Run, Girl (If You Can)

Chapter 59: The Card King

There had to be something Aaron could do to help her out. Keeley could do so much better than Burger Barn! Why did she always torture herself like this?

He sighed. It's not like she knew any better. To her knowledge, this was her first fast food job.

He returned to his father's side as they headed back to the office for another meeting. He would figure something out that would make her life easier. There had to be someone he knew with connections to NYU…

Aaron pondered his dilemma all throughout the meeting, not paying any attention to the charts being displayed on the projector. He already knew this material by heart.

After the meeting was over, he remembered that one of his future business contacts was currently serving as the dean of NYU. Unfortunately, that wouldn't help him now. If only he could fast forward seventeen years.

Eventually he sent an encrypted email to Aiden Quinn, aka Anomaly, the brilliant young hacker who Aaron got back in contact with earlier in the summer.

He managed to get Anomaly on his side by giving him details about his exploits that no one else could possibly know that Aaron remembered from his previous life.

That made the kid curious enough to see what Aaron wanted and it was easy to hook him from there. The kid was obsessed with video games and never had enough money for the new consoles and games. Loyalty was easily bought.

'Can you go through NYU's student job portal and look for any pending or rejected applications for a specific student?'

'Simple. But I want the newest first person shooter game, that Star Wars game that comes out in two weeks, and a replacement for my broken Nintendo DS. What's the name?'

'Keeley Hall.'

Anomaly got back to him less than thirty minutes later. 'This girl has twelve applications that have been rejected. What do you want me to do about it?'

'Find the one that pays the highest and change the system so she gets accepted.'

'On it, my dude!'

It was very strange being called 'my dude' by someone who didn't realize he was speaking to a man who was mentally in his late fifties. Aiden thought that his boss was only a few years older than him.

The body was young but the mind…it was already frustrating being treated like a child by all of the legal adults in his life. Aaron was older than almost all of them, okay?

He got his desired result a week later. Keeley accepted her new job working at the circulation desk in the campus library because it paid an additional $2 per hour and put in her two weeks' notice at Burger Barn.

He wasn't sure exactly how the kid managed to make it work since there was obviously a human component involved in the interview process but he had to hand it to him; Anomaly was good at making the impossible possible. All for price of a few video games!

Knowing she was settled into a better job where she would be able to sit at a desk rather than be on her feet the whole time, he was able to go down to Boston in peace.

It was so strange. He was in the same dorm and classes as before so it felt like Keeley would come running to him any minute. But she wouldn't because she was still in New York living her own life.

Any time he left campus and went around Boston, he saw the ghost of her beaming and pointing at something she wanted him to see. It was depressing.

He wanted to text her but had no real reason to so she probably wouldn't respond. The photo of them from graduation made its way into a frame on his desk and he found himself staring at it when he missed her.

When things were truly desperate, he messaged Anomaly and asked for updates.

In return, he would get little tidbits about Keeley's life such as 'She just aced a chemistry test' or 'check out this footage I got from a karaoke bar.' Apparently the kid was able to follow her MetroCard swipes and debit card purchases in order to track her there.

She sung a duet of a popular girl power song that berated cheating boyfriends with a short Hispanic girl who kept stumbling over the words but was still clearly having the time of her life. What she lacked in lyrical knowledge, she made up for in enthusiasm. Keeley was having fun as well, dancing and jumping around to the beat as she sang.

He watched the video with a soft expression until the very end when Keeley took a bow and said, "This was for you, scumbag!" to a cheering crowd of females who presumably had also been cheated on.

Aaron scowled. They had been apart for five months. Had she really gotten into a relationship and been cheated on already?

He felt uneasy. They originally met at school. It would be easy for her to meet someone else and move on without him…hadn't they been engaged by the end of college? But it wasn't like there was anything he could do to prevent it.

He needed to focus on what he could do—building up his empire.

He heard a rather interesting rumor the other day about a guy in the dormitory two buildings down who didn't lose a single game of blackjack or poker during a four hour tournament held in the rec center. Aaron could use gambling skills like that to increase his allowance enough to start buying up shares.

Aaron had heard of the card tournaments that took place every Saturday in his first life but had never been interested in gambling. He had enough money already and preferred spending his weekends with Keeley when he wasn't busy studying.

He decided to observe one and see if the rumored Card King made an appearance.

He wasn't disappointed. Round after round this guy raked in the cash. He never guessed wrong, never folded, and never lost. It was amazing.

Several other frat boys accused him of cheating but the Card King proved his innocence with cold, hard fact. In three hours he originally betted $65 and walked away with $700.

Before investing his own money, he wanted to observe a while longer. He attended the tournaments for the next month and the Card King's lucky streak continued until he was banned from playing anymore because too many people had lost money to him. The man didn't lose once.

If Aaron hadn't seen his skills firsthand, he wouldn't have believed that this unassuming, nerdy-looking person was so brilliant at gambling games. He was thin and sallow with greasy black hair and thick glasses that obscured much of his face.

As the Card King left after his banishment, Aaron flagged him down.

"Look, if you're mad that I took your money—" he began defensively.

"It's nothing like that. I actually have a proposition for you, if you're interested. Your name is Cameron Singleton and you're an MBA student in the business school, correct?"

Cameron eyed him distrustfully. "Yeah, what's it to you?"

"How would you like a job at Hale Investments after graduation?"

"You've got to be joking. Nobody gets in there straight out of school. You have to have a minimum of five years' experience to get into the least important department," he scoffed. "Don't waste my time."

"I'm not. Aaron Hale, at your service," Aaron said while drawing himself up to his full height.

He cut an imposing figure so Cameron's suspicion lessened.

"You're Aaron Hale? The son of current CEO Alistair Hale? What do you want with me?"

"I've seen your gambling skills at work and I could use a talent like yours. I want you to go to Atlantic City and multiply my money. In return, you would get a job at Hale Investments and the opportunity to become a shareholder and member of the board."

Interest sparked in his eyes but he was still hesitant. "This is too good to be true. There has to be a catch."

Aaron smiled coldly. This one was smart.

"I would require your unwavering loyalty. My father is getting old; the decisions he makes for the company are questionable at best. I want to help him retire early."

"Ah, so you're trying to kick him out of his own company! Interesting…very interesting. But why should I trust you? No offense, but what if you run the company into the ground and I'm out of a job?" Cameron asked bluntly.

"I'm a bit like you…I know how to predict things. Watch the stock market next week. Everyone is going to scramble to sell their Vitex shares and their value will drop 38.5%. If I'm right, you'll know my capability. Here's my card. Call me after the stock market drops but don't wait too long; if I don't use you I'll find someone else."

He strode off with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face.

The dropped Vitex shares caused such a ruckus in his first life that one of his finance professors exchanged it with one of the case studies he was planning on using. Cameron would call.