The Bet - Chapter 53 (Tuesday – Week 8 Part 6 of 10)

The Bet

By Karen Singer

Chapter 53 (Tuesday – Week 8 Part 6 of 10)

     Since he had taken so long with Cassie, he stopped at a drive-thru to get something quick to eat – but not drink.  Then he drove straight to a convenience store where he had to brave getting out of the car to buy a large bottle of water so he could refill all the bottles he had drank already today.  Unfortunately, it was lunchtime.  And the place was fairly busy.  As Chad got out of his car, he worried about how silly he felt going into the store dressed the way he was.  But there was no help for it.  He had to get more water to refill his baby bottles – like it or not. 

     He attracted a lot of attention as he walked into the store.  He attracted just as much attention as he made his way through the store, then back again to the cash registers.  But it wasn’t until he had paid and left the store that he attracted one piece of attention that scared him nearly to death.  All the people already in the store ahead of him had forced him to park his car away from the front door.  It wasn’t a long walk to his car but it was further than he was happy about.  He was a lot less happy when his way back was suddenly blocked by a large rough looking young guy.

      “Look what we got here!” the dirty guy said as he planted himself directly in Sissy’s path, stopping him from going any further.

     Chad instantly grew frightened.  He grew more frightened as two more of the guy’s friends suddenly made an appearance.  He unconsciously hugged his purse and the bottle of water he had just bought to his chest.

      “Now this is what I call, an opportunity,” the guy said leeringly.

      “P… please!” Chad managed to get out.  “I need to get to work.”  He tried to go around the guy, but the guy side stepped right in front of him again.

     The guy laughed, but he didn’t move to let Sissy pass.  “You need to go to work all right!  You need to get to work on me! 

     Chad took a step back, horrified by what the guy wanted.  “No…” he moaned.  He couldn’t retreat any further because the two friends were suddenly blocking the way behind him.  He was surrounded!

      “Come on… girly guy.  You know you want what I got.  And trust me, I got all you can possibly take.”

     Chad again searched for a way out, but he didn’t see any.  “No!” he said again.  “I don’t!”

      “You don’t what?” the guy asked menacingly.  He took a bold step closer to Sissy so that he towered right over top of him.  “I’ll tell you what you don’t.  You don’t come down here, dressed for business, into my neighborhood… not without doing what I want!”

     Chad panicked!  He headed as fast as he could between two of them, trying to get to his car before things could get any worse.  But he didn’t get far before two of them grabbed him roughly and started dragging him further down the sidewalk.  Chad struggled for all he was worth, but getting free seemed impossible.  The stupid super high heels he was wearing only made trying to get away that much more impossible. 

     He struggled all the way, wondering why nobody would bother to help him.  They had already dragged him past his own car, almost to the end of the parking lot where a large dirty looking car was parked.  Desperately, he screamed “No!” one more time.  And miraculously, his scream seemed to be echoed by a loud short blast from a siren. 

     The men who had grabbed him suddenly let go as a police car squealed to a stop nearby.  Frightened out of his wits, Chad tore himself from between his captors and ran for his car.  He fumbled desperately in his purse to find his keys, but by the time the policeman had gotten very far out of his car, Chad had gotten into his, where he immediately locked his door.  He was still shaking as he laid his forehead against his steering wheel and sighed with relief.  When he looked up a few moments later, he saw the policeman chasing the boys off toward their car.  A moment later, he came directly over to Chad’s car where he knocked politely on the driver side window.  Chad let the window down – partially.

      “You okay?” the policeman asked.

     Chad couldn’t reply verbally, so he nodded.

     The policeman seemed to stare at him for a few moments.  Then said, “I’ll move my car and you can get out of here.”

     Again, Chad nodded, but it was a very grateful nod.  Had the policeman noticed what he was wearing?  Had he even noticed that he wasn’t a woman?  He couldn’t be sure about either.  But one thing he was sure of, the policeman hadn’t detained him at all and a minute later, he was carefully pulling out of the parking lot and back into traffic.  He was too scared to drive fast, mostly because the policeman wasn’t far behind him, but he did go straight back to work. 

     He parked his car and anxiously pulled his diaper bag, his purse, the bottle of water he had bought, and his lunch out of the car.  Then he hurried into the building as fast as the heels on his feet would let him go – which was much slower than he would have liked.  Even though he had been delayed by so much during lunch, he was glad to see that he was still early enough that not many people were around to see him hurrying back into the building or through the halls.  He nearly collapsed into his chair the moment he got to it.  His feet hurt from the shoes he had been hurrying in, but that was such a minor thing compared to everything else, he hardly gave it a thought.

     First things first though, and that wasn’t lunch.  He quickly pulled out all the empty baby bottles and filled them from the large bottle of water.  He noticed that his hands were still shaking a bit as he did it.  He was lucky he didn’t spill any.  Again there was some water left in the big bottle when he was done.  He set it on his desk next to the bottle he had bought yesterday.  Did he have enough between both bottles so that he wouldn’t have to buy another one tomorrow?  Sadly, he didn’t think so. 

     He pulled his lunch out of his bag and sat down – and stared at it.  He was still a bit shaken from his encounter a little while ago.  Could he eat?  He finally decided he could – and that he better.  His lunch was the only meal he got anymore that wasn’t baby food.  But the moment he took his first bite, Robin passed by his cubicle on her way back from her lunch.  “Sissy!  What are you doing?”

     With his mouth full of food, Chad looked up at her… and tried to find the words.  But he couldn’t.

     It took Robin about three seconds to realize that the look on Sissy’s face wasn’t normal.  “What happened?” she asked quickly.

     Chad swallowed what was in his mouth and finally found the ability to speak.  “I was…”  But he was what?  Attacked?  Molested?  Not really any of those.  “These guys… at the store… they grabbed me outside… and… the police…”

      “The what?”  Robin was shocked!  And though she didn’t realize it, totally concerned!  “For heaven’s sake, start at the beginning!  And don’t leave anything out!  Tell me everything!”

     Chad’s words stumbled at first, but the telling grew easier the longer he talked.  But remembering it made him start shaking again.

      “My God!” Robin exclaimed as she went over and hugged his head to her chest.  “And the police didn’t ask you anything?”

      “Only if I was all right,” Chad replied.  Now that he had told it, he was starting to feel better.

      “At least you’re out of there and safe,” Robin said. 

     Chad nodded and she stepped back again.  “I’m fine,” Chad said, sounding more confident than he felt.  “It’s over and I’m fine.  Totally!”

     Robin was a bit dubious.  If it were her, she would have taken the entire afternoon off!  Maybe the rest of the week!  “You’re sure?” she asked. 

     Chad nodded.  “Yeah, I’m sure.”

     Robin backed up more towards the entrance to his cubicle, and noticed again his lunch that was sitting on his desk – uneaten.  “Go back and finish your lunch,” she told him.  “I’ll check with you again in a few minutes.”

      “Thanks,” Chad said, really meaning it.  He wanted to thank her for caring too, but he said nothing about that.  He reached for his sandwich and took another bite.

     Robin stayed where she was for a moment and realized something.  “Where’s your drink?”

      “I didn’t get one,” Chad replied.

     Robin walked back and pulled one of the freshly filled bottles out of his diaper bag and handed it to him.  “You need something to drink with your meal.”  Then she turned and walked out.  But foremost on her mind was telling Mel what had happened.

     Chad leaned back in his chair for a moment and closed his eyes, trying to throw off the last of his fear and tension from the encounter a little while earlier.  He put the bottle to his mouth and sucked on it as he usually did.  As much as he didn’t want it, or need it, he found sucking on the bottle… comforting.

     Robin opened up her email program instead of phoning Mel.  She figured email would be better because Mel was often so busy, and secondly, so that she herself could compose her thoughts better.  As best as she could remember, she put down everything that Sissy had told her.  And she did her best to reassure Mel that Sissy was perfectly alright now that it was over.  After she had sent the message, she went back to see Sissy again.

     He was just finishing his lunch, but his bottle wasn’t quite done yet.  “You’re sure you’re alright?” she asked.  “Totally over it?”

     Chad nodded.  “Yeah.  I’m over it.  No problems.”

     Robin smiled.  She was glad to hear it.  “Then get up and tell me properly!”

     The fast turnaround caught Chad by surprise.  But he quickly got to his feet, curtseyed and said, “I’m fine now.”  Then he curtseyed again to show that he was done talking.

      “And where does your thumb belong when you’re not talking?” Robin asked.

     Chad slowly brought his right thumb up to his mouth and sucked on it.  He was only surprised because Robin hadn’t mentioned sucking his thumb earlier in the day – before she had taped his shoes to his hands.

     Robin smiled.  She had a reason for getting him back to behaving like a sissy.  And it wasn’t just because it was how she wanted to deal with him.  She had told Mel all about what had happened, but in order to reassure Mel that he really was back to normal again, she wanted to take some pictures of him – back to normal again.  “Sit down and take your shoes off,” she ordered.    Ten minutes later, Chad’s hands were once again taped into his shoes, and he was once again tied to his chair with his feet tied up under the chair.  And once again, he was struggling slowly to conquer the email he had typed so quickly earlier that morning.

     Robin disappeared again for a minute and came back with her phone again and took some pictures of him.  Then she went back to her desk and emailed the pictures to Mel.

     It was almost an hour before Mel had a few minutes to check her email.  When she did, she was surprised to see three emails from Robin – the second of which the subject said “Trouble!”  Not wanting to open that one yet, she turned to the first one where she delighted in seeing Sissy tied to the chair trying to type with the shoes stuck to his hands.  If she wasn’t so worried about that other email, she would have laughed and spent more time with it.  Without pausing long, she turned to the bad one.  She was shocked at Robin’s description of what had happened to Sissy during lunch.  Shocked and very concerned.  She picked up her phone and dialed Sissy’s number as she was still opening the last email. 

     She waited for Sissy to answer but his phone just kept ringing.  She didn’t let it ring very long because Robin’s last email showed her why he couldn’t answer it.  She hung up and called Robin instead.  “Robin?  What happened?”

      “I was guessing it was you calling when I heard Sissy’s phone ringing,” Robin replied. 

      “Yeah, but I see from your last email why he couldn’t answer it.  I love it by the way.  But I just wanted to check again to make sure everything’s okay.”

      “As far as I can tell, he’s completely all right.  No problems.  As I said in my email, he was pretty shaken up when he got back from lunch, but he got over it fast enough.”

      “Good.  Keep an eye on him for me please and let me know if anything else comes up.”

      “Don’t worry, I intend on keeping a very close watch on him today.”

      “Good.  Thanks.  By the way, how do you like his outfit today?”

      “Oh God!  I still can’t believe you did that!”

      “How’s it going for him… I mean dressing like that?” Mel asked.

      “I can tell you this, it’s awfully embarrassing for him.  The whole company’s having a field day with it.”

      “Yeah, I can imagine,” Mel replied.

      “You don’t sound too thrilled about it,” Robin said.  “Isn’t that why you dressed him that way to begin with?”

      “Yeah…  Kind of.  I’m really wanting to know how far I can push things with what he wears to work.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “Well, I have some other things I’d like to dress him in, but I know they’d be… let’s just say really out there.”

      “You’re worried he may be even more noticeable?”

      “That would be an understatement.”

      “I’m not sure what to tell you.  Personally, I love what he’s wearing.  So do all the other women here.  Well, most of them anyway.  There’s a few who are a little upset because it’s really very inappropriate.”  She chuckled a bit.  “He’s also got a few who are very jealous too!”

      “Jealous?  That was one reaction I hadn’t figured on!”

      “What can I say?  He’s got a better figure than I do!  We’ll leave it at that.”

      “Oh…  Robin I hadn’t intended…”

      “Don’t worry about it.  I think it’s great – for him.”

      “Good.  So what do you think?  Do I dare try anything else for him to wear?”

      “Like I said, I don’t know.  I have no idea what you have in mind.”

      “I’m not sure I do either.  I’ll just have to think about it – now more than ever in light of what happened to him at lunch.”

      “That may be a good idea,” Robin agreed.  “Besides, I still have that pregnancy baby t-shirt here and all the paper dolls just waiting for him to play with.”

      “Yeah,” Mel agreed.  “I enjoyed those pictures too – a lot!”

      “By the way,” Robin said, “what he’s trying to type is an email to you concerning your bet.  I’m not going to tell you what’s in it, but I’ll warn you, I think he has some really good questions.  Hopefully, he’ll finish it before the end of the day.  If not, it may be tomorrow before you get it.”

      “I’ll look forward to seeing it… I think.  Good questions?  As strange as it sounds, he’s got a really good head on his shoulders – sometimes.  I have no doubt he can come up with some interesting questions.  I’ll just have to deal with then when I see them.”

      “Great Mel, and thanks for calling.  It was good to talk to you for a change.”

      “Same here, Robin.  And keep up the great work!”