Loud protests as I brushed my fingertips along the green felt. “Hit me.”
The dealer laid down the eight of diamonds.
“Twenty.” I clutched Jonah’s arm and shook it. “I got twenty.”
He shook his head, laughing. “Yes, you did.”
“You got damn lucky, is what you got,” Cowboy said with a chuckle. “Now stay, girlie.”
“Stay,” the other players echoed.
I waved my hands over my cards. “Stay.”
The table went quiet as the dealer flipped over his down card. A queen to give him thirteen.
“Dealers have to hit up to seventeen,” Jonah murmured in my ear.
My heart pounded fast as I watched the dealer hit and bust with the Jack of diamonds. The table erupted in cheers.
Jonah gripped my shoulder. “Holy shit.”
“I won,” I said, as the dealer laid a second blue-and-white-striped $20 chip beside my first.
“Not only did you win,” Jonah said. “If you’d sat on your twelve, the dealer would have taken your eight to his thirteen.”
“And had twenty-one,” I said.
“The whole table would have lost.”
“He’s right, girlie,” Cowboy said. “You’re a ringer, ain’t you?”
“Could be.” I took my winnings and vacated my seat. “Good luck, everyone! It’s been real.” I tapped the brim of Cowboy’s cowboy hat as we left the table. “You can smoke now, sir.”
“You just won me two hundred dollars, Lady Luck,” he said, wheezing a laugh after us. “Maybe I’ll quit while I’m ahead.”
“Now what?” I said to Jonah, taking his hand. “Where to? I swear I’ve never had so much fun sober in my life.” I stopped at the long lines of slot machines, buzzing and clunking and glowing. “Slots. Oh my God, do you want to? Just a few, then we’ll leave, I swear.”
Jonah laughed. “How could I say no?”
I went to the change window and came back with four rolls of nickels.
“You want to play nickel slots?” Jonah asked.
“I want to play some kind of slots, but plunking quarter after quarter into a machine feels wasteful. This way, I get the experience without feeling like I’m throwing a ton of money away.”
Jonah narrowed his eyes and stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Very wise.”
“Smartass.” I took his hand again. “Let’s go play with the high rollers.”
We found the casino’s sole bank of nickel slots and set up shop. Jonah took off his suit jacket and tie and slung them over a vacant machine. Then he handed me a plastic bucket from a stack between the slots.
“For your winnings,” he said.
“Better get me two,” I said, tearing into my rolls of nickels. “I’m feeling lucky…punk.”
The slot machines had buttons to push in addition to the levers to send the pictures of cherries, diamonds and bars spinning. Jonah hit the button, but I insisted on pulling the lever.
“To get the full effect,” I said.
“You’ve really never gambled before? Not even at Caesars?”
“I’m too busy hustling free drinks, and when my shift is over I just want to get the heck out of there and change my clothes. Holy shit, you should see the get-up they have us wearing. Togas, gold sandals, and leafy headbands.”
The metallic plunk of a small handful of nickels hit Jonah’s tray. A small win. I had the same; just enough to keep us playing.
“It’s funny we have the same work schedule,” he said. “Wednesday through Saturday nights, six to two a.m.? Exactly the same schedule.”
“I requested those days.” I turned my face to the machine, pulled the lever. “Because they’re the best shifts.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jonah smile. “They are the best.”
I slipped my last nickel into the machine and came up with nothing.
“I’m out,” I said with a sigh. “I think the system is rigged.”
Jonah laughed. “I guarantee it is. I’m almost out too…”
He dropped a nickel, hit the button and the pics on the machine went round and round. One cartoon diamond solitaire with jackpot written across the middle jerked to a stop. Then two. Then three, all lined up in a perfect row. The entire machine lit up with flashing lights and music, and a torrent of nickels cascaded into the tray below.
I jumped out of my seat, my hands flying to my mouth. “Oh my God, you won. You won!”
Jonah stared, a half-smile of shock around his open mouth. “Holy shit, look at that.”
The nickels kept pouring out, overflowing the tray and falling onto the carpet in a jingling avalanche.
I clutched his shoulder. “Oh my God, how much did you win?” I scanned the top of the machine for the payouts. “It says three diamonds is…five thousand nickels. Wait… That’s…”
“Two hundred and fifty bucks,” Jonah said, standing up, his hands on his head.
“You hit the jackpot,” I said, throwing my arms around his neck.
He looked down at me, his hands slowly coming down. The slot machine lights reflected red, blue and green in his eyes. The chime of falling coins dwindled away in my ears. The entire casino faded to the background.