| Love at first bet |
She said her name was Lucky. I didn’t really believe her but I didn’t really care what her name was either. She was beautiful and she had a great sense of humor and I was standing in a casino and I needed luck. People had been claiming to have lucky charms for thousands of years – some people wear the same pair of socks on special occasions which is totally gross if you ask me. Other people find their lucky charms in a bowl of cereal. I had a beautifully dressed, thin brunette with the prettiest green eyes you have ever seen and she slipped she arm into mine as we made our way to the roulette wheel.
My lucky star
I forked over some money and I told her to pick a number. She did and we were successful. We kept playing, most of the time we got lucky, a few picks we didn’t, but we were doing better than I had ever imagined and she’d get so excited when our chips began to stack up that I couldn’t help but smile.
After a while, we decided to walk away from the roulette wheel and get ourselves a drink. We slid into a quiet little booth and sat across from each other. I could have watched the excitement of the casino – people coming and going and games being won and lost but in that moment all I was interested in was looking at Lucky and talking to her. She didn’t tell me much about her but she asked a lot of questions about me. I was happy to answer them. Her being interested in me was good for my male ego.
After the drinks, we headed to the slot machines. We sat side by side putting in our quarters and pulling the levers. It was so simple. We’ve win some and we’d lose some. I come to the casino every few months but this time it was different. I wasn’t caring about the money or how many matching symbols showed up on my screen, I cared about the woman who was sitting next to me. The woman who was beautiful but that I knew virtually nothing about. I wondered if this was what love at first sight felt like or if the combination of alcohol, gambling and Lucky’s beauty was what was driving my emotions. The thought of never seeing her again after this night sent a stab of pain running through me. I was glad that the casino was open twenty-four hours so that I didn’t have to cut our evening short.
| She was everything… |
Jackpot
A bit later we got something to eat and talked some more. Again, I didn’t learn that much about her other than that she liked anchovies and garlic on her pizza. This convinced me that she was far from being a conventional woman. I was surprised when she invited me up to her room at the hotel that was connected to the casino. I went willingly and our time together was extremely pleasant; but when I woke up in the morning Lucky was gone. I wondered if she might have just gone out to get some coffee or breakfast, but after I waited two hours, pacing and staring out the hotel window, I figured that that was not the fact. I wondered if maybe she was a woman who was unable to commit and therefore spent her time on one-night stands. It wasn’t something that I have done that often, but with Lucky I thought I had something amazing going that would extend over several dates. Maybe even my lifetime, but I think that must have just been the alcohol and my age showing and my desire to settle down and have a family of my own.
| If this is no the Jackpot I don’t know what it is |
Bad run
I got another surprise when I got dressed and headed downstairs. I decided to have some breakfast before heading home and I thought maybe I’d see Lucky around somewhere and be able to see why she’d left her room without saying goodbye to me. I was hoping that maybe she just had to go to work or something and had forgotten to mention this fact to me. I sipped on my coffee and ate my bacon, eggs and toast but when it came time to pay I had a big problem. There was no money in my wallet. Even my credit cards were gone. I was angry and I felt like a fool at the same time. She had helped herself to my cash. I had been duped big time. The hotel management was unhappy that I couldn’t pay and Lucky had paid for her room with cash in advance and the name in the hotel register would most likely turn out to be phony.
As I sat in the hotel speaking to the police, I wondered how my ego had made me so vulnerable to Lucky’s charms. I thought I was having such a good night. I’d even made a few hundred dollars. What had happened would certainly change my feelings about how I met women in the future. It would take a few days to get new cards issued and in the meantime I’d have to beg the bank for a few bucks from my own account just so I could have money for basic necessities like gasoline for my car and food.
Thankfully, Lucky hadn’t taken my keys. She would however have seen my address on my driver’s license. I made the decision to change the locks as soon as I could money to buy new ones. I hoped that I would see Lucky again but not to love her but to put her away behind bars for what she had done to me and maybe other guys who were just looking for a good time and a little luck.