Next dealer? / Misha

On Wednesday after work I went to the gym for the second day in a row, and bumped into Jim at the end. We had a bit of a chat, and I thought about hanging around as he had done the same when he arrived at the end of my gym session before, but I decided to go home because...I wanted to go to the casino.

So I went home, got changed and headed out to the casino. I didn't realise until I got there, but it was game two of State of Origin. I usually try my best to avoid the casino on busy nights like these, but I was here already. I looked around to make sure no one I knew was around before deciding on a table.

I played at a table with a bulky dealer. I was losing at first, but then luckily it landed on 1 when I piled it on. This brought me back to a bit above my starting balance. Then there was a dealer change. It was the girl who I had seen around a few times, has a bit of a sexy aura about her, but I can't decide whether she's good looking or not good looking.

She was being a bit playful with the guy dealer as they exchanged shifts, and she seemed rather voiceful when she was working, like yelling to the other dealers and the supervisor. Part of me thought maybe she was doing it to get my attention.

She asked me if I was ready before she spun, and I told her not to wait for me as I didn't bet on every bet. She said her spins were short so there wouldn't be much time to place bets.

Other than that I didn't really say much, mainly deciding whether I should leave with my gains and also the fact that I didn't want to lose in front of her. I noticed that on at least two occasions she was looking at me. One time, Iw as sitting down, and she had spun. I felt like she was looking at me so I looked up, and she was! She sort of gestured to ask if I was betting, and I just shook my head and smiled.

Shortly afterwards, one of my earlier decisions had been made for me - there was a quick dealer change, and so I took that opportunity to cash in and leave with a $300 gain.

I don't know why,l but since that time, she has left me with quite an impression. I think I'm in the familiar early stages of developing a crush on her. She seemed like the extroverted type, which would totally suit me.

On Thursday night I had basketball. Tristian, who had been with us for about three weeks now, asked me for a lift but I made up some sort of excuse as it was really out of my way. In the end he got a lift from Mark.

I realised I had a slight disdain for him, and wondered if I was a closet racist. Did I not like him because he was white? Or...was it because there was something odd and dodgy about him? For example, on Thursday he asked me to cover for his post-game meal, saying he would transfer me the money, as his girlfriend took his card with her on holiday and he had no cash. So I thought, yeah alright.

He said he would transfer it that night, yet I noticed later on Saturday he said he transferred it on Friday night.

On Friday after work I met up with Thai, Malay and Brain for dinner. We went to Newtown to try this chicken place, which turned out to be a pub. It was a bit uncomfortable because we didn't have a proper table and sat in their waiting area eating on a really low sunk couch.

I gave them all their presents I got from Tokyo, and I was surprised Malay really liked his custom shirt as I feared he wouldn't like it. What I enjoyed the most throughout the night was Thai's input on the Japanese culture, as I was now very interested, being fresh from my trip.

At first he didn't seem to say much about it, but as the dinner went along, and while we had dessert at Max Brenna, he spoke more and more about the Japanese, and I would learn bit by bit of what they were like.

On Saturday morning I went to library guy's son's birthday. It started at 11am and I got there at 11:30am, thinking it'd be a safe delay, but nope, when I arrived there were plenty of kids but no one I knew. Library guy was busy running around, and so I occupied myself with eating. Shortly after I recognised a guy ("Thai") who I had seen at John's house a few years ago so I went up and talked to him.

After a while John and his wife arrived, and they were my safety, as we talked in a group. We talked a bit about their lives, my trip to Tokyo, how I had decided not to go to the bar, and work. I think I may have made a bit of a bu-bu when John walked away, and I said to his wife "John travels quite a bit doesn't he?" thinking she would've known about his international trips but not quite what he gets up to. But her response was "not really, only when he's with me..." which made me stop. Ok, no more lol.

John and his wife left at around 2pm and I left shortly thereafter. As usual, I felt a bit like the odd one out, being the lone guy who didn't have children or even a girlfriend. Hmmm.

After that I went to the casino, and saw Jenny working as one of the promo girls, though I don't think she saw me. I was only planning to win $200 but got incredibly lucky and won $720. With that amount of gain, I got itchy and thought about visiting my old haunt to see Misha or maybe seeing Lisa.

I didn't know how Misha would reach when she saw me. Would she refuse to see me? I decided to try it out first, and if she refused, then I'd leave and go see Lisa. Hell, I wasn't even sure the shop was still in existence as I hadn't been there for so long (it seemed).

I drove there and parked, and went ino. The receptionist was the nice softly spoken guy. I asked if Misha was working and he said she was the only girl available. I thought it was a bit sad, how a few years ago she was the hottest thing supporting the entire shop, and yet when she got older and younger talent came along, she was the only one no one wanted to see.

The guy waited for payment and I gave it to him, thinking how he'd have to give it back if she refused to see me. I sat in the waiting room wondering if she could see me via the cameras. After a bit, the guy called me out and I saw her standing in the hallway as usual. She was smiling. She said "long time no see".

I was in the excited "I returned from Japan" mood and played along. When we went into the room, she again said long time no see, and I told her I came back from Japan last week. I started showing her the photos and she soon had my phone in her hand, flicking through the different photos from the very beginning.

We sat there and talked, and I thought this should all last a good hour. I wasn't intending on having sex, I kinda just wanted to see her and talk about my trip. However, it seemed that I may have taken one too many photos, as the hour was up before we finished going through the photos. She asked me to extend, and I did, so I paid for another hour.

When she came back she said something about how there was a customer she didn't want to see. We laid on the bed, resuming our photo browsing. Although in the back of my mind I knew all this was fake, I was quite impressed with the amount of detail she was going through. Like in one photo, she actually spotted a small dot in the sky, enlarged it, and asked if it was a UFO. Then in another photo, she noticed that I could be spotted in a reflection off the glass - something I had never even seen before, despite having looked at all the photos several times.

On top of that, we had lots of laughs. She would laugh at all the photos of the rubbish bins I took, and at some of the photos I was in, especially the ones where I was in the jail hospital restaurant. She laughed so loud at one stage I wondered what people outside would think.

We finished looking at the photos and then time was up. There was no mention of gambling or how we had ended our last session together. She asked me to bring her the cat from HK as I was leaving.

I rushed home and got changed, then went out to Saturday basketball. I spoke to Daniel about Tristian, and he said Tristian hadn't paid the game fees for the last two weeks. He too had some suspicions about Tristian. I was glad I wasn't being paranoid.

Afterwards we went out to eat as a group as usual, and Tristian tried to ask me to cover for him again, but I said I only had $10 which I paid to Daniel and I needed to go to the ATM. So he didn't end up ordering anything at the restaurant but kept saying he was going to get a hot dog afterwards. So at the end of the meal, I paid $20 thinking that was it, but I was given $10 change. Then at the hot dog stand, Tristian asks to borrow $10 from me. I couldn't say no as he had seen me get the $10 as change.

Then I had to drive him home which annoyed me even more. I had a big talk about it to Daniel after the game.

This morning I went to the casino before the basketball game at 12. It was maybe around 10am. There was one crowded table, and the table next to it was empty though it looked like one guy was buying in - perfect. I sat down, and realised that the guy had bought in massively. It took a while to count all his money.

I then bought in with $800 and watched the dealer give me like one and a half stacks. I was about to tell her she was wrong when I looked up at the table and realised it had become a $25 table!!!

I didn't say anything, trying to act cool, but thought "how the fuck am I supposed to win now?"

Maybe it could backfire on the casino and you win more? After all, you've had practice before playing with $25 chips.

Ummm ok. Just don't do the colour/columns or the big/dozen strategies.

I sat there with my chips, scouring the scoreboard noticing there had been a lot of 0-3 sections. I waited for it to hit that section two times in a row. I realised that with $25 chips I was now gripping onto my chips more tightly, more willing to be patient to wait things out.

When I bet on 1-2 section, I won. I was up $150. I waited again, and on the next 1-2 bet, I won again. I was now up $300 and wondered if I should leave. Part of me didn't want to leave because I didn't want to appear to be a cheapo (stupid I know).

I waited things out again and bet, and lost. I bought in with the rest of my $1200 and continued playing. It again landed in the 0-3 section, and now it was four in a row. Surely it would land in 1-2 soon. I piled on and it landed on 33. I looked and saw I had two straight ups, and two splits.

OH MY GOD YES!!!

How much is that?

Who the fuck cares? Just cash out and leave!

So I did. I cashed out. The pit boss was like "already?" and I said "breakfast money". The dealer, a girl with short hair who I think is a lesbian, said something about it being a big breakfast.

I walked off, calculating my win to be $1400. Fuck me dead.

I walked around the casino a bit before leaving for basketball.

We won, but while I was on in the first half, we lost our eight point lead, and I was partly to blame, giving up two fouls which included an and-one. But also, bloody Quan was taking stupid ass shots, and I realised he was hurting how my play would be perceived.

Anyway, after the game I went to Macca's with Kevin, and we talked about Tristian the whole time. He had felt the same suspicions, and said Tristian had told him that he gambles at the casino. Uh-oh. We talked about all the odd things with Tristian that didn't make sense. He even wondered if Tristian even lived in the apartments where we drop him off, as no one had ever actually seen him go inside or come out.

Anyway, after that I did some grocery shopping, then rushed back home to go out to pick up Eva. We went to Chinksford where we had dinner with Elle, Colin, Shuing and Malay (who left before dinner). We had a good time, and it was good to see Shuing laugh a lot at dessert. I think laughter is the best medicine.