Lip and Annie Ch. 01

After a few moments hesitation Annie stepped inside, quickly walking past Robert, and found herself an open area beside the bed where she turned and watched him. He motioned towards a chair on the opposite side of the bed, just past the chair that was arranged at the table where his laptop was situated.

"That's okay. I'll just stand here if you're not going to be long." She seemed nervous as she stood there, and once again her hand was in her purse.

Robert had changed into a pair of dress slacks and a short sleeved pale blue shirt. He noticed that Annie had changed into a long sleeved white blouse buttoned to her neck. She was now wearing a rather plain below-the-knee length black skirt as well, and it appeared she had restyled her hair.

He decided not to bother arguing with her, and instead he went back to his chair in front of the laptop. "I have a business designing and maintaining websites for businesses that don't want to be bothered with the details. Part of the deal is that I will make any of their desired or required changes on a same day basis. The sites are all on a pair of servers in my office, which is in my condo, and as long as I've got an Internet connection I can do whatever they require. I just have to rebuild this one file and then I'll be done."

He had been working as he spoke to her, and about the time that he finished the last spoken word he began the final build of his client's database. He turned to Annie and smiled while the rebuilding took place. "Just a few more seconds. I collect a monthly fee for these updates and rebuilds, and I can't really leave it too long if I want to fulfill my contract. I give them a free month if I fail to get things done within 24 hours, and I've only had to make good on that guarantee a couple of times."

His job was his main interest after poker, and he was naturally calm and in control as he spoke about it. There was no noticeable nasal quality to his speech as he described his work to her. A few seconds later the blue line crawling across the screen reached its end, and he said, "I'm done. We can get going now. I'm sorry that I wasn't ready when you arrived."

By this time she was looking slightly more relaxed and said, "That's okay. I am starting to get a little bit hungry though." She laughed nervously as she walked to the door, following behind Robert. He quickly opened the door and she hurried past him, stopping when she reached the center of the hallway. She appeared to be almost completely relaxed now, and Robert noticed that she finally removed her hand from her purse. He decided that it was perhaps just a habit of hers. Everyone had their habits, as he knew full well from his own history.

Their walk to the restaurant took them through the entire casino, but there wasn't much opportunity to speak as they made their way down the restricted walkways between the rows of slot machines. There was no such thing as a straight route across the casino; they were forced to zigzag their way past the noisy and flashy banks of electronic slot machines. They did manage to let each other know that neither one of them was very interested in playing the slots. Robert preferred the challenges of poker, with the requirement that one had to know the odds as well as the other players' habits and idiosyncrasies. He assumed that Annie's motivation would be the same as his.

When they reached the long hallway leading to the restaurant they were able to leave the noise and crowds of the casino behind them and were finally able to carry on a bit of conversation.

"It's certainly obvious that they feel they make most of their money from the slot machines," Annie said. "You can't go anywhere around here without being forced to walk past rows and rows of them. Once in a while I'll play one, if I'm trying to kill some time."

Robert was walking beside her and replied, "I have played the slots for a few minutes now and then, but only when the poker tables had no openings. I'd rather play poker online than sit in front of one of those slots."

Annie took a quick glance at him and said, "I've never played online for cash. I'm afraid that if I started, I might not want to quit. I usually just use a computer as a source of information. Obviously, with your job and your online poker, you're much more computer literate than I am."

They had reached the maître d's station at the restaurant, and were quickly sidetracked from their conversation as they requested a booth. In just a few seconds they were being taken to their requested booth in the non-smoking area.

"Go ahead and order whatever you'd like, Robert. I don't think there's anything on the menu that's going to break my bank, and if you can tell me what it is about my play that lets you know when I've got Pocket Rockets, it will be worth it." She seemed much more relaxed now that they were sitting amongst the other diners, and smiled as she picked up the menu.

"I'll go easy on you, Annie. I'll have the regular cut of prime rib. It's really good here." He didn't even bother checking the menu before making that statement, as it was the meal he usually had when he visited the casino.

"That sounds good. It's something that I've never tried here, so I think I'll join you with the prime rib." She set her menu to the side and that was the signal for the waiter who was hovering near their table to come over and take their orders.

When the order had been taken and the menus collected, Robert said, "Well, I won't leave you wondering. Do you remember that nut flush you flopped about an hour after you sat down? I think you had the Ace and five of Diamonds."

Annie looked at him curiously as she nodded in agreement.

He continued, "That was the first hand that you had the nuts, and I noticed that you didn't check your stack of chips at all as you played the hand. Every other hand you were in you would often glance over at your stack, as though you were debating how many of the chips you could afford to lose if you're hand wasn't good enough. When you had that Ace five you knew that you were going to win that hand, and you never once looked at your chips. When you got that pair of aces you did the same thing. The only way that you could have the nuts on that hand, both before and after the flop, was if you had Ace Ace."

Annie looked at him in shock before saying, "I can't believe you picked up on that. You must be a real good student of human nature and how people act and react. I am really impressed."

Robert was looking across the restaurant as he said, "I've had lots of time to study people. I guess it's from watching their reactions to me. For years I've paid attention to how people handle being around me. When they noticed my lip they often work really hard at looking anywhere but back at me. The opposite extreme is that they can't seem to do anything but stare at me. There are also lots of reactions that fall in between those two extremes."

Annie didn't say anything right away so he continued, "Besides the scar there's also the sound of my voice. I know that I have a bit of a strange sounding voice because of the cleft lip and palate I was born with. I could probably have another operation to clear that up some more, or maybe I could see a speech pathologist again, but I've never bothered to follow up on that. Anyway, some people react oddly to my voice."

"I just can't hardly believe that you were able to pick up on that little quirk of mine. I've never been able to pick up clues that way on other people, beyond what I would call the obvious. There have been a few people who get noticeably excited with a good hand. It's easy to tell with them when they don't have such a great hand." She was shaking her head as she said this, and then continued, "I'm going to have to work hard at changing that habit." She laughed a little as she continued shaking her head.

"That shouldn't be too hard for you to do, now that you know about it. I don't have to worry about tells quite as much as you'd have to, because even at the poker table people react to my lip. For a lot of them, that's all they can see, so any tells I might have are missed. Other people don't seem to look at me as much as they do the others at the table, I guess in fear of upsetting me with their attention. You seem to fit into that category, by the way."

Annie was a bit flustered with that news, and said, "I'm sorry if I reacted poorly to your condition. I'm a nurse, and I see lots of people in situations where their appearance has been drastically affected." She got very quiet and appeared to be almost on the verge of tears as she continued, "It's very upsetting to me to learn that you have noticed me reacting that way. I really am sorry." She seemed to be deep in thought for a couple of moments before continuing, "I really should be more conscious of things like that: of all people, I should have been able to avoid that kind of reaction. After what I've been through, I feel a bit ashamed of myself."

Robert chuckled loudly before he said, "Don't beat yourself up about it. You're just being normal in your reactions, even though you are a nurse. I believe you just over corrected when you realized I have this condition. People that behave the way you do are for the most part trying to avoid acting like they're staring at me. I look at it as being the better of the two extremes." He laughed before saying, "I really mean it. I'm not offended at all. I've never known life any other way than with my scar, and I've adapted myself to it."

There was something else that he wanted to say to her, but he was a little unsure about how to phrase it. Finally he said, "There's something else I need to say about your poker play. You aren't taking advantage of your own good looks, like you should be doing." He noticed that she blushed a little when he said that, but he was determined to continue. "You should be wearing something a little more revealing than that bulky sweater you had on this afternoon."

He chuckled and continued, "You should be showing a bit of cleavage. Have you ever seen Jennifer Tilley on TV when she's playing poker? She knows how to distract the men at the table from watching for a tell."

It was Annie's turn to look at her hands while she spoke. "That's never going to happen. I've seen her on TV and I know what you're talking about, but like I said, it's not going to happen." She looked up at him and he could tell that the subject was closed as far as she was concerned. He thought she was making a mistake, but decided not to pursue the subject. It did seem more than a little strange to him that she would be so emphatic about it.

Annie then made an obvious attempt to change the subject. "You know, I'm really looking forward to this supper. I had a late breakfast, and then I skipped my lunch, so I am really ready for a good meal. I'm glad I offered you this deal. I'd probably be sitting here by myself again, having some meal that I've tried before, instead of trying their prime rib." She thought for a second before continuing with, "This is almost like a date, and I haven't been on one of those in over five years"

Robert looked at her curiously while he thought about what she had said. "I guess you could consider this a date, if you overlook the fact that you were actually bartering for information. However, I guess it would be nice if this was a date, because this would be my first date ever." He took a drink from his glass of water while Annie considered what he had just said.

"You can't be serious! What are you, around 30? You must have been on a date. I'm ready to call bullshit again." She was looking at him in some amazement, waiting for him to retract his statement.

He blushed a bit before looking down at the table and saying, "I'm not joking. I've been out as a single for meals and shows with other couples, but I've never been on anything that could be classed as a date." He looked back at her before continuing, "You don't need to be concerned about it. It's just something I've accepted over the years. I have more reason to be shocked about you not being on a date for five years. You are a beautiful woman, and I think you must be kidding me."

Annie wasn't quite sure what to say, so she finally replied, "Thank you, but believe me, I'm serious. Someday maybe I'll explain it to you. I just can't get over the fact that you say you've never been on a date. When I asked you for supper I didn't think I would be dining with a 30-year-old virgin." She laughed to lighten the mood.

Robert laughed as well and said, "I said I'd never been on a date, which is true. I never said anything about being a virgin."

She looked at him curiously and asked, "Well, that doesn't make much sense. How can you be one, but not the other?"

He didn't reply right away, but finally said, "To quote a phrase that I've just recently heard, someday maybe I'll explain it to you."

They were both thinking about his reply just as the waiter arrived with their meals. Conversation was soon forgotten as they decided that satisfying their appetites defeated their interest in more conversation. After they had both taken the edge off their hunger, light conversation did resume, but it was limited now to comments about the restaurant, their meal, and other dishes that they had enjoyed at the Grand Casino Hinckley Restaurant.

When both of them had finished their prime rib, the conversation turned to the prospect of having dessert as well. Annie was emphatic that she wouldn't be able to handle a dessert, but she finally did agree to split an order of Bread Pudding, a dessert that they were both familiar with from past visits to the restaurant, and which they both agreed was phenomenally tasty. Annie made a point of saying she would add it to the bill, and that he should consider this a bonus.

When their shared dessert was finished they each ordered a cup of coffee to sip while they let their meals settle. They were both complaining about being overly full now, but neither one would state that they shouldn't have ordered the dessert.

Before they left the table they exchanged email addresses and promised to be in touch after they had returned to their home towns. Both of them planned to spend the evening at a poker table, and agreed that it probably wouldn't be quite fair if they were to join the same table. Instead, each would find their own table to play at. Both of them planned to leave the next morning, Annie heading for Duluth, and Robert on his way back to Thunder Bay, Ontario.

They walked back together to the poker room, and waved goodbye to each other as each headed for their assigned table. Both of them were happy to have made a new friend, especially one with a shared interest in Texas Holdem poker.

To Be Continued