He spent the next day observing the French countryside as the high-speed train whisked him north to Paris before swapping to another train that raced north west before rushing through the Channel Tunnel and then terminating in London. He spent the next day in the Museum and had an early night before heading north to Newcastle by train again and gave himself a day to explore in the old industrial city before meeting Katerina at the restaurant she had suggested.
They had a lovely evening chatting about the dig, Roman stuff in general, her Masters Thesis, and life in general. She was determined to concentrate on her Thesis this year and made it plain to him that while she wouldn’t object to the occasional get-together like they were engaged in that evening, she was not interested in a boyfriend. At least not until the end of the year, and she had gained her MPhil. Plus, she was going on a dig in Libya straight after finishing for the year, although she hoped to submit her thesis well before then. Jason made noises about joining the dig, but apparently, the diplomatic difficulties were such it would be impossible for him to join the rather small group unless one of the other Westerners pulled out. Also, it was the third year for this particular dig, and the Libyan authorities were very wary of foreigners looting their sites and generally only allowed known people on a dig in their country or some such stuff.
Jason had to reluctantly accept her restrictions, but when he asked if it would be okay for him to come over in the mid-year break and spend some time with her, she tentatively agreed to that plan. She seemed to be giving off those not so keen vibes in her responses, something Jason found hard to ignore. He had so much experience with girls giving him such hints previously. The few girls he’d managed to persuade to go out on a date with him. That would be pretty much every girl except Daiyu. Nevertheless, he still hoped to overcome her negative vibes gradually over time. And she made a point of not inviting him back to her dorm at the university when they finally left the restaurant. Damn.
He’d deliberately left this period free, so he could spend time with Katerina, which meant he had nothing else planned till his plane back to the US on the following Friday. So, despondently, he took the train back to London and spent his days seeing the sites, The Tower, Imperial War Museum, British Museum again, Buckingham Palace, and such while hitting the casinos in the evening. He found the Grosvenor chain of casinos to be adequate and went through the process of opening an account with them.
He linked his new Grosvenor account to his US bank account without any issues. Instead of transferring funds in, he pulled out a bundle of the Euros he had won in Monte Carlo, and the Grosvenor people were only too happy to change them to pounds and add the total to his account. Ten thousand Euros came to a bit over eight thousand pounds, and once they saw the size of the stakes he was aiming to play with, they happily gave him a membership as well, which would entitle him to all manner of freebies, apparently. Jason wasn’t particularly concerned.
He found a roulette table with a five-thousand-pound limit and put four thousand pounds down to be exchanged for chips. While the dealer counted out the money, he handed over his card to the supervisor so that his play would be noted and rewards, therefore, ensue based on his betting action. He was starting to feel like some big-time professional gambler! The table had a few five hundred pound chips of which he was given eight and immediately plonked two thousand on the last color the wheel had thrown up, in this case, red. He followed the same routine as in Monte Carlo. With a win, he would double the bet up to four thousand, and if that won, he’d take four thousand off and so on.
He decided to change things up again to try and confuse things, so after each loss, he stood out and didn’t bet for at least a spin. Sometimes he would not bet at all for a time when he would make a show of waiting for a particular color had come up three in a row before betting against it. Doing all this gave him an obvious system for the supervisors to watch and laugh at. At the same time, it slowed down the action for Jason, which meant it took longer for him to wear out mentally and need to take a break.
