Taking a seat at an empty blackjack table, her favorite pit boss came over, relieving the young-looking dealer.
Picking up the deck of cards, she started to shuffle faster than one of those new machines.
“What’s up, buttercup? You can’t sleep?”
“No,” Maria huffed, propping her elbow up on the table so she could rest her chin on her hand. “Can you deal me in for a thousand, Sadie? Just put it on my dad’s tab.”
“You got it.” She took out a thousand dollars’ worth of chips in various amounts, then slid the stack across the table in front of her.
The return of Sadie to a blackjack table after becoming a pit boss always felt right when she did it for special occasions. Thankfully, being her boss’s kid made it one.
Seeing an eager man place down his chips beside her, Maria snapped, placing a fifty-dollar bet down in one of the little circles. “This table’s full.”
“You heard the lady; keep it pushing,” Sadie barked, snapping her fingers when the man wasn’t as eager to leave a clearly open table.
“So, tell me what’s eating you,” Sadie asked, dealing out the cards.
I haven’t been able to see or talk to Kayne in four days.
I’m dreaming about fucking him.
While also dreaming about fucking another guy.
One I hate, ’cause he locked me in a walk-in freezer.
Maria, however, decided to keep her thoughts to herself.
“Oh my God.” You could see the lightbulb go off in the pit boss’s scrutinizing gaze. “Maria Caruso finally likes a boy.”
“I do not …” She trailed off, knowing lying to Sadie was worthless. She was a fucking woman whisperer. “I could like a girl. You don’t know.”
“Honey, you’re not a lesbian, or a bisexual, for that matter.”
Maria scoffed at her assuming. “How would you know?”
“Because I’ve been dealing you cards for how long now? And not once have you looked at my tits.”
Hmm … Looking at the ginormous globes that were propped up under her neck, Maria might have had to agree since they were pretty nice tits.
“Well, until now.” Sadie chuckled, flipping over the dealer’s card and revealing a face.
“Okay then.” Maria clasped her hands in front of her, unconcerned about the table game that she was supposed to be playing. “What did you mean about finally liking a boy?” She wanted the woman whisperer to deal her out some knowledge about that because, apparently, everyone, even dreaming Maria, made her out to be a frigid bitch when it came to men.
When Sadie was about to shoot it to you straight, her head slightly tilted forward before giving you one hell of a dirty-ass look. “The man that just came over to sit beside you? Yeah, well, he was eye-fucking you the second you came in here, and you didn’t even have the courtesy to look over and see that he was hot as fuck. It wasn’t the first time you did it, and it won’t be the last.”
Well, shit. She huffed again, getting another thought. “Okay then—”
“And before you even start, I know a man’s on your damn mind ’cause I ain’t never heard Maria Caruso coming into my pit, huffing and puffing, and moaning and groaning. You’re acting like the married men that come in here after their wives ask for a divorce.”
Well, fuck. The woman whisperer was right again.
“You’re in love, girl.” Sadie waved her hands like those women did on the Price is Right. “Welcome to hell, just like the rest of us.”
Maria sat up straight. “I’m not in l-love.” Even saying the L-word was hard for her. She almost barfed. Tapping the table, she scratched, asking for another card. “I’m just … confused.”
“Confused?” Sadie dealt the card faceup, revealing another face card, which made Maria’s thirteen bust against the house’s twenty.
“Yeah, like …” Watching Sadie clean the table, she tried to think. “When you can’t decide between a new Prada bag or Jimmy Choo shoes.”
“Oh … I gotcha.”
Maria looked at her, doubtful she really understood.
“Hello, ladies.” Another male joined the table, this time successfully. The only reason he did was because Maria wouldn’t have been able to scare him away. Her cute gesture of flying her middle finger in the air at the security camera had brought him to her after all.
Taking a seat beside her, he smiled at her with his wicked eyes. “Can’t sleep, Maria?”
“Neither can you, I see.” Truthfully, she didn’t think he slept. At all. She wasn’t even sure if she had seen him sleep, besides the day her father brought him home. They had practically grown up together. If vampires existed, then Salvatore was definitely one.
“Now, you know the boss told me I can’t let you play, Sal,” the pit boss warned him.
Her father only cut off his men from gambling when they were too far in the red or if they had gambling addictions. Sal, on the other hand, wasn’t either of those things.