I left the beach around 3:30 that day and headed for the saloon. I figured I could beat Sam there.
As I walked in, I immediately found out I was wrong. There was Sam, sitting on the couch.
My heart sped up, and I took a breath to try to calm it down before walking over to him.
He saw me and said "Hey! You ready to win?"
"You're going to eat those words," I responded. "I'm gonna lose to you so hard the whole saloon's gonna die laughing."
Sam laughed before replying "I'm going to lose so hard I'm going to be mocked over the Internet."
"We'll see about that," I said.
I noticed that he'd already put the balls into a triangle. Said triangle was just itching to be broken.
"Who should go first?" I asked.
"Ladies first," Sam responded.
"Oh, come on," I said. "…Alright. If you insist."
That was probably the most intense game of billiards I had ever played. I pulled far ahead for a while, but then, Sam caught up. He still had a bold ball on the table, while I was going for the 8-ball. He sunk that last bold ball, and right when I thought we were going to have an intense face-off, I sunk the 8-ball and won the game.
"That was probably the best game I've ever played," I said.
"I'm glad," said Sam. "Yeah, I think I've gotten better. In fact, if we play again, I'll probably win."
I looked at my watch and determined that we probably had just enough time for another game.
"Let's do it," I said, starting to gather the balls from the pockets.
"You're on," said Sam.
I know for a fact he didn't intend it, but the way he said that was strikingly sexy.
Anyway, we played the next game. He'd only gotten one of his balls in a pocket when I sunk the 8-ball.
"…Okay…" said Sam.
I gave a triumphant "Hmph."
"So I need a bit more practice," said Sam. I wasn't exactly expecting him to have become a pro in the time I'd given him that training ball; it was the results of the first game that made this dramatic loss throw me off guard.
If he'd said he'd gotten better, though, I figured a pro status wasn't far off.