Why You Don't Cheat on a Witch Part 3
When I got back Michael and Dee were not there and I was left to confront my boss. I didn't really want to but it would have been more awkward to ignore him. As I approached he said, "Mr. Steins and Michael went to go collect you winnings."
"Oh." I really hadn't thought of anything else to say. So I didn't say anything and we stood. One minute , then two, then three. I shifted. I wondered if he was here for my sake, but he wasn't asking me which didn't really give me an opening to explain and if I just started explaining that would mean I had something to explain. It would have been so much easier if he had just left.
"After winning that much, will you continue working at the firm?"
"We weren't playing for money." He looked at me in surprise, "Didn't Michael or Dee explain the game to you?"
Thanks a lot Dee. Mr. Palvos was sure to see discrepancy if I tried to lie.
"My mother is one of those people that knows everyone. When she was younger she and a group of friends started playing poker with a twist in it. The point of the game is to cheat. My mother stopped playing regularly with those friends when I was born. I learned from Dee and Dum. We used to play when we were supposed be doing our homework."
"This is when they studied art from your mother?" Why did he sound so doubtful about my mother teaching art? "She must be an excellent teacher as she seemed well known by everyone playing."
"She's one of those people that know everyone."
"Why did you pretend to be drunk and a fool?"
Dee answered this as he and Michael returned. Dee sidled up to my side. "While Medea is a decent at bluffing and slight of hand, eventually they would start wondering why she was not pulling out of the game. No one stays in if they are so obviously out of everyone's league. If she hadn't acted so ridiculously drunken to draw their attention away from that fact she would have been set up as a cheater and outed from the game. Playing the idiot if done well is a successful tactic and as they all assumed from the beginning that she was an idiot it was the easy way. All she had to do was make it until the last round and then let the best man beat himself. What is that proverb? 'Let your enemy beat themselves' some Chinese one, I think. " He handed me a list, "Here's the list, should prove useful don't you think?"
Michael slapped Mr. Palvos on the back, "Told you it would be an interesting place to spend an evening."
"Poker where you're supposed to cheat. They all must have been very good. I never even saw a hint of them cheating."
Dee kept an unconcerned face, but Michael looked slightly disconcerted I knew I was sure to have a guilty face. "But, explain to me again the connection between the two of you. Michael, how in the world to meet Medea's esteemed boss?"
"You're Medea's boss?" Michael laughed, "Well, that explains your last string of good luck at work."
"What would that have to do with it." Mr. Palvos and I said at the same time.
"Medea, you know good luck follows you wherever you go." The idiot was implying that I got by on my mother's charms and spells. It was an innocent remark I'm sure, ignorant as hell but its what most people thought.
Later Dee told me that at that moment I was very much like my mother and that I was a step away from giving him the evil eye. (Evil eyes don't need a formal spell casting or preparation but are given when you anger a witch. It's strength is in correlation to the anger. The longer you make eye contact the greater probability of it sticking).
"Luck?" I said angrily," I've gotten to where I am by my choices, the good and the bad. As for Mr. Palvos' success at his companies, that is his and has nothing to do with me unless my ability at filing is sole cause of it."
"Oh, I see. You're probably right." Jason used to say that when he was sure he was right but thought it beneath him to argue with me. I realized after that I must have drunk more than I thought.
"Probably right. Probably right? And what exactly do you know about my life that would make me only probably right? What an absolutely ignorant remark. What exactly is your brother writing home to his family? Shall I tell my mother she has a student that can't hold his tongue." I held him with my eyes not letting him go. Dee poked me.
Michael gasped slightly after I looked away. Dee was amused at the whole thing. Mr. Palvos I suppose was confused or angry. His eyebrow was furrowed so it was one or the other, I was shocked at myself.
"I'll see you later Mikey. I think Medea and I will go out for drinks with you another time. Mr. Palvos hope you enjoy yourself here. I highly recommend it it, there is a little something for everyone in the way of entertainment."
We didn't go to some highbrow place but instead Dee bought some beers at the convenience store and we went and sat on a bench in a park that over-looked a river. We drank. I was freezing. I had an overcoat but my dress was not built for the weather. After a few minutes Dee looked at me leaned over and kissed me. He pulled back and looked at me.
"Not going to curse me on the spot? You were great today."
"You mean I was a penny pinching, drunken, abrasive woman."
"I mean you were great today." And then he kissed me for a good while after that.
The next morning I drank my hang over begone brew. While I didn't have a hang over that didn't mean I had a clear head. I was mixed up. I didn't feel at all myself. But I didn't have time to collect myself. I was already going to be late for work. I wished that Michael could have been watching because luck was obviously not with me as I ran into Mr. Palvos (literally) as I rushed into elevator to beat the closing doors. I swear this man only sees me at my worst. "Sorry."
Dee sent flowers that day. The same instant Mother got mad at me for giving Michael the evil eye. Turns out Dee wasn't imagining things and I had given Michael the evil eye. His brother had gone to my mother's class and been so scared that she hadn't been able to get him to open up until the lesson was half over.
"You will go apologize."
"But I don't know how to contact him."
Mother doesn't believe in the word impossible and she wasn't going to help me or let me talk to Michael's brother.
"If you don't he won't speak to me for a month. Don't go scaring my students. I want it done today."
Dee and Dum didn't have their contact number. So after work I found myself at my bosses door. I was afraid of my boss. The man was one of the few people beside my mother, Dee and Dum that suspected that I was spiraling out control. It was true of course but I didn't like others knowing it. I didn't want bring it to his attention again but I was more afraid of my mother's wrath.
His secretary told me he was out and I excused myself feeling foolish for some reason. I walked -more like ran away, my hand brushing my hair out of the way, but it kept falling down because I was looking down. I ran head on into someone. I knew before even looking up who it must be.
"Mr. Palvos."
"Ms. Gavin."
If I had known that he really didn't have much of a sense of humor I swear he drug the entire situation enjoying me squirm as I asked for Michael name. And then he asked me 'why' and 'what for'. I was very suspicious of him enjoying every minute of it.
"I'm having lunch with him, why don't you join us and talk to him at lunch."
"I kind of need to talk to him alone."
Which he said was fine as he was going to be late.
Wonderful apologize first and then join us for an agonizingly awkward lunch afterward.
After the agonizingly bit of slow talk I said, "Michael, I'm sorry for yesterday. I was overly sensitive because of personal matters and I took it out on you. I acted very badly, I'm sorry."
"Dee called me and explained."
I coughed in my water.
"Why that dirty little--! He told me he didn't have your number!"
Michael started laughing and the tension broke a little. He read my surprise.
"No, Ben's description of you was actually so accurate it surprised me."
"Ben?"
"Mr. Palvos, his first name's Benjamin. Last night while we were waiting for you, he wondered if you had split personalities, overly dumber and then into an drunken attack mode."
I really wanted to go into my attack mode but I felt that if I didn't want my mother to kill me I would do best not to.
"Does he know about you being a... I mean us. Why in the world did you bring him to a witches poker game?" He and I both leaned in to talk about this. Really, if people over heard us the worst that could happen is that they would think we were weirdos probably avid Harry Potter fan nuts.
"I didn't, well, not really. I know him from work. He's the company lawyer. I was saying goodbye and then he just kind of tagged along and I couldn't get rid of him. I thought you wanted him there."
"I thought you were friends, why are you having lunch with him?"
"I'm not exactly sure why, it seemed like a good idea at the time."
It then hit me all at once. I felt very light headed. I remembered what the man from my office had said when my mother's spell had encouraged him to ask me to tag along against his better judgment. His talking at the bar, "It had seemed like a good idea at the time."
