"You’ve been here before?" I asked Patty.
"Yeah. Kristen and I talked a bit here a day or so ago."
"About me?"
"Yup," Patty grinned. "About you. And other things. Just like you and I talk."
Patty parked at the end of a long driveway to the left of a three-car garage.
I got out of the car, and headed toward the main house, but Patty called me back. "We’re going in here," she said, indicating the garage.
"The garage?"
"There’s a door on the side that leads to some stairs. There’s like an apartment or two up there."
"Wow," I said, noticing for the first time that the garage actually had a second and third floor.
Patty walked into the door, which was unlocked. She led me upstairs and down a hallway into a room on the rear of the garage building.
The door was ajar, and when Patty opened it, we saw Kristen was already in there, sitting on an easy chair reading a paperback book. It was "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky.
"Hi, Jim… Patty!" Kristen said, smiling. "Billy said you arrived."
"Hi Kris!" Patty said.
"Hey, Kristen!" I said.
I looked at the apartment that Kristen was sitting in. It looked nice with a beige and dark brown motif. Kristen had been sitting on an overstuffed chair in what appeared to be a living room that had a couple of love seats. There were some bean bag chairs against the walls, and a television set.
There was a kitchen to the right of the living room, and through the kitchen, I could see a hallway with at least two doors.
"You live here?" I asked, amazed that Kristen would have a place with so much privacy.
"No. This is just my play room," Kristen replied. "It was originally designed to be an apartment for servants, but we never used it for that. I took it over when I was about seven, and tend to spend most of my free time here. I sleep in the main house most of the time, though, although I have fallen asleep in these comfortable chairs."
"It’s nice," I said, awed by the fact that Kristen had her own private apartment as well as a bedroom at her home.
"It’s private, but it’s can get lonely in here. I come in here mostly to read or to watch TV. Patty was one of the first people other than my brother or my cousins to be in here."
"Hmmm," I said. This intrigued me. If Patty was one of the first friends that Kristen had invited, then she hadn’t brought over her snobbish clique friends here. I felt honored to be here.
Patty said, "I brought him here in one piece, Kris."
Kristen smiled. "So… you guys want to play a game?"
I was surprised. I had thought that Patty brought us here to talk, but Patty smiled and said, "Yeah. Do you have any cards?"
"Sure. Pinochle? Bridge? Poker?"
I looked dumb. "Huh?"
Patty said, softly, "Different types of decks, Jim. Do you know how to play five hundred?"
"I’ve played that a bit," I said.
"It’s tricky with three. How about you, Kris?"
"I play five hundred. Bridge deck, then."
Kristen bent over the top of what I had thought to be a cocktail table and she pulled it up, exposing a large chest of games and other things. She rifled through it until she found a suitable deck of cards. She lowered the top back down, and placed the cards on it. "Want a card table, or do you want to sit on the floor and play here?"
I answered, "The floor is fine." I didn’t want Kristen to go out of her way.
Kristen nodded to Patty, who walked out of the living room and into the kitchen. I heard some movement, and Patty returned with a tray that had a pitcher of orange juice and a crumb cake. "Breakfast!"
I smiled. Kristen’s "play room" had just about everything!
Patty said, "I turned on the stove to heat the kettle for tea, Kris."
It occurred to me that Patty and Kristen seemed to have this little rendezvous pretty well planned. The breakfast ingredients were still cold from the refrigerator, and everything looked just perfect.
Kristen saw me gawking at the tray. "I had Edgar set this all up last night; I told him that I was expecting company. I don’t want you to think that I slaved over a hot oven baking you a crumb cake!"
I grinned. I guess being rich had its benefits.
Patty shuffled the cards after we cut ourselves some cake and poured some OJ. The tea had boiled, and Patty brought three steaming cups into the living room.
We started to play five hundred.
Kristen was an excellent player, and she won all the games. While we were playing, Patty would discuss various things, drawing both Kristen and I into the conversation.
Eventually, I started getting a crick in my neck, so I looked at my watch. "Goodness! It’s eleven thirty!" I said.
"Is it that late?" Patty asked, sounding concerned. "Darn! I have an errand to run for my Mom. Oh, Kris! I hate to be a spoil-sport. I need to drive Jim home."
I didn’t want to leave; I had been having fun!
"Oh, Patty!" Kris said. "Do you really have to go?"
Patty looked at Kris, and then at me.
"Um… if Kristen doesn’t mind, maybe she could take me home!"
"That’s not a problem," Kristen said immediately.
Patty flashed me a smile, and then I realized why Patty’s voice sounded so funny. She probably didn’t have an errand at all… she just wanted an excuse for me and Kristen to be alone. That conniving, wonderful, beautiful girl!
The two of us bade Patty farewell.
"Five hundred isn’t really a two-player game," Kristen noted after Patty left.
"Yeah," I said, a bit stumped for conversation.
"How about gin rummy?" Kristen asked.
I played that once or twice with a cousin on my real father’s side a few years ago. I figured that I remembered the basics.
Kristen smiled, and my heart melted. My little blonde Goddess has a smile that could melt the sun.
She was also a mean gin player. On the first hand, on my first discard, she called "Gin!"
"Huh?"
"Tell you what, Jim? I’ll score you to one hundred and myself to five hundred. OK?"
Kristen must have had one hell of a gin tutor. That girl beat the pants off of me for about a dozen straight games, reaching her five hundred points before I even had a chance to get my hundred.
That lovely blonde Goddess also beat me the next set of hands, but I found myself getting more competitive with her.
Oh… the two of us talked. We found it easy to talk while playing cards, something that Patty must have known all along.
Kristen and I played gin rummy straight through to about five o’clock, and I found myself doing better and better against Kristen to the point where I almost got close to beating her. I got very close a few games, and Kristen reluctantly lowered her target score to two hundred. I never really won against her, But, you know… it never really mattered!
Chapter 11
I think that both Kristen and I grew tired from playing cards for over seven hours straight. I mean, I wasn’t tired of being with Kristen, but I was starting to see red and black spots in my eyes!
Kristen was the first to notice the time; it was nearly dinner time. I knew that my mom would kill me if I were to miss dinner without letting her know (she’d probably call "911" at six o’clock), so I told Kristen that I needed to be home for dinner.
I wasn’t too happy to leave Kristen. I actually got to know her much better during the time we had played cards. We talked about little things, or families, and whatever else happened to pop into our heads.
I found that Kristen’s father was very heavy into the stock market, and had investments all over the world. He served on the board of directors of a few very large companies. Her mother was a socialite, planning and participating in a lot of charity events for the many philanthropic organizations that she belonged to.