Valerie placed her coffee cup on her desk and sat down. As she raised the cup to her lips, she looked around the cramped office, her eyes lingering on the faded motivational posters that adorned the walls. She’d been in the job a month now, but the awkwardness of her new surroundings hadn’t yet worn off, mainly because her new colleagues hadn’t done much to make her feel welcome.

Those colleagues, all fresh-faced and brimming with youthful energy, were a stark contrast to her own seasoned experience. She knew she had a lot to offer, but their immaturity was starting to wear on her. The woman among them was the only one who had befriended her, and she was a welcome respite from the juvenile banter of the three men, but even she was occasionally drawn into their antics.

Valerie felt a pang of jealousy at their easy camaraderie, remembering the days when she had been part of such groups. She set her coffee cup down again, finding the only clear space available on her desk, and checked her watch. There were only a couple of hours left in the working day. She decided to put her thoughts about the others aside and concentrate fully on her unfinished work.

She made good progress, her desk becoming clearer and tidier as the afternoon drew to a close. The others had been unusually quiet, but suddenly Valerie heard it. The distinct rustling of a deck of cards being shuffled at Jake’s desk across the room. She didn’t look up immediately, but her fingers paused over her keyboard. A slow smirk tugged at her lips. She’d been waiting for this.

The cards made that plastic whisper only fresh decks have, being too new to have grease stains from pizza nights or warped edges from beer spills. Valerie kept her eyes on her screen but let her smirk widen just enough to feel the stretch in her cheeks. She knew exactly what was coming next. It would be the same thing she had witnessed on the last couple of Friday afternoons.

Jake stopped shuffling the cards. “Game night at my place. Who’s in?”

Valerie’s fingers lingered over her keyboard, catching the slight hesitation in Jake’s invitation, the way his tone lifted at the end like he was testing the waters. She could practically hear the exchanged glances between the young men. Then came the predictable follow-up, this time from Derek, his voice pitched lower like he thought it made him sound more serious: “Strip poker rules. Final offer.”

The office air thickened with the sudden tension of unspoken challenges. Valerie watched from her peripheral vision as the young woman, Lisa, rolled her eyes and waved a dismissive hand, without even bothering to look up from her spreadsheet. “Not again,” she muttered, though Valerie caught the faintest upward twitch at the corner of her mouth. “In your dreams, Derek.”

Valerie continued working for a moment, tapping out one last line on her keyboard before swiveling her chair around to face the others. The three men were all looking toward Lisa, but she offered them nothing in return, still not looking up. Valerie watched as the men exchanged glances, seemingly wondering if there was anything they could say to Lisa that would make any difference.

“I’ll play,” Valerie said, her voice smooth as the polished edge of her desk. The three men looked at her in surprise, Jake with his fingers still splayed around the deck, Derek leaning too far back in his chair, testing the law of gravity, and Mark halfway through adjusting his tie like it was suddenly too tight. She kept her gaze steady, letting the silence stretch as the men clearly didn’t know what to say.

Valerie crossed one leg over the other and leaned forward, resting her elbow on her knees. “I’m not doing anything tonight.”

Again, the silence stretched. The office air conditioning clicked off in that moment, making the room even quieter, leaving only the faint buzz of the fluorescent lights overhead. Jake’s fingers tightened around the deck, the plastic casing creaking under his grip. Mark’s fingers twitched against his tie. Derek’s chair legs hit the floor with a thud that made Lisa start, her fingers slipping on her keyboard.

Derek was the first to break the silence with a nervous chuckle that sounded more like a cough. “Uh. You’re joking, right?”

Valerie uncrossed her legs and leaned back in her chair, the leather creaking softly beneath her. She tilted her head just slightly, letting her gaze drift from Derek to Mark’s twitching fingers and to Jake’s frozen posture. “Do I look like I’m joking?” she asked, her voice low and even.

Derek’s fingers drummed against his desk, the rhythm uneven, like a heartbeat skipping, but he kept his eyes on Valerie, as though working her out. Lisa suddenly put a hand over her mouth, whether to mask amusement, embarrassment, or disbelief, Valerie couldn’t tell, but when she caught Lisa’s eye, there was something she hadn’t seen before there, a look of admiration.

Jake cleared his throat. “Um,” he said, then stopped. Valerie could practically hear the gears turning in his head. “You’d play strip poker with us?”

Valerie shrugged. “Why not? I’ve got nothing to hide, and I’ve always been a good sport.”

Jake looked at the other two men. Derek had recovered his usual confident demeanor and was leaning back with a slow grin, the kind that suggested he was about to say something either stupid or brilliant. In the end, he did neither, just nodded at Jake, then turned to Mark and did the same. Valerie kept her expression neutral, but her pulse jumped just a little. This was the moment.

Jake cleared his throat. “Um,” he said, “we were going to get a bite to eat after work and then go back to my place. If that’s okay with you?”

Valerie kept a straight face. “That sounds like a good plan,” she said.

Lisa suddenly spoke up. “Hey, wait a minute,” she said, not hiding her surprise in the slightest. “You’re actually going to play with them?”

Valerie still kept a perfectly straight face. “Yes, why not?”

Lisa looked rather taken aback. “I thought you were just winding them up?”

“Why don’t you come as well, Lisa?” asked Derek. “Make it a full house, all five of us.”

“Certainly not,” Lisa protested. “I’m definitely not playing strip poker with you lot. I’m shocked that Valerie’s going to do it.”

The office clock clicked on to 5:00 PM. Lisa gathered her things to leave, shooting a look of disbelief at Valerie as she did so. “I’ll see you all on Monday,” she said.

Mark explained where they intended to go for a meal and a couple of drinks. Valerie simply nodded, feeling a strange mix of excitement and trepidation. After practically being ignored for a month by these young men, she was now going to spend an evening with them. She wasn’t sure how far they would push the game, but hopefully they would understand when she wanted to call it a night.

When she first planned to offer to play with them, she had wondered if they might decline for the simple reason that she was that much older than they were. The fact that they hadn’t made it feel like a triumph already. She had successfully challenged their perceptions of her. That gave her a good feeling, even though as the game got closer, she was starting to feel nervous about what might lie ahead.

When they arrived at Jake’s place, they immediately settled down at his table to begin the game. Valerie could see that the men were all studying her. They had always looked at her in the office as though she was someone a little out of place, but now she sensed that they had a certain curiosity about her. Perhaps they just wondered how well she could play poker.

The truth was that Valerie knew very well how to play poker, but had very limited experience of actually playing it, and even the experience she had was from a long time ago. This showed in the opening hands, as Valerie began the game a little shakily, betting a little too eagerly. She soon lost a shoe, and then the other, but before long had settled into the game and felt she was holding her own.

She continued to play steadily. The atmosphere in the room shifted, as the cheeky smirks of the men disappeared, being replaced by tense expressions. The game was very much on, and with each round she felt their respect for her grow. It gave her a thrill to see that they regarded her as a worthy opponent and that they were no longer looking at her as just the older woman from the office.

Valerie lost her blazer, but didn’t feel too concerned about it. The men had all discarded items of clothing too and weren’t finding the game easy. The game had begun in a light-hearted manner, but the room had become increasingly quiet as everyone concentrated on the cards. She still wasn’t sure how far the game would go, but was enjoying being accepted as part of their group.

Valerie had realized that the men were deliberately targeting her, in the sense that they were keener to bet against her than each other. But this policy had cost them, as their keenness to bet against her had led to them sometimes overplaying a hand. She now suspected that Mark was doing exactly that and stood her ground, eventually calling his bluff. Mark turned out to have nothing.

Valerie suppressed a smile. They clearly wanted to undress her, but their attempts to target her had a habit of backfiring on them. It hadn’t proven to be a successful strategy on their part. She sensed that they had now realized this themselves, as they appeared to ease off on targeting her and play each hand strictly on its merits. She liked having played well enough to foil their plan.

Jake and Derek now got into a serious tussle with each other. The pot mounted, until it was by far the biggest of the game so far. Derek decided to go all in, but with a dire outcome. His hand was good, but not as good as Jake’s, and he now had to remove not just one, but two items of clothing. His frustration was evident, but he soon complied, now sitting at the table bare-chested.

Derek flexed the muscles in his shoulders. It was a little showmanship, nothing more. Valerie arched an eyebrow but said nothing. Derek was in pretty good shape, but she was here to play the game, not to stroke egos. Besides, she could feel the air in the room thickening with anticipation and needed to focus. As Derek had just demonstrated, one lost hand could be very consequential.

The next couple of hands saw very little betting, but the following one saw Valerie pitted against Derek. Her hand was quite good, but Derek seemed to fancy his chances too. The pot built, and Valerie knew that if it continued to build, then defeat for Derek might see him stripped naked. Perhaps for that reason he called her, before the consequences of defeat reached that stage.

Valerie laid her cards down. Two pair, kings high. She tried not to look too disappointed when Derek revealed three threes, but she had missed a chance to reduce him to his last remaining item of clothing. On top of that she had to remove her tights. But in her blouse and skirt, she was still better off than Derek and doing no worse than Mark. Only Jake was ahead of her at this point.

It was Jake who wanted to bet on the next hand, but nobody else was up for the challenge and didn’t take him on. The same thing happened on the following hand, with Jake again willing to bet, but everyone else folding. Valerie noticed how quiet the room was now, with everyone so caught up in the game. She didn’t show any outward sign of nerves, but inwardly she was starting to feel on edge.

The cards whispered against the table as Jake dealt the next hand. Valerie caught the flicker of Derek’s gaze roving over her body, before he snatched his eyes away, pretending to adjust his chips. She suppressed a smirk. It was clear how Derek wanted this game to end. It was also clear that she wasn’t too old to be of interest to him. But he was the one in the most difficult position.

It was Valerie’s move. She had a pair of sevens. Not great, but not hopeless either. She slid a chip forward with deliberate nonchalance, watching the others and noting that Derek’s fingers were twitching a little. He raised her bet without hesitation, his eyes flickering between her and his cards like he was calculating probabilities beyond just the hand. She wondered if he was bluffing.

Valerie decided to put Derek to the test. He was in a vulnerable position in the game and might well be bluffing in the hand. In addition to that, two more losses of clothing for Derek would not only end the game, it would allow her to walk away with her dignity intact. It would be a triumph. She raised the bet, still looking as nonchalant as possible. Again, Derek raaised it without hesitation.

The pot grew steadily. It became obvious that the loser would have to remove another item of clothing, so the outcome of this hand really mattered. Valerie watched Derek’s fingers twitch again, but wasn’t sure what that meant. She could almost hear the air between the two of them crackling with tension. It was Derek’s move. “Call,” he announced, managing to sound very calm about it.

Valerie laid her pair of sevens down. Derek flipped his own cards over, revealing a pair of eights, and allowing himself a smug smile. Valerie stared at the eights, but didn’t otherwise show any sign of her annoyance. She wasn’t about to give Derek the satisfaction of a frustrated reaction, or of any embarrassment on her part, so she simply offered a nod of acknowledgment.

Valerie stood and reached for the zipper of her skirt, lowering it without any fuss. She then unhurriedly pushed the skirt down, allowing it to pool around her ankles. She picked it up and draped it over the back of her chair, leaving her in just her blouse and underwear. The men were all eyes for a moment, but then Jake and Mark looked away, leaving just Derek’s gaze lingering.

Valerie settled back into her chair, the creak from under her thighs oddly loud in the charged silence. She assessed the state of play. Derek had two items of clothing remaining, Valerie herself now had three, Mark had four, and Jake had six. She decided to play it safe from now on. If she played conservatively, she thought that Derek, or perhaps Mark, would end up losing the game.

Valerie folded the next two hands, in accordance with her plan, but Derek and Mark did the same. She wondered if they had the same idea as her, to play cautiously and wait for someone else to slip up. If so, Mark was the most vulnerable one, as the chips in front of him were dwindling. If he kept folding, he would soon be out of chips and would need to remove an item of clothing.

Mark seemed to be aware of this, as he began to bet again, with some modest success. It was hard for anyone to win big at the moment, as so many hands were being surrendered without a fight. As Mark gradually augmented his pile of chips, Valerie realized that she was now the most vulnerable one. She was the one who needed a win or to face removing another item of clothing.