Open, Wounded Hearts

Chapter 1

Lovesick Observer

Just one…what would happen if I had one…?

She gracefully walked along the aisles of the poker tables, her midnight blue dress swishing with her curvy figure. The powdered navy glitter glimmered with the ever so brilliant illumination provided by the florescent lights dangling above the players’ tables. One kiss wouldn’t hurt…right? A smile made its way on her face as she leaned over a certain someone, speaking to them about God knows what. Content with what she had to say, she slightly waved her companion good-bye and took a random turn to the right so to monitor other poker tables.

For what reason, Marcus didn’t have a clue. No it would…It would hurt a lot.

The woman was so happy that night because she was twirling about in the playing room, seemingly without a care in the world; the seams of her elegantly tailored dress danced with her, hugging her snugly dressed hips. She’ll regret it. I’ll regret it. Her eyes gazed around her surroundings, analyzing the location for some odd reason; her sterling cyan eyes shined with a sense of beauty in the light. But…I just want one. Only one, that’s it, and then…no more. Out of nowhere she tilted her head and eyes toward the southeast direction of the playing room, right on her green-eyed observer: Marcus.

Oh crap-!

Thinking fast, Marcus sat up in his seat, quickly averting his gaze away from her colorful eyes. He decided to pretend that he was actually paying attention to the slot machines situated to her northeast; it was the perfect cover after all. His heart beat crazily in its chamber, clinging on to his chest for support as he finally stood up from his seat in the hotel lobby’s waiting room. Marcus clutched his fedora hat tight, the fabric crumpling in his grasp; it didn’t matter to him either way. Relax, you dolt relax…Just play it cool. Marcus was good at that, playing off his mistakes as casual happenings. He knew this, he knew this very well. He placed his black fabric fedora hat, striped with some green back upon his head before doing two things at once: walking toward the woman’s direction and dusting off his snazzy tuxedo.

She stood in her spot, tilting her heels in a circle slowly so she could get a fresh look at the casino. A smile grew on her mouth, cheer lining the woman’s simper. Her arms were positioned away from her hips with her hands sticking outward in opposite directions; the childish aura she carried made her all the more interesting to him.

Marcus had been watching that girl for a good five minutes. How long ago did he start doing this, was a question in his head. As he approached her, his heart started to simulate the fast heartbeat someone felt after running a marathon. He took out the silky lime-green handkerchief tucked into his tuxedo’s breast pocket so to wipe his hands secretly as he made his way past the cerulean-clad woman, whom was now officially behind him. He climbed the steps that would lead him not only away from the girl he had been observing, but to his pseudo-location of choice: the slots. She didn’t notice you. Oh thank goodness… the man thought with a huge amount of relief setting in his heart. As his heart began to settle down, Marcus’ Emerald green eyes averted to the scenario around him; other tuxedo-clad men and scantily dressed women sat on the slots, attempting to challenge their luck. He wasn’t in the mood for a good chat tonight, as an alternative he started to busy himself with a search for his favorite seat. After stalking the rows of slots sitting near him—just to see if any other machines caught his eye—Marcus finally found his favorite appliance. The glittering spotlights administered on the machine’s advertising cover shined down on Marcus, as if they were calling out to him.

“Oh, there you are…” he cooed with a familiar sense of recognition. A lazy grin took over his mouth as he sat down on the stool placed in front of the device for his comfort. Before he knew it, his hand was fishing in his specifically tailored pockets for casino tokens but a sense of dread filled him up. He shook the possibility out of his head and insisted that he had some tokens in his small pockets, so he pushed his hands in deeper to find them. Yet, he couldn’t seem to grab one out of his pouches. “Oh don’t do this to me, God…” he vocally prayed before getting out of his seat to easily search both of his coat pockets. Nothing, not even a single coin came to his hands. His shoulders slumped in defeat, what was he going to do now?

“You need coins, sir?”

“Oh yeah that would be nice,” Marcus spoke up to the mysterious voice behind him; he casually tilted in his place so he could finish up this chance of social contact. Only when he placed his eyes on the stranger itself, did his blood freeze in its veins. A pair of cobalt toned eyes glanced back at his Emerald green pair, smiling away at him with a touch of delight. “…Thank you.” He finally managed to say; Marcus quickly snapped out of his shock so to properly communicate with his object of desire.

The girl closed her lovely eyes and pushed out her right hand; she opened up her palm and revealed a collection of casino tokens, apparently all for him. She talked to him with such a wonderfully endearing grin on her face,

“There you go! You’ll need these more than me, I’m sure.” Beautiful…simply lovely.

His mind was on her, solely on her. His body and mind worked like partners; as he continued to compliment her in his head, Marcus’ body and voice covered up his thoughts with different actions.

“Well, thank you again, my darling.” Her sparkling giggle warmed his heart, how he wanted to keep hearing that peppy laugh… “You certainly saved me from a gambling predicament. I kind of just got here, you know?” Marcus let the ball roll on now. He kept talking, “I waited for a long time to get my requested room registered and those slots were kind of calling out to me…” off she went, laughing at his words. Of course he wasn’t stupid though: he wanted her to keep chuckling in amusement. After all, it was covering up his previous escapade. Marcus found it to be a winning two way street: he got a free concert of her cherished laughter. “It was worth the wait though; I get to take sleep here tonight!” Oh man…this is too damn much. He thought to himself, happiness emphasizing the beats of his heart.

The woman in front of him continued to laugh, he seemed to have a way with women and she evidently was no different. Yet, something about her made her different from the rest.

The girl in front of him has actually helped him out of gambling problems. At one point he had no more chips for his poker game, she donated some of hers for his sake. Another time, he ran out of tokens to play his favorite slot machine and somehow, she magically appeared to replenish his amount. Every time they bumped into each other, they always chatted away the time; as if they were long lost friends that hadn’t seen each other in a long while. After her third rescue, Marcus made it a mission to discover her name. He had a feeling it was just as refreshingly attractive as its owner.

“Well, I’m glad to hear you’ll be lodging here for the night, sir. The evening seems much better now, knowing that.” No doubt about it: This girl knew how to make him melt. Did she have a manual on it? Or was she naturally a romantic with her words? Whatever the case was, he found an opponent of passionate eloquence.

“Ha, why thank you for that compliment my dear; glad to know I’m in your good graces.” He countered smoothly, what would she say next?

“Oh sir, you’re always in my good thoughts. Don’t get the idea that I think ill of you!” she responded, apparently taking in a modest attitude. He knew better than to fall for that charade.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry I’m not. On the contrary, you’re giving me the opposite idea.” The woman grinned at him with joy brimming in her smile. Laughs escaped her, filling up their conversation.

“Well I’m glad to know that I’m in your good graces then, heh…” her smile infected him, for now he was grinning as well; it spread across his milk-chocolate visage. He adored their clever wordplay; rarely did he ever speak to someone on their level of formality. He especially loved how she threw her own line back at herself, and managed to get away with it. Bright gal you are… he noted in his head as she continued to smile on.

“You always will be, madam. I don’t think I can find anything about you that sets me off in a bad way.” He figured flattery was the best approach to go with in this situation.

“Oh stop, I’m a reticent girl sir. I don’t think of myself like that; it’s practically impossible to not find an imperfection on me. Trust me.” She happily assured Marcus, raising her hands in a motion of playful surrender. Reticent? He found that hard to believe. She had this air of confidence in her aura, wherever she went. Especially when she played card games, Poker was probably one of her specialties. She was a brilliant actress; always carrying a stunning poker face with her while playing. He’s been beaten by her several times. Sometimes, he dreamed of playing a nice game of Strip Poker with her…he wondered how that would be like. He fantasized about the figure she hid underneath that gown…how charming it would be to play with her sensual curves, to make her sweat in pleasure, to make her scream out… Snap out of it you horn dog…

“Ha, okay then. I’ll take your word for it, my dear. At any rate…” Marcus replied, his words now transitioning into a question, “What’re you doing here?” a spark of curiosity filled her delightfully light navy eyes; he could tell she was pondering on an answer.

“Well I’m one of the caretakers of this hotel so you know… I wander around these halls to make sure things are doing okay.”

“O-oh really?” well that certainly caught him off guard. He’s been daydreaming over one of the managers…? “Must be an adventurous job. Think you can set me up with one?” he playfully pitched his question, unable to hold his laughter in because of it. She caught on to his joke and laughed along with him; he wasn’t serious, he made that more or less clear. “Of course you know I’m joking…” Marcus reassured with an amused smirk still on his cheery mug, “But that’s really good.”

“Heh, well thank you very much. I like to hear you compliment my somewhat battered ego.” There she went again with that coy persona she’s gone and developed. Marcus honestly didn’t mind her acting that way, he found it cute even. Yet there was something within him wishing that she would stop acting so shy and meek. He wanted to see her twinkle in her true radiance, instead of hiding it all away. Was she really that shy…?

“I guess that’s what I’m here for,” he returned, his smile still strong. “To repair that damaged ego of yours. I wouldn’t mind checking up on it. Want to let me take a look?” It didn’t show up on his face, but the feeling of erroneous dread slowly flooded his insides; I did not just say that… he immediately thought. Those words did not just come out of my mouth…argh!! Marcus couldn’t do anything about it now. He flirted with her, no ways around it. All he could do now was watch the damage he created. He helplessly imagined the sly reply of a rejection she was going to hand him. His green eyes couldn’t turn away from the curious expression painted on her face, any second now she would reject his accidental advances and tell him that she’s not interested…or she’s spoken for, or something along those lines. He wanted to run off but that would have simply made matters worse.

“Hm…” she mused, after an apparent eternity of silence slipped between them even though only seconds past by. “Well, I wouldn’t mind a check-up. Apparently I need one.” She wisecracked, a fox-like grin lined on her face. Her eyelids lowered, making her eyes mysteriously smoky, and that was it. That’s what he loved about her, she was a cunning woman. It made her all the more gorgeous. “Besides, the bigger question here is what you want, sir.” She’s open, no question about that. She wouldn’t be doing this if she wasn’t. Don’t falter you retard…

“Interesting…well I do have some distinct interests, my dear.”

“I do too, good sir. I’m sure we can relate.” Just before he could return that clever gesture of words, an odd beep made its way into their conversation. He looked around to see where it was coming from, but he found it surprising that it was coming from the woman’s bosom. His Emerald eyes sparkled with a certain gleeful interest, a devious glint he made sure the girl right in front of him didn’t notice. Baby steps were important here; he didn’t want to screw up.

As she plucked out a phone from her strapless yet flowing sapphire blue dress, Marcus took the time to once again remove the jade tinted handkerchief from his front pocket so to wipe his now sweaty hands. He didn’t want to cut the wrong wire with this beauty of a bombshell; a man just can’t help but feel nervous.

Her fingers tapped away at the phone’s buttons, she must have gotten a text message from someone. A frown furrowed her mouth, her brows lowered slightly. She wasn’t all too happy now, something must have happened. Another feeling of alarm bubbled up within the Emerald clad man; he was sending up prayers to God for more time. Just a bit more time…please?

“What’s wrong, dear? You’re not looking too cheerful.” After a few more hits on her phone’s buttons, she placed her eyes on Marcus.

“Looks like I have to cut our conversation short sir, I have a bit of a situation to attend to.” Even though he prayed and prayed, his wishes and desires were left unanswered by the Almighty. His heart sunk low, drowning in a sea of vast disenchantment. A frown spread across his mouth, if only for a few seconds.

In spite of the short interval between his somber scowl and of a fake smile, the girl caught on to his discontent. She gave him a warm, comforting smile before placing a hand on his right cheek:

“Don’t be sad sir; we’ll make up for lost time.”

He returned the kind motion with a dazzling smile, “Alright. Take care, my dear.”

The girl dropped her hand and quickly turned her heel so to run off, right after saying her good-bye.

Only after playing a few games on the slots, did Marcus realize that he outwardly forgot an important detail: The man never got the blue garbed girl’s name.

Just my fucking luck… Marcus cursed mentally. His hand was on the lever of his favorite machine, a coin was already inserted but the realization of his mistake made him forget that one detail. He slumped forward, making harsh contact with the metal exterior of the slots machine, his mind filled with self-appointed curses. He didn’t notice that he had pulled the lever by accident, the only sign he got of that was the sudden alarm going off from the gambling gadget. Even though he was disinterested in what was going on, he managed to lift his lazy eyelids to look up at the now flashing machine. He was a winner, no question about it.

As people began to crowd around him, amazed by his unbelievable luck, all Marcus could do was rise up from his original slumped position and place his now fury-filled eyes on the winning contraption.

“Fuck you, you damn, sin-filled bastard!” With that said Marcus proceeded to kick it before getting off his seat and storming off, leaving fellow casino goers with a treasure mine of money. As he left, another man leaned against his favorite game.

His golden eyes landed on the giant pot of money spewing out of the exit slot of the lucky device. A grin made its way across his mouth, but then it disappeared as his gold-tinted eyes scanned the greedy and financially hungry crowd around him.

“Lay off assholes, my pot.” Before any one of them could say a word out of protest, this man proceeded to pull out a specially crafted gun-blade from his inside pocket. The muzzles were worn with rust but by the way he held it, it could be assumed that it still had some power. Gasps of surprise and disappointment escaped the audience, leading them to walk off defeated by the armed guy. A victorious grin overcame this guy’s face, until that was broken by a shrill scream:

“God damn it Antony how many times do I have to tell you, not to steal jackpots from the customers?!”

Fuck, I got caught.