My Stepfather Lost Me in a Poker Game, Then I Cleaned Him Out novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Green

I called the house from the curb before Laurent's car had pulled away.

It was two minutes past midnight.

Russ picked up on the first ring.

"Hey, sugar. Somebody's been playing with the phone."

"Put her on."

"She's right here."

I heard the phone scrape against something.

Then I heard my mother breathing, fast and wet.

"Mama. Mama, it's me. I'm coming."

Three taps came down the line, and then a sound like the phone being pulled away from her.

"Saturday," Russ said. "Green dress. Or she doesn't get a phone at all, and you don't get to hear her again."

He hung up.

Andre was standing in the office doorway with Brandi's casserole dish in his hands.

He'd heard every word, because I'd had it on speaker without meaning to.

"I'm dealing Saturday," I said.

He looked at me for a long time.

"Fine," he said at last. "Then I'm sitting at that table."

He didn't say it like a man who believed me.

At noon the next day he took me to lunch, because under his roof I ate, he said.

The oyster bar at the end of the pier was full of shrimpers and lawyers and men in golf shirts.

We had just sat down when I heard Russ laugh.

He was at the big table by the window with the Houston man and three others, a tray of raw oysters between them.

He saw us and lifted his beer.

"Andre!" he called, loud enough for the whole room. "You bringing my dealer Saturday night?"

The room got quieter.

Andre didn't get up.

He leaned back in his chair and draped one heavy arm along the back of mine.

"I'll bring her," he said, just as loud. "She might be walking a little funny, Russ. I'm fucking her this afternoon."

A waitress dropped a fork.

The Houston man laughed so hard he slapped the table, and Russ's smile went stiff and stayed that way.

My face burned all the way down my neck.

Andre picked up a menu.

"The gumbo's good here," he said.

I didn't speak to him all through lunch.

I didn't speak to him in the truck either, or on the stairs, or while he locked the apartment door behind us.

Then I turned around.

"You said that in front of a room full of people."

"I said it in front of Russ."

"You didn't ask me."

"No," he said. "I didn't."

He didn't come any closer.

He stood by the door with his arms crossed and let me look at him, the whole huge, unapologetic size of him.

I went to the bed, where the white box still sat, and took out the green dress.

"Turn around," I said.

He didn't.

So I undressed in front of him instead.

I took off my jeans and my shirt and my bra and my underwear.

Then I stepped into Russ's dress and pulled the thin straps up over my shoulders.

The silk was cold, and it hid nothing.

My nipples pressed hard against it, and the slit ran up past my hip.

"If I'm wearing this Saturday," I said, "you might as well see it first."

Andre crossed the room in three steps.

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