Molly's Game Page #5

the Olympic record

in the 200 at the

Berlin Games in 1936.

Absolutely shattered

the Olympic record...

and came in second.

The man who came in first

was Jesse Owens.

Jesse Owens went

on to be a legend.

Matthew Robinson went

on to be a janitor

at a whites-only middle

school in Pasadena.

The difference was

four-tenths of a second.

As if that wasn't enough,

Matthew Robinson

had a little brother

who was also an athlete.

His name was Jackie.

I have two younger brothers

who were overachievers as well.

While I was ranked third

in North America,

my brother Jeremy was

number one in the world.

And while I was placing into A.P.

Chemistry as a sophomore,

My brother Jordan was

doing it when he was

12 years old or something,

I don't know.

I was a hotshot student

and a hotshot skier

everywhere but my own house.

As I got older, I began to

bait my father into fights.

without really knowing

why I was doing it.

What did everyone learn

in school today?

Uh,

I learned that Sigmund Freud was

both a misogynist and an idiot

and anyone who relies

on his theories

of human psychology

is a quack.

I don't know

why you'd say that.

You asked me what

I learned in school today.

-Is this Mrs. Linwood?

-Yep.

Did she happen to

mention anything about

his work on the

unconscious mind?

His dream analysis has the

credibility of a horoscope, but

what got my attention

was that he opposed

the women's

emancipation movement.

He believed that a woman's life is

about her reproductive function.

So you're really getting

to the nuts and bolts

of why middle-class

suburban white girls

have been oppressed

for centuries.

Mrs. Linwood was

just teaching us--

Barbara Linwood doesn't

like men, Molly.

She doesn't like d*cks, Dad,

there's a difference.

Molly.

Don't disrespect me

like that at the table.

I wasn't disrespecting you,

I was disrespecting Freud.

And it's the kitchen table, not the

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

And I'm a professional

psychologist, not a quack.

-I never said you were a quack.

-Yeah, you did and don't do it again.

And don't ever use

language like that again.

Okay.

Ignore my teachers,

watch my language

and respect the kitchen table.

What else do I need to do

before I'm allowed

to disagree with you?

Make your own money

so you can live

in your own house

and eat your own food.

I've been running the

game for three years

and saved $58,000.

I was recruiting and

vetting players,

-keeping the books,

-Call.

collecting and delivering checks,

meeting the needs of all the

players throughout the week

and still working

full-time for Dean Keith,

who made it clear that

if I quit the office job,

-I'd lose the game.

-Call.

Eights full of nines.

Again.

-That's how it is.

-Every time.

I thought he had trips too.

He was slow-playing

into the river and

he hid the pocket

eights pretty well.

Tough beat, man.

-You owe the game--

-I know what I owe the game.

I wanna talk to you a minute.

-Okay.

-In the hall.

? He came from an island ?

? And he died from the streets ?

Is he cheating?

No.

How would you know?

I'd know.

He and Diego aren't

in bed together?

No.

What about him and you?

A 52 card deck produces hundreds

of millions of random patterns

but every time one of you

loses two weeks in a row,

you're sure something fishy's

going on? Come on.

I'm gonna stop paying you.

-What do you mean?

-As my assistant.

-You firing me?

-I'm not firing you

I'm just gonna stop paying you.

You get paid once a week from

the game, it doesn't seem fair.

But I also have a job

working for you

-24 hours a day.

-And if you didn't have that job

you wouldn't have the game.

You understand what I'm saying?

I understand each of the

words that you're saying,

-but I don't understand--

-Look.

24 hours a day

every day.

You're gonna stop paying

me to do that job

because I'm making

too much money

doing my second job

and if I say no

I'll lose both jobs

because "it doesn't seem fair"?

Business is bad right now.

Welcome to the real world.

All right, here it is.

Banks are loaning you money

and they shouldn't.

You're a bad risk, they know it.

So the debt service on your

loans is close to 20 percent

which is crazy.

20 percent is barely survivable

if it's a bridge loan

but like, for instance,

it's taken you ten years

to build seven houses,

all of which are worth less than

they were before you built them

because the housing market

is on a downward trajectory

for the first time in

the history of houses

and that's why

business is doing bad,

not because you're

paying me $450 a week.

You're a business savant?

I've read every piece of

paper in your office.

You're making thousands

in tips every week,

Why do you care about

-$450 a week?

-Because I don't want to

pick up your dry

cleaning for free.

You don't have

bargaining power here.

You can refuse the pay cut

but you'll lose the game.

Cash me out, please.

I wasn't gonna wait for Dean

to take the game away from me

before I put a plan in place.

The next morning, I made

appointments at the Four Seasons,

the Peninsula and the

Beverly Hills Hotel.

The suite was $5,200 a night.

I spent $17,000 on a

Shuffle Master

that was installed in the table.

Faster, more reliable shuffles,

less downtime between hands.

Food was brought in

from Mr. Chow

and available to eat

on the side tables.

There was Macallan 18,

Belvedere, 1942,

Remy Martin, and an

'88 Lafite Rothschild

served by a bartender who'd

already memorized your drink.

Cohibas, Monte Cristo

in the humidor

A professional stylist turned me

into what my defense attorney

would later call the

Cinemax version of myself.

I spent almost

everything I had

in preparation for the phone call

I knew was coming.

Hello?

I want you to listen to me.

'Cause you need to hear this.

Where are you?

I need to tell you

something in plain English

and I need to know that

you understood it.

Dean.

You are unimportant,

did you hear me?

And you are fired.

The job, the game, you're fired.

Can I ask why?

How many of my friends

are you sleeping with?

I'm not sleeping

with any of them.

That's not what I heard.

Listen to me,

with a Hazmat suit,

I wouldn't--

Can I give you some advice?

Lose the bitchy air.

Lose the superior air.

And go to the office

and get your stuff

and be out of there

before I show up.

Hey, are you Molly?

Yeah.

I'm Leah. Uh, Dean asked

me to pack your personals.

I appreciate it.

He also asked me to get the

numbers of tonight's players

so I can confirm the list.

I'm really sorry.

Don't be.

My phone's in my car. Uh,

I'll text you all the numbers

you need when I get downstairs.

I texted my replacement

a bunch of random numbers

with 310 area codes.

Then I sent a text to

the players for tonight

and told them the

game had been moved

to the Four Seasons Hotel,

Suite 1401.

? C'est si bon ?

-Hey, how you doing?

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