Last Drinks.

The cool breeze billowed through her gauzy curtains, she shivered, then giggled, "Destiny is waiting," as she clicked off her phone. Destiny is waiting for all chicks, the nineteen year old named Destiny reflected. She checked her make up in the mirror, and grabbed her clutch bag with all she needed for a party hen night. Her best friend, Kelsey, had just got engaged.

Destiny was a tall girl, she had loved her sport when she was a younger teenager, being a hopeful basketballer. This was her gap year, and she was enjoying it, deciding whether to take up that placement in nursing. Destiny still hoped she would get engaged too, but tall girls do need taller guys to look up to. That would be nice, to be able to rest her head on his shoulder. Usually, at parties, her wannabe lovers eyeballed her busty cleavage, bit off-putting for her.

She strutted her new dress in front of her mum, Jacolyn, and her stepfather. They were having a couple of drinks, relaxing in suburbia for the evening, still content. Destiny and her mother were regarded as resilient, survivors of Jacolyn's brief and disastrous marriage to a failed croupier. His substance abuse, domestic violence interludes, and infantile tantrums had been ongoing for many years after the bitter divorce. Intervention orders had been a factor in his estranged family's life, even for Destiny's school teachers, to prevent her and her classmates from the worst of her father's threats.

Jacolyn was assisted by the legal eagles, so Destiny no longer had to spend overnight and weekend access visits with her father. Some of her experiences had been dreadful. In her tender years she had learnt many swear words and practical ways to harvest and consume drugs, while she picked up bourbon tins.

Jacolyn had been determined to meet a man she could trust, have faith and love, and another white wedding. While Destiny was growing up, she had dated in the single parent social scene, bringing home several 'uncles' for her daughter. Destiny had not been too fussed, several times she told an 'uncle' to 'back off'. Then her mother remarried when Destiny was an early teenager, and all was rosy in the romance, second time around,

When Destiny was old enough to be asked her opinion, she told the magistrate she wanted to stay with her mother and stepfather, and not have even an hour with her birth father. She was mostly on the straight and narrow path, with an aim to study some course in the medical field. The ex-croupier took off interstate, all his relatives changed their facebook pages, and decided he was no longer their circus. He had walked away, and Destiny tried to turn her back on that part of her upbringing. Secretly, she always hoped her birth father could sober up and find his light, make any alcohol his last drink.

But she had to be realistic. Kelsey arrived with a couple of other friends, and the gaggle of excited chicks took off for a night on the town. The night life was their stage, Destiny was soon having so much fun, dancing on her long legs in a couple of nightclubs. The hours went by, as usual, she was pacing herself with the drinks. Kelsey took it in her head to cart them off to the casino, which used to be one of Destiny's phobias. She could play all those games of chance, part of being a croupier's daughter.

"Let's see if we're lucky!" Kelsey laughed, as the babes strolled in through the glitzy doors. Destiny and Kelsey sat down at the blackjack table, while the others went straight for the roulette table. Despite Destiny feeling a sudden waft of a swirling breeze, she knew how to hold em, she was well versed in this habit. She and Kelsey were ahead, winning. "Do you like him?" Kelsey muttered, not to quietly in her mate's ear. 'He's cute and definitely tall enough."

Destiny, too, had more than noticed the modern croupier, a tall rangy type. What was more, he had been eyeing off Destiny and her cleavage, which was always impressive. He had discreetly checked her ring finger, but that did not mean much. He took a break, brought the two girls a drink each, and one for himself.

"Hi, pretty lady. I'm Kol. With a K. Your name is?"

"Destiny, and I am Kelsey." Kelsey was very keen for her oldest pal to meet and mingle with this hotty. But Destiny was suddenly filled with a cold sense of premonition. She was experiencing horrible flashbacks of her birth father, and all that yelling, swearing, scenes of his fists, and all those years of threats. Sure, this Kol was cute, tall, but there was never going to be true trust from this chick. Just too much damage, which had left such scarring and imprinted on her growth years.

Destiny stared at her glass, seeing a crossroad in her path, intersecting at this time in the stage of booze and potential disasters. If ever she was going to fall in love, and devote her tender emotions to anyone, he was definitely not going to be a drunken croupier. Her road ahead was suddenly clear, she decided to finally take up her placement in nursing college. She wanted to be a healer of all patients, offering them loving empathy, kindness, wisdom, support and practical daily management. She had always believed nurses make the world a better place, and she wanted to be one of them.

'This Destiny is not waiting for him," she told Kelsey. So she poured her drink into a pot plant, hoped it would grow, and said to Kol and Kelsey, "Last drinks. Time this chick force went home."

Kelsey made some excuses, as this pair of lively young babes grabbed their friends, and made it back to suburban security. Kelsey wondered aloud why Destiny did not want to mix it with Kol. The only response was when Destiny said, "I'm planning to take up basketball again. There's a mixed team starting next week, might be some tall guys there." Kol had watched Destiny walk away, then he shrugged at this ship in the night at the casino. "You lose," he told himself.

Destiny did not want to gamble with her personal future happiness. She was going to soldier on with a smile, and roll with the flow. As for her birth father, the ex-croupier, he was still living many states away from his Destiny. He had started vomiting blood, never a good sign, as he felt a chill wind blowing. But it was still never a good time for him to say, "Last drink." His mortal destiny is waiting.