Free Working on a Full House by Alyssa Kress

you over a poker table since."
    Roy managed not to flinch at the observation. "So?"
    "So." Kenny clasped his hands around one knee. "Who is she?"
    "Nobody." Roy pressed his lips together. "She went home the next day. No big deal." And it hadn't been a big deal. Whatever high emotion had happened between them could be pinned on the in-between stages they'd both been going through in their lives. She'd been letting go of a boyfriend. He'd been trying to figure out what to do with himself next.
    "No big deal," Kenny repeated, and grinned.
    Roy wondered what it would take to wipe the fatuous look off Kenny's face, an expression that was particularly galling given the web page Roy had been perusing right before Kenny strolled up.
    "You don't want to play poker because you can't ," Kenny claimed. "You are way distracted."
    Roy narrowed his eyes. "Actually, I'm leaving tomorrow for Atlantic City and the Caesar's Hold 'Em tournament."
    Kenny's grin faltered, which satisfied Roy. "What?" he asked.
    "It is one of the big circuit tournaments." Roy had not, until that moment, thought of going to Atlantic City or entering the tournament, but Kenny's taunting inspired him. Besides, it would be a good idea to get away, far from Las Vegas. Roy stretched an arm across the back of the sofa. "All the best players will be there. It'll be...stimulating." Maybe stimulating enough to get him interested in the game again.
    "Huh." Kenny eyed Roy suspiciously. "You'd rather drag yourself across the country to play in a tournament than stay right here and make an easy killing?"
    "Like I said, it should be stimulating. Unlike shooting fish in a barrel."
    "But you've told me a hundred times that competing for the sake of competition is a boring waste of time."
    Roy smiled. "That was when I had to care about the money."
    "You never had to care about the money." A cryptic statement, Roy thought. Then Kenny tilted his head. "I suppose the next thing you're going to tell me is you're entering the World Series of Poker this year."
    Roy blinked. "Now, that's an idea."
    With his head still tilted, Kenny frowned. "You haven't entered that competition in years. There's a curse on you about it. Everybody says so."
    Roy's smile faded. "There's no such thing as a curse."
    "There is where you're concerned. You've gone for it, what, five times? And always busted out before you could land in the money."
    Two of those five times he'd busted out with a pair of aces in the hole. "It does take luck," Roy allowed delicately, "as well as skill." Every poker player understood, and lived in awe of, the deity Luck.
    Kenny snorted. "When it comes to the World Series, you have no luck, buddy."
    Roy had always thought so, too, but now his eyes narrowed. "This year it'll be different." He paused. "It'll matter." Roy knew that if something mattered, he wouldn't rest until he'd made it happen. Look at his thirty-five million. He'd started underage and faking his way into games. His father had predicted he'd come crawling home, begging to go to college like he ought to have done in the first place. But Roy had not crawled back. He'd crashed on some couches a few times, but he'd made it, and then prospered. So far, he'd done everything he'd set out to do.
    "But why make it matter?" Kenny was still frowning. "You're not into the World Series thing, a title, publicity. That's not your deal."
    "Maybe it's my deal now."
    "Then something's wrong."
    No, there was nothing wrong. Entering the big, prestigious contest would be good, Roy assured himself, glaring at Kenny. It would be healthy. He'd have a goal again, something he could sink his teeth into.
    It had to be better than sitting around hotel lobbies surfing the Internet.
    Roy made an effort to soften his glare and hefted himself from the luxurious sofa. "I'd better run if I hope to make a plane tomorrow to reach that tournament."
    "Yeah." Kenny was still regarding him askance. "Gotta win that title."
    Roy laughed and folded his computer