I'm All In: The Lost Scrolls Revisited

Now that I got you all caught up with the lost scrolls, I can tell you the next part of the story.

Since I now had Racer up to date on what was going on. We promised to speak again soon.

But that did not end up happening.

Not that we didn't talk.

Quite the contrary we did a lot. On the phone, IM and emails.

We were still IT engineers and we often share data. He also moved some of my personal services onto his hosting environment as I shut down my personal lab for the time being.

So there was plenty of chatter between us during my first year full time.

Yet we never had the chance to get together in person. I was busy, he was busy, I did not think he was blowing me off at all, it was just not working out.

Which brings up to early 2013.

He had an IT question for me about a platform I work heavily on. While chatting via IM about it he actually brought it up.

"Hey I haven't seen you in over a year?"

"You are right." As I realized this was, in fact, true.

"Can you go to dinner in the near future?"

I checked my schedule "Yes, I am busy this week but I am really free next week."

"Okay, perfect I have nothing next Tuesday. Let's go!!"

We chatted a bit more on logistics and venue. Settled on it quickly and that was that.

Tuesday came and we met. He arrived before I did as I had a longer drive. Plus it was starting to snow in the region(this was mid February).

I walked, shrugged off my jacket and sat down.

He looked dead at me and said "Holy F*#$!

Taken aback I questioned him.

"You look great!! I was not expecting this!"

"Really?"

Oh yeah, I had no idea what I was going to see, but damn. You look good and if did not know who you were I would not suspect. Wow!"

{It should be noted that I was not dressed in anything unusual. Simply a sweater and jeans tucked into knee boots. It was winter after all.}

I thanked him and asked him how his wife D was doing.

"Oh she is good, she wanted to come tonight but she had to help her mom tonight and with the snow coming probably won't make it."

I told him that was too bad and tell her I said hi.

Now I should note here that I knew both of them separately. I met her doing work for the company she was the office manager for and in charge of the IT consultants coming in. Her and I talked all the time I was there. Often if I need to kill and hour so I could head home rather than back to the office I would chat with her. We always got along.

As He and I worked together and when I was placed on a long term large project, He was the one who replaced me. Which is how they met. They did not start dating until about five years later and were married about two after that.

We ate dinner. Talked most of the night, enjoyed a frosty adult beverage or two. He asked a bunch more questions of me, we caught up on life and joked about a number of things.

It was a good a productive evening.

He promised to get together again soon...

...which did not take very long at all, within a few days he contacted me again wanting to setup another dinner. This time with his wife D.

It was my hunch there was some curiosity. It is to be expected at times.

So we setup a day the following week and I met the two of them for dinner.

Again I got a big hug from her as soon as I walked in.

Great dinner, good conversation it went amazingly well.

It got even better near the end when she asked me: "Do you still play poker?"

{back story here, Racer and I started playing poker with a group that was made up of people we worked with when he and I worked together. They wanted to learn how to play Texas Hold'em and so a monthly poker night was setup. Being a gamer of just about anything I was interested. Originally it was just guys only but on occasion it got opened up for wives and girlfriends. Me, being the gamer that I am loved it, even if the boys did get out of hand from time to time. I was used to it then and just stayed quite when things strayed too much.}

"I have not played in quite a few years."

"Would you be interested in a game once a month, our friend Tilt host a game these days and it is open to anyone."

I will use this poker term as a nickname since this man is a hardcore addict to the game.

"I would loved too!"

"Great we need more girls and you are an awesome player."

This was true, not to toot my own horn but after a few months of playing with those guys, learning the game and their tells. I started an impressive streak. In two and a half years I was finishing first or second most months. Even winning three times in a row. Only a few times did I ever go out early and even then I could usually outlast more then half the group and get close to earning money.

She informed me the next game was at the end of the week asked if I could go and I confirmed I could.

This brings me to the title of the story. I attend the poker game. There were three other girls there besides myself. Even though I didn't know most of the players or their tells I still managed to bust out Racer and two others, took more than a few pots of off Tilt, our host. Eventually placing third and winning eighty dollars.

Not too bad for a $20 buy in.

I had a blast, impressed the boys with how well I played, enough to get an invited back.

At the end of the night D and I were sitting on a couch chatting about things waiting for the boys to wrap things up. She looked at me and said "Oh hell, you are my kind of girl, give me your number we are so going out for drinks!"

Laughing I did just that and within a few days we settled on a place and a day to get together.

That brings me to the last part of this story.

To be continued....