Poker Face

One newspaper said that Poker Face and Zacky Vengeance were fuck buddies from their teenage years, and that though they had both been in and out of relationships, they still maintained it, like a side dish of sex.

Another claimed they were married and expecting, whilst its rival dismissed that by saying that they were actually getting divorced and that Zacky Vengeance’s win was just the final gauntlet being laid down.

Non-existent long lost brothers and sisters turned up from the depths of nowhere. Men and women came forward as the secret lovers that didn’t exist. Love children from secret relationships were “uncovered” - uncovered and then re-uncovered with both parents alive and well.

But they all contradicted themselves because Poker Face and Zacky Vengeance found their faces splashed incessantly on the front pages and in double spread articles, detailing every second of what they had done one particular afternoon together.

And that had been happening for the last month.

She was getting very bored of seeing her face on the front of every tabloid in Las Vegas, let alone their glossies. It almost made her wish Zack had never walked into the casino that one fated night.

Almost. Mostly she just wanted to move away from Vegas and give up Poker Face but she knew she couldn’t do it that easily. It would take a very big asking price to get her away from her beloved Sin City.

Not that she had an addiction to gambling, she only played for money every once in a blue moon. She just found it funny watching men play a game they were obviously not as good at as they bragged.

Poker Face - or Sarah, she had only become Poker Face when she realised she had a talent for the game - learnt from the best and in her eyes no one came better than her father. He was a gambling man; she remembered most of her childhood spent in betting offices shouting at the ‘Gee-gee’s as her father had called them. She remembered how every night at ten she would take her father and his friends a snack as they played at the Poker table in their basement, watch them for fifteen minutes in rapt silence before her father would send her to bed.

She hadn’t had the best upbringing and though her father was an addict she also knew that the little money her father could make from his bets would be what kept them fed and warm for another week. That was until he kept away from the horses and started to play Poker more; he like his young daughter, both had a natural talent for the game.

She sighed, placing down the make-up brush and staring at her reflection in the mirror surrounded by the Hollywood lights. She’d curled her chestnut hair up today in a cutesy 1920’s style and her dress was a halter neck in oyster silk, long and flowing, and glittering with diamonds - paid for by the hotel owner of course.

Another night sat watching men trying to win a chance at her heart whilst being followed around by bodyguards supplied by casino owners and stipulated by her father. Although she loved the game it was tiresome.

She looked across at her friend Cassidy where she lay on the sofa, hanging her feet over the back. She wasn’t even watching her get ready, much more she was engrossed in the iPod plugged into her ears and the book in her hands. Thankfully it was not anything with Sarah’s face upon it and for this she was glad; Cassie was likely to get caught up in that stuff.

“Am I even doing the right thing?” She called out, knowing full well her friend would hear her over the music.

Cassidy laid the book on her stomach and eyed her friend carefully as she pulled one of the squishy pink buds from her ears, her hearing clearing. She didn’t want to shout her reply - you could never be too sure who was had their eyes and ears about, not when you were friends with the infamous Poker Face.

“You like Poker, you’re good at it,” she shrugged. “What’s wrong about that?”

Sarah stared at her friend blankly and threw a pointed finger out to the stack of gossip mongering publications with her face upon them. More specifically the dark haired, green eyed Californian man she was pictured with on the top most one.

Cassidy swung her legs round and sat up properly, looking quite the dishevelled mess but all she did was run her hand through her long black hair - that was made up mostly of extensions anyway - and it fell back into its natural parting. Sarah couldn’t do that, wished she could.

She cleared her throat, looking up at the patterned ceiling and began to recite, “You win the game, you win one date, not one relationship.” as she had heard her friend saying to that Zachary man from Orange County on the first night.

That’s all good and well Cassidy but he won four more games and took me on four more dates.

Sarah then sighed and composed herself, studying her reflection before smiling satisfactorily. Oh well, cat and mouse was fun and if men weren’t prepared to work for anything else in life, she could surely make this man work for a relationship - if that’s what they were both after in the first place.

She wasn’t even sure, she just liked having the man around. If not as a boyfriend then certainly as a friend now.

“Not coming along?” She asked, pulling her thin shawl around her shoulders as she glided over to the apartment door, one hand pushing her bouncing curls around the back of her head, paranoid they had slipped out of place.

Cassidy looked over at her and laughed. “I don’t understand what’s happening even if I do,” she giggled. “Besides, I have some very important phone sex to have with my man so go away and don’t come back till tomorrow.”

Sarah shook her head and stepped out of the room, instantly being lapped up by the bodyguards as they escorted her down to the foyer and out to the waiting car that would drive her to tonight’s casino.

It was like any other night since Zack had beaten her in the showdown. Down-on-their-luck men thinking that maybe they had just enough to get a date with her, coming to the table and betting over and over till all they did was weep for their misfortunes.

Some days she preferred it when the women came to the table. They seemed to understand straight off that if you lost once you probably wouldn’t win even if you tried a million times. They certainly didn’t start to cry, either, and make her feel uncomfortable.

By sometime in the early hours of the morning she was ready to give up and go back to her apartment. She was very tired now, and she needed a day or two off from being Poker Face to be Sarah George. Besides, it wasn’t as if she had been born Poker Face.

When she woke the next morning, passed out upon her bed having only just managed to strip herself of her shoes and dress before collapsing on top of the covers and falling fast off, it was the first time she had seen a clock in almost twenty-four hours.

It was nearing the afternoon. The house was quiet which meant Cassidy was out and the cat had at least been fed by her at some point that morning. This comforted Sarah and she found herself being able to get off the bed, knowing that when she went in search of breakfast she wouldn’t be ambushed by Alan.

Luckily, as she pulled open the bedroom door, he was fast asleep in front of the radiator, stretched a good length of it on his back, purring to his hearts content. She smiled, refraining from touching him having learnt the hard way in the past.

Instead she carried on down the hallway, passed the front door and on into the kitchen. It was entirely typical that she had just reached the kitchen when a knock on the front door sounded throughout the otherwise silent apartment.

Rolling her eyes, she went to investigate, grabbing off the clothes horse one of her many oversized tee-shirts she liked to wear in bed. Kind of embarrassing to answer in just your underwear she figured.

“Take you long enough to answer?” She heard Zack chuckle before she’d even peered around the gap to see him standing in the hallway. She frowned, pulling the door open further for him to enter the apartment.

“I do have tendencies to act rather normal,” she muttered, closing it behind him.

“Could have fooled me Poker Face,” he smirked, poking out his tongue at her back as he followed her into her kitchen. “I’m not the one abnormally good at playing Poker.”

Sarah pulled a face whilst he couldn’t see mouthing his words as she stalked to her fridge and yanked it open, the bottles in the door rattling and clinking against one another. There was nothing inside to take her particular fancy.

“What did you even want?” She then asked, rooting around in another cupboard for a bag of Oreo’s.

“Oh you know,” Zack shrugged. This did not help; she’d just woken up and whether he realised it or not, she wasn’t a morning person. She shot him a look that screamed ‘do you really honestly think I know?’ before going back to her search. “Just got someone on my mind on a basis of constant. Nothing big.”

Although she wanted to smirk - which is code for go all fan girl and squeal - she kept her composure and turned to him, stuffing an Oreo in her mouth and shrugged back at him. He too appeared to be straining against another emotion.

“Oh, yeah,” she nodded, spitting crumbs across the floor. “Totally know what you mean.”

“So erm,” Zack scratched his neck trying to look casual. “You know how my friend is getting married and all that palaver of eternal unity and blah blah blah.”

“Oh yeah, marriage is definitely a palaver of eternal unity,” she agreed waving a hand around, the very one delved deep into the packet. “I’ve got the exact same thing with my friend Cassidy, I mean, being Maid of Honour is just so much hassle!”

“Exactly!” Zack nodded fervently. “Well anyway I don’t actually have a girlfriend to take as my plus one so I was wondering if you wanted to come along for the ride.” He added a shrug on the end, not wanting to put too much emphasis on girlfriend and plus one. “I mean you totally don’t have to I just thought you might want a break from playing Poker. As a friend.”

“Breaks are good,” Sarah nodded. “As friends.”

She surmised in her head, that he wasn’t very good at asking girls to be his girlfriend but she smiled all the same whilst he nodded in response to her.

The pair of them stared across the kitchen at one another before in the blink of an eye Sarah had thrown herself at Zack, wrapping her legs around his waist as he lifted her off her feet and their lips collided passionately.

“Who’s gonna be there?” Sarah breathed into his ear as he kissed her neck and her jaw and the spot behind her ear.

“Everyone I want you to meet,” he replied, his voice husky almost breathless but he grinned up at her. “Like my mom.”

Wriggling down to the floor, Sarah decided that proceedings needed to be taken elsewhere. Grabbing his hand, she led him towards her cell before leading him to her bedroom door all the while keying in the number 1 speed dial.

“Cassidy, stay away and don’t come back till later.”