The Island's Secret - 6. Monday (Week 2)

I woke up earlier than usual so I could work out, and I did an hour of exercises. I focused mainly on my ass, remembering what Fiona had told me, and when I was done, I went into the bathroom. I stripped off my clothes, but before I stepped into the shower, I walked over to the mirror. Feeling like an idiot, I examined my ass in the mirror. I decided that Fiona had been right. I did have a nice ass. I still didn’t understand how she could compare it to Asher’s, though. Satisfied, I turned and got in the shower, enjoying the warm water over my sore muscles. When I was done, I stepped out and walked naked into my room. I dug through my closet, not that it was even close to full, and picked out a pair of shorts that would emphasize my ass. I put them on, and picked a shirt. When I was done, I grabbed my camera, walked out of the house, and went down to the boathouse, getting on a jetski. I started it, and drove over to Asher’s, getting there at seven thirty. I walked up to the back door, but before I could knock, it flung open and I saw Asher’s grinning face.

“Hey, Ben,” he said. “I saw your jetski from my room.”

I laughed. “I forgot your room faced my cottage,” I said. “I guess I’ll have to take the ATV if I want to sneak up on you.”

Asher grinned. “It’s too loud,” he said. “If you want to sneak up on me, you’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.”

I grinned back, and we went inside. He led me to the living room, where Martha and Bernie were playing cards.

“Hello Ben,” Martha and Bernie said. “Thanks for coming over.”

I grinned. “Anytime,” I said. “Thanks for having me.”

They waved us over to the table, and shuffled the cards.

“What game do you boys want to play?” Martha asked.

I shrugged, and looked at Asher. He looked back at me. “Do you know 'Old Maid'?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I can learn it, though,” I said.

“OK,” Asher said, grinning. “It’s fun.”

Martha dealt out all the cards as Asher explained.

“The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards,” he said. “You do that by getting pairs. The pairs have to be the same color, and you put them in the center. The only card that can’t be paired off is the ace of spades, or the ‘old maid’. You have to take the ace of clubs out of the deck, and then try to avoid getting the ‘old maid’. To play, you hold out your hand to the person beside you, making sure they can’t see the faces, and they have to pick a card. Then, they do the same to the person next to them, and it continues.

“In the beginning, only the person with the ‘old maid’ knows who has it, so everybody is suspicious of what card to pick. The ace of spades usually circulates once or twice before somebody gets rid of all their cards, and then it gets more desperate as everybody has less cards. The first person out wins, and the others keep playing to see who’ll end up with the ‘old maid’ and be the loser.”

I grinned. “Sounds fun,” I said. “I have to warn you right now that I have a terrible poker face,” I told him. “I’ll probably give away where it is.”

Asher laughed. “That’s what makes the game fun,” he said.

We picked up our cards, sorted out all our pairs, and Martha held out her hand to Asher, who was next if we went clockwise. He picked one, not hesitating, which made me suspicious that he had it. I chose carefully when he held his hand out to me, not picking any that were presented too easily, but not picking the hidden ones either. I picked a red eight, and got a pair. I threw the two cards into the center and held out my hand to Bernie, who was next to me.

He took a card from the left side, and I made a note of that in case he had a pattern. He held his hand out to Martha, and she picked a card, not hesitating either, which made me suspicious. If she wasn’t hesitating, was it because she had it and didn’t have to worry about what card she picked, or was it because she’d already handed it to Asher? Asher hadn’t hesitated either, and that made me think that Bernie had it and had hesitated to fool us. I grinned as I saw what Asher meant by the game making you suspicious. They all looked at me, wondering if I was grinning because I’d passed it to Bernie, and I laughed.

“This game is making me paranoid,” I said. They all grinned too.

“Yeah,” Asher said. “Just wait until we have less cards.”

He picked another card from Martha, still not hesitating, and I decided that he was picking randomly. I picked a black five from him, and grimaced as I realized it was the pair to the card Bernie had taken from me last time. I pushed it up a little bit as I offered my hand to Bernie, as if I was trying to get him to pick it, trying to make him suspicious of it. He stayed far away from it, and I suppressed my grin. My satisfaction died as the red seven he’d picked gave him a pair. I’d influenced his pattern, which meant I didn’t know where he’d pick his cards from, and I hadn’t even gained anything.

I picked another card from Asher, and tried to keep a straight face as I realized it was the ace of spades. Asher had the tiniest smirk on his face, and I could see that he was trying to put his poker face back on. I held up my hand to Bernie, not putting the ace in any particular place, and he picked the card right next to it. I saw his eyes twinkling with laughter, and I tried not to laugh. Somehow, the bastard had read Asher or me, and he knew I had it. I should have shuffled the deck before I presented it to him. Oh well. At the very least I’d remember which cards he’d picked and try not to let him get any pairs.

Black five and red jack, I thought, skipping the red seven since it was out of the game now. I subtly shuffled my hand so Bernie would lose track of the ace, stopping when it was my turn again. I got a pair as I picked another card from Asher, and I held up my hand to Bernie, putting the ace to the right of the middle. Bernie picked a black two from the very edge of the deck, and the game continued. It took half an hour, but eventually we were down to a few cards each. I’d passed the ‘old maid’ to Bernie a while ago, and I was fairly sure that Martha had it now. She only had three cards, and Asher hesitated for the first time as he tried to choose one. He reached towards the one in the middle, watching Martha for any sign of happiness or annoyance, but whatever he saw scared him off. He grabbed the one to the left, instead, and gave a slight triumphant smile. I took a card from him, hoping for the red three that would give me a pair. I had a black king, too, but Bernie had its pair. To my annoyance, instead of a red three, I got the ace of spades again.

You tricky bastard, I thought, trying not to give it away. Asher’s poker face was perfect this time, and I admired his strategy. He’d pretended to be suspicious of Martha so I wouldn’t be suspicious of him, and I’d fallen for it. I presented my hand to Bernie, careful not to do anything differently than any other time, but he still seemed to know. He picked the red three, which was good because the black king would have given him a pair. I mixed up the king and the ace in my hand so he’d lose track of which was which, and when it was my turn I picked a red two. I held up my hand to Bernie, and he picked the black king. I frowned as he took it, and he grinned as he got a pair, bringing him down to four cards. He had the most, because memorizing his cards had worked out for me.

Oh well, I thought. If he hadn’t picked it, I couldn’t have gotten a pair for it.

I picked a black nine from Asher, who only had two cards left, and Bernie picked it from me, leaving me with the ‘old maid’ and the red two. Martha got a pair from Bernie, bringing her down to two cards, and Asher picked one from her. I picked a red two from him, and grinned as I realized it gave me a pair. I threw them in the middle, and held up my hand for Bernie to pick from. There was only one card. The ace of spades. I grinned as he picked it, grimacing, and I won.

“Safe,” I laughed. “That game is nerve-wracking.”

They laughed. “Tell me about it,” Martha said, trying to decide which card to pick from Bernie. I moved over to sit behind Asher so I could see his hand, and I saw that he only needed a black nine and a red queen. I’d given the black nine to Bernie two turns ago, and I was fairly sure that Martha had picked it from him, but the card he’d just picked had gone on the left, where the red queen was. I grinned, and leaned closer to him to whisper in his ear.

“I’m pretty sure Martha has the other nine,” I told him. He nodded in thanks, and managed to make Bernie pick the red queen. Bernie grinned as Martha picked a card from him, and she grimaced and shuffled her cards. Asher grinned and immediately picked the one on the right, throwing his cards onto the table without looking at them.

“That was close,” he said, grinning. I saw that he’d picked the nine.

I grinned. “How’d you know which was which?” I asked.

He laughed. “I watched them,” he said.

Martha grimaced again. “I should have shuffled them under the table,” she said, and Asher nodded, laughing.

“How’d you know she had my card?” he asked me.

“I memorized it,” I said. “I passed it to Bernie two turns before I got out, and I was fairly sure he’d passed it to Martha.”

“We should bring you to a casino,” Asher joked. “If you can count cards, that’d be useful.”

I laughed, but shook my head. “I can’t quite memorize a whole deck,” I said. “There were only fifty three turns before I got out, so I could memorize all the cards Bernie took from me, but that was pushing the limit.”

“Your memory is that good?” Asher asked, disbelieving.

I grinned. “Want me to recite the cards?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I believe you,” he said. “That’s just awesome.”

I shrugged. “I don’t play cards that often, so it’s not that useful,” I said.

“You should play with us more often,” Martha suggested. “We’d love the company.”

“Sure,” I said. “Thanks!”

Asher and I grinned at each other, and Martha and Bernie looked just a little bit satisfied with themselves. I’d have to find some way to thank them for forcing Asher and I to meet. They’d forced us together, and we’d come out of it as best friends. I smiled happily, laughing as Martha tried not to pick the ‘old maid’ from Bernie, who’d gotten it from her while I wasn’t paying attention. She ended up picking the card she needed, and Bernie lost. We all laughed, and we shuffled the cards to play again. We played until lunch, and even then, I didn’t want to stop. This game was really fun, and as an added bonus, it gave me an excuse to stare at Asher. Martha went into the kitchen to make lunch, and we played ‘go fish’ while she was gone. We finished right before she came in with French toast, and we ate quickly so we could go back to playing cards.

I tried to teach them ‘cheat’, but Martha and Bernie were way too good at telling when we were lying, and it didn’t work out. We eventually went back to ‘old maid’, because it was more balanced. Martha and Bernie won most of the games, helped by their unnatural ability to tell when the ace had moved on, but Asher and I each won a few too. We played cards for at least eight hours, and it was four when we stopped. We’d been laughing the entire time, and everything was funny to us at the moment. I decided that I really liked Martha and Bernie, and I think they could tell. They seemed to like me too, but mostly they seemed happy that I’d become friends with Asher. As much as I liked them, they were still really weird. They smiled every time Asher and I said anything to each other, but they got all weird while we were playing Old Maid again.

We’d all known that Asher had it, and he’d managed to pass it to me.

I’d laughed, and jokingly said, “Real friends stab you in the front.”

Asher and I had laughed, but Martha and Bernie had both given me death glares.

They’ve been living alone for too long, I thought. They’re the ones who wanted us to be friends in the first place, and now when I say we’re friends they get pissed off.

I’d decided not to mention the ‘F’ word near them anymore, and everything seemed fine. I decided that I didn’t really mind. I was used to avoiding certain ‘F’ words near grandparents anyway. Everything went perfectly after that, and I was disappointed when I realized it was time to go home. I cheered up when Asher promised to text me, though.

I drove back to the cottage, and texted my friends back home to pass the time until Asher was free to text me. A few of them wanted to come up, mostly Frank, who was probably my best friend at home, and I told them I’d have to check with Tommy. That was a lie, because Tommy had already said he had no problem if they had a ride, but I wanted to see what Asher thought about it. I got the opportunity soon, when he texted me.

Hey, I texted back. I want you to meet my friend Frank. Do you want to?

Sure, Asher responded. That sounds fun.

I texted Frank again to tell him it was fine if he came up. He had a busy schedule, so he could only come up for one day, and only this Wednesday would work. I told him that was fine, and went back to texting Asher.

He’ll come up this Wednesday, I told him. He’ll only be here for a day.

I’m going home that morning, Asher told me, and I panicked a little, wondering what I’d do this summer without Asher. I’ll be back around three with my dog, he continued, and I calmed down.

Awesome, I said. I can’t wait to meet your dog.

He’ll absolutely freak out as soon as he’s out of the car, Asher warned. He’s a big dog, and he doesn’t realize he’s not a lapdog. He pushes people over sometimes.

That’s fine, I said. I love big dogs.

Awesome, Asher said. He’s only here for a week, but I wouldn’t have wanted to keep him chained up.

Will he come swimming with us? I asked, excited.

We couldn’t stop him if we wanted to, Asher said. He goes crazy over swimming.

I can’t wait, I told him.

Neither can I, he said.

We talked a little bit more before Martha and Bernie made Asher go to sleep, and then I followed his example. I lay in bed, awake, thinking about Asher until I fell asleep.