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42. Men solidarity
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“True love! My poor brother in law… Your love is blind and deaf!” Mike turned to Chris.
At that moment, everyone's eyes were on him. They were shocked by his statement, but he just smirked nonchalantly. He was right and was sure about it, so there was nothing wrong with his words.
“Mike, shut up, please!” Jo was the first to react. She was fed up with all these verbal squabbles. She just needed a few peaceful minutes to relax before her flight and going back to work in the afternoon.
“But I am right. Does the truth hurt?” Mike asked in an aggressive tone looking straight into Jo's eyes.
‘Give it up man, I'm not the problem here. You know that and I know it too!’ She thought, but didn't feel like talking to a pissed-off friend. She was in a similar state right now.
“It doesn’t hurt, but your attitude does.” She said, trying to redirect his thoughts and conversations in the righ
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The Bet 43. Coincidence
“What are you pretending to be, Matthew?” Jo asked unexpectedly.“We pretend that we know women.” Mike answered her question.“That’s interesting, my friends. So why are you still single?” She asked them both.Only silence answered her. They both stood and looked at her as if they didn't understand her interrogations. Was it a rhetorical question? She supposedly knew that very well so why did she scratch their wounds?Finally, Chris came to the conclusion that it would be appropriate to say something.“A good question, guys!”“Don't get smart here, we'll see how you survive this trip with my sister!” Mike immediately chided him.“Man, as you said yourself, every monster is an amateur in front of an experienced monster, so we'll wait for that day.” Chris summed it up briefly. Everyone reacted with laughter.Under the passport control sector, they had t
The Bet 44. Dilemmas
Somehow Jo was able to do some shopping, without being followed by Eve and Rose. She decided to hide in the duty free store until the last minute of boarding.She was glad that Matthew and Mike changed her reservation to business class, so she could jump on a plane just before the closure of the gate.She didn't like to spend unnecessarily hard-earned money, but in this case she could see it was a comfort. She had to consider that in the future.Jo entered the plane as the last passenger. Her seat was just in the second row.“Good morning! Sorry, I have the window seat.” Jo said looking at the two, already sitting gentlemen.‘It’s going to be an interesting journey!’ She thought, observing her companions more closely.The one sitting by the aisle had a problem with getting into the chair. He was a huge pile of muscles. She was even pleased that she didn’t sit next to him. The one in the middle, was a
The Bet 45. Guerrilla
“How was your flight, ladies?” Jo asked Rose and Eva, who was happily waving to her. She didn’t give a shit about it. She had to get rid of them as quickly as possible; she had to take her luggage home and go to work.She was sure that if she would engage herself in discussions with them, they wouldn't finish until the end of the day. ‘What a headache! Who else do I have to avoid, today?’ She wondered.“The trip was fine!” Eva said enthusiastically. “Jo, would like to join us for lunch?”“Thank you, ladies. I wish I could, but I still have to go to work today.”“What about having coffee with us?” Rose insisted. “My brother is waiting in the arrival hall, he will be happy to meet you.”‘Damn! What a day! She was quite close to her good-looking brother. Who else?’ Thoughts swirled in Jo’s head. ‘Is this not the end of all these coin
The Bet 46. An asshole
For the next two days, Jo successfully ignored all the phone calls from her sister, Rose and her brother, Peter. She also didn’t speak to any of her close friends.She wondered if her sister had discovered something about the bet. How far could the movie go? Why did she keep calling her every day? Lily was five years younger to her and they didn’t have the same friends, so it was rather questionable.Jo was sure that their parents didn’t attach much importance to social media. Even though their dad was a programmer, he was all the more against showing any personal photos or talking about their private life, or revealing any personal facts on the Internet.Their mother liked to show some of her work on some social networks. As an architect, she was used to presenting some of her achievements on the website of her company, but didn’t like to be involved in revealing any details of their family private life.Besides, their young
The Bet 47. Man in Arms
Jo was pissed. She could take a lot, but not the fact of publishing her photos, printed in shitty tabloids. She didn’t deserve such humiliation. It was below all her values, and moral and ethical standards.She knew Julian was a ruthless, unscrupulous bastard who could walk over the dead just to achieve his goal. As long as she had known and remembered him, that's how he has been. He could do absolutely anything to tease Mike. Besides, it was not only him that gave him a hard time, but also the whole group of them.She was glad that Julian wasn’t around, or else she would have surely given him a hard beating, blood would have spilled, because she had no mercy for such assholes. This time, Jo had to be sure that Julian would get a generous punishment; he deserved it.After careful re-examining all the published photos in the tabloid, she was sure that someone had chosen the frames very carefully, and knew exactly what he or she was doing. The point of
The Bet 48. 'Physical explanation'
“What are you doing here, Matt?” Jo articulated slowly, letting him step inside.“This is how you greet your friend?” He looked at her with a sly expression on his face. “I decided that I should visit you. You may urgently need support.” He added after a moment of hesitation and his lips stretched into a subtle smile.He was still dressed in a very elegant grey suit; he even had a tie on, but there were trademark signs of tiredness etched on his face. She had no doubt that he had flown straight from the courtroom.“I don't need support in my war with Julian, but will be happy to have company.” Jo said honestly and an inexplicable gleam flickered across her eyes. “Did you come, literally, straight from work?”“Is it so obvious?” Matthew asked as he undid his tie ostentatiously. He was so tired that he was not sure if it was a good idea to give her a little show.“Yeah&hell
The Bet 49. Uninvited guest
Matthew realized that not everything was as he thought it seemed to be. He had to rethink everything, taking into account the circumstances he had omitted. In actuality, he was even disappointed that he had missed significant facts.He looked around her kitchen, which looked strangely similar to his. ‘We have more in common than I knew!’ Matthew thought as he studied the space carefully.Jo’s kitchen had a rectangular shape and was quite long. On the wall, in front of the front door, was a huge window, consisting of three parts. There were no curtains, only cream-colored blinds and a few pots of herbs on the windowsill. He immediately recognized parsley, coriander, chives, dill and basil.By the window stood a small wooden table, the same color as the kitchen countertops, the short edge adjacent to the wall under the window; with four stools, two each, on the longer edges on which grey cushions were placed.On two walls along the kitchen
The Bet 50. Confussion
Even though Mike was in her apartment for the first time, he had immediately found the kitchen that was radiating off delicious scents. Somewhere along the way, he had left his suitcase and backpack, as well as his jacket in the corridor. In a second, literally, he was ready to eat in the kitchen. He was followed by a surprised Jo.'I missed that freak here!' Some negative emotions swirled in her head. She wanted to push him out of her front door immediately. She could deal with only one of them at the same time, but both of them together meant a real mess; the trouble was guaranteed.“This one always knows when to come for a free meal!” Matthew greeted him by raising his hand. "At least wash your hands, Doc.” He added seeing that Mike was ready to sit at the table.“The washroom is there!” Jo pointed to the door of her little toilet.“Ok, monsters!” Mike said and lazily went in the direction indicated by Jo.
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The Bet 133. Under control
“We already had dinner; Martin took care of our meals today.” Jack informed them.“Good guy! He also brought food for us.” Patrick realized that they had such a good time that he didn't even call and thank them for the catering. “I should call and at least say thank you.”“I already did that. We will have the catering all week.”“Sounds good, but I wish I could make use of the kitchen here too.” Patrick had some plans.“Why don't you spend your holidays far away from the kitchen? There are so many beautiful places to visit around. Besides, I'll take care of Mike.” Jack really wished that they would have a good time.“We cannot burden you with caring for him. We have to get a nurse tomorrow. And you should travel with us.”Jack was glad to hear that he wouldn't have to babysit Mike even though that one didn’t cause him any problems throughout the day. He had a great time with the bunch of big kids, and he wanted to spend some time traveling around too.Besides, his boss had clearly mar
The Bet 132. Boring day
Jo was extremely happy to see the hammock outside in the beautiful surroundings. She immediately started walking towards it.Behind her were Patrick and Matthew. When they made sure that she was comfortable, they started to unpack and unfold the garden furniture.In the next half an hour, they had dealt with most of the setting up. The patio immediately changed its face to an elegant and, above all, a comfortable place to relax. A few wooden deck chairs with a low table and umbrellas were placed near the swimming pool.The guys also put a long wooden table with eight chairs under an electric marquise, parallel to the glass wall of the villa and of course near the kitchen and dining room doors.“The table looks so good!” Jo commented from the hammock.“I feel like I am on a boat.” Matthew joked.“The owner loves sailing, so you are right. Only the wooden steering wheel is missing.” Jo laughed. She also noticed so many things related to marine life.“A wooden steering wheel sounds good.
The Bet 131. Unexpected inconvenience
”Are you worrying about Mike?” Patrick asked, seeing consternation and some kind of sadness on Jo’s face.“No, I am not worried about that asshole. He deserved it.”“Nobody deserves anything like this, badass.”“That’s not what I meant.”Patrick looked at her expecting some more explanations.“He shouldn't have gone out with you the previous day. He knew it perfectly well, so it was one hundred percent his fault. So, in that sense, he deserves it.”“I agree, but still, he is a man. You don’t understand male pride, badass.”“I understand him more than you can imagine. It’s just his fucking character.”“All of us, we have ‘interesting’ personalities, badass. For most of the people around us, we are assholes.”“I am not questioning it, Pat.” She hesitated for a moment. “But this fucking macho is one of his kind...”Patrick was speechless. He couldn’t argue with that. While he had a lot of understanding of the people around him, Mike was still a special case to him. But still he tolerated
The Bet 130. A blow
Right after breakfast, Jack took Mike to the clinic. The atmosphere instantly relaxed inside the villa. They were still sitting at the kitchen table with tea and French pastries and discussing how to teach their dear friend a lesson.“You are a poor teacher, Matt.” Jo said, very disappointed with her friend. “These pancakes are awful.” She winced as she ate, wondering where Mike went wrong with that very simple task.“Am I really a poor teacher?” Matthew mocked in a slurping voice. “Or maybe our friend is a bad student? Did you consider that?”“Could we leave aside his cooking skills, guys?” Patrick exclaimed. “The main thing is that the guy can cook, so he will not die of hunger. That’s what matters!”“Really? Did you try that?” Jo pointed at the pancake.“No, and I'm not going to. I watched the anguish when Jack was consuming it. In general, he is not very picky about food so it must be eatable.”“Well, you have to try it.” Jo wanted to force him and put a piece of pancake on a fork
The Bet 129. A bitter morning
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The Bet 128. Existential meditation
Mike felt much better after a nutritious lunch. There was no sign of a hangover; the only thing that bothered him, even after strong painkillers, was the ache in his ankle.He was changing the ice packs, and putting on more anti-inflammatory creams, but it didn’t help much. As soon as he was trying to put his foot flat on the floor, he saw ‘all the stars in the sky’ from pain.He didn't know if he would trigger the alarm again by opening the bedroom door, and he didn't feel like testing it.He went out onto the terrace a few times, but it was too hot to stay there.‘Why do I have to sit alone, in a deserted place like that?’ He thought. ‘I didn't have to travel so many kilometers to be accompanied only by empty walls. Did I?’ He wondered looking around the empty room.‘It is no different from my everyday life. Should holidays be like that? Do I deserve it?’ Hundreds of thoughts swirled in his head.Despite his exhaustion, he couldn’t sleep. There was no TV in the room, and watching mo
The Bet 127. Redemption
Mike was lying on his stomach with his head covered with a pillow, asking the heavens for silence. He had never imagined in his life that he would ask for such trivial things. He didn't know for how long he prayed, but he was at the end of his tether. Even if he wanted to leave the house to relocate somewhere in the garden or on the terrace, to not hear the alarm, he was not able to move that far jumping only on his uninjured leg.‘I know it's my fault, but why doesn't Jo have any pity on me? I always thought that she was an angel with a golden heart, but why is she heartless now?’ He made assumptions. ‘She knows I have a goddamn hangover. Plus, I smashed my ankle. Isn't it enough punishment for me to be here, in the middle of nowhere, alone?’Mike thought about so many things looking for a solution and he was really desperate. Finally, some clue appeared in his sore brain. He recalled that when Jo was taking a shower, there was absolutely no noise outside, so there must have been g
The Bet 126. Painful lesson
Mike was really pissed off. He screwed up his vacation, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had to accept and bear with it. As soon as he heard that the car drove away, he got up and jumped on one leg to his suitcase, and pulled out clothes which would be less obstructive in his general movements like, a loose T-shirt and short cotton shorts. He hung his ironed clothes on the armchair standing next to the bed. He returned to the bed and unwrapped the bandage. His ankle didn't look the best. The hematoma was visible on the entire surface of his ankle, despite the already quite large swelling. Considering the state of his injury, he was sure that the best solution after all was to stay at home. He lied down, tipping from side to side impatiently for a while, but couldn't fall asleep. Too many thoughts swirled in his aching head. He got up and decided to change the atmosphere of the semi-dark room a bit. ‘Damnit! It's so dark here!' He muttered under his breath and opene
The Bet 125. Apriopriate treatment
As soon as Jo realized what had happened, she lost her good mood. ‘It was predictable! Will this asshole ever grow up?’ She cursed under her breath. She felt guilty about letting him come out of the house in such a bad shape at all. She blew into Mike's bedroom, without even knocking the door beforehand, like a hurricane with a destructive force. She was ready to deal properly with her rebellious, bullish friend and all his faults, who tried to disguise from her the fact that he had sprained his leg. The image she saw right after opening the door made her feel sick, as she predicted. She was truly disgusted. Mike's hair was still wet after the shower, and his face was perfectly shaved. He was dressed in a white polo shirt, perfectly ironed, and baggy khaki cargo pants. He was sitting on the bed with his left leg propped up on the bed. His pants were rolled up as he was bandaging his ankle. On the bed, she also noticed a tube of very strong painkiller ointment. “What a fucking as
