
Seth tries to do his job the best he can. Yes, he’s the head of the company; yes, his meetings include playing poker; and yes, it works out fine. This time is no different, even though the news is more worrying than usual. But he’s going to take it one step at the time and be just fine. It’s more of the same in the end -- talk to these people, arrange that meeting, and don’t panic anybody. The stakes are higher, but it’s nothing he hasn’t done before. And he gets to spend time at the fire station with Connor. Seth should be good.
And there’s nothing out of the ordinary on Connor’s end. It’s a normal day, spent doing normal things, with the normal people. He happens to love his life and, though some things could be better, they could also be way worse. Connor is satisfied, and nothing is going to change that.
Everything is going according to plan. There’s no reason to believe that anything has to change. Right?

Chapter 1 Seth looks at his cards. Two of hearts and seven of spades. Hmm, not much, but it would be interesting to see where he can take them since this is such a low stakes game. With Karen raising and then Simon raising even further though, Seth decides to quit while he’s ahead. His father taught him well. “Fold,” Seth says. He tosses back the cards to Lisa, who is dealing, and sits back to enjoy the show. By accident, though, Seth bumps into Karen’s notes and they fall off the table. It’s a mildly annoying part of turning company meetings into poker games, but the rest are just advantages. There used to be some mutterings against it, but that all ended when he made it clear he didn’t have high stakes in mind. Seth isn’t the gambling sort. He just realized long ago that poker was en
