Carla and Violet intended to play as partners, so even though there was only one vacant seat, it was already enough for them.
After a long while of looking for an available seat across the floors of the casino, Carla finally managed to find one. However, just as she was about to take it, someone else occupied the seat ahead of them.
"I'm sorry, this seat's already taken," a woman told her.
Sizing her up from head to toe, Carla noticed that the woman was wearing a tight-fitting dress with a slit on one side, which accentuated her sophisticated grace as a charming woman. She proceeded to take a seat after beaming Carla a smile.
"Damn it! She took our seat just like that even though we spent a lot of time trying to find one! Isn't she aware of the rule 'First come, first served'?"
Violet was so upset as she glared at the woman, visibly gritting her teeth in anger.
"It's not that big of a deal. Don't let it get to you. After all, this is a casino, and it's just one seat at the gambling table, so just try not to mind it. We'll find another seat eventually,"
Carla tried to calm her down and was already about to leave in order to look for another seat. But before she could go, the woman stopped them in their tracks.
"Wait just a second, you two gals. You don't have to be in such a hurry to leave. If you could just wait for me right here for 5 minutes, I can assure you that there'll be at least 1 seat available for you," she remarked.
Hearing the woman say something like that, three men who were sitting away from each other around the same table glanced at her one by one.
Quite an attitude this woman had!
"It's totally up to you if you're gonna believe me or not. But I would recommend that you stay and watch for a while. So, what do you say?"
The woman suggested, wearing an enticing smile on her face, as she lit up a cigarette and drew a bunch of cards.
"Violet, how about we just wait here and see how the game is played? It's going to be of great help knowing the rules, right?" Carla told Violet who was standing right beside her.
Without saying anything, Violet nodded her head in agreement. Given that there were no seats available, it wouldn't hurt to stay for a bit and watch the others play.
Because there were a number of ways of playing poker, Carla wasn't familiar with the rules that had to be followed. For that reason, Violet acted like a teacher and whispered in her ears to explain how the game was played.
"The game they're playing is called 'Bullfight', a version of poker which is actually kind of easy to understand. The players are going to be dealt 5 cards. Each card has a value from 1 to 10, and the face cards all stand for 10 as well. In the end, they will have to compete with the banker. The winner is decided based on who holds the cards that have the largest value," Violet explained.
She had stayed in JA City for a couple of years. Even though she rarely frequented the casinos in the area, she had already played this game before in private with her workmates.
Carla was all ears as Violet was talking. However, the woman's cards were kept face down on the table so there was no way for he
ds one more time, Carla still couldn't understand how such a low number could get large points at all.
Completely clueless as to how great of a hand she had, she threw her cards away and shrugged her shoulders.
They weren't the highest points, so Carla became the banker for this round.
As for the other two players, knowing that they didn't have hands that would be a match for hers, they followed suit and threw their cards as well.
As it turned out, Carla's points were indeed the highest out of everyone.
It seemed that she got lucky and ended up winning 5, 000 chips.
"Well, what do you know, you're actually quite lucky, sweetie. What do you say we turn it up a notch and add more chips? 1, 000 chips every round. How does that sound?"
The woman took a puff and suggested. It was rather apparent that betting 500 chips at a time was a bit too little for her.
So, Carla decided to humor her and they started adding 1, 000 chips.
It was at that point that Carla came to realize how frustrating it could be, as she lost a couple of times. The chips she had won from the first round disappeared in just a blink of an eye. She decided to add another 1, 200 chips, only to lose all of it as well.
Maybe she just had beginner's luck, so it was too soon to celebrate.
"Carla, we should stop while we haven't lost that much money yet,"
Violet pressed her hand against Carla's back and gave her a piece of advice.
Be that as it might, Carla wasn't sure whether she should stop already or just continue playing. She was thinking that it just wouldn't feel right to leave the table so soon.
But at that moment, the gambling house, which was brimming with so much activity, became quiet.
There was a deafening silence around the room. In fact, it was so silent that one could probably hear the sound of a needle dropping.
When she turned to check what was going on, Carla saw 2 to 3 men walking toward her. And among them, there was a tall and handsome man walking ahead of the others.
Carla's heart was put at ease at last.
Her beloved Terence had finally arrived to lend her a hand.