UnHolyPimpHand
Not LitShark
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2010
- Posts
- 539
2017: Last Day of Summer
Vardan Sarkesian leaned against the back of his plush leather chair in the office of his strip club Yerevan. He was losing patience and this asshole was making less sense the longer he went on—Gary Marshall was a small-time statistics professor and a big-time gambling addict. He owed money all over town and was notorious for flushing away every dollar that crossed his path.
Gary hadn’t just been unlucky at the tables, but also in life. His wife—the primary breadwinner in his household, died in a car crash several years prior, but rumor had it that between her personal fortune and the life insurance payouts, Gary’s wife’s untimely demise had left him quite well off financially, but nonetheless, here he was—begging Vardan for a loan.
“Have you ever seen ‘Mean Streets’?” Vardan asked at last, interrupting Gary’s stammering with a completely new subject.
“Mean Streets?” Gary had a bad habit of getting parrot mouth when he was flustered.
“See, in ‘Mean Streets’ Johnny Boy, when confronted about his nonpayment of loans, he goes on a big tangent about how he’s borrowed money all around town and never paid back nobody, now nobody wants to loan him money—except for this wise guy, who’s face he’s getting in. Johnny Boy goes on to say that the reason this wise guy loaned him the money after everybody else in town turned him away is because he’s a chump. And he’s never going to get his money back because he’s a chump and he deserves to lose his money,” the music was thumping against the outside of the door, designed to be soundproof, but wasn’t quite equal to the volume of the club’s sound system, “is that you? Are you a Johnny Boy?”
“Am I… a Johnny Boy?”
“Yes, Parrot Mouth! Are you someone who thinks he can make a chump of me? You think I’m so stupid that I lend money to deadbeat who still owes other people? You know what happens to Johnny Boy?”
“N-nothing good, I’ll bet.”
“Nothing good is right. Certain people are not made fools of. You understand what I’m saying to you?”
“Yes, I understand perfectly—I’m sorry if I made you feel like I think you’re a chump. It’s because of your intelligence that I bring this to you, you’re the only one who can appreciate the opportunity. My debts are all settled, my wife’s estate handled that—you can ask anyone. I’ve seen the bottom of the pit, but now I’ve seen the light. The house always wins. Now, with my wife gone, my daughter starting college in the fall, I have tons of space, centrally located with more than ample security to keep the cops off of us. I just need an investment for the tables, machines and staff. I’ve got this gorgeous young lady who I met recently… she’s dying to invest. I just need a little more to do it right—this time in two years it’ll be like printing money.”
“Why wouldn’t I invest in someone who wins at cards?”
There was a long pause.
“Why wouldn’t..”
“If you repeat what I just said I’m going to beat your skull in.”
“You don’t build a profitable casino by populating it with sharks. The sharks go where the prey fish go—that’s the school I swim with. I know how to get in touch with the losers and bring them in—they’ll attract the sharks simply by bleeding.”
“I like this metaphor.”
“But do you understand it?”
There was a long, tense moment where Vardan stared daggers at Gary from through the curtain of his dark hair. When he turned in his chair to open the safe, it seemed like an even money bet as to whether he was reaching for cash or for his pistol to murder Gary where he sat. Gary breathed a sigh of relief when Vardan dropped several stacks of crisp bills on the desk, still wrapped in the bank seals. Four bundles, labeled $100,000 each.
“You won’t regret this!”
“No, I won’t. I hope you don’t either.”
2019: First day of Summer
The golden rays of sunset were streaming in through the shutters over Cory’s small bedroom window of his downtown apartment. He was already shirtless and as his lips moved gently against Sarah’s she yielded into the bed softly, at last. His hand moved slowly over her bare stomach, sliding up under her shirt, caressing her perky breast through her silken bra.
“I love you so much, baby,” Cory whispered, trying to gently reassure her while also asking for more, “I have a condom. Do you—do you feel ready? I mean, you’re going back to your dad’s tomorrow, it might be weeks before we can see each other again.”
Cory’s hand closed tighter around her breast as his other hand slid the button from its hole on her jeans.
“Do you want my last memory of you to be you turning me away cold for the millionth time? It’s not that I don’t respect you, for wanting to wait…but like… people used to get married at thirteen and they’d die at thirty. I want to live my life for now, don’t you? Not some time in the past or future. Just tonight.”
He kissed her again, his tongue roaming hesitantly against hers as he unzipped her jeans and slid his flat hand inside, feeling for the raw nerve of her clit with the pad of his middle finger.
*-*-*
“Blackjack, a winner again, Sir,” Gary grinned despite the intensity of sweat moving down his forehead. If Vardan cashed out just then he’d overdraw the cage—it was bad enough that he owed the Armenians so much money, if they discovered that the casino itself was under water—unable to match nightly winnings, they’d surely feel even less inclined to give him more time.
“Where’s that lovely new wife of yours?” Vardan asked across the blackjack table, smoking a cigarette and nearly finished with his third Scotch, “such a beautiful woman. Someday you’ll have to tell me how you got her.”
“She’s getting some sleep, she had a long night down here. I couldn’t really tell you how I managed to get so lucky with her… I guess I’m just an excellent bluffer.”
“We both know that’s not true.”
They shared some grim and insincere laughter.
“I’d better get going,” Vardan said at last, after Gary hit a sixteen with a nine, “you can just add all of this to what you owe me.”
Vardan finished his drink and flicked his cigarette onto the carpet, not the first to take that liberty. Gary stood stunned for a moment, did Vardan know that they couldn’t afford to cash him out? Was he daring Gary to take this for granted? To be Johnny Boy?
“Thanks so much, Boss!”
“You’re running out of time, Johnny Boy.”
“D-don’t worry, boss. You’ll get yours, I promise!”
“One of us will. That’s for certain.” Vardan remarked as he was leaving. Gary just sighed and started locking up the casino until the next night.
Vardan Sarkesian leaned against the back of his plush leather chair in the office of his strip club Yerevan. He was losing patience and this asshole was making less sense the longer he went on—Gary Marshall was a small-time statistics professor and a big-time gambling addict. He owed money all over town and was notorious for flushing away every dollar that crossed his path.
Gary hadn’t just been unlucky at the tables, but also in life. His wife—the primary breadwinner in his household, died in a car crash several years prior, but rumor had it that between her personal fortune and the life insurance payouts, Gary’s wife’s untimely demise had left him quite well off financially, but nonetheless, here he was—begging Vardan for a loan.
“Have you ever seen ‘Mean Streets’?” Vardan asked at last, interrupting Gary’s stammering with a completely new subject.
“Mean Streets?” Gary had a bad habit of getting parrot mouth when he was flustered.
“See, in ‘Mean Streets’ Johnny Boy, when confronted about his nonpayment of loans, he goes on a big tangent about how he’s borrowed money all around town and never paid back nobody, now nobody wants to loan him money—except for this wise guy, who’s face he’s getting in. Johnny Boy goes on to say that the reason this wise guy loaned him the money after everybody else in town turned him away is because he’s a chump. And he’s never going to get his money back because he’s a chump and he deserves to lose his money,” the music was thumping against the outside of the door, designed to be soundproof, but wasn’t quite equal to the volume of the club’s sound system, “is that you? Are you a Johnny Boy?”
“Am I… a Johnny Boy?”
“Yes, Parrot Mouth! Are you someone who thinks he can make a chump of me? You think I’m so stupid that I lend money to deadbeat who still owes other people? You know what happens to Johnny Boy?”
“N-nothing good, I’ll bet.”
“Nothing good is right. Certain people are not made fools of. You understand what I’m saying to you?”
“Yes, I understand perfectly—I’m sorry if I made you feel like I think you’re a chump. It’s because of your intelligence that I bring this to you, you’re the only one who can appreciate the opportunity. My debts are all settled, my wife’s estate handled that—you can ask anyone. I’ve seen the bottom of the pit, but now I’ve seen the light. The house always wins. Now, with my wife gone, my daughter starting college in the fall, I have tons of space, centrally located with more than ample security to keep the cops off of us. I just need an investment for the tables, machines and staff. I’ve got this gorgeous young lady who I met recently… she’s dying to invest. I just need a little more to do it right—this time in two years it’ll be like printing money.”
“Why wouldn’t I invest in someone who wins at cards?”
There was a long pause.
“Why wouldn’t..”
“If you repeat what I just said I’m going to beat your skull in.”
“You don’t build a profitable casino by populating it with sharks. The sharks go where the prey fish go—that’s the school I swim with. I know how to get in touch with the losers and bring them in—they’ll attract the sharks simply by bleeding.”
“I like this metaphor.”
“But do you understand it?”
There was a long, tense moment where Vardan stared daggers at Gary from through the curtain of his dark hair. When he turned in his chair to open the safe, it seemed like an even money bet as to whether he was reaching for cash or for his pistol to murder Gary where he sat. Gary breathed a sigh of relief when Vardan dropped several stacks of crisp bills on the desk, still wrapped in the bank seals. Four bundles, labeled $100,000 each.
“You won’t regret this!”
“No, I won’t. I hope you don’t either.”
2019: First day of Summer
The golden rays of sunset were streaming in through the shutters over Cory’s small bedroom window of his downtown apartment. He was already shirtless and as his lips moved gently against Sarah’s she yielded into the bed softly, at last. His hand moved slowly over her bare stomach, sliding up under her shirt, caressing her perky breast through her silken bra.
“I love you so much, baby,” Cory whispered, trying to gently reassure her while also asking for more, “I have a condom. Do you—do you feel ready? I mean, you’re going back to your dad’s tomorrow, it might be weeks before we can see each other again.”
Cory’s hand closed tighter around her breast as his other hand slid the button from its hole on her jeans.
“Do you want my last memory of you to be you turning me away cold for the millionth time? It’s not that I don’t respect you, for wanting to wait…but like… people used to get married at thirteen and they’d die at thirty. I want to live my life for now, don’t you? Not some time in the past or future. Just tonight.”
He kissed her again, his tongue roaming hesitantly against hers as he unzipped her jeans and slid his flat hand inside, feeling for the raw nerve of her clit with the pad of his middle finger.
*-*-*
“Blackjack, a winner again, Sir,” Gary grinned despite the intensity of sweat moving down his forehead. If Vardan cashed out just then he’d overdraw the cage—it was bad enough that he owed the Armenians so much money, if they discovered that the casino itself was under water—unable to match nightly winnings, they’d surely feel even less inclined to give him more time.
“Where’s that lovely new wife of yours?” Vardan asked across the blackjack table, smoking a cigarette and nearly finished with his third Scotch, “such a beautiful woman. Someday you’ll have to tell me how you got her.”
“She’s getting some sleep, she had a long night down here. I couldn’t really tell you how I managed to get so lucky with her… I guess I’m just an excellent bluffer.”
“We both know that’s not true.”
They shared some grim and insincere laughter.
“I’d better get going,” Vardan said at last, after Gary hit a sixteen with a nine, “you can just add all of this to what you owe me.”
Vardan finished his drink and flicked his cigarette onto the carpet, not the first to take that liberty. Gary stood stunned for a moment, did Vardan know that they couldn’t afford to cash him out? Was he daring Gary to take this for granted? To be Johnny Boy?
“Thanks so much, Boss!”
“You’re running out of time, Johnny Boy.”
“D-don’t worry, boss. You’ll get yours, I promise!”
“One of us will. That’s for certain.” Vardan remarked as he was leaving. Gary just sighed and started locking up the casino until the next night.