It was all a game, I knew, and he, a vicious player.

“Ready?”

I nodded.

He kept the two bottles on the table smugly.

“You know the rules. You pick one, I pick the other. One of these is elixir, the other poison. You are smart enough to know the implications.”

“Yes. Yes, I think I am”, I said, with a nervous laugh.

“Good”.

I put on my thinking cap, although there wasn’t much to think about now and I didn’t have a cap (I was still wearing my marriage headdress, if that counts). Besides, these weren’t King Solomon’s flower garlands that allured bees in through the window. Then again, there was no window.

I was trying my best to push out intruding thoughts of previous happenings, keeping my mind palace shielded from the storm raging within my heart.

Two bottles. 

Blue lids, misty walls, clear liquids bubbling inside.

A disturbing image of my ex kissing my maid of honor tried to break into my brain fortress.

“I’ve chosen”, I announced.

He raised his brows, as if asking ‘So soon?’ but didn’t complain. I picked up my bottle and left the room through the only door. “Good luck," he called after me. I didn’t thank him just yet.

Leaving the dreary ‘Ultimate Gamble’, overshadowed by the posh Tokyo spas and marts, I smirked thinking just how much darling Roger loved his black coffee.

Just two drops. No more. No less.

And I was winner either way.