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47. Man in Arms
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Jo 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
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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.
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
The Bet 54. Apologies
“Thanks for the invitation, Elen. We just escaped from our offices and honestly, we would like to stay away from any, at least for the time being.” Matthew tried to sound reasonable. “What about lunch or dinner, guys?” “Not today, Elen. We need to take care of something urgent.” Mike added. Jo just looked at her co-worker in disbelief who was desperate to meet with her two hunks. She was sure Elen wasn’t interested in them;, she had a lovely fiance. She just wanted to know what they had in common with her. “What about tomorrow?” Elen decided, despairingly, to try one more time. “Fine, for our part, yes, but we don't know what Jo's plans are for us.” Matthew announced in hope that Jo wasn’t feeling like meeting her co-worker during the weekend and she would quickly come up with some kind of excursion or other urgent activity for them. “We will talk about it over lunch, Elen.” Jo proposed a solution. She could see that her guests were no
The Bet 55. Doging tactics
“Are you ok, Jo?” Mike asked as he checked the marks of Julian's grip on her wrist.“I am fine. I was so close to kicking him. If it weren't for the awareness that a photographer was lurking nearby, I would have shown him my self-defence skills.”“You said that it's not worth putting your reputation on the line.” Matthew was concerned, not only about her wellbeing but also about her professional image. He knew that sooner or later she would decide to come out of the shadows and show what she really was good at. That was just a matter of time.“Caring for my image is the only thing that holds me back, not to show him what it means to be responsible and take consequences for your own actions.” Jo exclaimed, but after a moment of hesitation, she continued.“I am a very patient person, I will wait. Maybe he will rethink his wicked behaviour. Maybe something will reach his consciousness.”&ldqu
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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
Mike was the first to get up. He was not able to accept ‘the doing nothing’ state and being attached to one place, to his bed, any longer.Slowly, without making any noise, he trodded downstairs. It wasn't too complicated with the help of crutches.He found the perfect order and plenty of food in the kitchen.‘These stocks were made, probably with me in mind. They want to leave me again." He assumed looking at the refrigerator full to the brim.He decided to prepare something for everyone. His skills were far from Matthew's, but after all, he could prepare something nonetheless.He made pancakes, and a typical continental breakfast: fried bacon, sausages, black pudding, some stewed mushrooms and tomatoes. He also made a smoothie out of whatever greens he could find in the refrigerator.“Good morning!” Patrick’s voice disrupted his work on the fruit salad.“Good morning.” He wasn’t happy to see him. “Did you sleep well, man?” Mike asked ironically. He really wanted to ask if he had goo
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
