Love’s Gamble

Chapter 2

“Hey there, darling,” said Gil, hugging Freema tight. All of the others greeted her in their own varying warm ways and Freema greeted them all in turn. Roseanne gave her a warm smile.

Freema was not fooled by all of this ersatz warmth though. She knew that they were here to take her money. She knew that they were all here to take everything she had, and it was up to her to make sure that she came out of this place with enough to give her nest egg a huge boost. She was starting to get impatient. She was starting to feel like if she did not leave soon, she was going to start to go absolutely crazy.

After a few drinks, everyone left for the Korean restaurant where they had set up shop. They entered through a back door and everyone bought in. It was a hundred dollars to start off with, enough to let the minnows think that they had a shot. Minnows generally had a breaking point, and if the entry buy in was low enough they would end up spending a great deal of money making sure that they were in the game while they thought they could win.

There were four newbies that day, each of them representing a fat wad of cash that each person playing could earn.

“What about the new owner?” said Bert. He was a gruff biker type but even he seemed to fit in, in this odd group of weirdos that played poker regularly together.

“If he has a problem with it we’ll handle him,” said Freema easily. She was not the leader of this group by any means but she was definitely the boldest among all of them. She knew that in order to preserve what they had with each other they were going to have to be direct and take whatever they wanted without worrying about the person in front of them. If they were going to keep their little gambling ring alive they were going to have to make sure that this new owner knew that they meant business.

“What’s his name anyway?” asked Peter.

“Ken,” said Roseanne. “Ken Ahn. He bought the Totoya Restaurant from the previous owner, and I highly doubt that they informed him of the fact that there is an illegal poker ring that meets in the basement of the premises.”

“Poor guy,” said Gil. “I hope we do not have to rough him up.”

The whole group laughed. They knew that this was a joke, because they were not the type of people who would rough someone up. Quite the contrary, they were the kind of people that made sure that the person they were in front of knew that they didn’t mean any harm. It was the best way to make sure that no harm came to their little set up, because the authorities were willing to ignore certain illegalities if they knew that it was not going to lead to violence. Whenever violence came into it, however, they would make sure that they acted swiftly and without mercy. They were not the kind of people who would allow violence to occur in their city.

They got to the Totoya without incident, but made sure that they walked a fair distance from one another. If the cops saw them walking together they might have investigated, and each person was carrying a fair bit of cash. Freema was hopeful that the others, like herself, had brought a little more money today than they had gotten last time. She was hoping that they were starting to feel more secure with the Totoya. However she knew that at least half of this group would be too afraid of repercussions to bring a lot of money, especially because of the fact that the new manager was someone that they did not know. The previous owners had been Louis and Christine Kim, an old couple that had been more than happy to let people gamble in the basement as long as they got their cut of the proceedings. They enjoyed the danger of it in a way. No one knew if this Ken Ahn fellow was going to be as relaxed about the whole thing.

They settled down at the table and decided that whenever Mr. Ahn saw fit to come down and see what was going on they would deal with him. They bought into the first game and started to play, excited to finally start playing for high stakes. Tonight was going to be a good night indeed, and they were all excited to be here.

*****

Ken Ahn was nervous but there was nothing new about that. He was a rather timid person, and buying this restaurant had been done in a fit of uncharacteristic boldness on his part. He had not been used to making such bold decisions, but he knew that if he wanted to get anywhere in life he was going to have to be as bold as life required him to be.

He had spent so long not really living. He had spent so long feeling like he was not worthy of the courage that so many other men found naturally within themselves. This was probably why his wife had left him.

He flinched as he thought of it, the rejection that he had felt as he had read the note she had left behind. He thought about all of the things he regretted about their marriage, about the fact that he had not taken the chance when he had had it, when he had refused to act boldly simply because he had been unwilling to take the first step that was so often necessary.

He did not want to think of the fact that his wife had left him because he was not as strong as he needed to be for her. The very thought of her made him sick. It made him feel like he was losing control of his life.

Once his wife had left him, he had realized that he needed to make a number of changes in his life. One of these changes that he so desperately needed to make was that he needed to become more assertive. His wife had been quite rich, and when she had left him she had had to pay him a fair amount in the divorce settlement. As soon as he received the money, he quit his job and bought himself a restaurant. It was a way for him to take control of his life. It was a way for him to feel better about himself. Stronger, as it were.

He looked around the place. There were people here, people eating the food that his chef had cooked. They seemed to really enjoy what he was offering and that made him happy. The previous owners had made the place quite popular, which explained the rather high price they had demanded for the place. He had gladly paid it, however, he had not wanted to think too much because thinking ended up making him second guess himself and stop being as assertive as he wanted to be.