The Bet - Chapter 45 (Monday – week 7 Part 2 of 7)

The Bet
by Karen Singer

Chapter 45 (Monday – week 7 Part 2 of 7)

As Chad pulled into the parking lot, he tried to see if Robin’s car was there yet. He didn’t see it, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t here already. What was he going to say to her? For that matter, what was she going to say to him? The only thing he was certain of was that whatever she said, it wouldn’t exactly be pretty. Bracing himself again, he got out of the car and headed into the building. The few people he saw, didn’t seem to act any different toward him today than usual. He figured that was a good sign. He just knew it wasn’t going to last. Before going into his own cubicle, he checked Robin’s, she wasn’t here yet. It was only a matter of time.

Robin wasn’t in any hurry to get to work today. She didn’t really want to go at all. Things had been so much easier before this weekend – before she knew… the truth. The idiot! She was still angry at him. Complicated? He was damn right it was complicated! She had never really believed it before, no matter how many times he had said it. But now she knew. And now she knew what he was… whatever you could really call it. Idiot? Pervert? Sick? All that, and so much more! She wasn’t looking forward to seeing him. She didn’t want to see him. Because every time she thought about him she got so angry she could spit! The pervert!
Reluctantly, she pulled into one of the parking places, and even more reluctantly she got out of her car and headed toward the building. As she turned down the hall where their cubicles were, her steps faltered for a moment, then they sped up till she was walking much faster. As she passed his cubical, she purposely didn’t even turn her head to look inside. She just kept going, all the way to her own desk.
Chad had been looking at his computer screen when he heard someone pass his cubicle. “Robin?” he called. But he got no answer. Was she here? But nobody else ever came down this way. It had to be her. Getting up from his seat, and knowing it was going to be bad, he went to see her. He cautiously turned the corner into her cubicle, she was just sitting there at her desk with her back to him. “Robin?” he said again.
Robin heard him call her again. The pervert! She turned around quickly in her chair. “Get out of here! Get the hell out of here! I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t even want to see you! Get lost you… you… you jerk!” And just as quickly, she turned her back to him again, hoping that he’d get the point and go away.
Shocked, and even more deeply wounded, Chad turned and sadly made his way back to his desk. It hadn’t gone well. But what did he expect, that she would be laughing and happily accepting of… of… what he was? Did he think that she was going to tell him that everything was wonderful? Get a grip!
He sat down at his desk and stared blankly at his computer screen. Now what should he do? Mel had said she wanted to know every little thing she said to him. He considered calling her, she would probably still be home, or maybe on her way to work. But if he called her, then Robin would hear him talking and would know that he was passing everything on. Instead, he opened up an email and tried to explain exactly what had happened. Telling Mel that Robin was still angry seemed to be an understatement, but he tried his best to stick to the facts.

The first thing Mel did when she got to work was to tell Andrea to watch for Sissy’s calls and to let her know as soon as possible. Then she went in and checked her email. She wasn’t sure if she was surprised or not to see one already from him. Actually, she was kind of glad to see it because he was at least going to be keeping her up to date. She opened the email and read it. And frowned. It wasn’t going well so far. But there wasn’t anything she could do about that. She would just have to wait and see what happened.

All morning long, Chad sat quietly at his desk, worried about what was going to happen. The only good thing that occurred was that Tom Robinson had emailed him a short list of some little things that needed doing. Busy work. Nothing difficult. But it kept his mind occupied for a while. The list of things also meant that Tom hadn’t yet heard about what Robin now knew. Not yet at least. He heard very little over the wall from Robin’s cubicle, except for some faint sounds of her typing on her keyboard once in a while. Was she emailing everyone about what happened instead of phoning them? The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

It was mid-morning when Mel finished with a client and Andrea told her she had a phone call while she was busy. But the call wasn’t from Chad, it was from Ray instead. Mel couldn’t believe it, she had totally forgotten about Ray. She had been too preoccupied worrying about Sissy instead. But now that she had been reminded, she happily sat down at her desk and dialed his number. “Hi Ray. It’s Mel.”
“Mel… How are you today?”
She wasn’t about to tell him that just thinking about him was making her horny again. “Don’t ask!” she said instead. “Lots of worries today.”
“Can I take your mind off of them with some lunch?”
“Lunch?” She really had a nice dinner somewhere in mind instead. Besides, she usually met with Gloria. “Uh… Sure, why not?” Gloria would just have to go on her own.
“Excellent! Because otherwise I might have had to hold all these pictures I have from last night ransom till you agreed to go out with me.”
“The pictures! I can’t wait to see them! And… to be honest, I was really thinking of something a bit more… interesting than just having lunch with you. I mean, just you and I, without anyone else.”
Ray couldn’t believe it! What a woman! “Well, besides lunch today, how about we go out somewhere tomorrow night?”
That surprised Mel. “Tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I’m kind of busy tonight.”
Mel had no doubt about that and briefly wondered who he was going out with. It also took some of the interest out of it for her. But… “Yeah, tomorrow night is good for me too.”
“Wonderful!” Ray exclaimed. “We can talk about it over lunch today. Now, where do you want me to send these pictures?”
It wasn’t till Mel had hung up the phone again and was spending a moment picturing herself out with Ray tomorrow night – and then forced herself to get back to thinking about Sissy’s problem, that another problem hit her. Sissy! What was she going to do with him tomorrow night? She couldn’t just leave him alone. She didn’t dare! He spent way too much time every day at work holding back and regaining his control. A single evening of it too would be disastrous. What was she going to do with him?

Gloria was between clients when she happened to check her email. She noticed one from Mel, which was strange because Mel usually phoned. She opened the email without hesitation though… and stared in shock at the picture on her screen. It was obviously Sissy – dressed very nicely from what she could see. But he was in the arms of another man and they appeared to be kissing passionately! Just below the picture were two simple words: “Call me!”
Never taking her eyes off of the picture, she picked up her phone and dialed Mel’s number. “Mel?”
Mel giggled at hearing Gloria’s voice. “Do you like it?”
“It’s really… something!”
Mel giggled again. “You should see some of the other pictures too.”
“You have more?”
“A bunch!”
“It looks like you had some fun last night for sure!”
“More than you’ll ever know!”
Finally, Gloria smiled. “Well, I can’t wait to hear about it. Lunch today?”
“Uh… That’s one of the things I wanted to talk about,” Mel replied. “I can’t today. I’ve kind of got a date.”
“A date? With which guy? The one you were dating last night or the one that Sissy was with – that you said you liked better?”
“My date. Ray.”
“I thought you said he was scum?”
“Well… He is, but… Well… Damn, he had me so hot last night!”
“So you finally got laid again! Good for you!”
“No. No… we didn’t… It’s just that…”
“Wait a minute, you didn’t get into bed with him but things got… hot?”
“For me anyway.”
“From that picture you sent me, it looks like Sissy wasn’t doing too bad either.”
Mel giggled again. “Trust me, neither of them really liked it.”
“You could have fooled me!”
“So anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I can’t meet with you for lunch today. It’ll have to wait till tomorrow.”
“Whatever. Just go have a good time!”
“Thanks, Gloria. It’s a shame though, because I really need to talk to you.”
“About what? It sounds like everything is going great.”
“Well, not everything. I kind of made a big mistake with Sissy this weekend and I don’t know how to fix it.”
Gloria sighed. Sissy again! “I’m afraid that other than lunch, I’m kind of booked up all day today.”
“Yeah, me too. And my schedule looks to stay that way for the next few weeks. We’ll just have to put it off till tomorrow. Okay?”
“Whatever. Sounds fine with me. Oh, and Mel…”
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad you’re having some fun!”

Chad was working, but his body was on pins and needles. He kept waiting for the expected phone call to come from his boss, Tom Robinson, telling him that he was fired and to clear his things out. He was so worried about it, that he barely gave any effort into trying to hold back when he had to pee. It was just a bit too much to think about. Too much to worry about when the executioner’s ax was hanging right over his head. He knew his diapers were soaked, but he wasn’t about to worry more than normal about them. Wetting and leaking were totally secondary to everything else.
He heard Robin moving in her cubicle over the wall. He glanced at the clock – break time!
It wasn’t that Robin really wanted to go to break, it was more like she really needed something more to distract her – and her anger. She got up from her seat and walked out. She stopped at the entrance to Chad’s cubicle and looked in. There he was – the sick pervert! He was just turning around in his chair like he expected her to talk to him. Well… “I’m going to break,” she said. “Don’t come!” With that, she turned away from him and walked off. For some reason, she felt a bit better about things.
Chad stared open-mouthed at the empty entrance to his cubicle. “Don’t come?” Those two words seemed to speak volumes. Feeling worse than ever, he turned around and stared at his computer screen again. But work was out of the question. At least not for a while. Instead, he opened up another email and sent a short note to Mel about what had just happened. He hadn’t heard back from Mel yet today, but why should he? There was nothing she could do to help.

Robin grabbed a coffee and headed for the women’s table. The minute she sat down, her friends were asking about where Sissy was and how his date went last night. The truth was, she had totally forgotten he was supposed to go out with Derek last night. She hadn’t even given it the slightest thought. And to really tell the truth, she didn’t care in the least. “Oh, he’s working,” she replied to everyone. “I don’t think he’s going to be able to make it today.”
“So how about his date,” someone asked again. “What did he say?”
All Robin could do was to shrug her shoulders. “We haven’t had a chance to talk yet. Like I said, he’s been working pretty hard today.”
“Awfully convenient, if you ask me,” one of the women replied. “I’ll be he just doesn’t want to share all the ‘intimate’ details!” There were a few chuckles from around the table, but not from Robin.
“I’m surprised at you girl!” another woman said to Robin. “That’s not like you. Usually you get in there and dig, no matter how busy they are!”
Robin blushed, “Well, I’ve been a bit too busy today too.”
“Sounds strange to me,” someone else replied.
“You make sure he’s here later,” another woman told Robin. “We can’t have him not filling us in with all the details after his first date like that!”
Robin still wasn’t ready to have Sissy anywhere near her, but she realized that the other women weren’t going to let up till they got what they wanted. She on the other hand, had already had her fill of him!

Mel read Chad’s latest email with interest – and worry. Obviously Robin wasn’t coming around yet. But at the same time, Chad still hadn’t mentioned anything about being fired – yet. That was good news – she guessed. Of course, if he did get fired, then maybe he would be more interested in losing their bet – just so she would take care of him. It was a nice thought, but she knew it wouldn’t happen.
One thing she realized that she hadn’t realized before, was that in telling Robin about Chad and their bet, she had not only hurt Chad, but she had also hurt Robin too. Robin hadn’t been ready to accept any of the “kinkier” aspects of Chad’s life and in learning about it like she did, Mel had pretty much destroyed the friendship between the two of them.
But somehow, she just didn’t see Robin as the type to ignore Chad completely – and permanently. And since Chad hadn’t yet mentioned anyone else giving him any trouble, then she was also beginning to wonder if Robin would actually tell anyone else. Of course, it was still early yet, and from everything that Chad had told her about Robin, she was guessing that Robin would have to tell someone. And even so, she was also guessing that eventually, Robin would probably have it out with Chad. The more she thought about that, the more she had no doubt at all that it would happen – and, she was betting that it wasn’t going to be pretty either.
She decided that maybe she should warn him to prepare him for what she was guessing was coming. She started typing a return email to him about her thoughts on what was most likely to happen as far as Robin went, but halfway through, she stopped. An odd thought struck her. One that needed more time to examine. She closed the email without replying as her mind pondered the idea. It was crazy!
She grabbed a folder off of her desk and got up to meet with her next client. But her mind wasn’t on work, it was on Chad and Robin. What a dumb idea! It was stupid! But it was now stuck in her mind.