Eyal benOren and Lihi batKidla sat at the bar, stools turned out to view the rest of the establishment. Not far away Lior batAryeh was shooting pool against a couple of drunk local boys. She was busy flirting with them to keep them from focusing to highly on the game which had 200 roubles riding on it. A shame for them, since her own interests for some end of evening entertainment were focused on her current opponent’s girlfriend, but there would be time later to take her away from him after Lior took his money.
Lihi sighed and took another drink from her mug.
“It’s Yerushalayim all over again,” she complained. “Worse even, I didn’t make it past the cut for this one. Maybe I’m getting old.”
“You. Old. Right,” laughed Eyal. “You’re still one of the top fifty archers in the world. And you’re still competitive. You’ve just plateaued for a little. You’ll be back on top at some point. Or, at worst, just behind me.” Lihi punched him in the shoulder.
“Did you see the profile interview she did last week?” Lihi asked. “Said I was her hero. Now she’s outshining me. The nerve of that girl.”
“Eh. I think she’s being honest about that. Did you see the pictures she took in her college dorm on social media? There’s a poster of you hanging on the wall. The one for Adina’s.”
“Oh my god. My sports bra ad?”
“Hey, you looked deadly in that picture. Eagle eyed, bow drawn. That was a good poster.”
“I wasn’t wearing a shirt!”
“Even better.” Lihi smacked Eyal on the back of the head. Eyal chuckled. “Hey, if it makes you feel better, I’ll talk with my brother when we get back and see if I can do my own underwear ad.” Lihi nearly spat up her beer.
“Oh yeah, that’s exactly what I need. To see you in your underwear.”
“What else do you have for entertainment these days? Lior?” he motioned with his bottle where the young archer was sinking the eight-ball. With a confident, satisfied smirk she picked up the money from the edge of the table. Lior counted it out and smiled back at the local.
“Pleasure doing business with you, boys,” Lior said as she started to turn away.
“Hey, how about another game. Double or nothing.” Lior looked over at them.
“Mm. Not interested. I’ve got enough of your money already.”
“Come one, give me a chance to win back my money.”
“I’ll tell you what. You can have your money back. For a kiss from your girlfriend here.” The local laughed and looked at his girl. She scoffed.
“Are you serious?”
“Hey, babe. It’s up to you. It is 200 roubles, though.”
“Ugh. Fine.” The girl walked over to Lior and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.
“Uh uh,” Lior said. “That’s not a kiss. This is a kiss.” Lior went in and began to kiss the other woman deeply. Initially alarmed, the other woman slowly began to kiss back. Finally, Lior ended the kiss with the now out of breath woman. Lior held up the money. “Best 200 roubles I ever spent.” She walked away from the locals over to the other Judean archers, but on the way gave a long lingering back at the Mattijanan woman. She finished her walk back to the bar and ordered a beer before sitting on a stool next to Lihi and spinning around to face the same direction.
“You’re evil, you know,” said Lihi.
“I’m not evil. I just know what I want and I’m not afraid to go after it. You taught me that.”
“I taught you what now?”
