love or loyalty

21

I took my seat at the table, and the two boys, Lorenzo and Louis, joined me. As we prepared for the game, Jack burst through another door, munching on Doritos, and nonchalantly plopped onto the couch. Everyone's eyes turned to him in surprise.

"What?" Jack mumbled with a full mouth.

The table was set up with all the cards in place, ready for the game to begin. I askeed, "Can you at least tell me what game we're going to play?" 

"We're going to play the easiest game because you're probably terrible at everything." Lorenzo said.

...

"so?"

"21" Louis replied

"21?" I asked confused

"Oh my god, she has no idea how to play 21." Lorenzo was irritated.

"So, you'll be handed two cards, and you'll have to add them up. You're attempting to achieve a score of twenty-one. J, Q, and K all have a value of ten, but ace has a value of one or eleven. You can draw more cards if you like, but if you do, you risk going over 21, which is known as busting, and you will lose immediately. You win the game straightaway if you score 21 points in your first try, so like a king and ace." Louis explained.

He made it sound simple: just get as close to 21 as possible. My luck, however, was not on my side today.

"How many rounds will we play?" I asked

"One" Lorenzo said with a deep raspy voice while shuffling the cards

As he dealt the cards, I couldn't help but notice how ridiculously attractive he appeared, with his unbuttoned blouse. My excitement grew as I looked at my two cards and found a queen and a king, giving me a total of 20. I tried to keep my emotions in check, not wanting to give away my strong hand.

The room fell into an eerie silence, except for the sound of Jack's munching. My focus shifted between Louis, who seemed his usual composed self, and Lorenzo, who wore a smirk on his face. I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking, but I was determined not to let his confidence rattle me.

I couldn't believe my luck as I declared to Louis, "I'm done." 

However, my moment of relief was short-lived when I heard a deep chuckle to my right.

"What's so funny?" I questioned, turning my attention to Lorenzo.

"Who said I was done?" he replied with a smirk.

I watched in disbelief as Lorenzo revealed his cards—a king and an ace, totalling 21, a perfect blackjack. My heart sank as I realised I had lost the only round.