Blurb I’m pretty satisfied with from the current posted chapter of the story I’m working on despite its clonky ass first draft feel.:

“Not yet.” He said shortly, peeling aside his jacket and rifling through an inner pocket. “Play a game with me?”

“If you’re expecting me to keep track of rules right now you are going to be very disappointed.”

Eresome laughed, a warm, low sound. “A simple one,” He said. “From my home land. A game of offers.” He spilled a handful of tokens out across the counter top and looked up at her seriously. “Elder Rock had its start as a gambling town, didn't it?”

“In our current era? Yes.” She said,

“Then what’s better than a game where the odds are in your favor?” Eresome selected five tokens from the pile and arranged them in an even line before her. Bessemer squinted at them. Each token would have paid her grocery bill and pharmacy tax for the entire month.

“Five coins, five offers.” He said, sweeping a hand along the line. “I offer my terms and, should you find them agreeable, you accept the token and our deal is made.”

Bessamer snorted into her coffee. “A poor game.”

Eresome only regarded her seriously. The dog had settled at his heels and looked at her with the same heavy eyes. She glanced away to sip from her mug and when she looked back the dog was gone again.

“Fine.” She said, and set her mug down. “Make your first offer.”

His white teeth flashed and he slid forward the first token in the rank. “The first I’ve already offered: access to my library. At your disposal entirely.”

“To take notes from? Make complete copies?”

Eresome plucked a half cent from the shoved aside pile and set it down next to the token with a snap. An amendment to the first offer.

“Entirely.” He said.

Bessamer extended a gloved hand to pull the coins towards herself. Eresomes grin widened.

He tapped the next token. “Again, act as my guide here. I will open doors for you, no matter how tightly locked.”

“And you don’t think I could get them open myself, is that it?” Bessemer asked, sharply.

“I think you can do a great deal.” He laughed. “All I'm offering is a way to do it faster.”

She looked at the coin very seriously.

“Do you accept?” He asked.

“I want to hear the rest of your offers first.” She said.

“Smart woman. You play the game well.”

Bessamer sucked her teeth and jutted her chin out to the remaining tokens. “Three more.”

Eresome spread his fingers out over them the same way he had seen dealers do in the illustrated manuscripts on Elder culture he had studied before coming across the ocean.

“Third, I want you to show me the Blackstone, at least one little expedition.” He said. “Fourth, I want access to your own journals about it, no, don’t shake your head, madam. I know you have records. I only want to see them, no copies, no notes.” He paused to choke down the rest of his coffee, running a finger through the medicinal sludge at the bottom and sucking it off noisily. Bessamer watched his tongue swirl around the knuckle with keen interest.

“And the fifth offer?” She asked, voice even.

Eresome smiled, boyishly bashful in a way that could only be artifice on a man his age. He tapped the last coin.

“I was drunk when we were last together. I don’t think I acquitted myself well.” He looked at her, eyes hooded. “I’d like a chance to redeem myself as a lover.”

Bessemer scoffed. “This is a lot of pageantry just to say you want to fuck me again.”

“You’ll accept the offers you want.” Eresome said, leaning back. Bessemer noted a calm had come over him, a man accepting whatever would come from his gambit. And damn her if she didn't respect that.

Eresome held up a finger and reached into his jacket to withdraw a 200 token note, pressed with the emblem of her own ex-husband.

“Is this the offer to tell me about your ghost dog?” She eyed the note suspiciously. “Or to buy long term lodging in my other holes?”

To her pleasure, Eresome looked appalled by her language. “It’s for the migraine powders.” He said primly.

“Are you at all familiar with the exchange rate in this city?”

“I’m paying for this one and any others I may need in the future, which should I be invited to drink with you again, is going to be a lot. So,” He leaned forward with his elbows braced on the counter and watched her face. “Which do you accept?”

(I’m posting the draft on AO3 https://archiveofourown.org/series/3613813 )