Six of Clubs

Battered Beats held the record for tasty breakfasts that didn't break you. For less than ten dollars two eggs pancakes served with real maple syrup and a cup of coffee could keep a girl fed well into the night. Ambriana Chu filled her black leather lace-ups with the curvy body of her Poly roots. "If I didn't start drinking coffee, I'd be seven feet tall." It was a joke that sat well with her friends who marveled at the bronze-skinned goddess who never drank alcohol, could keep drinking coffee for dinner and be snoring before her room mate Katy finished brushing her teeth. It was Katy who knew all about Battered Beats. Born and raised not far from the music and eats place, Katy worked the cafe side waiting tables five mornings a week. At sixteen Katy Collins started washing dishes on the weekends. It was this kind of work ethic and a facility to pick up on the nuances of energy left when she handled dirty dishes that gave the pert red-head her first clues about Bri.

The women were nearly the same age, twenty-one, born a month apart they couldn't have been less alike in physical appearance. Ambriana Chu was nearly seven feet tall, "Six feet six inches." Always ready with the specifics it was Katy who wasn't shy about asking for heritage. But that sort of conversation didn't happen right away. It's just that an amazon wasn't easy to miss even when you're in the back room doing dishes. If she was in the mood for elevation Katy stood a mighty five feet and three inches. Freckles spattered her creme and roses sort of complexion making her elfin innards glow. From her angle and with her feet anchored in those black leather lace-ups Bri saw the light shining like a crystal out the top of her soon-to-be-best girl friend's red haired head.

"I like the six because you can divide them in three pairs or set the triangles on their tips for a balance if you're keen." It was the first long sentence Katy Collins spoke while she bused the bin of dishes behind the table where Bri finished her last pancake swimming in real maple syrup. Ambriana had a deck of cards spread into a game of Solitaire. She didn't own an iphone then and would always prefer the feel of a real deck of cards to the virtual.

"I'm partial to Clubs" Katy said almost under her breath.
"I prefer the reds, Diamonds in particular. My name's Ambriana, my friends call me Bri."
Katy set the big plastic bin filled with breakfast dishes down, wiped her hands on her apron, extending her left-hand, "Katy Collins. Everyone calls me Katy Collins." They laughed, Bri sputtered pancake out her nose as she reached with her left hand as well. That sealed the deal right there. Fast friends with a love of the six.