Busting Up The Bad Boys' Bet - Published!

Chapter 6

7/22/2019: Updated to the published version.

I met Taylor at the Indian restaurant Friday night. He acted like a perfect gentleman, holding my chair, scooting me in, and asking how my family was. After our entrees arrived, I asked, "How much is the bet for?"

He frowned. "There is no bet, Ally."

"Come on, Taylor. If you tell me, I could help you win it and split it with you." I gave him a winning smile.

He laughed and shook his head. "Truly, Ally, there is no bet. That shit is done, over, finished."

"I don't believe you."

He sighed and nodded. "I know. It really sucks." I didn't say anything, and he went on after a moment. "We invented that stupid game, the bets, after we had been burned."

"Burned?"

"All the girls we dated were mercenary. They only wanted our money. We got our hearts broken, and the game was really meant to protect us in the future. It allowed us to date and have sex while always remembering not to invest our hearts."

I sneered. "Please."

He looked me in the eyes. "It's true. We were completely jaded. We no longer believed in love. We thought every girl was either mercenary or gullible and needed to be taught the lesson we had learned. Then you walk into our life and show us that isn't true."

"If you don't think I'm mercenary, why is Brad trying to win me over with money?"

Taylor's eyes narrowed. "How is he trying to do that?"

"You don't know?" He shook his head, so I told him about the financial statement and prenup.

He asked, "Are you tempted?"

"Not at all."

"See? Damn it!" He slapped his hand against the tabletop.

I nodded slowly. I guess that proved to them that I wasn't mercenary.

He leaned towards me. "Have you ever been in love?"

Daniel. Of course I had been in love, but if I said yes, he'd ask what happened to break us up. If I said we didn't, he'd get the story out of me, and I wasn't telling it. "No."

He narrowed his eyes on me. I must have hesitated. "Who did you give your virginity to?"

Brad had asked me that too, when he was first trying to woo me for the original bet.

"You're wasting your time, Brad. I'm not going to fall for your flowery words. I'm not a virgin either."

"Who did you lose your virginity to? Did he break up with you right after or something?"

"No. We never dated. He's just a very good friend of mine."

"Why did you do it?"

"Because I knew he actually cared about me, as a friend. He had proven that. He had been there for me. So I trusted him to take care of me, to make sure I experienced the least amount of pain possible, and to make it good for me. He delivered." I smiled as if thinking back on it.

"What happened after?"

"We kept doing it every couple of weeks until I moved. We're still very good friends. We talk all the time."

He grinned at me, got up off his knees where he had been begging, and sat next to me. "Just have sex with me then."

"No."

"I promise it will be good. I'll take care of you."

"How do I know you don't have a tiny dick?"

He laughed. "I'd be happy to show you."

"No, thanks."

The next day he brought me a printed paper showing four pictures of him very aroused. The first two were close-ups, and he looked huge, but I doubted it was his. The second two showed everything but his legs, including his face. The boy was loaded for bear. We were standing in the hallway at school, so I started to walk away with my head down, still looking at the pictures.

He stopped me with his hand on my arm. "I'm going to need that back now. There's a reason I didn't email it, sweet."

I looked up at him and saw he was grinning. I smiled back and pressed the paper to his chest before walking away. I let him think he had hooked me.

I'm sure Brad told Taylor and Scott the story I wove, so I repeated it.

Taylor asked, "Do you believe in love?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I just don't think it happens when we're this young."

"Why's that?"

"Because we are still figuring out who we are. We're changing, growing, making mistakes, learning from them, having new experiences, and our brains are maturing. We don't make the best decisions at this age. We won't be set in who we actually are as people until after college, after we face the real world for the first time. Why bother even really getting to know someone at this age when they are just going to change later?"

Taylor thought on that for a long time as we ate in silence. Finally, he asked, "So you do believe that after college, after you start working, you'll meet someone, fall in love, get married, have babies with them, and live happily ever after?"

"Yes."

"Why not save yourself for this man then?"

"Life experiences, Taylor. You need them to grow and change into who you'll become. Plus, I don't expect him to be abstinent until we meet."

Taylor grinned at me for so long that I had to ask, "What?"

"I was beginning to think you were cynical and jaded like we were, but it's not so. I'm happy about that." He reached over and tried to take my left hand from my water glass, but I pulled it back. He gave me a little pout. "You won't even let me hold your hand?"

"I'll let you do a lot more than that if you come clean with me, Taylor."

He shook his head regretfully. "You'll believe us sooner or later, Ally. We'll prove this isn't about a bet." He changed the conversation to casual get-to-know-you topics, what kind of movies and music we liked, what colleges interested us, and that sort of thing. Brad was the only one of them that I had discussed these casual preferences with at the beginning of school.

Taylor paid for dinner and walked me home. At my front door, I turned to tell him good night. He swooped in before I could object and gave me a chaste kiss on the lips. It was more than a peck; he stayed for a couple of seconds. I was surprised but not upset. Kissing by itself isn't a big deal to me. I've played truth or dare and spin the bottle.

When he pulled back, he smiled at me happily. "Good night, my love."

"Good night, Taylor." I went inside and decided that hadn't been painful, at least not to me. I hoped Bradley was suffering insomnia and didn't rest while I was with Scott the next day either.