Home for the Holidays
"Is she going to kill us?"
Silence rang through the loft until Dani finally nodded and said, "Yep."
The two of them stared down at the broken Xbox for a long moment.
"Should we hide it or…go buy a puppy and blame it?" Rachel asked, panicked.
"Rachel, the thing started shooting sparks and smoking! How on earth would a puppy do that?" Dani asked.
"Okay….what do we do?"
"Buy a new one."
"We did NOT budget for an Xbox! There's no way we have the money for that."
"I have an idea," Dani said, reaching for her phone.
Rachel stopped her, though. "No. Hell no. You're not calling your brother's ex-girlfriend's
drug dealer who gets things off the back of a truck. I don't want an Xbox full of cocaine."
"You got a better plan?"
"Hello, ladies," the doorman said, smiling pleasantly. "May I see your I.D.s, please?"
The girls handed them over and waited as they were dutifully inspected.
"Thank you, Danielle, and Rachel," he said, standing aside. "Enjoy."
The casino was a maze of light and sound.
Dani pulled out her sunglasses and pecked Rachel on the cheek. "Right, remember, twenty dollars each –"
" – and we meet back here in an hour and a half," Rachel said, nodding. "Heading over to the 'luck games'. Blackjack?"
"You know it. See you in a bit."
Rachel wandered over through the maze of slot machines to where a man was running the "Guess the Numbers" game and other ones that at first glance depended on luck. Rachel knew better though, and she walked right up to him and said. "Five on the Numbers."
"Sure thing, ma'am. What's your guess?"
Rachel looked at the jar full of poker chips, and did some quick mental math. "How precise do I have to be?"
"Within five."
"Three hundred and forty-two," she said promptly.
He stared at her, then down at his tablet, and then back up at her. "That's…that's correct." He printed her ticket that showed her fifteen dollar prize.
"I'd like to bet that fifteen on the Find the Lady game," Rachel said pleasantly.
An hour later, Rachel and Dani met to cash out.
"How'd you do?" Rachel asked.
"Well, I was off to a rough start…but I managed a solid two hundred. You?"
"Four hundred."
"How in the hell did you –"
"I may have gotten a game of poker in as well."
"Damn good day for us."
Santana came home that afternoon to find Rachel and Dani gone. She huffed – it had been a short, but grueling shift at the bookstore, and she wanted to get her macks on. She sniffed the air, noticing a vaguely chemical smell. Then she spotted something odd. She rushed over to their entertainment center, gaping at the brand spanking new Xbox One.
"How the fuck?" she said aloud, but apparently the girls really weren't home. She spotted a card with her name on it on top of the stack of games. It read:
Hi baby! Rachel and I were trying to learn how to play Call of Duty so we could play with you on Christmas day. It was going to be one of your presents. Unfortunately, the old Xbox became possessed by a vengeful spirit, and exploded. I mean literally exploded. That's what you're smelling – fried Xbox. So we still have no fucking clue how to play CoD, but we figure a new toy is a good switch. R and I have the late shift at the diner and the gallery. See you when you get home!
Xo, Dani
Santana's mouth was hanging open. Late shift…that meant they'd get home around one. Plenty of time to try out the new toy. She decided, as she popped Assassin's Creed: Black Flag into the console, that she was not going to ask how they managed to afford this….
