“Six thousand?” I asked, totally shocked. “You bet six thousand on a game of pool?”
“Nine ball,” Kristen corrected. “And the last money bet was only a thousand.”
“I refused to continue allowing Kristen to ‘double or nothing’ at five thousand, one hundred,” Camille explained with a smirk.
“Five thousand, one hundred and twenty,” Kristen corrected. “You’ve got to lose sometime.”
“Six thousand dollars?” I repeated.
Camille explained. “Kristen is of the opinion that there is luck in a game of nine ball.”
“Six thousand?” I repeated, waiting for Kristen to answer me.
Kristen looked at me. “Six thousand, one hundred, twenty dollars, plus five nights with Camille, all the clothes that I was wearing, an hour that I have to diddle Cammy, and now an additional two weeks of complete slavery. I also had to kiss Camille’s breasts.”
“Are you guys fucking crazy?” I asked.
“I’m fucking you,” Kristen answered sweetly.
“You need help, Kris,” I said, quite angry. I turned my back to Kristen and decided to leave this completely intolerable situation.
As I walked out of the playroom, Camille said, “I’m not holding you to any of this, Kris. I was just happy to play.”
Kristen didn’t come back into the apartment for ten minutes. She came in with Camille.
I set out scrambled eggs, low-fat bacon, some English muffins, and coffee. Kristen did not look me directly in my eyes.
I remembered this sort of reckless behavior. It was my real father, the alcoholic. I wanted to shake some sense into Kristen, but I realized that this wouldn’t work. I learned that alcoholism was a sickness, and Kristen’s compulsive gambling was similar. A sickness. Maybe my tickets could help her, but I was feeling quite sensitive about the tickets with the Tim Hawking situation.
“Jim…”
If Kristen couldn’t look me in the eyes, then I knew that I didn’t want to hear what she was going to say.
“Not now, Kris. Eat.”
“But, Jim…”
“Jim is right, Kris,” Camille said, softly.
After breakfast, Kristen went to the bedroom. I knew that she was going to take a shower, which usually was a two person activity.
“I was pulling her leg, Jim,” Camille said.
“Kristen is fiercely competitive,” I said. “If she owes you money, she’ll pay. She’ll probably even be your slave. You should have known better once you realized that she wouldn’t stop.”
“I was having too much fun watching her get angry,” Camille admitted.
“Having fun is one thing,” I said. “Feeding a sickness is another.”
“I know,” Camille said, casting her eyes downward. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want to be angry with you, Cammy,” I said softly. “Kris’ problem is a distraction now. We still need to figure out the answer on how to deal with Tim Hawking. Let’s focus on that. Let’s avoid pool for now and work together on dealing with Tim.”
I really had no intention of staying angry at either girl for long. Yes, Kristen was my Goddess, but she was also human. She may have her own weaknesses and problems, and I would learn to deal with them. Maybe Camille’s making Kristen’s gambling obvious would make it easier to deal with it sooner, before Kristen did anything that she’d really regret.
I left Camille and went into the bedroom. The door to the bathroom was open, and I could hear the water running.
I took off my robe, my boxers, and then entered the shower with my Goddess.
Kristen turned around when she felt me enter the shower and she gave me one of the biggest kisses she ever gave me.
“I’m sorry,” Kristen said when we finally broke our kiss.
“We’ll work it through,” I said.
I saw hope in Kristen’s eyes as I started to soap her lovely body.
After we emerged, Camille was already dressed in one of Kristen’s more modest outfits.
“Jim,” Camille said. “Before we leave, you should do something.”
“What?” I asked.
“Remember the last two wishes you told Sherry?”
Oh, yeah. I delayed doing this before, since I didn’t want to do it in front of Sherry, but I realized that I needed to “protect” Kristen as well. In fact, it might be a good idea to “protect” the entire cheerleading squad.
I pulled out a ticket and Kristen took it.
“You have one wish.”
“You will never accept a lucky ticket from anybody other than me.”
“Your wish is my command.”
I smiled, but my smile faded when I realized that I added the “anybody other than me” part.
Was I really that much better than Tim Hawking?
Chapter 17—Another Addiction; Another Revelation
I saw Sherry during the three classes we shared the next day, and she usually lowered her eyes as she realized that I knew about the “lessons” she needed to learn. I wished that I could have prevented that bit of embarrassment, but I knew that Camille indeed came up with a less embarrassing solution to her predicament.
I caught up with Sherry at the end of the day.
“Have you seen Tim Hawking today?” I asked.
“That loser?” Sherry said, making a face. “I saw him after third period, but I managed to turn away before he said anything to me.” She shuddered.
I smiled. The command I gave her seems to have worked.
Kristen was sitting in her Camaro when I got out to the parking lot.
Inside the car, Kristen was so angry I thought she’d burn a hole in the dashboard where she was glaring.
“What’s up, Goddess?” I asked.
“A nerdy little brat tried to give me something that looked like your lucky tickets,” Kristen spat. “I told him if he ever tried to give anything to me, he’s lose both his hands and another appendage of my choice. To think, a kid like him…”
It wasn’t so long ago that I was a kid like Tim Hawking, but I kept my comment to myself.
“I’m sorry, Jim. It just bothered me. I mean, the nerve…”
“Think of it this way,” I pointed out. “He didn’t hand you the ticket, did he?”
“No…” Kristen said, slowly.
“At least, I was able to protect you. I don’t think I have enough tickets to protect the entire world, though.” I sighed.
Kristen started the car, her spirits a bit brighter.
“What was his expression like when you didn’t take his ticket?”
Kristen actually smiled, now. “His mouth hung open so wide, I wouldn’t have been surprised if a cat walked into it.”
I laughed, both out of Kristen’s choice of words, and how surprised Tim must have really looked.
Tuesday evening, Camille came over, and we discussed how we could possibly deal with Tim by Saturday. No ideas came up, and there were a few questions I needed to ask Camille in private.