The Bet - Chapter 40 (Wednesday – week 6 Part 3 of 6)

The Bet
by Karen Singer

Chapter 40 (Wednesday – week 6 Part 3 of 6)

Chad was just finishing up a small project when he noticed an email coming in – from Mel. Fearing what she might want now – while at the same time being grateful that she hadn’t called him on the phone – he opened it right away.


Sissy,

I just thought you’d like to see this so you can dream a bit. He is a hunk, isn’t he!


Just below that was a huge picture – the picture of him and Derek together after the poker game. He stared at the picture – horrified. And that feeling of dread and horror again rose up to an unbelievable level.
“Holly crap!” Robin’s voice exclaimed from the entrance to his cubicle.
Horrified, embarrassed, and panicked, Chad quickly closed the email.
“No! Don’t you dare!” Robin cried as she hurried up right behind him. “Open that thing back up again!”
“Uh… I’d rather not.”
“Like hell!” Robin exclaimed. “Here, give me that,” she said as she took the mouse right out of his hand. Finding the right email was easy since it was already highlighted. The picture loaded instantly. Robin stared, not believing what she was seeing.
Chad wanted to fall right through that hole in the floor that never seemed to appear.
“Geezez! I can’t believe it,” Robin said again. “No wonder you didn’t want to talk about what you were wearing! Whatever possessed you to dress like… that?”
Chad was just barely able to squeak out his answer. “It wasn’t my idea.”
“But you wore it! Didn’t you?”
Chad couldn’t really deny that. The proof was right in front of them.
“I can’t believe it!” Robin said once again as she stared at the picture. “So… did you enjoy it?”
“Um… not really.” Chad admitted. “It was very embarrassing.”
“I’m sure of that!” Robin replied. Then she quickly looked straight at him as something else occurred to her. “Wait a minute! I just got a call from Derek asking me to pass along a reminder for you to use your ‘girly’ voice as he put it.”
Chad was totally shocked! He couldn’t believe it! He desperately wanted to crawl under his desk and hide.
“So what’s that all about?” Robin asked – or demanded.
Chad just shook his head, totally panicked. He still couldn’t believe that Derek had called… Robin of all people! “I… can’t!”
Robin just looked at him for a second, and something clicked in her brain. “Hey, this isn’t by any chance that thing that you were so upset about a few days ago, is it? I seem to remember it was something that Mel wanted you to do.”
Chad’s eyes opened wide with further surprise. She had figured it out!
“So it is!” Robin declared.
Chad could only stare down at the floor and nod briefly. He was so embarrassed.
“So let me hear it.”
He looked up quickly. “What?”
“Let me hear your ‘girly’ voice, as he put it.”
“It sounds stupid!”
“Oh come on! It can’t be that bad!”
Chad shook his head. “It is!”
“So let me be the judge!”
Chad could see that she wasn’t going to back down till she had heard it. “I don’t know what to say,” she said in his girly voice.
Robin stared for a moment then burst out laughing. “You’re right! It is that bad! But I’m betting that Mel figures it won’t get any better unless you practice.”
Chad looked down at the floor again. “Something like that.”
“So maybe she has a point. You should use it all the time.”
Chad shook his head. “I can’t!” he protested again.
“Say that again – in your other voice!”
Chad wanted to die. “I can’t,” he said softly – in his high-pitched voice.
Robin merely smiled. “You do need practice. And I promise to help!”
That was the last thing that Chad wanted!
Suddenly, Robin noticed something on his computer screen she hadn’t thought about before. Before he could stop her, Robin grabbed his mouse again and hit the print button, sending the picture to the printer.
“No!” Chad cried in terror.
Laughing, Robin was off like a flash, running for the printer to get it.

Robin desperately watched the clock – waiting for break time. She had made two or three… okay, four phone calls to some of her friends telling them about Sissy’s date with Derek and about getting him to speak in his ‘girly’ voice. She laughed at that. Girly? Ridiculous was more like it! And beyond that, she had one more juicy bit for all of them!
She watched the seconds ticking down, but she was up and out of her seat thirty seconds early. She went directly to Chad’s cubicle, where she saw him with his head down in his arms on his desk, facing away from her. “Sissy! What are you doing? Come on, it’s break time!”
Chad felt awful! He was so tired he didn’t want to move. He was also so depressed over everything that it made matters even worse. “No,” he moaned without moving his head.
Robin walked in and grabbed his arm and pulled. “Come on. There’s no way I’m going to let you not go to break today!”
Chad sat up and looked at her, but he didn’t get up. “I can’t!” he moaned. “Everybody is just going to make fun of me.”
“Maybe,” Robin admitted. “Okay, definitely. But they’ve done that before, so why should this be so different? Now get up from there before I pick you up and carry you!”
“You would! Wouldn’t you!”
“I’d certainly give it my best try. Of course, if that fails, then I have no doubt that once I start talking to the girls I can easily convince them to all come down here to finish their break.”
Chad groaned aloud. “You would too!”
“You bet I would! Now get up and let’s go!”
“This is not a good idea!” Chad said as he got to his feet.
“Say that again in your ‘girly’ voice.” She giggled as she pulled him out of his cubicle. She laughed – girly voice? “And for the record. It’s a perfectly good idea!”
Chad only groaned a bit more as he followed her down the hallway. Where Robin wanted to hurry, he wanted to move slowly – very slowly – or not go at all. Unfortunately, they did arrive at their destination and Robin made sure that he did go inside.
Despite Chad dragging his feet, they were among the first to arrive. “Hey look!” Robin exclaimed as they approached the coffee pot, “doughnuts again!” She looked back at Sissy. “Maybe you better have two!”
Actually two would have been great. He was hungry. And he could actually chew a doughnut. He walked past the coffee pot and grabbed a doughnut – just to make sure he wouldn’t miss out on any – even though he was one of the first ones there. The moment he picked it up, he took a bite and closed his eyes in pleasure. Chewing! And food!
Robin finished pouring her coffee and grabbed a doughnut herself while she watched Chad pouring his own coffee. “I’ll let you have mine… if you’re good,” she giggled. “I really shouldn’t be eating them anyway.”
There were only two other women at the table as they approached it, but both of them were anxious to see both Robin and Sissy. Chad noticed that the bulk of the people were just now coming through the door. At least he had gotten one of the doughnuts. Small compensation for what he was sure was going to be a very embarrassing break period.
“Sissy!” one of the two women exclaimed excitedly. “You’ve got a date with Derek?”
Chad looked at Robin. “Word sure does get around fast!” Robin only smiled mischievously.
“So when’s it going to be?” the other woman asked.
“Sunday,” Chad replied.
“Wait a minute!” Robin said. “We keep forgetting! Girly voice! Use your girly voice!”
Chad rolled his eyes. This wasn’t going to be good!
“Now say it again – like you’re supposed to!” Robin added.
“Do I have to?” he asked. “This is stupid!”
“You’re not going to learn if you don’t get used to doing it! And you’re not going to get any better either – which really needs to happen! Now say it again!”
“Say what again?”
“Girly voice!” Robin almost yelled. “You’re not supposed to say anything unless it’s in your girly voice!”
“Girly voice?” one of the women who was just sitting down asked. “What the heck is going on?”
“Sissy is supposed to be practicing using his female voice instead of his male voice, but he won’t do it! His friend Mel thinks he’s using his old male voice as a crutch all the time. And his female voice needs a ‘lot’ of work! So she wants us to help make sure he doesn’t use his male voice at all so he can practice using his female voice – or his girly voice as I heard it.”
“Is that right?” the woman asked Sissy.
He just nodded.
“Come on, Sugar. You can answer better than that! Say something out loud so we can all hear it.”
The table was filling up fast, and every one of the women already there was waiting breathlessly for him to answer – in his stupid ‘girly’ voice. And he really didn’t have a way out of it. “I think it’s stupid!” he said in his high-pitched voice. There was an immediate round of laughter from everyone.
“You’re right, it does need work!” the woman finally exclaimed amid her laughter.
“So Sissy,” another woman suddenly asked. “Are you really dating Derek?”
“Wait? He’s dating Derek?” another woman asked, totally surprised. “I thought we went over this yesterday and he said he wasn’t!”
“Well he is!” Robin asked. “As of last night anyway. He and Derek are going out on a date together.”
“Sunday!” another woman threw into the mix.
“It’s not really a date!” Chad argued.
“Uh uh! Girly voice!” Robin ordered.
Chad rolled his eyes. “It’s not really a date!” he repeated – in his girly voice. “It’s just dinner and a movie… and it’s a double date!” At least he didn’t have to use his sissy voice, that would have been twice as bad. He just had to make sure he didn’t slip up!
“Dinner and a movie? And you don’t call that a date?” The woman looked incredulously around at everyone else. “I’d call that a date!” There was total agreement among all of them.
Chad was beside himself. He wasn’t happy about this at all. “Okay, maybe it is a date. But Derek lost the last hand last night and they had this bet going that the loser had to date me… while the winner got to date Mel. We’re going together.”
“Who won?” Someone asked.
“Ray.”
“Ray? Do you have any idea how many times he’s asked me out?”
“And did you ever go?” another woman asked.
The first woman smiled. “You bet! He was great!” The table erupted in a huge chorus of giggles.
As the giggling finally died down, Robin almost proudly announced. “There’s more!”
“More?” someone asked.
Chad was suddenly very worried. He wasn’t sure what she was going to add next.
Robin just nodded her head and repeated, “More!” She looked directly at Sissy for a moment with a very mischievous smile on her face before she turned back to everyone else at the table. Then fairly slowly, and teasingly, she reached her hand inside the neckline of her top and into her bra. Then, just as slowly, she started to pull it out.
“Oh no!” Chad groaned the moment he saw the edge of the white piece of paper. He really wanted to run – anywhere!
Robin withdrew the folded up paper that she had pulled off of the printer earlier. The entire table was silent as they watched her slowly begin to unfold it. She finally laid the still folded paper flat on the table and pushed it out more towards the middle of the table where everyone could see it better. Then, she undid the final fold – fully revealing the picture of Sissy and Derek together last night.
The table stayed silent for almost five seconds as everyone realized what they were seeing. Then, little gasps and soft “Oh’s!” started to sound. Then louder ones. Then louder exclamations of surprise. Then outright laughter!
“I don’t believe it! You actually wore… that?” One of the women asked incredulously.
“He sure did!” Robin replied for him. “There’s the proof – right there!”
“What were you thinking?” Someone else asked.
The picture was fairly grainy and not all that good since it came off of the printer, but the detail was more than good enough for everyone to see everything. Someone suddenly grabbed the picture from the middle of the table and Chad saw it being passed around. He desperately wanted the earth to swallow him up somehow!
“Love the shoes!” One of the women exclaimed. “Where’d you get them?”
“Hey, are you going to wear something like that for your date with Derek?” another woman asked.
Chad just shook his head as the questions kept coming. A few he reluctantly answered – in his girly voice, but most of them he left alone. By the time their break ended. Chad felt even more miserable than he had before the break. The only remotely good thing was that Robin had saved her doughnut for him – which she handed to him as they were finally leaving – and it tasted just as delicious as the first one.