Ritual - Palm South University

I may be out of the professional poker scene, but this will always be a part of who I am.

It’s my energy. It’s my soul. It’s the very blood in my veins.

And that’s why I’m going to open my own casino company when I graduate.

It won’t be a real casino, but rather one that can be hired out for parties and weddings and corporate events. I’ve already got the start of a business plan together, detailing how companies or hosts can purchase fake money that, in turn, the guests can use to gamble. The more money they have at the end of the night, the more entries they get into raffles, or the more they have to use to bid on auction items. It will all be legal, not gambling, per se, but gambling-ish.

And it will all be mine.

Until then, working on the casino cruise will give me more experience dealing different games, which I’ll need when it’s time to train my own dealers.

Plus, it’s a good distraction from the fact that Kip is across the country.

He must know that I’m extra in my sad panda feels tonight, because as soon as I wrap up my shift on the boat, stepping back onto the dock and immediately unfastening the tie around my neck, my phone rings.

“Hello, handsome,” I sing.

“Hiiiii.”

At the long, drawn-out greeting, I grin. “Someone’s been drinking.”

“And someone else has not been sending nudes.”

I bark out a laugh, pulling my keys from my purse as I cross the employee parking lot. “That’s because someone else has been working.”

“Boooooo. Ditch work. Come to California, instead.”

“I will, baby. In less than a month now.”

“That’s so far away.”

My heart squeezes. “I know. I miss you, too.”

There’s a long pause of silence, and then a hiccup that makes me smile again.

“Where are you?”

“At the A Sig house. We had a party tonight.”

“Clearly.”

“The whole week is a party around Halloween.”

“Tell me about it. The A Sig Halloween bash is tomorrow on the sandbar. Everyone has been talking about it all week.”

“What are you going to wear?”

“The girls and I are going as pin-up dolls.”

There’s a groan on the other end, and then what sounds like Kip slapping himself in the face and dragging his hand over it. “You’re going to look so hot,” he almost whines.

I chuckle. “I’ll bring the outfit when I come next month.”

“You better.”

I sigh, and silence passes between us as I get in my car and fire it to life. There’s a roar somewhere in the background where Kip is, and I smile, picturing the madness.

“You sound like you’re having fun,” I say. “I wish I was there with you.”

“Soon,” he promises.

“Soon,” I echo.

I check the date on my watch, letting my head fall back against the head rest and closing my eyes.

Just twenty-four more days.“GOD, WHEN THEY SAID the Halloween party would be even bigger and better than last year, I doubted it,” Skyler confesses, lowering her sunglasses down to the tip of her nose as she looks around the sandbar. “But damn, did Alpha Sig deliver.”

I glance around with her, and while I can tell she’s in awe, I feel mostly overwhelmed by the amount of students crammed onto one speck of sand off the east coast of Florida. The sandbar is usually vacant, save for the occasional boat that might stop there on the weekends, but today, it’s crawling with people dressed in swimsuit Halloween costumes. Boats line every bit of the shore, anchored in place, with people standing or floating in the water between each one, and in the center of the sandbar is a DJ, hooked up to a generator and thumping music like a heartbeat out to every inch of the little island.

We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. It’s seventy-five and sunny, the breeze enough to cool us if we get too drunk and hot, but the water still warm enough for us to not freeze our asses off. Ashlei and Jess have already set up camp with their beach chairs and umbrellas and gone in search of booze, and Skyler and I set our stuff next to theirs, saving room for Erin, just in case she shows.

Fluffy white clouds pepper the bright blue sky, giving a slight reprieve from the sun as we splay out our beach towels, but I still pull out my sunscreen to protect my fair skin.

“Adam is really kicking ass as second-term president, isn’t he?” Skyler asks, putting her hand out for the sunscreen once I have a dollop in my hand.

I pass it to her, still looking around and trying to ignore the pit in my stomach at the fact that I knew nothing about what to expect today since Adam and I have barely talked, let alone seen each other. “He is, indeed.”

“I’m sure the pressure is insane,” Skyler says, rubbing lotion on her chest. “No one has ever been president two years in a row.”