Chapter 2: Nightcap

Wendy and Mark park in the driveway and made their way to the front door. After a light tap they let themselves inside.

“Hello,” called Wendy. “We’re here.”

“In the kitchen,” replied Damon. “Just finished whipping up a pitcher of margaritas.”

Wendy and Mark entered the kitchen and pull bar stools away from the counter and take a seat.

“They look fantastic,” said Mark. “No salt for me.”

“I’ll take his share,” quipped Wendy.

Damon pours three large margaritas, then turns and opens the fridge, and takes out a root beer.

“No margarita for you Damon?”

Damon lamented, “Since I’m on call I’ve had enough at the restaurant.”

The three sip their drinks as Rita bounced into the kitchen wearing cutoff sweats and a thin t-shirt. The outline and pattern of her bra is easily seen through the thin fabric.

“Whoa,” said Wendy, “that’s not fair. You can’t change into comfy clothes when we can’t!”

“Well, come on, I can lend you something,” said Rita and she turned to retreat to the bedroom.

“No, I’m OK,” sulked Wendy. “Just jealous.”

Everyone laughed at Wendy and her assumed pout.

“To the game room,” announced Damon. “I propose we go old school tonight and breakout Settlers of Catan.”

Damon heard everyone’s assent as they climbed the stairs to the game room. He pulled the proposed board game out of the closet and put it on the table. Everyone knew not to sit yet.

“Roll for seats,” said Damon. He opened the box and the dice are collected first. “Lowest roll chooses their chair, then the next highest, to the left. If there’s a tie we re-roll the tied dice. Seat two will start the game.”

The foursome took turns rolling the dice. Mark is low so he chose the chair facing away from the floor lamp. To his left is Damon, then Rita across from him, and his wife to his right. Everyone helped set up the board and just as they finished Damon excused himself to get the margarita refills from the kitchen. He came back to the table with the pitcher and another root beer for himself.

“Top-offs for everyone,” he said as he drained the pitcher into the three mostly empty glasses.

Wendy took a questionable location for her first town, but the dice rolled in her favor the first several turns and she quickly built the longest road and two cities. Once she established this juggernaut it didn’t look like she could be caught.

“Damn,” said Damon, “can no one move the robber onto one of her properties?”

Wendy does not respond to Damon. Instead, she collected the dice for her turn, rolled them, and then took four new cards from the eleven she just rolled.

“Are you OK, hon?” asked Mark.

“I’ll be fine. Just starting to get a headache.”

Rita looked at her friend. “A headache or a migraine? You said they have started to come back with more regularity.”

“Probably the latter, but I feel OK right now,” responded Wendy.

The dice stayed in Wendy’s favor the rest of game and they finished the game in record time. Wendy finished with 11 victory points to Rita’s second place showing at four points.

“That was a massacre,” said Mark. Damon can’t comment as he already went to the kitchen to mix another round of drinks.

“Hell yeah. I vote we switch to something else,” said Rita.

Mark stood and pulls balls out of the pockets of the pool table. They do not have a table and he oftentimes takes a few minutes to shoot a round between games. He finished racking the balls when Damon entered with a fresh pitcher.

“Round two is served,” he said as he put the icy mix on the table.