She catches her breath and looks back up with a tired, lopsided smile. "Thanks. Anyway, let's play."

They can definitely play. It seems like everyone could use a distraction. 

Hailey evens back out as the game goes on, and does a bit better this round than last. She's actually pretty close to Rose and Audrey's victory points this time.

"You're doing pretty good at this for your first time, Hailey." Audrey smiles. "I think I'm done for the moment though, I want to head down to the bistro and grab something for supper. You're welcome to come with if you want though."

"Not really interested, sorry." Rose shrugs. "If you wanted to play a 1v1 game I could do that though?"

Hailey tilts her head for a moment. 

"Sable's gonna want a raincheck on grabbing a meal with you, Audrey, but I'm in front so I get to pick. Thanks anyway for the offer, and have a good meal."

She turns to Rose. "Yeah, I'll take you up on that game."

"Cool. Let's redeal and get the match underway. See you, Audrey."

"See you, Rose." Audrey smiles and heads out.

Hailey gathers up the cards, shuffles thoroughly, and redeals. Let's see if she can get good enough to actually challenge her this time.

Rose seems to have a sense of things, but Hailey's definitely catching up. After a fairly intense round, they total the VPs and it turns out she's ahead. 

"Damn," Rose swears. "You got me. Nice play."

"Thanks. It was pretty close." She grins. "A challenging opponent, cards with cute maids, what more could a girl want?"

"Someone to make pretty patterns on?" Rose smiles slightly. "As Audrey said, it's a whole new world out there. Finding some nice Dolorin shouldn't be too too hard. After all, I'm in a room with one right now."

Hailey's cheeks flush and she bites her lip for just a moment. "Very good point. I don't seem to have had much trouble finding a pretty Dolorate for when I'm ready to get some elegant designs cut in. Finding a cute Dolorin of my own shouldn't be too hard either."

Rose smiles slightly. "Cool. Maybe we can arrange that sometime. Once we're both more acquainted with kink practices here."

"Well, I know what I'm researching tonight," she replies with a smirk. 

"Heh. Good luck with that." Rose smiles. She flips a card over her thumb and back again. "Another game, or...?"

She hums, then nods. "Yeah, I could do at least one more. Should head home and make something for dinner eventually, but that can wait."

"Then let's play." 

Rose resets the board and gets another match underway.

Hailey focuses on the game, and tries something a bit experimental. It doesn't quite work, despite her best efforts.

So sure enough, she loses. 

"Yeah, it can be tough picking staff from a maid stack you haven't played with any of the cards of before. Still, you put up a decent fight. Good game. Want to finish the best of three now or leave it for another time?"

"Yeah, it'll take a few rounds to get used to 'em all."

Hmmm.

"Best of three," she nods.

"Alright, let's go." Rose deals a new hiring board and off they go. 

Hailey works at it. She's getting a better handle on figuring out what new maids she's never hired before are best used for, but it's still tricky. She does her best to make this match a close one.

It's very close, but Rose ends up short a buy at a critical moment in the endgame, letting Hailey just squeak out a win. 

"Nicely done," she says. "I'd shake your hand, but." She shrugs. "Still. A good game."

"Thanks," she replies with a lopsided smile. "Good game indeed. Gonna have to work on the touch thing, though. I actually have a shot at things I want to touch people for, and I'm not gonna let some damned trauma stop me from enjoying it."