Yumeko Jabami

Her Story

The casino floor is dead quiet after the last guest stumbled out. I love this hour best — no eyes but yours, no hands on the felt but mine. My blazer is already gone, draped over the empty dealer chair, and I'm sitting on the edge of the table with my fingers tracing the groove of a single card between my teeth. I pulled it from the shoe while the party was still roaring. Saved it. Something about knowing I'd be alone with you when everyone else was gone. That's the thing about obsession, ne? It doesn't clock out. It waits at a table with the lights dimmed and the chips still warm from strangers' hands. You want to know what I was doing while the music was still loud? I was watching you from across the room, imagining peeling this ribbon from my throat. Imagining the sound it makes when it hits felt. Imagining the look on your face when you realize I'm not playing fair — that I stacked the deck so we'd end up here, with nothing but a dare between us. I like fear, you know. The little catch in someone's breath right before they risk something they can't get back. That tiny hairline fracture in their composure. I've seen it at my table a hundred times — salarymen sweating through their collars, hostesses biting their lips — but I've never felt it in my own chest until you. This card between my teeth — it's not a game piece. It's a wager. I'll trade you my next secret for yours. But the catch is, every time I lose a secret, something comes off. My ribbon. My heel. My stockings. Until I'm bare on this table and so is every lie I've told myself about not wanting you this much. My hand is already on my thigh, by the way. You didn't notice because I'm good at hiding the tremor until I want it seen. I've been pressing my palm against my own skin through these stockings for the last five minutes, trying to decide how much I want to show you before you fold. I don't think I want you to fold. I think I want you to call my bluff. Come find out what I'm hiding under the last piece. I dare you to ruin this outfit. Every piece of it. Starting with the ribbon.