“You never played the slots?”
“Playing the slots requires having a few dollars to spare.”
He gave an amused grunt and pulled me in front of him like he was about to teach me how to play billiards. “All you gotta do is pick your bet. Some begin to spin as soon as you bet, others you have to hit the larger button. There is really nothing to it. Slap the big button again if you see something exciting that you want to try and capture on the screen.”
“How do I know how much to bet?” I asked while staring at the numbers on the buttons. The smallest was forty cents, the largest was four dollars.
“A lot of people play small or bet medium wagers, I don’t waste my time with that shit. If I win, I want a couple hundred, not a few dollars.”
“Oh.” I glanced back at the screen and hesitated over the four-dollar button.
“Do it. Play big,” he encouraged me.
Playing big on someone else’s dime felt reckless and rude. It wasn’t me, but that smile and the excitement in his eyes when I gave him one last look was what set me over the edge. I slapped the four-dollar button, and the reels began to spin. Four buffalo were in the first reel when it stopped. Two scattered in the next row. There were little objects with the symbols X2 on them in the center and another full row of buffaloes on the end.
Big Win, the machine read as coins scattered everywhere across the screen.
I drew my hands as close to my body as I could, somewhat startled that I’d hit anything at all.
“Does that say six hundred dollars?” I exclaimed, before I could compose myself.
“Hell, yeah, it does. Do it again!”
I scrambled to hit the button again and held my breath as the reels spun and came to pause again.
“No buffalo.” I sighed, only for the damn thing to get excited about a couple of foxes.
“Five bucks is five bucks. Go on.” He nodded at my machine and fed some money into the one beside it.
I was as thrilled to win five bucks as I was six hundred, to be honest. It was money, and I wasn’t picky. Not that any of it was mine.
I racked up another two hundred dollars over the next ten minutes, while Anthony lost every dime of the hundred that he fed into his machine. When he finished, he looked at the balance on my machine and asked, “Ready to cash it out and try something else?”
“S-sure?” I shrugged, having never been before, I didn’t really know what else to expect.
He took my hand and led me to a counter where a worker in a brown vest took my ticket and turned it into cash for us.
“Eight hundred and seventeen dollars. Nice work.” She smiled sliding the money across the counter.
“She did great, her first time I think,” Anthony shared, before taking the money and shoving it into my hands.
My jaw dropped and my feet anchored to the floor. “What the fuck are you doing?”
He glanced back, having taken a few steps before he realized my upset. “What? It’s your win.”
“My win. I didn’t put any money in that machine. It’s your win.”
His lips formed a flat, unamused line. “Girl.”
“Boy,” I spat right back and fluttered my lashes for his benefit.
He laughed and held out his hand. “Fine, give me back the hundred I loaned you. The rest is yours.”
I thought about it for a half second before nodding in agreement, that seemed fair enough. I peeled five twenties off the wad and handed them over.
“Alright, let's double that.” He put the money in his pocket and claimed my hand. He led me to a table I’d only seen in movies.
“Roulette is my favorite, even if it is all chance,” he whispered, before setting down on a stool and hauling me in front of him. “Pick some numbers or corners.”
