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"Mommy, only one room got any furniture!" Kaye's child came back into the den to reveal the results of her exploration .

Kaye gathered her child in her arms and picked her up. "Judy, I want you to say hello to Mr. Reed. We will be staying with him for a little while. The furniture in the bedroom belongs to him. You don't have permission to go into his room. We will have to sleep on the floor until I can buy us some furniture." The little girl looked at me warily as she tried to figure out how I would hurt her. As nonthreatening as I could, I told her hello and I was glad to meet her. She shied away from me.

"Kaye, I obviously thought you two would have more possessions to move in here. That is why I rented the truck. Its too late to get you any furniture tonight so you and Judy will sleep in my room tonight and I'll crash on the living room floor. Tomorrow, we'll go shopping to make this place livable for the both of you."

She eyed me and said, "That wasn't part of our deal."

I told her, "Consider it a bonus and an incentive to teach me. Now go figure out a list of what you need and we will hit the stores before you have to go on your shift tomorrow." On that note, Kaye and Judy retired to my room and closed the door. I heard the lock latch behind them as I settled down on the floor for an uncomfortable night.

I suppose parents are used to the experience but for a single male to wake up and see a five years old waif staring down at him is quite disconcerting. Apparently, it was the same for five years olds as well as she sprinted out of the room. As I slowly got up and worked the kinks out of my body Kaye walked in.

"Good morning, did you sleep well?" Kaye asked with obvious concern. Judy hid behind her mother waiting to see how I reacted.

"Like a log." I factitiously replied groaning away the pain. I continued to stretch to get my body in working order. Before I could ask how they slept I heard the rumble of hunger pangs erupting from Judy. I realized that I had neglected to stock the kitchen with any food and now there was a hungry kid to tend to.

"Look, its too early to go and buy some furniture, why don't we head out to a restaurant and grab some breakfast. By the time we finish, we can do a furniture run and load up and then buy some groceries and set up the apartment. By the time we are through it should be time for your work shift."

We drove to a diner and it was like Judy hadn't ate in a week as she wolfed down her food. Kaye became embarrassed as she explained how hard it had been to stretch their money from paycheck to paycheck. I told her that she didn't owe me any explanation. I caught the glimmer of a smile on Judy as I suggested that we order some blueberry muffins to go.

As we drove to the store, I watched Judy sneak a muffin out of the sack she held in her lap and began nibbling at it. When she saw me looking at her, I winked and her face light up when she saw I wasn't bothered by her appetite.

When we got to the furniture store, Kaye and I got into an argument as she initially went to the cheapest furniture possible. I kept insisting that she buy furniture that would be comfortable for her and Judy. She finally settled on a modest well built bedroom set that she and Judy could share. Judy's eyes were large in the anticipation of sleeping on the queen size bed and having a dresser to keep her clothes in rather than a cardboard box.

"Well, what about the livingroom and the kitchen?" I asked.

Which led to another argument as Kaye insisted it wasn't necessary and I insisted it was. I finally told Kaye if she didn't pick out something that I would leave it up to Judy to select. That brightened up Judy and Kaye quickly forestalled that possibility and again bought some plain jane comfortable furnishings. As the salesman tallied up the damage, I was able to get a small discount since I was paying in cash.

Then after the furniture was loaded up, I drove us to Costco so we could purchase kitchen items and linens and all the other various items needed. I noticed Judy looking wistfully at the home entertainment section as Kaye tried to rush her past it. I suggested that I purchase the full cart and load it in the van as she and Judy take another cart and purchase food and I would catch up with them.

By now Kaye knew it was no use trying to argue with me and she and Judy went off to get an empty cart to shop for groceries, As I finally caught up with them they were waiting in line to be checked out.

"Where have you been?" Kaye asked, "I kept going through the aisle and kept impulse shopping!" She had a slight guilty look as she confessed. I told her not to worry about it and I was soon pushing the overburdened cart toward the van. As I proceeded to open the van door as a passerby jokingly commented whether I had bought out the entire store. Looking at Judy, I joshed back that it took that big a van to keep feeding the kid. My comment got a laugh out of her and I knew I would like to keep seeing her happy.

We were all busy little ants lugging all the purchases into the apartment. It was a struggle to get some of the bulkier items in but Kaye was deceptively strong and we managed to get it all in.

I did have some trepidation as I began carrying in the home entertainment center I had purchased complete with a 42 inch flat screen TV with an Xbox and various child appropriate games and videos. "So that was why you were missing for so long?" Kaye mockingly glared at me as Judy danced around in anticipation.

With a straight face I replied, "This is part of the teaching method I employ. When Judy learns her lessons she will be rewarded." It was mostly a bluff but I might as well show Kaye I was serious about teaching Judy. It certainly got Judy's attention as she eagerly held up each game in anticipation.

Kaye went into her bedroom to prepare going to work. When she came out clad in her uniform she looked down at me and Judy sprawled on the floor. I had opened one box of the unassembled furniture and had Judy sorting out the various nuts, bolts, and washers provided. I was having her count out each assembled mass until she got the count perfect. As I used the various components in the assembly I asked her questions based on how many had we used so far and how many were remaining on the floor. In that way, began our very first math lesson. Kaye stood watching amazed as Judy animatedly responded to my questions.

I looked up at Kaye and said, "I don't know why you look so surprised. All my life all I wanted to do was teach people." She shook her head as she said goodbye to Judy and went to walk the two blocks to the bus stop.

For the rest of the day, I continued to construct furniture and reenforce the math lessons Judy was learning. I knew it would just be a matter of repetition to instill the lessons. Each day I would have to find a way to make it fun to learn numbers. Luckily, I could delve into some schemes I had written for the old TV show.

By the time Kaye back from work I had all her bedroom set built and arranged in her room. I knew that she would re-arrange it to suit her, but, at least I made the effort. I had hamburgers grilling so all Kaye had to do was sit at the table and listen to Judy recount all she and I had done that day.

After supper, Kaye had Judy take a bath and she excused herself to her bedroom. I went ahead and tidied up the kitchen. When she came back out, she was wearing an overly large T shirt with bulky gray sweatpants on and somehow she made it look enticing.

"Thank you for fixing up my bedroom. I hope you don't mind if I move things around."

I laughed and told her I expected her to do that. As we sat down at the cleared off kitchen table I pointed out the Nanny cams I had installed and showed her how she could access the feed from the computer or her phone.

"Look, if I had any real suspicions that you would harm my child, we wouldn't even be here. Judy and I were at the end of our lifeline and your offer is a godsend, but still, if I thought you would be hurting her I would've preferred living in the hell we were." Kaye explained to me looking at me with such clarity from her blue eyes. "Now, you've been teach Judy all day and it is time for you to go to school."

With that she broke open a deck of cards and began shuffling them. We started off with five card draw poker. Kaye explained to me the procession of winning hands from royal flush all the way down to high card. I immediately grasped that the procession was based on the rarity of completing a particular hand. In other words, odds. In other words, numbers. Something I was familiar with in computations.

We continued on into the night she dealing dummy hands for her to rotate around playing against me. I was getting a sense of frustration as she was consistently beating me. Finally she begged off saying she needed to get to sleep. I went to sleep upset that I wasn't an instant success at poker. I was somewhat placated by the lingering scent of Kaye's perfume on my bed linens.

When I woke up the next morning it was to the smell of bacon and eggs. I dressed and staggered out of my room. There was Judy at the table with a large pile of Cheerios, loudly counting each one and then adding and subtracting them before they finally disappeared in her mouth. Kaye was smiling as she put the finishing touches to the meal and set the table.

It dawned on me that this was what I was missing in life. Simple domestication. Just an ordinary family sitting down to enjoy an ordinary meal. For the last few years all my meals had been bought and paid for. Good food, bad food, good waitresses, bad waitresses, always in a public setting, always alone. A sense of depression overcame me that I hadn't felt since Lauren left me.

Kaye spotted me and beamed a smile and then a look of concern on her face. I sat down trying my best to engage with Kaye and Judy. Still I could tell I wasn't fooling Kaye. I got through the meal and suggested to Judy we start with some new math games. By staying busy I avoided having Kaye ask me any questions. When she left to go to work she asked, "Are you all right?"

I looked at her and said, "I will be." Even though I didn't feel it.

Week after week passed by, the same routine, breakfast, then Judy's lessons, then Kaye going to work, more lessons, Kaye's arrival to a waiting supper, Judy's bedtime and then my poker lessons. We were going through all the variations of poker; draw, stud, and communities games like Omaha and Texas Hold 'Em. I quickly grasped the rules for each game. I would make the analytical correct play, but, still I was losing to Kaye. And if I was losing to Kaye that meant I would be losing to other players when I finally sat down to face them.

I started getting discouraged and wondered if my business proposal with Kate was going to be a bad investment. Still I labored on trying to pick up the nuances of the game. We were at it late one evening playing hold'em. I watched as Kaye shuffled and dealt yet another one of the thousands of hands we had played. I got excited as I examined my hole cards; Ace and king of diamonds suited, big slick. Then came the community cards; queen, jack, ten of diamonds. I had flopped the holiest of holy. A royal flush. Before I could even begin to make a bet Kaye threw in her hand.

"Why the hell did you do that?" I loudly asked in exasperation.

"Because you flopped a royal flush." She calmly explained.

"How the hell did you know?"

She sighed, "You told me. Without saying a word you told me exactly what you had. Why do you think I consistently beat you in these practice sessions. You display a particular mannerism when you have good hands and another when you have bad hands."

That was the start of my graduate school lessons in poker. We delved into tells, false tells, chip power, seating positions, bluffs, raises, and reraises for the next two months. Elsewhere, we had settled into a comfortable existence as I continued to educate and tend to Judy during Kaye's workshifts. Judy continued to show a healthy and voracious thirst for knowledge as we tackled the alphabet, words, elementary grammar, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Occasionally, I would throw out a little algebra and wouldn't you know it, she picked right up on it.

Kaye was worried that when Judy started school that she would become bored with her classes. I assured her that I was covering that issue with Judy and she would have no problem excelling at school and continuing her advance education at home.

"But, what if the other kids start to pick on her?" Kaye fretted.

"Kaye, you are giving voice to what every parent in America thinks. Judy is a smart girl, she is starting to adjust positively to things. She will go to school and make lots of friends and be the teacher's pet in every class. That is a win/win situation."

Still on that first day of orientation, Kaye took off work and asked me to accompany her. I did and Kaye nervously clustered around Judy like every other parent present did with their child. Judy and the other kids had a natural curiosity to meet and play with one another. Just before class convened, Judy ran up to me and reached up for me to hug her.

It surprised both me and Kaye but I leaned over and held that precious little girl and said, "Go, get em, tiger!" She broke the hug and smiled and ran off to join her classmates as they started one of the rites of childhood. As we left to go back to the apartment I noticed Kaye furiously trying to wipe tears off her face. I suggested that we go to a park and just enjoy the day instead of being cooped up in the apartment. She agreed and soon we were walking on a path in the park with ice cream cones.

By unspoken mutual consent we sat down on a park bench and watched the world go by. Kaye began to talk of what had transpired to put her and Judy in Las Vegas. I listened as she told me of how she grew up with an alcoholic father. He wasted no time kicking her out of the house when she turned eighteen. Then she decided to leave and go to Vegas. When she moved she met Charlie and she got knocked up. Kaye immediately found a casino job, but, Charlie was looking for the "right" job and laid around the house sucking down longnecks.

Judy was two years old when Charlie's "right" job came along. Unfortunately, the job was cooking methamphetamine. Since Charlie kept sampling his wares, he had a tendency to go berserk and chase and beat Kaye for any number of imagined transgressions. That continued until the police got an anonymous tip and arrested Charlie after a controlled buy. Charlie screamed at Kaye to bond him out, not appreciating that she had nowhere near the money to put up for a bond. He threatened to get her and Judy once he got out.

That was the last straw. She and Judy moved unannounced into the hellhole trailer park and it had been her and Judy against the world. She started sobbing exclaiming that now she was losing Judy.

I dropped the remnants of the ice cream cone and held her as she continued to cry. Curious passerbys eyed us, some obvious thinking I was the cause of Kaye's emotional outburst. I continued to console her letting her know that she would never lose Judy. I told her how proud she needed to be to overcome the odds against her. She was alive, healthy and beautiful and she would make whatever she wanted out of her life.

As soon as I said it I mentally began kicking myself. She stiffened up on me and broke from my caress. I looked at her red tear stained eyes as she looked at me questioningly, "You think I'm beautiful?" I was trapped.

"Yes, I think you are one of the most beautiful desirable woman on the face of the planet. I only wished that I had a chance with you" My brain kept telling me to shut up!

"Why haven't you told me this before?"

"How could I Kaye? I'm a nationally discredited professor. I'm having to scramble around casinos just to make a living. I have no viable prospects. I'm ten years older than you. You and Judy deserve better than me." I miserably explained.

"The only good part of my life left is sharing an apartment with you and Judy. You two have given me an anchor. You've given me something I can depend on and now I've put it all in jeopardy by telling you."

"Do you know what you've done James...For once you've gone against all that analytical awesome logical brain of yours and raised every chip you had...it wasn't the wrong call."

She raised up and I maneuvered down and our lips met in the middle as we clinched one another. I have no idea how long we were in that position, but, we were interrupted by a police officer asking Kaye if she was alright. Apparently some onlooker thought Kaye's emotional outburst warranted the police checking on her. After we satisfied the officer, our mood was totally over and we looked at each other and laughed. It was a comfortable laugh that had developed over the shared experience of living together.

Did we go somewhere to bounce our bones? No, we were both committed to making this work. We continued to live as we had before, but, with a growing sense of intimacy despite the handicap of a precocious little girl. Judy had picked up on the trend between her mother and me. She insisted that we start doing all kinds of activities together. We tried to comply with all her requests when possible.

My confidence level rose as I started to understand human behavior better than I had in the past. Kaye finally pronounced that I was tell free and so the next day I accompanied her on the bus to the casino. I waited after an hour after she clocked in to go inside. Immediately, the tones and lights, and noises caused a reaction in me. I wanted to run to a blackjack table and start playing.

The I noticed a large hulk watching me. He had the small earbud that most of the security personnel wore on duty. I began walking to the gaming area and he walked ahead of me toward the blackjack tables. He was caught offguard when I veered toward the poker section. I stood observing all the different players, catching their mannerisms and spotting their tells. My security friend loomed around me as I continued to study the tables. An hour before Judy was due to be home from school I left to go back to the apartment.

That routine continued for a week as I discussed with Kaye what I saw at the poker table, We agreed that the casino had adopted a wait and see attitude toward me. As long as I aroused no suspicions at a blackjack table I should be okay. Still, Kaye insisted on our practice sessions continued as she jokingly called it earning her keep.

I had picked up on something nagging at me as I watched her shuffle the cards but I couldn't place what it was. I thought it would eventually come to me. Kaye and I tried to spend time progressing from G rated activity to R rated activity when Judy went to sleep. The sexual frustration and intimacy was driving us both crazy as we tried to control our passions. I started suggesting that Judy needed to go over to a friend's house for a sleepover. Kaye informed me that we were about two years away from that happening.

I let another week go by as I watched the poker action. I noticed several stereotypes. One, my least favorite was the large boisterous player that tried to bully every player at the table. Then you had the tight control freak that would only bet sure hands. You had your everyday pros that just quietly made a living. There were your superstitious players that would bet based on whatever their lucky charm told them. Then you had the vamps, good looking women that would try to charm their way to a win.

I soon realized that I could pick up patterns and tells on most but a few pros still eluded me. As long as I eluded them I would have a chance. Still I watched and learned. I knew eventually I would have to enter a game. I still had resources, but, they were dwindling away without any prospect of being replenished unless my poker game came to fruition.