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Trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world is not for the faint of heart, but there are a few ways to lighten the mood. Which is the exact thought process that brought upon the situation they are in.
“Does anyone know where he keeps the cards?” Came the voice of Alison, who was searching the pantry cabinets for the aforementioned cards.
“Probably not in the cabinets” Micah offered, smiling and significantly less sarcastic than the average person would be. Adam thinks that his smile looks a lot like a frog, probably, he’s never seen one in person.
“If you can’t find them, we can always use my tarot cards” the woman at the kitchen table offers up, spreading her cards and earning an eye roll from Adam.
“Found ‘em” announced Alexi, lightly shaking the pack in his hands.
As everyone circles around on the floor Adam absentmindedly picks at his many multitudes of hangnails,
“How about we play Acey-doosey?” Alison says awkwardly,
“I’m fine with that, but how do you play?” Adam answers, finally looking up from his nails.
“You take two cards, and try to get a third in between the two numbers” she says, nodding along slightly.
Okay, what the hell?
“So it’s a gambling game?” Micah says, suddenly sounding much more interested.
“What will we gamble with?” The woman with the tarot cards asks “I would usually suggest strip but….” She trails off, eyeing Micah’s gut.
“Enerjecka?” Adam offers, nodding in the general direction of the fridge. Earning noises of approval from the other guests. Micah walks over to the fridge, grabbing a drink for each player, and setting them down in the center of their circle.
“Can you shuffle them? I’m not good at it” Alison whispers, leaning quite close to Adam, poking his shoulder lightly to get his attention.
“Sure” he grabs the cards a bit too quickly. Would he say that it’s a crush? No. But he does find her quite interesting. And if she liked him he wouldn’t quite mind. Adam makes quick work of shuffling the cards, getting a small “woah, thank you” in return.
Alison passes out the first two cards, everyone getting somewhat decent cards, and Adam getting an ace and two
“Oh look!! Acey doosey!!” Alison says, pointing to the cards “that’s the best hand possible!” She gives him a smile that’s all teeth and too wide, but it makes his heart flutter all the same.
“I’ll bet my Enerjecka on that” Adam says, nodding. The can, straight from the fridge, should feel cold, but was much warmer than his hands as he placed the can in front of him. Alison places the third card down, revealing a seven.
“Yay!” She exclaims excitedly, practically throwing the two Enerjecka at him, her smile only growing, which Adam does make a valiant attempt at returning, but it is quite difficult, and ends up looking more like a snarl in the end. But the point seems to get across anyways when he sees her cheeks gain a pinkish hue.
The woman with a tarot cards gives the two a strange look before placing her Enerjecka in front of her, signaling she wants to bet it.
The rest of the game passes in a blur for Adam, and if you asked if that blur was spent mostly staring at Alison, to that he’d say: no comment. But fortunately for him, in that blur he had also mustered the courage to talk to her more afterwards.
“I had fun playing today, we should play some more sometime, yeah?” If anyone could see his hands in his pockets, they’d know how tightly his fingers were crossed.
“Oh yeah, I’d love to, cool, yeah, sounds like a plan!” Alison said, nodding quickly. Adam had opened his mouth to respond when she then quickly turned and sped off to her closet/room.
Well, at least it’s a start.