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90. Suspicious proposition
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Magnificent aromas coming from the kitchen woke Jo up. She could get a sniff of freshly brewed coffee and fried bacon, which meant nothing less than that, finally, Mike flew home. She felt relieved.
She said goodbye to him yesterday evening when they returned from the pub, arguing that she didn’t know if she would be able to get up when Nick would come to pick him up for his ride to the airport.
Jo didn’t want to shatter yesterday's meeting with Mr Kelly, which turned out to be a complete failure. They had not received such lashes in public for a long time. Somehow she had to bear it with dignity.
After all, she would talk to Mike on the phone during the day.
She dressed up as quickly as possible in the hope that she was about to eat her favorite breakfast wi
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The Bet 91. Girl's day
“Why do you think they're up to something?” Elen was suspicious too, but had to confirm first a few facts.“I have no idea.” Jo whispered.They both were sitting with hair dye, masks on their faces, while the manicurists did their nails.Instead of wasting time in the hairdressing and beauty studio recommended by Patrick, they went to a place where they could have the same treatments in two, maximum three hours, and not waste half a day.“They wanted to throw me out of the house at all costs.” Jo said, looking at the mirror in front of her. In such a state, she could easily scare people around.“This is no adequate evidence.”“I will be more precise. Your brother was trying to use his charm and spitted a lot of bullshit.”“Ah, his wise arguments.” Elen laughed.“He behaved like a typical Mr Wise. You know what I am talking about, don't you?”
The Bet 92. Surprise feast
“Elen is a good girl.” Jo defended her friend.“Really?”“She is a sincere, loyal and honest person with high moral standards. She wouldn’t have survived in the environment in which she worked if she couldn’t lie straight into the face.”“Where did you work?” Claude asked.“I was an agent for a singer, a perpetually drunk bastard, then a few actresses who got into trouble all the time.”“I feel sorry for you Elen. You should stay as far away from the show business environment as possible. I have many examples of this.” Claude said with bitterness in his voice.He had a celebrity father, and it was
The Bet 93. Mystery solved
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The Bet 94. Akward situation
The view of her living room seems like a battlefield, and not her cozy, tidy resting place. Everything was in a mess; their clothes, movies, books, even sofa cushions and armchairs were all over the floor.Her coffee table was full of plates, food boxes and empty beer bottles with a familiar logo. It was a product of one of her uncle's breweries.Except for Matthew, the rest of the bunch of party guys were barely on their feet, so there was no point in talking to them.Mike was also barely in contact with the surroundings, but instead of lying in the bedroom and relaxing, he stubbornly wanted to hang out with his new 'friends'. He still had a fever, and his logical thinking didn’t work well, so he didn’t mind listening to drunken arguments."What an emb
The Bet 95. Cobalt dress
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The Bet 96. Rough morning
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The Bet 97. Contingency
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The Bet 98. Paris again
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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
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The Bet 128. Existential meditation
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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
