The Cartel - Ashley Antoinette Snell [17]
Carter shook his head with a smirk on his face as he watched the young woman’s game.
“What’s so funny?” she asked with laughter in her voice as she looked up at him, one hand plastered to her hip, the other reaching onto the table to collect her cash.
“Nothing, ma. I’m just happy you won.” Carter licked his full lips.
“Okay,” she stated playfully, as she discreetly scanning his body from head to toe. “I see you clowning me, but you need to be minding your own business and hit that six again. I still got money on the table. Everybody ain’t balling like you. I see you betting with your purple chips,” she said, referring to his full rack of big bills.
“I got you,” he said as he prepared for his next roll. “What you drinking on, ma?”
“Hpnotiq and Goose,” she replied.
The two of them stayed at the crap tables all night. They joked and laughed, flirting openly with each other. Young Carter enjoyed her company and appreciated her presence because she took his mind off his deceased father. He noticed the size of her pockets as she tried to keep up with his bets and had calculated that she had lost at least two grand trying to hang in the game.
As the crowd began to disperse, they eventually were the only two left at the table. Drunk and feeling good, they made dumb bets, Carter not caring how much he spent, but the young lady watching every dollar that the dealers trapped up.
“Seven out!” the dealer called. The enthusiasm had left his voice, and it was apparent that everyone at the table was exhausted.
“Looks like your luck has run out.” The girl leaned against the table. She faced him, her head cocked to the side, her eyes low and sexy from the effects of the liquor.
“I guess so,” he replied as he stepped to her, closing the space between them. “You all right. You look a little tipsy.”
The girl smiled seductively and answered, “Just a little bit, but I’m good. I didn’t come here alone. My girls are around here somewhere. This was fun. Thanks for the drinks.”
As she began to walk away, Carter gently grabbed her forearm. “Aye, hold up,” he stated softly. He reached into his Prada pockets and pulled out a wad of money. He peeled off twenty hundred-dollar bills and opened the girl’s hand to put them inside.
“What are you doing?” Her eyes opened wide in surprise. “I can’t take this.”
“Whenever you’re in my presence, everything’s on me. That should make up for what you lost, even though it wasn’t yours to begin with.” He rubbed her hand before letting it go.
“A’ight, I see you,” she replied with a laugh. She threw the money onto the dice table.
“What you doing, ma?”
She put her hands to her lips as if to shush him and then told the dealers to put it all in the field. She picked up the dice, tossed them down the table.
“Two field bet two !” the dealer yelled in excitement, amazed at the young woman’s luck. “Double the payout.”
Carter shook his head in disbelief. He couldn’t believe that the girl had just put two stacks on such a dumb bet. The payout was lovely.
She picked up six thousand dollars from the table and handed him back three thousand. “I make my own ends, but it’s nice to know that there are gentlemen still out here.”
Before she could walk away, Carter said to her, “I didn’t get your name, shorty.”
She brought her lips close to his ear. “That’s because I didn’t give it to you. If you’re worth getting to know me, I’ll see you again,” she replied with a smile as she walked away from him.
“Miamor, who da fuck is da fine-ass nigga you were kicking game to?” Aries asked as she sat in the backseat of the Honda Civic.
“Aries, shut up. Wasn’t nobody kicking game to nobody. I wasn’t worried about that nigga. Y’all bitches just don’t know how to tail a mu’fucka without being all obvious. Our mark was at the crap table in the upstairs VIP. I just chose the table that gave me a nice view to the stairway, so I’d know