Card Sharks by Liz Maverick

faces. Even Peter.
    Marianne narrowed her eyes at Donny. “You imbecile,” she muttered.
    â€œWhat did I do? You said you wanted to play poker with the boys.”
    She leaned over the table. “This isn’t real poker. We might as well flip a coin!”
    â€œÂ â€™S okay with me,” Donny said. “It would be faster.”
    Bijoux suddenly had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She tried to remember exactly what she’d discussed with Donny when she’d called him up and suggested the poker game in the first place.
    â€œBijoux, we need to use the ladies’ room,” Marianne snapped, standing up.
    Bijoux didn’t need any persuading. She got up, and the two of them headed into the bathroom and locked themselves into the cramped space. “Oh, my Lord,” Bijoux said as the locker-room stench hit her olfactories. She reached down and grabbed the matchbox sitting on the sink. She lit a match, let it burn for a second, then blew it out and waved the smoke around in the air.
    â€œGood God, watch your foot,” Marianne said.
    Bijoux looked down and recoiled in horror as she tried to shake the item off her spiked heel. “Is that what I think it is? Get it off!”
    Marianne used the toe of her own shoe to nudge the jockstrap off Bijoux’s shoe, then grabbed Bijoux’s shoulders. “Focus! We’ve been set up. Do you realize that?”
    â€œI . . . I,” was all Bijoux could say.
    â€œWhat exactly did Donny say to you when you asked him if we could play?”
    â€œWell, I just said I had this friend who was interested in finding a poker game and that you and I wanted to come play too, just once, and if that was okay with him, we’d really like to. . . . He immediately said it was a great idea and that it would be lots of fun.”
    â€œImmediately?” Marianne asked suspiciously.
    â€œYeah, I thought, ‘Well, that was easy.’ And I guess it was too easy.”
    â€œThat scoundrel. He had strip poker on his mind from the very first second, I’ll bet. We’ve . . .” Marianne picked her hand up from where it had been resting on the towel rack and looked at her palm. Her lip curled as she wiped her hand off on the toilet paper roll. “We’ve totally been had. . . . And how do these men live like this?”
    â€œSo what do you want to do?” Bijoux asked.
    â€œWhat do I want to do? Do you realize that if we stay, as we stand here, we’re about ten minutes away from being two socks and some underwear short of appearing stark naked in front of a bunch of wholly undeserving men?”
    Bijoux immediately started giggling. She should have known. She’d absolutely walked into Donny’s trap. Marianne was right.
    â€œWhy are you laughing?” Marianne asked with a frown. “Answer me two things. One, would you date any of them, and two, do you want to get naked in front of all of them right now?”
    Bijoux giggled some more, snorting through her nose a bit. “No . . . and . . . no.”
    â€œThen stop laughing. This is serious.”
    Bijoux stopped laughing. “It’s serious?”
    â€œWe’ve got to tell them we’ll only play real poker and we’llonly play for money. Winner takes the money; losers take something off.”
    That might sound good to Marianne, but Bijoux was not a naturally skilled game player. “I’ll end up naked. I’m not good at games. I mean, I play . . . I just don’t tend to win. In this case, that’s a problem.”
    â€œI’ll watch out for you,” Marianne said. “We’ll kind of tag-team it. I’ll play with you in mind. If I see you’re heading for trouble, I’ll make a play in your favor.”
    Bijoux nodded. “That might work . . . but you can’t guarantee it. And seriously, Mare, I don’t