Chapter Two
by Sasha Cooke

Just before they got to the thruway Neil told the driver to pull over.

I thought you said…

No worries friend, right here’ll do me. Keep the change.

Half a block down he’d spotted what looked to be an alright bar. He walked briskly down and up the concrete stairs. His kind of place. Pool, no snooker of course, and some kind of table game with maybe five college kids crowded around it. He grabbed a draft and went to check it out. Right, Walter Mathau with the little girl. Table hockey or something. Hitting something around a rectangle at high speed. He grinned. The boys were playing ten dollars and in, winner stay on. He watched for three games, and pretty sure he had the hang of it, put down ten.

He was forty up when the phone finally rang.

Bar over near Mulholland….Yeah, well I’m in the middle of a game …..Wha’sis called boys?....Air hockey. Yeah, but Stace, there’s money on the line…..Yeah, that’s more but I’ll be done in a minute, call yah, right?

He pocketed one more ten and left the table. He knew they were staring- guy doesn’t even know the name of the game and he scores twice talking on the phone. Stiff cheese, boys.

With another draft he sat at the only empty table.

Stace, yeah I’m free, sorry about that.

I want to talk to you about a couple of million and you’ve got to finish playing air hockey?

Hey come on, you sound like my real girl- I thought that was just a fake out.

Look, Cav, this is serious stuff and I can’t stay on the phone all night, I’m supposed to play in this damn thing. Anyway, it sounds like you’ve pulled it off again, everyone’s convinced you can’t hold it.

Yeah, that’s almost as bad as letting that poofter smack me around. I mean, what if my pals find out about this?

Hey, that’s my husband. Anyway, pretty soon you’ll be back home with enough money to buy new friends.

I still don’t quite get how it works.

Look, Henry can’t handle pressure. A law suit is going to throw him way off balance. If he thinks he can get out of it by fobbing you off with that property he’s going to jump at it.

And you’re sure you’re the only one who knows what it’s worth?

I am one hundred percent the only person in L.A. who knows low-end real estate and the high tech business. These guys are going to need that property badly, they just don’t know it yet. They can’t expand any other way and you can’t test drones in the bathroom. We’re gonna make a killing.

Long as it’s we, eh?

Look- how can I cheat you- you’re going to be the one on the title- I’m the one should be worried.

So what’s next?

We’re already there, Cav. You know Reid. He wants everything pleasant. Now he knows there’s supposed to be a suit, he’ll be giving Henry all kinds of advice about how to smooth it over. He’ll be telling him now he’s in the big bucks he can’t afford to get associated with that kind of trouble. Plus, now Henry thinks he can take you he won’t be thinking you could be faking him. Hold and flick- eh?

How’d you get so down on this fella, anyway?

Don’t worry your Kiwi head about it. Just keep playing your part. Have fun with the kids tomorrow.

Stacy slipped the phone into her bag and looked through the window. The exhibition was almost over, but barely anyone was watching it. On the benches Henry was slumped over with Reid patting his shoulder. Paddle ball, pickleball whatever. Sheesh. Had to be harder than playing these clowns. She drummed her nails on the sill until she’d wiped the business face off and slipped on the party smile. Time to mingle.

Cavanaugh was back at the table. The fellas had looked a little suspicious but he’d bought a round and they were easing up. Could he lose the first game and cheer them up a bit more?

Thirty seconds in the puck glanced off his paddle and rattled in the goal. Not so different from lessons at the club. Guys think they can play even with a pro because they played number 5 on their college team before they gained twenty on the mid-section. Lose one every now and then and keep ‘em coming. Fool ‘em you can’t play, fool ‘em you can’t drink. Maybe he should have been a spy. Nah, that was against the rules. He let another slip in. The boys were practically cheering. Was this the way to go or should he try double or quits lefty? Could you even call this a competition?

Reid was calling her name on his bullhorn. Little boys, honestly. And there was Henry at her shoulder, practically slobbering. Evidently Reid hadn’t had a calming effect.

Your goddamn boyfriend- you know what he’s doing?

For the hundredth time, he’s not my boyfriend, but yeah, I know what you’re talking about. Don’t forget, Hank, you did attack him in front of witnesses.

Well what the hell am I supposed to do? I’m in business, I don’t need this crap.

Oh for gosh sakes, Hank. He’s just a squash pro. Why don’t you just give him that house those flippers stuck you with?

Oh yeah, like that’s how I’ll stay in business.

Well it’s better than a public lawsuit where you’ve got to claim I was cheating on you. And it’s a lot better than shelling out real money. I mean the guy almost drowned Hank. You could be on the hook for half a mill. A house you took in payment you can write off twice.

You really think so?

Sure Hank. Now I gotta go play.

Little boys. Could you even call this a competition?

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.