Our Hearts as One

Johan: Part 23

I tried to text a quick apology to Ted but Cassidy grabbed my arm and pulled toward the door of the hotel room.

"Cass wait! I don't even know how to play Poker!"

"Me neither." She said.

"Then how do you expect us to gamble?!"

She stopped to think for a second then snapped her fingers. Cass ran over to her suitcase and threw it open, digging to the bottom. "We flirt!" She said and pulled out a small black dress that could have been mistaken for a shirt. "Get cozy with some of the players and they'll open right up. It'll work easier for me but I think, if we show of those muscles you hide..."

"Cassidy I'm not flirting with some random slut to learn how to play poker."

"Why not..." she complained.

"Because I have a boyfriend!"

"Well you'd be flirting with a girl...so its not really cheating or anything...."

"Cassidy."

"Fine. I'll flirt and teach you when I learn."

"You're not going to be some perverts arm candy. " I said.

"It's not like I'll do anything with them."

"What happens when some handsome dressed man in his early twenties takes an interest and the flirting turns real?"

"I wouldn't be attracted to him."

I looked at her. "Are you sure because I don't want to have to kill a man in Cali."

"Johan,  I'm asexual."

Silence. More silence.

"Well I'm just not sure I can trust these people. Someone puts a hand on you I'll kill them."

"Jo, you gotta have more trust in people."

"No thanks."

We argued back and forth and half an hour later we were in the casino using fake ID's she somehow managed to make. I was seated at a poker table next to an extravagantly dressed female and Cassidy was twirling her hair and smiling at some fancy dressed man while he explained the game.

"Let me guess." The woman next to me said. "It's your first time in California, your friend there has no interest in anyone here but is trying to learn the game and you tagged along to keep an eye on her. She forced you into these clothes didn't she?"

"What are you? A psychic?" I asked.

"No, but I just am good at reading people. You look uncomfortable in that shirt." She said pointing to the really tight shirt Cassy forced over my head. "She looks bored even though she's acting intrigued and you tense up anytime someone gets relatively close to her."

I whistled. "Your good."

She smiled. "How about I teach you the game, no flirting required." She said.
*******
Another half hour passes and I was sitting at the bar with the woman- Daffodil - while she drank a Sex on the Beach and I sipped at a French 75 cocktail.

"So what happened then?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder at Cassidy for the 100th time.

"Well he up and left me. His new found soulmate was a jealous little thing and told him to stop talking to me. So just like that my childhood best friend and first true love became none but a stranger."

"That's horrible! I'm so sorry."

"Oh you have nothing to apologize for. When you find your soulmate, just don't abandon everything you love for them."