Alien in the Family

got out into the foyer, and Martini cocked his head at me. “So, you want to hit the tables before we hit the room?”
    I was kind of surprised at the offer. “Erm . . . well . . .”
    He grinned. “That’s a yes, isn’t it?”
    “You don’t mind? You’re not hurt?”
    “Nope. You’ve wanted to gamble since we got here. And dressed like this, you should be Lady Luck personified.” He scooped me up and carried me off. We got a lot of looks, lots of comments, all of them funny or nice. We continued on into the casino, where we got more looks, several rounds of applause, and a lot of positive catcalls.
    Martini spotted a somewhat empty craps table and set me down there.
    “Lady shooter!” the stickman called. “Just married lady shooter!” He slid the dice to me, as the table started to fill up. Martini tossed some cash down, but he stood behind me.
    Did the thing my Nana had taught me, moved the dice to show seven, tapped them against the table three times, and rolled.
    “Seven! Winner!” A lot of chips were shoved toward me. Whoops. I’d had all of Martini’s money on the pass line. Thank God I’d rolled decently.
    “Jeff, can you handle the betting? As in, get most of that money off the table?”
    He laughed and reached down and put a more reasonable number of chips on the pass line.
    Did the dice thing again, got another seven. Table started to get excited and loud, more people shoved over and in. Rolled another five sevens in a row. Started to wonder if Martini was using hyperspeed on the dice but decided not to care. I was winning back a small portion of the vast sums he’d spent on our wedding and felt pretty darned good about it.
    “Go shooter!” The voice was familiar. I looked at the other end of the table. My grandparents, all four of them, were there. Nana Sadie laughed at my expression. “Taught her everything she knows about the dice, folks. Roll ’em, kitten!”
    Shrugged, did the dice thing, got an eleven this time. “Winner! Lady Luck at the table tonight,” the stickman called out.
    Rolled again, finally rolled a number. “Eight, the number is eight. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.”
    I avoided looking at the money on the table, particularly the money Martini was putting on and around. I wanted to stay in the zone. Dice slid over to me, the stickman turned them to double fours for me. Did the tap, tossed the dice. Got the hard eight. The table went nuts.
    I ended up rolling for over forty-five minutes. Finally crapped out and apologized. Had chips tossed to me from most of the table. Nana Sadie got the dice next, held onto them for fifteen minutes. The gambling force was strong in my family. Interestingly, Martini had pulled most of our money off the table both for my last roll and Nana’s. “Table’s cold,” he said in my ear.
    I didn’t argue, just gathered up our chips, gave the dealers each a nice tip, then we left the table. My grandparents followed our lead. “Where to next?” Nono Dom asked.
    I looked around. We were near a roulette table. I never played roulette unless I wanted to sit down. “Go ahead,” Martini said.
    I shrugged and put some chips down on double zero. It was the longest shot around, but I didn’t care. Nana Sadie and Nona Maria followed suit.
    I watched the wheel spin with no expectations of winning. I realized I’d dropped more money down than I’d planned. Martini stroked my neck. The ball stopped. Double zero. The screaming was loud, especially from my grandmothers. I stood there in shock. Martini nudged me. “Get your chips, baby.”
    I did, and they had to exchange them for the pretty black chips because I couldn’t carry what I had. I looked up at Martini. “I want to cash out now.”
    He grinned. “You sure?”
    “I’m all over the stopping while we’re ahead thing.”
    My grandparents were all for keeping us around, as were several other folks. But I’d had a great time for a little over an hour, made the most money gambling in my life, and wanted to get up to the room and rip Martini’s clothes off. I kissed and hugged the grandparents good-bye, and then we cashed out. I’d won several thousand dollars. Tried not to squeal and jump up and down. Failed.
    I handed the money to Martini. He pushed it back. We did this for a bit. “Jeff, I have nowhere to put it unless I stuff it in my chest.”
    He got the jungle cat smile. “I’ll put it there for you.”
    I snuggled up to him. “Later. In about five minutes