Falling in Love by Dusty Miller Page A

with
the grown-ups.
    They took it pretty
seriously.
    “ How about
poker?”
    Her sister’s boyfriend knew Austin and
said he thought he could play poker. According to Joe, who played
for fairly big money Thursday nights with friends, Austin wasn’t
very good at it. Bethany had learned poker from her dad, an
engineer who built refineries all over the world. Her dad was very
good at it.
    “ Jeez, I don’t know.”
Austin shrugged. “Whatever you want. You can teach me
how.”
    Whatever Bethany wanted was fine with
Austin, still reeling with the kisses. He liked her so much. He
couldn’t believe his luck, and that was just truth. He was always
horny, and sooner or later it would happen. This was as far as he
had ever gotten with a girl. Lately his mind just reeled with
thoughts of Bethany, especially when he was at work, soul-crushing
in its boredom. The night shifts were very long for Austin these
days.
    For whatever reason, the real obvious
sluts—the ones everyone talked about, they just never really
appealed to him. He was too afraid to try, and they were always
surrounded by dead-beats and half-wits, football jocks and rich
boys anyway. Bethany was a nice girl and the fact that she went out
with him at all was a big surprise.
    He still couldn’t believe it in some
ways. Asking her out was a real leap for Austin.
    He was even more surprised when she
asked him to pull the coffee table out of the way. She got up, went
straight to his room, and came out with the thick comforter from
his bed. She put it on the table for a second. His heart speeded up
at the thoughts that entailed. She turned down the dimmer switch
and went into the kitchen, coming back with a pair of wine bottles
with stub candles set in them. She’d spotted them on the way in and
had always had an eye for detail.
    “ Got a match, oh, handsome
stranger?”
    “ What…?” She patted Austin
on the bum and sent him looking for them, trying to appear
calm.
    They lit the candles and put them on
the coffee table, well off to one side and out of the way. Bethany
went over and snapped the lights completely off. She grabbed the
blanket.
    Whipping it up and spreading it out,
she put the wine bottle and their glasses down in front of the
couch.
    “ Sit down. It’ll be like
camping.”
    His heart began to pick up
significantly.
    Austin settled into a cross-legged
position and watched Bethany as she put the ashtray down, lit up a
smoke, puffed on it, and then let it sit on the corner of the
ashtray. Screwing up her eyes, she picked up the cards and
shuffled. She was so cute in her skirt, knee socks, and filmy white
blouse, so full of class and not like a lot of the other girls. A
glimpse of frilly white panties and creamy thighs sent adrenalin
rushing through him. This was about something deeper. It was about
something more. He didn’t really know how to ask a girl if she
wanted to go steady. He’d never done it.
    “ You won’t even know what
hit you.” She smiled sweetly.
    “ Oh, really!”
    Men had their vanity and it could be
manipulated. With a frank look and a wicked grin, Bethany hinted at
his impending defeat. He looked so confident! Hah.
    “ Do you know what stakes
are?” She bit her lip, but she liked the little put-down thing for
the additional hints of colour it caused, high up on his
cheekbones.
    “ Ah…yeah.”
    He thought for a moment.
    “ What are we betting
for?”
    “ Wishes.”
    Austin shrugged elaborately, getting
into the game as far as he dared.
    “ Your every wish is my
command. You must be the Lady of the Lake or something.”
    She giggled, covering her mouth. Then
she stabbed him with a look.
    “ Cute.” Eyes downcast, she
nodded inscrutably, lips moving silently.
    He settled down to wait with a look of
puzzled humour on his features. Looking up, she was
ready.
    She rattled through the basic rules.
Austin was familiar with five-card stud, his mouth twitching when
the word came up. Her hands were a blur. He stared at the