"Double down, Dave."
"Huh?"
"You're about to bust , man. Double down," Mark said again, putting his fingers on the card at the top of the deck. David shrugged and made a motion for the card. Mark smirked and flipped the card over. Josef, who had twenty, groaned as a two stuck out from between Mark's fingers.
"Fuckin' hell," Josef sighed. "Every time, man, every single time. Even when you don't do it, you win! You're the luckiest gambler I've ever seen."
At that, David just smiled and took the card, displaying his perfect twenty-one proudly. He took the fifty dollars on the table and pocketed it shortly after giving it a kiss. Mark took his cards and Josef's and stuffed the deck back into its case. The three ordered another bottle of white wine and David's girlfriend gave him a peck on the cheek.
"I think that's about how much that special present you promised me costs, isn't it?" she whispered into his ear, grinning cheekily. David put his arm around her shoulder and shrugged.
"If you say so," he replied. The glow in her eyes was vivid for a moment at the prospect of what her present was going to be, but the color soon faded as the waitress came over with the bottle. David sat back in his chair and took in the scenery.
He and his friends were finally on their vacation in France, after about six months of preparation and accumulating sick days and off days at work. Well, David winning twenty grand at the casino with every hand he doubled down with had something to do with their being here too. He still looked back on it and couldn't believe that the one ace left had been the card the dealer handed him.
In Marseille, the air was warm, and cool breezes made the place very pleasant to sit in and relax for a while. Everywhere you went, the people were congenial and friendly, in stark contrast to other parts of France. And it certainly smelled better than Paris, being a coastal city on the Mediterranean. It was nice here. David could stay here forever and never want to leave for even a day.
Well, as long as Grace was here with him. He clinked his glass with his girlfriend and thought about meeting her in Las Vegas a few years ago. She hadn't seen a change in form or feature that didn't include giving him even more to look forward to in the bedroom. It seemed she had only gotten more beautiful since the day he had met her. And she had some other perks too, some that only girls from out of this world could have.
Grace's attention was suddenly turned to a table across the patio, where two girls pulled a man no older than twenty into a chair and called over a waitress. They'd been coming here for the past three days, and it seemed the staff knew them well enough to sit and chat with them for a while. The guy never spoke much, but the two girls talked up a storm every time and made suggestive motions toward him when he wasn't watching.
"That's them," Grace said, clinking her glass against David's again.
"You sure? They don't look any different than an average three friends," he said, sipping at the excellent white wine. Mark and Josef turned in unison to see what they were talking about.
"Who, those three?" asked Mark, jerking a thumb toward the guy and the two girls.
"Yeah. You think anything's going on with them?" David asked.
Josef shrugged. "I dunno. It just looks like two sisters and their brother. Might be different. You know, French people being open to just about everything now, right?"
"Oh, there's something deeper than you boys think," Grace said, sniggering. "Much deeper. And before you ask; it's my woman's intuition."
"Whatever you say," Josef replied, shrugging. The four returned to their own affairs and talked amongst themselves idly. However, Grace's wandering hand found a few things to do beneath the table and away from prying eyes while David sipped at his wine. Oh, she was going to get it when they got back to the hotel. She was getting fed 'til she was fat and happy tonight!
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Jack smiled and shook his head when the waitress asked him if Elassa was coming back any time soon. He said he didn't know, and she just smiled back. Fain and her twin talked about nothing with the waitress, who was completely absorbed in what they were saying to her. Most of it was about the restaurant and how nice it was and how nice everyone working at it was. The waitress, Noire, enjoyed every bit of praise they gave her.
Jack just took in the relaxing atmosphere and tried to remember that he had been that eager for praise at one time too. Well, that wasn't true; he hadn't changed at all in the past year on earth, or the four in hell. However, he had gotten quite a bit accomplished in that time.
He had managed to learn Russian, French, German, and some classical Greek, at least enough of each to get citizenship in those four countries. He had been shown millions of starscapes like filmstrips through Anathane's gigantic memory bank. He knew human history like the back of his hand, had hundreds of priceless collectables, made a few more swords at Nyx's house, and visited the statue of Leonidas at Thermopylae.
He'd done pretty much everything there was to do with history. He had gone and visited the ruins of the seven wonders of the ancient world, save for the Hanging Gardens that no longer existed and the Colossus of Rhodes. Still, being able to see his childhood dreams in person, and to stand on top of the biggest pyramid at Giza was something he couldn't forget.
Nor was standing on top of Mt. Fuji, seeing Vladimir Lenin's mausoleum, standing at the North Pole, visiting Rommel's grave, going to Tunguska, or seeing the tombs of an Incan imperial line. He grinned at the memory of going to the Amazon Rainforest and meeting natives that hadn't changed their way of life in four thousand years, and having them drop down and worship Anathane like a goddess.
He had been to every place had wanted to go. He had learned just about everything he wanted to, knew things that no historian had known would effect the rest of history, and therefore, never written down. It wasn't something he liked to think about, but every one of his lovers had more history know-how than he did. Even Niaf, who hadn't learned much about the past, usually quipped with an 'oh, you didn't know...?' in a very annoying fashion.
However, she was generally nicer than the time she had moaned someone else's name during sex. He shot her a warning glance and she arched a brow at his look. "What? You want to pound out some frustration with us again?" She licked her lips enticingly.
The waitress blushed. "Both of you?" she asked.
"Oh yeah. He's a big boy; he can't be satisfied with just one of us," the blue-eyed succubus affirmed, grabbing Jack's crotch to make her point concrete.
"Master does not like this kind of treatment, Niaf," Fain said, narrowing her eyes.
