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45. Guerrilla
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“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
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The Bet 46. An asshole
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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'
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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
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The Bet 51. Sleepless night
Jo couldn’t sleep. She rolled on her bed from side to side, occasionally glancing at the clock sitting on the side table. Despite being extremely tired, her eyelids weren't even heavy. Thoughts swirled in her head.She had already used all possible means to smoothly move to the land of Morpheus, but all her efforts failed. Neither the relaxation techniques known to her worked, nor the calm music worked.As soon as she closed her eyes, she could feel Matt's warm breath on her neck and his muscular scent, which was very attractive to her senses. 'Damn it! What’s wrong with me? I have to pull myself together!’ She repeated over and over again, unsuccessfully.In the end, she was aware that her torments were pointless and it was time for a calming lemon balm tea, or as a last resort, a few sips of cognac.In order not to wake up her guests, she didn’t switch on the light in the corridor and she went into the kitchen in the dark. She tu
The Bet 52. Green peas
There was silence in the kitchen. Mike wondered what she was so upset about. Since his cousin wasn't a cause for concern, it must have been something more serious.“Are you going to tell me what is bothering you?” Finally, he asked her again.“My main concern is Matt's behavior.”“If you consider the fact that he has access to all of Julian's records, he eventually took over some of the law firm from his parents. You have the rationale behind his action.”“Maybe you are right; maybe I am exaggerating everything that is going on which might not even amount to anything.” She said, finishing her lemon balm tea.“Go, try to rest. I will make sure you won't oversleep.”“I will try.” As she said that, she got up and left her cup near the sink.“It doesn’t sound convincing.” Mike summoned. “Wait, just sit here.” He took a stool and put it in
The Bet 53. Collision
Mike immediately saw a lot of blood drops soaked on the white towel around his hips. The more he looked at them, the more he was shocked. He looked up higher and saw the two paper tampons already leaking blood from her nostrils. “What happened here?” He wondered loudly. When he saw a bag of frozen green peas on Jo’s forehead he burst out laughing. After a while, he added mockingly. “Woah, was that such a hard sex, some sado-maso?” The second he said that, the bag of frozen peas landed on his bare stomach. “Fuck!” He bent down, holding his abdomen. It wasn't painful, but it was fucking unpleasant. “Should I throw it a few inches lower?” Jo asked in a similar, mocking tone. “Are you deliberately trying to deprive me of the possibility of procreating and being a father?” “One more word, and I can't guarantee my reactions, so shut up.” She articulated through gritted teeth, changing the paper dressing under her nose. “We need help
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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
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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
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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
