Free Gettin' Lucky by Micol Ostow Page B

of each of us. Marcus slid his lucky charm—a silver chip he’d gotten as part of a custom set—and looked at his hand. He chuckled to himself.
    Subtle. Not.
    Elliot lifted the corners of his cards tentatively. His face was a blank, completely inscrutable. I couldn’t help but admire his poker face.
    My cards were crap.
    We each tossed a few chips into the pot. I couldn’t get a read on anyone else’s hand. I mean, Marcus was pretty much always grinning like a big weirdo.
    The flop was useless to me.
    Marcus raised, guffawing to himself.
    Elliot raised, impassive as ever.
    I paused. Tapped my fingers on the table. Took a sip of soda.
    And folded.
    “Yes!” Marcus cried, slamming his fist down on the table.
    I glared at him. “Hey, it’s an improvement over last week,” I said, crossing my arms defensively over my chest.
    “That’s why he’s being such a jerk,” Kelly said, shooting daggers of her own out of her eyes. “Because you’re finally a threat to him.”
    “Oh, hey, come on, now,” marcus protested. “Let’s not get carried away here.” He chuckled. “A threat.”
    “Maybe I’m not a contender just yet—,” I started.
    “But she’s sure holding her own as a player,” Elliot chimed in. “I mean, she kicked your butt for a few rounds of betting, right?”
    At this, Marcus only grunted.
    I laughed, and Elliot winked at me. Which made me laugh even harder. It was a nice feeling, laughing so much, I was afraid I might pee in my pants (I didn’t). I mean, it had been a while since I’d laughed like that.
    It was only later that I realized how completely atypical Elliot’s behavior—the winking, the joking, the speaking up in a group setting—really was. From the little that I knew of him, he was more of a shrinking violet than a snapdragon.
    Maybe he was changing. Maybe we all were.
    Knock on wood, that was.

    “Venus is in retrograde?”
    Kelly squinted over my shoulder as I tapped away at her computer. I’d stuck around after the game ended to help her clean up, and then we’d decided to update the website. Now that the horoscopes were up, I was into keeping them current. I mean, as someone who took those things pretty seriously, I wanted my readers to be able to trust the information I was giving them.
    “Yup, it’s retro-licious,” I said. “Bad news. It’s pulling backward. Everyone’s love lives are going to get all wonky. ’Cause, you know—Venus, with the … love …”
    Kelly nodded skeptically. “I can’t believe how much you buy into this stuff.”
    “Not just me,” I reminded her. “You’re the one who said that your site had, like, a million extra hits since you posted the horoscopes.”
    “Fair enough,” Kelly agreed. “I have to give the public what they want.” She rolled her eyes.
    “Come on,” I prodded her. “Obviously I’m reading this stuff the best way that I know how. I mean, clearly I would ratherthat Venus keep its retrograde off of my own love life. I’ve had more than enough love retrograde for one semester.”
    “Seriously,” Kelly said. She paused for a beat, then added, “Ugh.”
    “I second that,” I said.
    For a moment the mood threatened to darken, which so wasn’t my intention. “Uhuh,” I said, shaking my head. “No moping.” Tonight I’d had almost-pee-in-your-pants laughter, after all. That was momentous. No way was I going to get all serious and depressy again. “We have to do something—something other than feeling sorry for me,” I announced. “This is Vegas. There must be something going on somewhere.”
    A sly smile crept across Kelly’s lips. “I have a thought,” she said slowly.
    Thirty minutes and a judicious application of DuWop Original Lip Venom later, and we were ready to put Kelly’s plan into action. Or, at least, Kelly was. I had my doubts.
    “This is never going to work,” I whispered to her through clenched teeth.
    “It will if you just act cool,” she said, poking me in the ribs.