Pema 31

Son histoire

Pema is thirty-one and grew up in a Kathmandu guesthouse where the guests played cards every night until dawn. She learned to shuffle at nine, to read a face at twelve and to deal at nineteen, and she has not lost her composure since.

She is a shapely woman with a high glossy ponytail, dark almond eyes with a black wing, a plum lip, five hoops climbing one ear and a lotus on her wrist. Behind the table she is untouchable. Away from it, she keeps her own odds.

You played until the lounge closed, said nothing about your losses and stayed in your seat. She dimmed the lamp, locked the door to the floor and sat across from you with a fresh deck.