"I'm out Paul."
Sadly the female voice which spoke the words from behind him had a Canadian accent. Paul was not involved in a hand so he stood and issued his wife with a sympathetic hug, "Well we knew that was going to happen huh? What are you going to do now?"
"Might go back upstairs and take a shower," Trish teased, "And then go to bed. If you get knocked out soon enough we could fool around."
"We can fool around no matter when I get knocked out, if I get knocked out. I've got a decent stack here."
"That's true." Trish's fingers rubbed over his pants briefly, hidden from sight of anyone else by both of their bodies.
Paul kissed her, "Get out of here, you're ruining my concentration. You can do that later."
"Get back to it, you'll miss your hand." With a smile Trish turned and walked away leaving Paul once again trying to force himself not to think about sex and instead attempt to focus on the game. It was going well so far as he had won a few big pots and had one of the biggest chip stacks on the table. Unfortunately things began to change over the next hour. Paul found himself losing chips and could not seem to do anything about it. The cards seemed to be against him. It was obviously Trish's fault for breaking his concentration when he had been on a roll. He had stood up a few times to check that Laura was still playing and sure enough she was. He could not see how many chips she had as her back was to him but he saw all that mattered, she was still there. God only knew what kind of idiots must be on her table if they had not managed to bust her yet.
"This is my seat?" Paul heard a familiar voice ask half an hour later, "Excellent. Hello Paul, gentlemen." Paul looked up and saw that Laura had been moved to his table, her own must have broken up due to eliminations. She was taking her chips out a plastic tray that she must have been given to move them with and stacking them on the table and he saw that she had considerably more than he did. The possibility of actually getting eliminated by Laura was staring him in the face. It would be preferable to shoot himself in the head. "Nice of you to dress for the occasion," he quipped as she took her seat almost opposite him at the other end of the table, referring to her jeans and white sports jacket.
"I'm dressed to play not to impress, maybe you should have considered it? Where are your chips?"
By gesturing to his stack Paul fell into the trap as he stated the obvious, "Here."
"Yeah I meant the rest of them," Laura clarified sarcastically. "Wait, you're telling me that's all you have?"
Some of the other players at the table were grinning which pissed Paul off almost as much as the sarcasm. He silently asked the heavens to just let him bust Laura. That was all that he wanted. Surely it was not too much to ask? Or at least for her to go out before him somehow. Any woman speaking to him with such arrogance and sarcasm would drive him crazy but it seemed to be something else entirely with this bitch. She needed putting in her place so badly and the only way to do that appeared to be to fuck her half to death and make him beg her for more. He wanted to have her totally under his control and he wanted her to never forget that she had been. But when would the chance come? Certainly not tonight because Trish and her husband were here. Monday nights were not even an option because she would always clear out early and fly home rather than staying in the hotel. Had she really been showing an interest Monday night in her office or simply toying with him? Either way it made his balls ache just to look at her as she sat talking to the old guy sitting next to her.
Ten minutes later Paul tried his best not to react. Laura had raised and then the rest of the table had folded around to him. When he looked at his cards he saw two kings. Perfect. Laura was fucked, he was going to double up through her in this hand, he felt it for sure. It was the first time she had played a hand on this table and he happened to get kings. It could not be better because the stupid woman would assume that he was playing against her regardless of what he had just to be a hero, the kind of thing that she would do. To make himself not appear too strong he only called her bet instead of making a raise of his own. The guy who acted after him also folded so Laura was the only person he had to play against. As he waited for the first three community cards to come out on the table he tried to study his opponent but she had changed the way that she was sitting and now the reason that she was wearing a cap became apparent. She sat with her head propped on both fists which covered her mouth and cheeks and the cap kept her eyes which would reveal so much hidden from him. It was totally impossible to read anything from her but he did not need to as the cards hit the table, seven, king, seven. A real Hollywood hand for him, a full house. Laura was dog food as long as she had something that she could bet with.
She took a few seconds to think and then checked, which meant that the action went to Paul without any chips going into the pot. Still attempting to look weak and keep his fish on the hook Paul checked also. Another card hit the board. A four. It was a shame that there was not possibility of a flush for Laura but hopefully she had something. Sure enough after another long moment of thinking time she carefully threw in some chips for a raise. This was his time to act. He could really suck her in if he made a very large bet which would make her think that he was trying to force her out of the hand because he had nothing. It was perfect. He raised over half of the total amount in the pot and immediately got a reaction. The cap was off and Laura stared at him. "Why so much?" She demanded of him in an attempt to make him talk.
Unsurprisingly Paul ignored the question as he silently begged Laura's huge ego to get the better of her and cause her to raise him all in. "Give me a minute here." Good, confusion in her voice. Another thirty seconds went by, "My head is spinning. Why so much?" Paul began to doubt that she was going to continue. Maybe she had been playing with nothing and hoping to outplay him. No chance of that happening. Still he waited on a decision, willing Laura to reach for her chips as much as he possibly could. "What the hell is going on here? I don't even know any more," she turned over her cards which meant that she folded and Paul could not believe what he saw. She had folded an ace and a king. "Come on, that has got to be good, right?" She demanded again. Paul was so stunned by the play that he actually tossed his cards in face up so that Laura could see what an amazing fold she had made. How the hell had she gotten out of that spot? He should have doubled up for sure.
"Yes!" She yelled and she was up out of her chair. Everyone else at the table looked impressed with what she had done as she arrogantly mouthed off, "You think I didn't know you had a full house? No one else in this room could fold there. Don't try to make a move on me, any of you. That's what you're up against right there. I'll bust all of your asses."
Paul shook his head as Laura took her seat again. This woman was something else entirely. If she somehow busted him he was actually going to commit suicide rather than pay her and listen to her run her mouth at him. Only a few hands later she was at it again, not with Paul but with the old looking guy who was sitting next to her who actually had the most chips on the table. The cards on the board were ten, ace, jack, five and Laura had just pushed all of her chips in. If this guys could call and beat whatever Laura had she would be gone. If only. With her typical lack of class she began mouthing at her opponent, "I know what you have. You can call me but you're going to need a king. You really want to put most of your money in with only one shot at winning? Huh? You really think you're going to hit a king? Do it. I really want you to." On and on she went at the guy as he tried to decide what to do, clearly getting pissed off with her in his face. She was trying to imply that the only hand which would beat her was a straight which would mean that the guy would have to be holding and king and a queen but Laura seemed to suspect that he only had a queen at the moment and would need to drop a king to beat her which was next to impossible with only one card to come.
The guy took nearly two minutes to make his decision under fire from Laura constantly which everyone at the table clearly found distasteful but he did call. Laura was at risk, it was Paul had been hoping for. He begged silently for the guy to have her beat but as the man turned over his cards Laura jumped up again, "Yes! I told you!" She had called the guy correctly, he had a queen and a jack and would need to hit a king to beat the ace and jack that Laura turned over. "I told you," she chirped again, "I told you that you would need a king. Just don't play me guys, that's your best bet."
The dealer turned over the final card and it was up there with the best moments of Paul's life. A king came. It was unbelievable but it happened and Laura was gone. Her mouth had immediately stopped running but it was slightly open as she stared at the offending card as though she doubted that it was real. To his credit the guy who had won the hand said nothing to rub in his lucky victory. There were smiles from the others at the table but no one said anything as Laura remained stunned for almost thirty seconds before demanding of no one in particular, "What the fuck? I mean seriously?"
Paul decided that this would be the perfect moment to clear his throat and remind Laura of his presence. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides and her eyes closed. Paul already knew that he would remember every second of this and he savoured them to the fullest by standing and making his way around to Laura's seat. "Where are your chips? This is where you were sitting, right? Strange, don't see them anywhere? Wait, are you out? Oh shit! Guess what? I'm still in! Now what was that bet we made? That's right, first one eliminated wins a thousand bucks. That was it wasn't it? No, wait, it was the first one eliminated loses a thousand bucks, now I remember." He could see that Laura was literally shaking with rage and humiliation at the way she had been eliminated and then the patronising way that she was being spoken to. It was beyond priceless. She would not even make eye contact with him as she reached into her pocket and took out a roll of notes secured with a band and threw them at him before storming away. "Do I need to count it?" Paul yelled after her. Every time he saw her from now on he would make a point of mentioning that moment in some way.
A minute later after Paul had returned to his seat with a huge grin on his face it got even better for him. Laura actually came back and mouthed off at him, "Get that knee healed. I'll see your ass on the golf course." The only response Paul gave her was a smirk. It was all that he needed to give after the reaction he had just gotten from her. She stormed off again and as Paul watched her go he decided that he did not mind getting eliminated quickly now. He had won the bet and he could get upstairs and fuck Trish. A truly perfect evening.
More than two weeks had gone by since the poker game and Paul had not seen Laura once, not in the office or backstage at Raw. She was actually avoiding him, that had to be it. The longer it went on the more Paul was enjoying it, as he would the first time that he did see her. Everything else in his life was going perfectly too. He had taken over the creative department and was now spending his work days doing tow of his favourite things; writing storylines and ordering people around. Things were great outside of work too, Trish seemed to have gotten over her insecurities and he had been fucking her almost every night. The sex had been so frequent that he had barely even thought about fucking Laura but he was sure that he would return to that the next time that he saw her. Despite what had happened and how he had humbled Laura he still ahd every intention of claiming what was his, an amazing fuck and dominance over Laura. Maybe it would be tonight that he would see her, he was backstage at Raw after all which meant that she would be here somewhere. Right now though he had Trish sitting on his desk in the creative office which gave him the excuse to do nothing while those under him worked their asses off.
Trish was waffling on about redecorating one of the living rooms at home, as if that might interest him when the door to the office crashed open. Stephanie McMahon stormed in and over to his desk. When she spoke her voice was louder than it needed to be and the words were slurred. She had clearly been drinking and drinking a lot. The words she delivered silenced the room and caused several mouths to drop open including those of Paul and Trish.
"Well Mr and Mrs Levesque you can write me out of your matches. Congratulations Paul, you're going to be a dad. You got me pregnant you bastard."