An Unexpected Debt – Chapter 29

I approach Takemo in the hotel restaurant just as he’s finishing his breakfast.

Deep breath, Skylar. So, he saw me screwing sexbots. No big deal, right? Yes, no big deal. I can only hope he saw all the times I was smoking hot and enjoying it, but never the times I cried and wished for something different from my life.

No. I need to put it out of my head.

“Morning, Takemo,” I say, keeping my voice even and my chin up. I’m relieved to see his face is fine. He probably iced his cheek right after, much like I was icing my eyes last night. I woke up this morning, and they were only a little puffy.

He wipes his mouth quickly and sets the napkin down.

“Uh, hi. What are you doing here?” He looks left and right, nervous that I’m about to try something.

“Have you withdrawn us from the competition yet?” I ask.

“No. I was going to do it this morning before the first match.”

“Then don’t. We’ll continue to play.”

“Really?” he asks, his eyes lifted and bright. A small smile forms. “You’re giving me a second chance?”

“I am giving you your only chance.” I sit down across from him. “That means you play like you mean it, and you stop insulting me or belittling me or making me feel worthless. I’ve had enough of that.”

His head falls. “I’m sorry. You’re not worthless.”

“No,” I say, driving my finger down into the table and making him jump. “I am worth something more than a stand-in school teacher and a babysitter and a person to be abused. I will not let people devalue me anymore. Are you ready to play?”

“Do you need to eat?” he asks, pushing his plate to the side.

My simmering anger cools a few degrees. “No. I ate with Saif in the room before I came down here.”

“Okay,” he says, standing up. I join him. “Then we play.”

Marcelo and Saif are having a cup of coffee together in the lounge as we pass through the lobby. I wave to them.

“Go get ‘em, tiger!” Saif calls out, and I huff a laugh in return.

Marcelo tips his head in greeting.

I’ve got this. Today is the last day, and it’s now or never to prove to Takemo that I can handle things and he can trust me. The real question is, can I trust him? I’m not sure. I don’t know why he tried to throw our game off yesterday. Was it just his bad mood, or was something else at play?

Still, I told him he gets a second chance, so that’s what I’m going to do.

The first two hours are brutal. I have to get my head back into the game and remember everything Takemo and I agreed upon. Last night, I didn’t think I’d be here. Now, I’m playing to win.

We finish a round against a tough opponent, and when I check on our match points situation, we’re at the top, but not by much. We have to win our next match, or we’ll be toast. Still, I breathe a sigh of relief as Takemo and I cross the ballroom to the snacks table to fuel up before our final hands. My neck is sore, and my shoulders are so tight I’m not sure they’ll ever relax again. I groan and roll my shoulders up, back, down, and around, over and over.

“This is it. You played really well today,” he says, handing me a bottle of water. “You like the peanut bars, right?” He scans through the offerings on the table.

“Yeah. Thanks.” I take the proffered bar and unwrap it slowly. “You know so much about me,” I say, dropping my voice, “and I only know a little about you. That seems entirely unfair to me.” We leave the table to stand along the side wall of the conference room.

He twists his lips. “Well, it’s not fair how I came to all this information in the first place.” He sighs and closes his eyes. “Here’s something to know about me. I make a lot of mistakes. I trust the wrong people. I’m trying to be better. I swear my heart is in the right place.”

“Me too.” I chew on my bar as I stare out across the ballroom. Marcelo and Saif are kibitzing on a game at the far end of the room. They’re talking low to each other behind their hands. And when the game ends, the heightened sounds of murmuring rise along with the players at the table.

It’s her.

My stomach bottoms out. She’s even more gorgeous in person from far away. I watch in horror as she greets Saif and leans in to kiss him on each cheek. Her silky dark hair swishes around her shoulders, and she’s wearing black, just like I saw in my dream.

I tug on Takemo’s sleeve. “Who is that?” I ask, jerking my chin in her direction. She looks over her shoulder at us in time for Takemo’s eyebrows to climb.

“Well, shit. I knew she was here, but I didn’t expect her to last long.” Takemo dusts off his hands. “She never stays for a whole tournament anymore. Too ‘busy,’” he says, putting air quotes around the word.

I raise my eyebrows at him.

“Sorry,” he says again. “That’s Nadine Perez. You probably recognize her from the gossip sites. Star of stage and screen.” He draws his hand across the space in front of us, mocking a marquee. “Saif and I went to school with her. She was in Sejal’s year.”

Nadine is crossing the room now, on a beeline directly for me. What do I say to her? Hello, it’s nice to meet you? Stay away from my man, you bitch? Is Saif ‘my man?’ What does that even mean?

Before I can decide, she’s right in front of me.

“This must be Skylar.” She holds out her hands to me, and I stare at them. “I’ve heard so much about you!”

Behind her, Saif is shaking his head and slicing his hand across his neck. I’m not sure what that means. He doesn’t want me to talk?

Nadine sweeps her hands up to her chest when I don’t respond to her. “She’s so quiet. I didn’t expect that at all.”

“Hello. I… I’m sorry. I don’t know who you are,” I say in response. Saif closes his eyes and drops his head.

“Oh, really?” She turns around, and Saif perks up like he’s woken from a deep sleep. I have a hard time hiding my smile. “Saif, how could you?”

“We were catching up, Nadine. I’m sure you can understand.”

“Well,” she says, huffing and drawing herself up, “I guess this means Sejal and I will have to take her and do all the dirty work.”

Saif slips in next to me and places his arm around my shoulder. Takemo takes a step away.

“Not before she wins this tournament.” He looks down at me with pride, and I crumble a little inside. How has he already gained such a hold on my heart?

“Wins?” Nadine asks. “If she wins, then what am I doing there near the top?” She waves to the point board display, and now I see it. Nadine P. and Justin M. are just below us on the leaderboard.

“It looks like you’re losing,” Saif says, and Nadine smiles.

“Play starts again in five minutes, so I suppose we shall see.” This time, when she holds out her hand to me, I take it. She leans into my ear. “Saif has talked about you for years. If you break his heart, I break your bones. Understood?” When she pulls away, her smile is sugar sweet and worth a million credits. “See you at the table.”

I glance at the clock and sigh. I only have a little time to collect myself. People are still milling about, eating snacks and drinking water. On the stage, five tournament officials crowd around a terminal and datapad, arguing over something there. A young man approaches them, and a tower of Bridge boards on a table nearby slowly tips over and collapses everywhere. They all turn and stare at the mess with frowns.

I have time.

“I need to use the bathroom,” I blurt out, then I turn and speed walk straight out of the ballroom and into the bathroom across the hall. I find an empty stall and press my back against the wall.

My damned life just gets more complicated every day. You break his heart, I break your bones? Well, shit, lady. You’re really selling this whole Saif relationship like it’s the best thing I’ll ever do.

Sigh. Forget about that for right now.

Her hand. I have to remember her Bridge hand.

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath before turning over my wristlet and accessing my home screen. I find everything I wrote down after the prescient dream in my notes, but I focus on the hand I remember. She had thirteen cards, and I remembered eight of them. A run of three honors in diamonds, another three cards in clubs, and one each of hearts and spades. There were others, of course. She had five more cards, but I didn’t get a look at them. This is a decent hand, and if she takes the first tricks with her run of diamonds, then she’s in a suitable spot to take them all, even without her partner’s cards.

But this is just one hand of many I’ll play against her. It’s a small fraction of what I’ll have to win.

And I have to win.

Have to.

Outside the bathroom, Marcelo is waiting for me.

“Everything okay?” he asks.

I decide it’s best to sidestep this question.

“Is Nadine after Saif?” I ask him. “I don’t want another Cressida situation.”

Cressida, Jinzo’s ex, is the lying, stealing, cheating, hijacking bitch who made Vivian’s life miserable for months. I can’t deal with women who are going to make a scene.

“Not as far as I know. She has two men in her network already, and they’ve never dated,” Marcelo says, leaning to the side to look into the ballroom. “She’s Sejal’s best friend, so it’s probably an older-protective-sister energy you’re feeling.”

“No shit,” I mutter. “Let’s get back in there before Takemo has a heart attack.”

Marcelo steps in front of me and takes my upper arms in his firm hands. “You’ve got this, Ms. Skylar. Just keep your head on your shoulders, and you’ll be fine.”

I nod, unable to voice anything else while holding Nadine’s cards in my head.

When I reach the table, Takemo looks puzzled. “You okay?” he asks me.

“Peachy,” I reply.

An attendant brings all the Bridge boards to the table and sets them on a side chair. The top two slide off and hit the floor.

“Oops,” he says, laughing and sighing. “Gravity doesn’t agree with me today. They all got knocked over in the back just a few minutes ago. So annoying.” He rights them on the chair and then backs up to bow and walk away.

We shake hands with Nadine and Justin, and play begins.

We’re now at the table with the two highest-ranking teams, so most of the tournament spectators are gathered to watch us play. It’s hard to block them out. I have to stop myself from glancing over my shoulder constantly. Keep your eyes on the table, Skylar. Concentrate on the play.

We win the first two hands and lose the third and fourth. One more hand left to play.

Nadine is across from me on my side of the blind. I’m playing North and she’s East, so she’s adjacent to me. She has made small talk with me between hands, and despite her earlier warning, I think she’s sweet and charming. But it could be a ruse, a face she puts on in public because of who she is.

The last Bridge board lands on the table, and I draw in a long breath.

This is it. The last hand. I glance at the wall clock, and it’s the right time. Nadine’s face is the same as how I saw it in my sleep.

My prescient dream is coming true.

I’m about to reach for my cards when the world tips to the side. I draw in a sharp breath as I grab the table to steady myself. Whoa. Everything at the table blurs and splits, like a fractured image a tenth of a second off from reality. Nadine laughs, and then she doesn’t. She shuffles her cards one way… No, the other. I blink and try to right the world, but the split keeps going until they’re out of sync, and multiple things are happening simultaneously.

Am I losing my mind?

Everything reverses, and a blur appears between Nadine and me. I blink slow, slower, slowly, trying to put the surrounding world back into place. This all feels like the one time I got vertigo as a kid. I didn’t tell anyone about that. I was afraid they wouldn’t let me fly if something was wrong with me. I only learned years later that vertigo is usually temporary.

“Saif loves you,” someone says in my ear. “Don’t fuck it up.” The person touches my elephant charm and steps away.

I draw in a long breath through my nose, and the world slows down and comes back together. Multiple versions stitch back into one. Time rights itself.

There, that’s better.

I’m okay. I take another deep breath in through my nose. I’m not sure what I saw, but I’m okay. No one seems to be any different. The bidding is starting; I didn’t miss it. I clear my throat and cross my legs the other way.

Before I pick up my cards, I close my eyes and remember what Nadine has in her hand — lots of honors in diamonds, a king, a queen, and a jack. But not the ace.

I look down at my hand.

Shit. That’s my hand, not Nadine’s.

Wait. I’m sure this was Nadine’s hand I saw in the dream.

I casually glance around to see if anyone else noticed anything weird happen, and I can’t tell. Nadine is quiet, staring at her cards like she’s committing them to memory. Her brows are furrowed, but she’s played every hand like this. It must have only been me. Maybe I should get my head checked the next time I’m at the doctor.

I bid to let Takemo know I’m going to try to take as many tricks as possible and that diamonds is my longest suit. We win the bid, so Takemo lays down his cards as the dummy. Now, Nadine’s going to lead highest and best. It’s what I would do. So when she sets down the queen of clubs, I go over her with a king of clubs from Takemo’s hand right out of the gate. That gives us the lead.

Giddiness makes my knees bounce as we progress through the hand. I want to be careful, so I contemplate every single card I play before placing them on the table. But it’s almost as if this hand was preordained. Fate.

We meet the contract and grab the last match points. A quiet round of applause breaks out from the spectators.

“Whew, I thought I had that one,” Nadine says, smiling at me as we place our cards back into the bridge board.

“Can’t win them all.” I smile and keep myself easy.

“Well, apparently, you can.” She winks at me. “You must be psychic or something.”

I tilt my head to the side. “Or something,” I say with a chuckle. “No. I just had a feeling. That’s all. The universe is on my side today.”

“Congratulations on a tournament well played,” Nadine says, shaking my hand as we stand up to leave the table. “I’m looking forward to spending more time with you in the coming months. I know Sejal is excited to see you too.”

My stomach churns. Meeting the family is also a very un-Skylar-like thing to do. Families don’t like me. I’m too aggressive, too blunt, too curvy, too reckless for them to love me at first sight.

“Same,” I say, nodding to her. I bow before she’s able to turn away, and her smile is filled with surprise when I right myself. There. I’ve shown enough deference to last me a while.

“Skylar, we did it.” Takemo rounds the table and wraps his arms around me. He squeezes all the breath in my body out in a giant huff. I squeak and he lets go. “Sorry,” he says, lowering his voice, “I forgot you don’t like to hug.”

I push him away, trying to cover up the awkwardness of his display of affection. He knows I don’t hug because I don’t let the sexbots hold me. He knows too much.

Saif, though… I let him put his arms around me and cradle me to his chest with a big congratulatory hug. “Great job, Sky. I knew you could do it.”

“Thanks,” I say, looking up at him. He leans down and kisses my forehead. It’s sweet. I had forgotten that relationships could be sweet, not just fast and hot. My cheeks burn.

Marcelo leans in to kiss me on the cheek as well. I’m not used to all this attention.

Beyond the crowd around our table, India Dellis is watching, and she’s happy. Her smile is enough to show me I got the job done.

Takemo pulls me aside, far from the crowd. His smile falls from his face. “How did you do it?” he asks. “And this time, don’t lie to me. Something felt off about that last hand.” He shivers. “I got the feeling there was a ghost on my shoulder.”

I look him dead in the eye, and I say nothing.

“Come on, Skylar. I’m not mad. Whatever you did, it was smooth. I doubt anyone would notice but me.”

“I had the right cards,” I say, and before he can protest, I lay my hand on his arm. “Do you trust me?”

He pauses for a moment. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

Good. I haven’t lost his trust.

“Then trust me that I will show you how I did it. But not here, not now.”

“Okay. I expect you to follow through,” he says, his eyes serious.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”