Love’s Gamble

Ken looked at her up and down. “I do not care about money,” he said. “I own this restaurant, I can earn good money from here. I can earn legal money from here, money that I won’t have to hide under my mattress.”

He continued to look at her. There was an odd expression on his face, something that Freema wasn’t all that used to looking at. Come to think of it, she was not all that used to people looking at her like that. She didn’t know what to make of it, but she figured that it was working in her favor. She did not see any hostility in his face, she did not see anything that would put her in danger. And so, seeing that she had the opportunity to get the upper hand, to convince Ken that allowing them to play in his basement would be a good idea, she started to press her point further.

“Listen,” said Freema. “I know that you want to earn clean money. Hell, all of us do. But the fact of the matter is, this economy is rigged. You own a restaurant, that’s great, but soon you are going to realize that managing this place is a very expensive affair. Once you are done paying all of the bills, the cops are going to come in and start asking for bribes, and if you do not pay up you are going to realize that they can be the worst kinds of criminals. You can do fairly well for yourself if you just manage the restaurant, but are you going to be able to earn good money? And I’m talking about truly good money, I do not mean that petty cash that small time crooks make.”

Ken looked at her, that same look in his eyes. It was a very odd look, and it was making Freema a little uncomfortable, but she was determined not to let it phase her. She needed to make sure that she held her ground and got Ken into their fold so that they could gamble in peace. When Ken did not speak, Freema continued.

“The answer to that question is no. But if you allow us to play in your basement, that’s at least two thousand every week, easy. That’s if we are not betting a lot, and if you give us the safety of this environment in your basement you can rest assured that we are going to start betting more and more. I’d say that you’d easily be earning more than ten thousand dollars a month within no time, and it’ll go up to twelve pretty soon. Who knows, maybe fifteen would be right around the corner. And if you provide a space that is extremely safe, well then. The sky is the limit as they say. There is no end to how much you can earn. And you know what the best thing is? You are not even going to be involved in any serious crime. On the contrary, you are just going to be allowing some very minor, very non violent crime to occur in your basement, and you are going to be very well paid for it. If you make sure that everything goes smoothly, soon you are going to find out that crime does pay. Everybody in this city is involved in it to some extent. The only problem is that with practically every other kind of crime, violence is involved. Getting involved in this is going to allow you to earn the big bucks and pay off those damn cops without having to worry about a thing, and you are going to have a clean conscience. You are going to earn the money that you deserve to earn, and you are not going to have to worry about a single thing while doing it. Leave the management of the whole thing up to me, that’s what I do. I manage stuff and make sure that people know the rules of this place. Bert and Gil, they are pretty good at making sure that no one causes any harm. Roseanne, she’s going to help you with the accounting. I can assure you that nobody is going to try and cheat you, because we know that you hold the power here. You can call the cops on us every time. You can get us all locked up. And so, you can rest assured that we are most certainly not going to fu*k with you.”

Ken was silent for a few seconds, and then he said, “Boy, this really means a lot to you doesn’t it?”

Freema was rather taken aback by this. She wasn’t sure of how to respond. She had thought that he might mention the money, that he might ask for more just like they all did. She thought that he might refuse, that he might say that it was too dangerous. But this… this response was entirely out of the ordinary, and she was left bewildered and not really sure of what would be the right thing to say in this scenario.

“I guess,” said Freema. She didn’t know how truthful she should be right now, and she did not want him to sense any weakness in her. The truth was that this really did mean a lot for her. This was why she had been so ready to overcome her annoyance and her unwillingness to do this. It had been for her own sake as well. She needed these poker games, but she did not want Ken to know that. He was someone that she did not know, and therefore someone that she did not trust. The problem was, he seemed to have already known that it meant a lot to her. This was not a query, it was a confirmation. He knew that it meant a lot to her, and he was just commenting on this fact.

“Clearly it does,” said Ken quietly, looking down as he spoke. He seemed to be in deep thought. He looked up at her and said, “So, if I call the police right now no one is going to beat me up?”

Freema’s heart thudded in her chest. Had she made a misstep somewhere? Had she said the wrong thing? Had she doomed her group by saying something that she should not have said? She decided to be truthful right now. They had nothing to back up any threats, no muscle of any kind, and they needed Ken. If he wanted them out, they would have to leave or face the police. It was as simple as that. He had all of the power here. He might not realize it yet, but whether or not that was the case his power was still there and it was still something that Freema had to be wary of.

“No,” said Freema. “if you call the police, there is nothing we are going to be able to do to stop you. We are going to get kicked out and we are not going to be able to do this anywhere else.”

“That’s probably going to be a rather unpleasant situation,” said Ken. “Especially for you. You need this quite a bit, I can see that. If you can’t do it here, where else can you do it?”

“What are you trying to say?” asked Freema. She was angry. She felt like this man was toying with her. This was not the case, of course. He was not the type of guy that toyed with people, but Freema was not used to people being genuine with her. She was not used to people that genuinely wanted her to get what she wanted. She was used to people using her, people making her feel like they were doing her a favor by giving her anything at all.