Saving Dallas Forever (Saving Dallas 3)

“Three little ol’ kings don’t scare me. If that is in fact what you’re holding. I’m in.” Everyone was quiet as they waited for Chi Chi, who had yet to determine whether she was in or not. I just wanted to let her know that I wasn’t going anywhere, no matter her decision.

“I never fold a winning hand.” Chi Chi said, with a smirk, as she laid her cards down for me to see. I looked at her two, three, four off-suited hand, and couldn’t help laughing.

“It’s got to be divine intervention,” I said, with a smile, as I laid out my two, three, four off-suit for everyone to see. Laughter filled the room as everyone bore witness to the two identical hands that fate had dealt us.

“Fair enough, Dallas. Fair enough,” Chi Chi said, dividing the chips, and pushing mine to me with a nod of truce, and for the first time, I finally saw a glimmer of light at the end of our friendship tunnel.

It was after midnight, everyone was drunk, and we were all half-naked. After finding the ATM machine empty, and realizing that none of us wore any jewelry, we had succumbed to gambling with our clothes. Many of us had bought in twice, and a couple three times, bringing the chip total to almost three hundred and sixty dollars. Everyone was out except me, Chi Chi, and Katelyn. All of my chips were on the table, along with Luke’s black Nike shirt and my favorite Victoria’s Secret silk pajama pants, leaving me in my bra and panties, which had gained compliments from everyone-including Chi Chi. Katelyn was the chip leader, leaving her with only her shirt left to remove, which read “Support Your Local Devil’s Renegades”, making it a pretty valuable bargaining item. Chi-Chi sat in nothing but panties, giving up her the rest of her chips, along with a pair of flannel pajama pants, a white t-shirt and her “favorite motherfucking bra”, or so she claimed. Now we were all subject to her firm breasts, which she didn’t even try to hide. I shuffled my cards in my hand, looking around the table as I did. Not a soul, other than Katelyn, wore a shirt. Mary had even lost her underwear, which was now hanging from the light over the table, a donation from Brooklyn for all to see. Mary had expressed how happy she was that at least they were cute, and we had all agreed. Katina had passed out, in the chair, lucky enough to still have her pants, but I was now the proud owner of her shirt. Punkin sat with her arms across her chest as if she were cold, but refused to be a ‘pussy’ and put her shirt back on. That gained her a cheer of laughter, and a shot of tequila, which led to all of us taking shots, hence the drunkenness. Red, like Katina, had only lost her shirt, which was now tied around Punkin’s head. She said it was to keep her ears warm, but we knew it was a show of victory. Maddie and Brooklyn were both out of the game, but both had been wearing pants, until Brooklyn took hers off for a side bet that Maddie’s final hand would win. When Maddie had lost, Brooklyn had demanded that she remove her pants too, due to the fact that she had a shitty hand and had led her on to believe it was actually a flush, when in reality there was a diamond fucking up the heart trio. Now they waited in bras and panties in anticipation of how the game would end. Katelyn was the dealer, and had agreed to stay. Since two of us had stayed with the dealer, we were not given the option of folding.

“Well, ladies. What’s it gonna be?” Katelyn asked, slurring, oblivious to the house rules. She had never been in a situation in which she had to be reminded of them. Chi Chi looked across the table at me, with inquiring eyes. She had been in Katelyn’s shoes at one time too. She knew the struggles and hardships that came with prospecting, and I knew that she had a plan once she knew Katelyn wasn’t aware that we were not allowed to fold. I held an ace high flush in my hand. By the way Chi Chi had been playing cards all night, I knew she had to have something similar to be so confident in such a large wager. Katelyn, on the other hand, was completely unpredictable. She would stay on a pair of twos or a straight flush, no matter the cost. If she had a pair or better, she was playing. So far, she had gotten lucky, and it wasn’t because we were cutting her any slack. I wanted Katelyn to play, so she could socialize and interact, but I wanted to walk away the winner, as did Chi Chi. But this was an opportunity for me to not only help Katelyn financially, but also to give her the spotlight, even if it was for just one night. My pride would suffer, but I was beginning to care less about my pride, and more about the people I liked, and she fell into that category.