SecretlySecretly
Selected Wed, Apr 13, 2022
I knock back my absinthe, smiling at gentleman across the table. “Seems like they’re watering down the drinks tonight.”
The gentleman sinks into the red velvet cushions of his armchair, his necktie riding up almost to the chin. He dabs his embroidered handkerchief against his billiard-ball forehead, glancing at his fellows about the smoking room.
I shuffle my cards. “Is there a problem?”
“No,” the gentleman stammers. “Go again.”
When you get into massive gambling debts with a complete stranger, it’s natural that one would try one of three strategies: 1. Try to say that I’m cheating. 2. Try to leave without paying. Or 3. Promise to pay the sum at a later date. All of which I have contingency plans for. My team of bully boys pop their knuckles about the room. A briefcase of pounds sits open on the table next to us.
No one else had ever tried option 4. Poison me.
Well, luckily I’ve built an immunity.
I suck the absinthe from my teeth. “How much?”
“Please,” he mutters. “My wife …”
“Doesn’t know how much you’re spending?” I ask. “Doesn’t know about you spending time with a woman like me? Or doesn’t know how much you love to drug your patients with whatever you put in my cup?”
“This is blackmail.”
“This is all fun and games, my lord,” I lean back, widening my arms, which jingle with my thousand coin bracelets. “I threatened nothing for no price. Now, if I said, for example, I need you to change the laws that end up putting my folk in jail, milord, perhaps I could dock a few thousand pounds off your debt. Now that would be blackmail. See?”
He stands, froth dangling on his white mustache like a feral terrier. “You scandalous whore of a…”
Behind him, my best body guard snaps his arm behind his back.
I shuffle, folding my legs. “Want to go for another, or are you stepping out?”
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Submitted by SecretlySecretly on Mon, Apr 11, 2022 to /r/WritingPrompts/
Full submission hereThe prompt
Your date is getting increasingly nervous as you throw back your third drink of the night. Their nerves might be due to them having roofied each of your drinks more heavily than the last. You smile glowingly and say, "I think the bar is watering down their drinks tonight, what do you think?"
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