Hustle Me by Jennifer Foor Page A

 
    “I only smile when I’m happy, and that is usually never!”  
    I leaned back against a metal shelf. “I bet I can make you smile, Charlie.”  
    She put her hands up. “Please stop saying my name and please get out of my kitchen. Don’t you have a match going on? Did you lose already?”  
    “Of course, I didn’t lose but, it'd go a lot faster if you were watching, like you promised you would.” Okay, maybe I had hustled her earlier, but I liked messing with her. She got so uptight about it.  
    “I didn’t promise you anything! Go away!”  
    I crossed my arms and stood up straight. “The way I see it, you have two options. You can try to move me out of here yourself, which I promise you will fail at, or you can come watch me shoot. Either way I think, will be equally enjoyable for me.”  
    She rolled her eyes. “I really don’t like you at all.”  
    “I really don’t believe you.”  
    “I have no reason to lie. You’re an asshole!”  
    “Jammer, get your ass back out here and shoot!” Tippy’s voice interrupted us.  
    I grabbed Charlie by the apron and pulled her out of the kitchen with me. She tried to fight me. “If you don’t let go of me I am going to scream rape or something. I swear, I will.”  
    I kept laughing as I got myself a beer and pulled her into the billiard room with me. Right away I could see that Jaye was jealous, not that I cared. It wasn’t like I owed her anything, in fact, I hadn’t asked her to come with me at all. I pulled a chair out for Charlie. “Watch and learn, woman.”  
    I caught her shaking her head as I grabbed my stick and got down to business with my match.  
    Tippy started sharking his player right away, like he always did. The guy he was playing was getting annoyed, but I didn’t have time to worry about them. The guy I was shooting had stuck me with a safety. He had hidden my object ball in between two of his. The way the rules went was that if I didn’t hit my object ball first, it would give my opponent ball in hand, meaning he could put the ball anywhere he wanted on the table and have the advantage of running out the rack. I wasn’t okay with that. Plus, I was trying really hard to impress the un-impressible Charlie.  
    I studied every angle of the shot before deciding to kick at it, by shooting at a rail behind it and hitting it the opposite way. I leaned down and stroked four times, like I always did before I shot. The cue ball traveled at medium  speed into the opposing wall to finally come back and hit my object ball. Unfortunately, it freed up both of his balls to enable him to run out the rack. I cussed under my breath when I realized he could win this rack.  
    I backed up against the wall while he started shooting and heard Charlie laughing at me. “Wow, the only thing I’m learning from you is how to lose.”  
    I tightened my lip and sighed. “Whatever! It ain’t over.”  
    “Better make it fast. I’m getting really bored.” She was such a damn spitfire. It made me crazy and, at the same time, peaked my interest more.  
    The guy stuck himself on a tough shot to end the game and he ended up scratching the cue, instead of making his ball. Since he scratched on the final ball, I automatically won that rack. The guy picked up the stick and banged it over his knee in frustration. “FUCK!” I tried not to smile, because I knew how pissed it would have made me to miss that shot.  
    I broke and ran the next two racks and played a couple kicked shots to do it. As the guy was racking the balls on the table, I turned toward Charlie. “Still think I suck?”  
    She cocked an eyebrow. “How much longer do I have to sit here?”  
    It was past one in the morning and I knew she had a little brother to take care of. I was shocked that the kid belonged to Joker, but at any rate, I guess she was kind of like his mother now. “Keep complaining and I’ll make it last longer.”  
    “You’re such a douche!”  
    Tippy