.
“Oh, no.” I wave my hand in the air.
“Dude,” the dark-haired one says, “she has a vagina. She can’t play poker.” He shoves the other one’s shoulder.
My face must be flaming red by now, but I work through it. “I do play poker,” I say. “Despite having a vagina. I know, I know,” I rush to say, trying to act flippant, but I’m so nervous my hands are shaking as I sign. “Having a vagina affects your brain, I’ve heard, which makes you unable to add and subtract. Or hold cards. Or place responsible bets.” I look down toward my waist. “Damn vaginas. Who knew they held that kind of power?”
The room is completely silent and I fear that I have messed up entirely.
But then Ryan grabs me and hugs me tightly, his chest shaking with laughter. His friends bark out laughter too, and one of them gets up and pulls out a chair for me. He rolls his arm like he’s inviting me to sit on a throne.
“No, I can’t. I don’t want to interrupt your game.”
“Are you any good?” the one who referred to my vagina asks.
“Maybe. Since I have a vagina, you’ll never find out.” I rock back and forth on my heels.
Ryan motions for me to sit and he stands behind me.