6 of 100 - Soft Seventeen

Sitting at the blackjack table, Ande looked around the near-empty casino. It was a Tuesday afternoon, and a blizzard had set in just north of the small Indian casino, stalling her progress to the writing conference. The conference, still four hours away, promised interaction with other writers, something she didn’t have much of where she lived. She had been irritated with the delay but was making the best of it by playing a little blackjack before going back to her room to do some reading.

The dealer called out last hand of the shoe as he pulled the cut card off the shoe and flipped it over in front of her, pulling her attention back to the table.

“Oh, God,” she said, flashing a smile. “I hate the responsibility, but I’ll do it I suppose.”

The other players at the table laughed as they all played out their hands. While the dealer cleared the cards from the table and combined the played cards and dead cards left in the shoe, she turned to the man to her right.

He was a big man with calloused hands and a face etched by years of exposure to the wind and sun. He’d been quiet most of the two shoes she’d played since arriving, not smiling much and focused on his play.

“You stranded too?” she asked as he pulled a cigarette from the pack in front of him and lit it. Pulling a long drag of smoke and releasing it over their heads, he nodded.

“Yeah, I’m headed up to Fargo to clean up flood damage. Where you headed?”

“I’m on my way to Grand Forks,” she said. “I’m going to a writer’s conference. Fortunately, it doesn’t start till tomorrow afternoon. I won’t miss anything if the roads open back up in the morning.” Ande realized her answer gave a lot more information than he’d been seeking, but it was one of her foibles and she’d come to accept it. As her father used to say, “Ask Ande what time it is and not only will she tell you how to build the clock but she’ll tell you why you need to know how to build it.” She knew this habit was partly what made her a good teacher; she also knew it annoyed a lot of people and was one of the things her ex-husband grew to despise about her.

The dealer pushed the clean stack of shuffled cards in front of her, and she stuck the cut card about halfway back in the stack. “No complaints, y’all,” she said to the table.

Just as the dealer began putting the cards out, Ande heard a voice to her left. Looking up, she saw a dark-haired man standing behind the chair next to her. His eyes looked as if he knew a really decadent secret, and they crinkled at the corners as he smiled, looking intently at her.

“Is this seat open?” he asked.

As she nodded, she felt a slight tightening between her legs and shifted her weight in surprise. She hadn’t had a man look at her with the kind of interest he was showing for a long time, and her body’s unexpected response surprised her. But it also pleased her. And she realized suddenly that the blizzard that had stranded her might just in fact be releasing her.

She broke away from his gaze and turned back to her cards. There sat a soft seventeen. Looking at the dealer’s up card, an eight, she weighed her options. Deciding there really was nothing to lose, she asked for a card.

A four of spades finished her hand, and she sat back and smiled. Oh yeah, she thought, this will be a good night.