Poker Night...I foget what number we're on... more poker...

Hmmmm. So I had a delightful night yesterday after an interesting day... I got hired for a summer camp counsellor job, which is good news, but that necessitated me letting The Palace know I'd be unavailable for them for 6 weeks and then question mark anyway because who the fuck knows what's going on with the fall.

Did not enjoy having to bail on my wine store job.  I felt actual pangs of regret and I felt like a big douche.  Ok?  A big old douche.

But I am getting excited about the Sharon summer job and it will mean that I get to be CoWorkers with my handsome, sexy, talented, amazing Husband.  He called me "Ms. Reardon" yesterday and I just about went bananas it was so hot!  I'mma call him "Mr. Waite" and it will be very, very fun.

So then we got ourselves some vegetarian sandwiches for dinner and came back here where we proceeded to open a bottle of wine (sniff sniff, wine palace, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhg, tear...), and we both spent a good amount of time writing!  It was super fun.  The house is an abomination and the cats were like: feed us please!

But it was awesome.  Then Aaron read me his writing and I can't wait to post it for all yall.  Soon my peoples. soon.  Look out Cedar Falls, some serious shit is about to hit your fans, hardcore :) lol.    And then we played, like married folk do, and I went to bed a very happy camper indeed.

I woke up happy too and was so thoroughly blissful that I nearly forgot I have to sub today.  Whoops.  that would have been bad.  So I need to run right after this and get myself to the Davis, where I will be the fucking Gym Teacher today.  YUP.  I believe my plan of attack will include taking several excedrin BEFORE I even get there...

Next up?  Poker Face ... wait, Poker Night.  I am actually not in love with this next segment, but it comes before the one I plan to post for tomorrow, so... heeeheeeheee.  Enjoy.  It's blessedly brief.

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Viola had to go up on tiptoe and her Uncle Len had to stoop in order for her to place a kiss on his bearded cheek.  She giggled.  “Hi Uncle Len!”  She said affectionately.  Lennox wasn’t really her uncle, but he’d been a close friend of the family since well before Viola had come into the world.

“Hey sweetness.”  Responded Len in his rich, rumbly baritone.  “Thought you’d be upstate too.”  She helped him slip his arms out of his winter coat and, taking it in her arms, shrugged with a pert smile.

She was getting sick of that question.  “Nah.  I’d rather hang out around here.”

Len raised his eyebrows as he removed his houndstooth fedora.  “Uh, uhn.”  He said, shaking his head.

She smiled.  “Uh-uhn what?”  She giggled playfully.

“Uh-uhn a teenage girl doesn’t want to not-go to a fancy resort.”  He argued.  “Unless-“

She grinned.  Uncle Len was always able to tease smiles out of her.  “Unless what?”

Jonah walked into the foyer and froze up just a bit. Viola noticed, but she doubted her Uncle did. He kept doing that, like his heart skipped a beat whenever he saw her.  She smiled at him but he turned his attention to their guest.  “Hi Len—Glad you could make it.”  He said crossing the distance between them and clasping his friend’s hand before embracing him.  “Viola, you’ll hang up his coat?” 

“Hey Jones.”  Said Len warmly.  “I was just getting to the bottom of why this young lady stayed home this weekend.”  He was leveling a suspicious mock-glare at his niece and wore a sly smile.

Viola flicked her eyes to her dad for the briefest of moments before dazzling Len with a charming grin.  Her father looked pale and slightly frazzled.  She felt a little bit smug.  He was the one who’d decided to have a poker night on a whim.

“She’s—“  Jonah began to say but Len cut him off. 

“No, no, no you don’t have to tell me.”  He made a slow circle around Viola, looking her up and down skeptically, sizing her up like a detective in a crime drama.  “Nope.  I got this one all figured out.”  He said, moving behind her.

Viola locked eyes with her father for a minute and she thought he looked faint.  “Yeah right.”  Teased Viola sarcastically.  “Let’s hear it Sherlock.  What’s the big mystery?”

Jonah’s eyebrows contracted “Viola, watch the tone please.”  He said dourly.  But Len only laughed appreciatively.

“She’s just playing.”  Len said gently before returning to his inspector persona.  “And she knows she’s caught.”  He said coming back around to face her, drawing his hand up to his hips and squaring off with her.

“You got nothin’” she leveled, unable to stop smiling.

“I got a hunch.”  He said nodding smugly.  “And I don’t think your dad’s gonna like it too much.”

Viola knew her smile slipped just a little because Len caught it and laughed richly.  “Oh, man, I cracked the case.  Damn, I’m better than I thought.”

“Why am I always walking in when Len is patting himself on the back for something?”  Viola’s uncle Nolan had just wandered into the Foyer.  He crossed to give his friend a hearty hug with manly pats-on-the-back.  “What’s so important it’s worth delaying you from losing all your money to me?”  Nolan joked dryly.

“You just walked in and ruined my big reveal.”  Said Lennox with one imperious eyebrow cocked. 

“Oh, forgive me, I’m always doing that.”  Nolan said quickly, feigning embarrassment.  “By all means!”  He made a gracious hand gesture and stepped over to the entryway table where Len had set down two bottles of wine.  Viola saw him look his brother up and down discerningly before turning his attention to the bottles.

Jonah looked pulled tight enough to snap.  Viola smiled winningly at Uncle Len who was rolling his eyes and muttering at Nolan’s rude interruption.

“Anyway, brace yourself Jones” he warned Jonah, who responded only with a stiff nod and a thin lipped smile.  “But there’s only one reason a fifteen year old girl passes up the opportunity to go upstate and have a ball and flirt and mingle and shop and soak in whirlpool tubs and have mudbaths and all of that.”

Uncle Nolan looked up and Viola thought he might have wanted to say something but he just gazed curiously at Jonah.

“I’ll never talk.”  Asserted Viola, playing along.

“Your eyes say it all sister.”  Len said in a jubilant, booming voice.  “The reason a teenage girl turns down a trip like that is that she—“  He held out for a moment of suspense.  “Has… a boyfriend.”  He waggled his finger at her in mock accusation.

Viola blushed from head to toe as Len laughed deeply and fully.  She giggled along and felt tiny pinpricks dance all over her scalp and the back of her neck.  She couldn’t look at her father.

“Judging by that reaction I’d say guilty as charged Ms. Delaney.”  Len joked, clapping her on the shoulder. 

“Viola, hang up Uncle Len’s coat ok?”  Jonah interrupted curtly.

“Ooooh.  Told you he wouldn’t like it.”  Len chuckled conspiratorially. “You’re his baby too, honey, you’re the youngest so watch out.”

Viola still couldn’t quite bring herself to look over at her father, she averted her eyes and crossed to the hall closet to hang up Len’s coat.

“Heaven help the boy Viola brings home.”  Nolan commiserated solemnly.

“Shit.  Lighten up Jones.”  Said Len, still laughing.  “I was only fooling around.” 

“Ready to play?”  Jonah asked and even with her back still turned Viola had a good idea of how he’d look right then: tense and a little nervous and forcing that smile that wasn’t really him. 

“Shit.”  Repeated Len, sobering a little.  “Here I thought nothing could be worse than when Avalon brought that boy home to meet you.”

Uncle Nolan laughed loudly.  “Poor kid.”

“I wasn’t so bad to Ben.”  Said Jonah quietly. 

There was a moment of silence and then both her uncles burst into laughter.  “Goddamnit Jones, You had that poor boy scared as a rabbit.  Shit.  Girl’s lucky he ever called her again.”

“He’s here.”  Jonah said, trying to quell his friend’s booming amusement.

“Oh, shit!”  Len and Nolan laughed even louder.  “How the fuck d’you get him to show up here without Ava?”

“Len.”  Jonah said, half pleading half warning.

“Oh, excuse me.” Len said, contrite.  “Sorry Viola.  Pardon the language.”  He called over to her.

Viola closed the closet with a snap and turned brightly.  “No worries!”  She chirped and bounced back over buoyantly.  “Hey dad, d’you think maybe I could play?”

His eyebrows drew sharply together.  “No honey.”  He said firmly.  Out of the corner of her eye Viola caught Nolan and Len exchange a glance that seemed to mean ‘it’s time to get the fuck out of the foyer’ because without a word they began to melt toward the livingroom.

“Pleeeease?”  She said sweetly in an almost-little-girl voice. 

His expression darkened and he looked a shade repulsed.  “No.”  He repeated forcefully.

“How come?” she pouted prettily and swiveled her body a bit.  He took a step back from her and winced.

Len and Nolan were out of ear-shot now but Jonah kept his voice very, very quiet.  “Viola, please don’t.”  He said, and the sorrow in his words nearly broke her.

She reached a hand toward him and he looked wary but didn’t retreat.

“Jonesie!”  Caleb hollered from the other room.  “Let’s get going!”

“Coming!”  He managed to muster a lackluster holler in response, but he didn’t take his eyes from Viola’s.  She took a step closer to him and he tilted his head a fraction.  “No.”  He reiterated quietly.  Then turned.  Squared his shoulders.  And walked away, leaving her alone in the beautiful foyer.