Pokerface - 3. Kicker

Knock on my door at midnight? Who gives a note like that to a complete stranger? Ignoring his insane hypocrisy, Seth opened up his Grindr app to see who, aside from prissy Glenn, might be available to warm his bed from time to time while at sea. Despite what those young bucks seemed to think, maturing into his forties did little to slow Seth's sex drive. He liked to touch another man. He wanted to be the aggressor. Control was important to him - in Poker, in his day to day life, and definitely with other men. It was what made Glenn so attractive - the high-maintenance boy loved to have another man take care of his needs. Fuck him into submission. Stuff old Winston couldn't do much anymore. No wonder Glenn was so hungry for affection. Winston was getting too old and tired to pay attention to his little trophy husband. Glenn never would have thought Winston McIntosh would live so long. Serves him right for gold digging, Seth told himself.

There were seven profiles within the mile. Three faceless, so Seth immediately disregarded them. They were shy, closeted or lacked confidence, and he did not have the interest in men like that. There was an older looking gentleman called "daddy4u" and another without a tagline, but Seth liked his boys younger. A headless torso, a muscular, firm body indeed, admitted that they only liked unprotected sex, so Seth swiped by that one as well. The fourth was an attractive fellow, a black man with a well-trimmed beard and a killer smile. Seth felt his hormones heating up and decided that this was the guy he wanted for the next two weeks if he could get away with it.

Seth: Hi. Are you playing or are you spectating?

The man didn't reply, although the app told him that he was currently online. Whatever. The night was nearly over and he already had plans. Knocking on Chip's door at midnight. Why? He was provocative, certainly, but that didn't mean anything. Chip wasn't the average man. Where his friends were in expensive suits earlier in the lounge, Chip was dressed in cheap garments from the bargain bin at a superstore. Where Red - Donny - and Blond were drinking the fine stuff, Chip wasn't even drinking alcohol. In a matter of one afternoon and evening, the young man had pieced together that Seth was fucking Glenn, and that Glenn was married to a rich and famously vindictive player on the ship. He'd admitted that he didn't like his friend Donny, but he did not extrapolate beyond that. Hmm.

Midnight crept near, and Seth still had not changed out of his beautiful crimson and black suit. It was his favourite. He did not know if he would still need it. Was Chip inviting him to do something sordid? Seth would have no issue with that, he thought. The boy was adorable, and Seth had already seen his lean, delicious body while he was swimming in the outdoor pool on the deck. He could only imagine what his ass might look like. But what else? Could it be a trick of some kind? Retribution for embarrassing Donny not once, but twice? Chip wasn't a malicious person, as far as Seth had picked up. Neither was the blond guy with the hilariously frizzy hair. Donny, though, he had a lot of anger in him. He was used to being top cocky with his peer group, but he was in over his head now that he was in the company of people like Seth. He hoped Donny would play at the same table as Fleur de Blanc because that old bitch would eat him alive and pick her pearly white teeth with his bones.

Midnight. Seth looked at the beautiful clamshell clock above the door to the cabin. Do I go? He felt something he hadn't felt in quite a long time. He was nervous. Apprehensive. Wary. And also... hopeful? The problem with knowing people at a glance was that there were rarely any surprises, and Seth had grown cynical and detached over the years. No boyfriends. No friends. There was no need for them. Boys came over and sat on his dick, and he had an aviary of exotic birds in his home to keep him company. Nerves were unnecessary. A distraction. An inconvenience.

Three minutes past midnight. Seth looked at his Grindr once more, but there were no updates from this placeholder man. Only a message from one of the faceless profiles. He sighed. There were butterflies in his tummy. I'm a grown man. I'm forty-two. I don't need this shit anymore.

Five minutes past? Seth's curiosity was maddening, and he decided that he would at least see what this was all about. His mind would not rest, and whatever Chip was up to would haunt him forever unless he investigated! And those feelings of anxiety... he didn't like them. He wanted them gone.

He steeled himself and knocked on the heavy door opposite his own, and he waited. And he waited. Seconds ticked by, and he began to feel like a fool. He knocked a second time, but nobody answered. A prank, Seth decided, relieved and embarrassed at the same time. He's been trying his best to play me from the very beginning. Well, he can put this round in his pocket then, but that's it. I'm done engaging with these brats. He turned away and went to go to his bed, but the door suddenly opened.

"Sorry!" Chip was standing in an oversized t-shirt and a pair of tight briefs as the crack in the door widened. "You're early! Come on in, Mr Nakamura."

Seth paused.

"Why?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

"You've obviously taken an interest in me back," Chip shrugged nonchalantly. "Sorry about the delay! You're earlier than I thought you would be. Won't you come in?"

"I'm at least five minutes late?" Seth mumbled, slipping in by the young man into his cabin.

It was identical to his own, but all cabins on the top deck would have been. The main difference was how chaotic it appeared. Clothes and books were strewn across every surface, it seemed. Especially the bed. We haven't been at sea for a day yet, Seth thought in alarm. How does someone make such a mess so quickly?

"Five minutes past midnight, but according to my clock, you're ten minutes early!"

Chip chuckled, and Seth looked at him. He was holding up a piece of paper that he'd written on - Seth recognised the fancy calligraphy right away.

Seth knocks at 12:15 xo

"Oh, I see," the Japanese-American man folded his arms and grinned. "You figured you would play another game with me. Well, you guessed incorrectly."

"Guess is such an ugly word. I calculated!" Chip looked cute as hell with his enormous Velma from Scooby-Doo glasses on his button nose. "You'd be too suspicious of me to come at twelve. I just thought you'd be more stubborn than you were, so I wasn't ready when you knocked! Sorry, man!"

"Do you usually dress for bed when you invite company over?" Seth asked him coldly, eyes taking in the sight in front of him. Of course he liked what he was seeing - but Chip didn't need to know that.

"Why bother?" Chip shrugged and tore the paper up in his hands. "You already saw my nice clothes. Would you like to see them again?"

"What?" Seth recoiled, confused again. "It's social etiquette. Surely you know that."

"Do you want me to get dressed again?" The brunette boy asked him, stepping closer. He was of average height, maybe five feet and ten inches tall, shorter than Seth, who surpassed six feet. "I saw the way you turned your nose up at my twenty dollar vest. You already made up your mind about me."

Seth was flabbergasted. The boy thought he was on top of everything, that he had Seth figured out, but he couldn't be more wrong. Seth had no fucking idea what to think of Chip. Yes, his clothes were tawdry, but he was obviously able to afford the hundred and fifty thousand dollar fee for boarding this boat and participating in the tournament in the first place! He was a walking paradox. Everything about him seemed to contradict something else.

"Why did you invite me here, Chip?" Seth asked him, unable to confidently answer the boy's assertion. Not until he figured him out.

"Did you have other plans?"

"No. That's not the point!" Seth tried to keep his composure as Chip's smug grin grew, and the boy flopped down on the cushy red couch.

"Sit down already," Chip's eyes looked huge through the lenses. Very green with black specks. "I don't know, man. I figured you're better company than my friends."

"So why are you travelling with those boys if they're not your friends?" Seth asked him, gingerly sitting down on the other end of the sofa and crossing his legs.

"You're such a smartypants, I'm sure you worked that out," Chip teased him, untying his hair and letting it fall to his shoulders, running his hand through it.

"I haven't," Seth heard himself say. I shouldn't tell him that.

"I'm not a rich kid, Mr Nakamura," Chip answered for him. "I don't belong in a place like this, but Donny and Lester are paying my way."

"And that's why you put up with that ginger virgin's shit, right?" Seth managed a smile when Chip shrugged and shifted his eyes back and forth. "It's a lot of money, Chip. I don't believe they'd do that out of the goodness of their hearts."

"Hey, you're right again!" Chip drew his bare legs up to his chest and hugged them. "I'm a much better player than them. I'm really fucking good, actually. When I win, I have to split it with them. It'll set us all up really well."

Seth laughed out loud. "So you're their bitch. I get it. What happens if you don't win? And you won't win. I will."

For the first time since they met, Seth could clearly see what was going on behind Chip's unique facade. He moved his eyes too much. He curled further into a ball. He licked his white teeth. These were all incredibly subtle tells. Few people would have noticed. Seth did, though. He was scared.

"I'll get to the second round, at least," Chip replied confidently, but Seth had already identified the chink in his armour. He decided to keep that to himself for now.

"What does all this have to do with me, though? Why have you been going out of your way to annoy me?" Seth asked the question Chip seemed determined to avoid, but the boy smiled.

"You're beginning to make me wonder if I've bet on the wrong horse," the boy scratched at his cheek and pushed his glasses up his nose. He had a sweet Southern accent. He didn't pronounce the R in 'wonder' or 'horse,' unlike his two friends. Donny and Lester. "I wanted your attention! I can see I got it."

"You didn't think you could just say hello like a normal person?" Seth asked him, curious to see where this conversation might lead.

"If I wanted to engage with you... would you have bothered?" Chip ran his tongue over his teeth again - a nervous habit of his.

"Tell me why," Seth ordered him, and Chip continued to make eye contact.

"I could use your help," the boy ruffled his lengthy brown hair with his hand. He wore over a dozen tacky bracelets and hair ties on that wrist. "I'm good, but I've seen what those rich folk you had dinner with are capable of. You've beaten them. You know their tells, their strategies, their weaknesses. I was hoping you'd be open to sharing."

"Aw, damn. And here I thought I was going to get laid," Seth wiggled his fine eyebrows, drawing a sweet laugh from the younger man. "Yeah? I wasn't misreading your signals?"

"I've been thinking about it," Chip revealed, and he displayed a brand new smile that Seth had not seen from him before. The boy tended to grin and smirk a lot, but this was a gorgeous smile. Almost shy. "When you were giving Donny shit and offering to take his virginity, well, I almost broke a sweat! You threw me off my game."

"Right. So you want me to tell you the dirty little secrets of the Poker industry in exchange for a bit of fun under the sheets. Do I understand?" Seth asked him, putting the cards on the table so to speak. That was a mistake.

"Excuse me, man?" Chip snapped at him, anger passing over his face. "I'm no prostitute. And fuck you for even suggesting that!"

"Calm down!" Seth was a little surprised at the sudden turn. "I was just playing."

"Can you leave? Thanks."

Chip was done. Just like that. The excitement and the banter and the energy passed between them all gone in an instant. I definitely hit a sore spot, Seth realised. That only served to make him more curious about the other guy. Still, seeing real ire and choler in the other boy was all Seth needed to get up and head towards the door.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause offence," he apologised sincerely, but Chip didn't even look at him. "Really. I'd like to get together soon and discuss the tournament with you. Anything you want."

"No," the boy replied bluntly, his feelings hurt, and Seth sighed.

"You can't win, Chip. Even if you're as good as you think you are, there are at least a hundred people here who are better. Do you really think you can beat them all?"

Before Seth left, Chip had one more thing to say to him.

"I can beat you."