Chapter 25
Lupe had been trying to look forward to the grand opening of the Luckier Duck but the shadow of Helena's probable death hung over her. Even Richard's declaration of love wasn't enough to lift the fog, as wonderful as that was. Part of Lupe was angry at Helena for getting herself bumped off and ruining what should have been the most romantic moment of her life, but then she felt just awful feeling that way, and when she remembered that Richard may very well up and die at any moment her gut twisted again and it was all she could do to get through the motions of making breakfast.
Dorothy and Richard sat at the breakfast table, pretending to ignore each other. Lupe had been around them long enough to know that this was the aftermath of a minor fight between them – a few cross words, maybe a rude gesture. Major fights were followed by yelling and cursing from both parties. Lupe had heard Richard speaking to Dorothy while she was getting dressed earlier, but about what she wasn't privy to.
Dorothy was stirring her coffee rather noisily – the silver spoon clinking steadily against the porcelain cup while Lupe set out the tray of toast and butter and jam. "Are you looking forward to the party tonight?" Dorothy asked.
Lupe didn't know if she was speaking to her or to Richard. She glanced at Richard, but before either of them could say anything Dorothy spoke again. "You, you whore, I'm talking to you. Are you looking forward to the party tonight?"
"Don't talk to her like that," Richard snapped at Dorothy.
The clinking of the spoon stopped abruptly. "Answer me, you whore," Dorothy sneered at Lupe. "Are you looking forward to the party? And don't look at him for help, you look at me when I'm talking to you."
"Yes I am looking forward to it," Lupe answered quickly with a lie, as a lie was easier than explaining why she wasn't really in the mood. Richard had told her about the letter switcharoo and while she may have felt bad for Dorothy before, now she had nothing but a sense of detached fear when considering Dorothy.
"Hmmph, you must be looking forward to having some time in a nice big bed to yourself," Dorothy sarcastically said. The clinking of the spoon began again. "You'll get lots of rest I bet. It must be sooooooo uncomfortable sleeping in that tiny little bed each night."
She thinks Richard is slowly poisoning me, Lupe reminded herself. She wants us to screw because every time he puts his…nail in my coffin it's a nail in my coffin. "It's a fine bed I have. It's comfortable and right next to the radiator so I never get cold." She stayed her tongue with her next comment about how she never got lonely in her bed either. She already wants me dead as it is, let's not rock that boat.
"Let's all remember that we are all a big happy…" Dorothy sneered instead of saying the last word.
"Dorothy, for goodness sake, why are you friends with these people?" Richard plaintively asked. "You should be friends with people that you can say 'oh woe to me, my bastard husband is dipping his pen in the maid's ink' and they support you, not use it against you."
Dorothy rolled her eyes. "Play your part and you can do whatever it is you wish in private. Just do not make a fool of me tonight. Or any other night."
Lupe was not in the mood at all to make trouble for Dorothy. Truth be told she would much rather be at home – not even with Richard, but lying in her own little warm and cozy bed and feel sorry for herself and Helena and Richard and everyone else who was trapped down here. But Dorothy was dead set on this party going well and Lupe was dead set on not being dead earlier on the timeline Dorothy had laid out. So she was going to the party and at least was going to pretend to like it.
Would You Kindly Imagine A Page break Here?
As a person who understood probability and statistics, Richard did not gamble. And even if he did now was not the time to haphazardly spend. His telephone call to a real estate office had given him some serious sticker shock – rental prices had gone up by nearly fifty percent in the last year. Not enough new construction was the reason given, but Richard knew full well it was greed driving the prices up. There was nowhere to go so why not squeeze every penny out of the populace?
He and Dorothy had arrived at the casino fashionably late, which was also a social convention that irritated him. Dorothy had pulled out all the stops and Richard inwardly cringed when he considered how much the light pink silk gown she wore must have cost. But even he had to admit she was stunning in it. He pitied the next man she was going to catch in her web of superficial charm.
The Luckier Duck was already crowded when they arrived. He scanned the first floor Lupe as she had left an hour or so before they did, but she was lost in the din of chirping slot machines and excited voices. He couldn't seek her out officially either. He had to pay attention to Dorothy, who was busy greeting a seemingly endless parade of acquaintances.
The last time. Ever. He was looking forward to the status of social pariah that abandoning his wife would grant upon him. No more empty smiles and small talk. The thought of that made him smile for real.
A glass of champagne was pressed into his hands by Dorothy. Now that he knew that if the slug died he would expire as well, he wasn't so eager to drink anymore. No telling what the little guy did or didn't like. "Here, drink mine as well. I don't feel like it."
"Are you a teetotaler now?" Dorothy laughed. "Don't gamble, don't drink, you're a handbreadth away from being a minister." The unknown woman standing next to her gave a tinkling giggle as well, which was the first Richard had taken note of her as he was too preoccupied trying to hunt out Lupe.
Richard mumbled something about his health, which elicited another giggle. The lights were low and the air was hazy with tobacco smoke. It was difficult to pick out details more than five feet away. Damn it. He wanted to see her, even if he couldn't touch. Every time he saw her outside of her role as an employee it was a tantalizing promise of the future.
"Oh, if it isn't my favorite couple in all of Rapture!" rang out a vaguely familiar voice behind them.
Richard felt Dorothy tense up at this greeting. But she immediately put on a cheerful face and turned around. "Annette! The woman of the hour. I've been looking for you!"
Richard tried not to roll his eyes but he didn't do a particularly good job. He supposed he'd better turn around too and engage in nonsense, but his strategic reserves of shit giving were nearly depleted. Honestly, if I just leave now, what is she going to do to me? Stab me?
"And I've found someone I bet you've been looking for!"
Dorothy somehow tensed up even more, but Richard stopped his desertion fantasies mid-thought and spun around excitedly. There she was, looking disconcerted while being led around by the hand by Annette. Lupe wasn't as richly turned out as Annette, who wore a snug red dress, but she was unquestionably above and beyond Annette. And Dorothy. And any other woman in the casino or the entirety of the damned city that they found themselves in.
Lupe's warm golden skin peeked out from behind the dark blue lace on her dress. A red ribbon fascinator was pinned into her curled and pinned up hair, and her nails were painted a bright red as well. But what caught his attention was the generous amount of her breasts that were on display.
His eyes lingered for a moment there before jerking back up to eye level. "Good evening," he limply greeted her, a sharp contrast to the stiffness quickly spreading through his cock.
She smiled nervously at him. "It's quite the party, isn't it?"
Annette was sharply observing Richard in a way that made him suddenly uncomfortable. "Yes, it's a real whizbang," he lied.
"Have you played any games yet Lupe?" Annette asked but kept her gazes fixated on Richard and Dorothy.
"Um, yes, I won ten dollars in a slot machine, I'm going to call it a night."
Ten dollars is a lot of money for her. And soon it's going to be a lot of money for me as well. "Good thinking, quit while you're ahead," Richard condoned readily. "Prudent."
"Nonsense!" Annette produced a handful of chips from seemingly nowhere. "Tonight is for fun! Forget about boring reality and give in to excitement and pleasure." She gave a brief and knowing look to Richard when she said this.
She knows. Dorothy knows she knows. They both know I know. We all know. For God's sake, what are we doing? But Richard wasn't bold enough yet to rebel against social convention.
"Yes, Lupe, go and play more slots," Dorothy encouraged.
Lupe took the chips from Annette's hand, unable to refuse free money. "I do like the noise they make."
"No, chips are for table games. Do you know how to play poker?"
Lupe shook her head.
"Faro? Baccarat? I suppose not, not if you don't know how to play poker. Richard, certainly you know how to play something, can you help Lupe? I've got to get around to my other guests, otherwise I'd do it myself."
He knew it was bait Annette was dangling in front of his face, but he didn't care. He'd gladly gorge himself on this particularly delicious worm. What does she expect? That I'll start necking with Lupe the moment I get within arm's reach? It was an insulting premise which was set on proving wrong. He heard the whirring of a spinning wheel nearby and some cheering. He vaguely remembered a statistics lesson revolving around roulette. "I understand roulette well enough."
Dorothy's eyes turned into hard chips of granite at his offer. "I'll come with you two," she forced out with artificial joviality.
"No, Dorothy dear, you need to come with me, you have to meet my new friend Iris, she's a real up and comer. We'll check in on them later," Annette casually tossed a grenade into the situation. She whisked Dorothy away before she could protest, leaving the two of them alone in a heady mass of humans.
Richard kept silent until he was sure no one eavesdropping on them. "You look, wow, you're a real bombshell."
Lupe smiled and coyly fidgeted with the chips. "You're going to teach me to play roulette?"
He nodded. "How are you feeling?"
She shrugged. "Sad still, I guess. I had some drinks before you got here and I'm feeling a little better, I guess, in the way that drinks do."
Now that they were having a non-stressful interaction Richard noticed that her words were a bit slurred. It was reassuring that she wasn't going to be stumbling home drunk through Rapture. He and Dorothy were going to stay in the attached hotel as well. He was planning on slipping into Lupe's room to sleep, busy body gossips be damned.
"I wish I could kiss you," he whispered as they began to walk towards the nearest roulette table. He felt like an emasculated coward, but there really was nothing to be gained by provoking Dorothy while they still lived together.
"Will you come and visit me tonight?" Lupe replied in what she thought was a whisper as well, although her voice was nearly normal volume due to the alcohol.
He nodded.
"I don't know if I feel like sex," Lupe continued, her voice not even trying to be a whisper. "I'm still sad. Will you be satisfied with cuddling?"
He nodded again. "Let's talk about roulette," Richard changed the subject. Coward, he inwardly accused himself. Get her out of this loud casino and hold her while she cries and never look back. But he found himself instead outlining the general concept of roulette instead.
"So I have the chance of getting double my money, triple, or 38 times?" Lupe summed up as they watched the wheel spin. It landed on 17. "Those aren't terribly good odds to get a lot of money, is it?"
"No." It occurred to Richard at that moment that there was literally nothing stopping the house from being crooked and fixing games. "If you want my advice take those chips what's her name gave you and cash them out and buy something nice." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "Something nice for our place. I don't really want all the fancy china and silver when we move in together, Dorothy can keep it." Maybe she can build herself a nice little shack out them down by the fishing docks.
"Or I can pay for our first month's rent," she said with a wink and put ten dollars in chips down on 4.
"Or you can do that, yes. Unlikely, but you could, I suppose."
"You're a bit of a wet blanket at times, aren't you Richard?" Lupe teased him. "I'm kinda missing Mr. Stone right now."
The croupier called for final bets. "He wouldn't help you out either. He's not an idiot."
Lupe laughed. "You're calling me an idiot?"
"Your words, not mine." The wheel was spun and all eyes around the table turned to it, even Richard, who reluctantly felt a tinge of excitement. He wanted her win not for the money but to see her cheered. A chorus of shouts for the players numbers of choice rang out, with Lupe joining in, shouting for 4.
"Number 6," called out the croupier. "Number 6!"
"Damn!" Lupe exclaimed. "I was so close!"
Richard laughed shortly. "No, darling, that's not how it works-"
"Oh can it you!" Lupe retorted curtly. "I know more about roulette than you, I used to tag along with a boyfriend to pool halls."
"Well then why did you let me explain it to you? Why pretend you don't know?" Richard took her elbow and led her away from the table where they would talk without being jarred about by excited gamblers.
"It's best to play along sometimes when you're in an awkward situation. That Annette woman is up to something, I can tell. She's shifty." Lupe looked over her shoulders towards the bar. "She's watching us, see?"
Richard turned around and saw not just Annette at the bar watching them, but Dorothy and presumably that Iris woman too. Annette said something and while Iris laughed, Dorothy glared at the two of them. "Yes, I see. She's making a sport out of us and Dorothy."
Lupe took a flute of champagne from a roaming waiter. "That's awful. She's a cruel woman, that Annette. Deranged."
"They want us to…I don't know exactly. Kiss. Screw. Something entertaining." Richard turned his head away from them. "And now they know we know. I hate this. It almost makes me miss the war because at then we were allowed to shoot at the people making us miserable."
"It'll be over soon enough," Lupe reassured him. "Did you find a place to live today? I was looking at my stuff earlier and I reckon I can be ready to leave in five minutes flat."
Richard frowned. The options discussed with his realtor were not what he was used to. "There's a block of apartments in Elpis Close that are going to be open for bids in a week. Small, but I think I can afford it. I've never been to Elpis Close, do know anything about it?"
"I went there a few times on errands when I worked at the cigar store. Elpis Close is nice," Lupe commented and took a sip of champagne. "It's not far from Arcadia, so it would a breeze to pop over there for some fresh air every now and again. Mind you it's no Adranos Place, but it's clean and small and safe."
He could feel the eyes of Annette and Dorothy boring into his skull from behind. The last time, the very last time. "In that case, I'll make a bid. A week, ten days. That's all that stands between us now." And I'll tell Dorothy she's got until the end of the month before the bill for her apartment comes due. I'll offer her the last amount of cash I have as a settlement to tide her over. She won't have a choice but to accept.
Richard had a good plan. The odds on it were much better than those of roulette.