Chapter 10: The Bet

The morning dawned crisp and still, though most of the house didn't get up until well after nine o' clock. Dan knocked on Christine's door and offered her a shirt with the price tag still on, a pair of brand new underwear and a vast array of toiletries he evidently had been stockpiling in the trunk of his car, "in case of emergencies," he explained, for which she would have balked at if Dan hadn't looked so sheepish about it. They decided to stay the whole day, making up for lost time with nanna and papa Garie, taking more walks around the surrounding area—avoiding bridges this time. Christine felt she'd overcome enough for quite a while and decided to take a break from perfecting her mastery over navigating the structure. They had an early dinner before leaving for home, and warm farewells were given all around. As they walked hand-in-hand to the car, nanna Garie watched them leave from the doorway. Papa Garie joined her their, patting her arm. "Bien. Tres bien," he said simply. She smiled.

"I don't believe it."

It was Monday night, and the end of a very long and strange first night back to work in the new year. Judge Harry Stone had noticed a peculiar change in Dan that evening, and tried to place a description on his behavior; it seemed...pleasant—and it gave him the creeps. When he asked Dan about the bet, he merely replied that he would let him know later. Well, it was later, and as he sat slumped in a wide-eyed stupor at the table in his office, he clenched some crumpled paper in his hand while simultaneously using that fist to prop up his head. Phil was there, in the process of prying it open and releasing the dollar bills from his grasp, smoothing them out on not a small stack of cash already in his possession.

"She kissed him."

A large group of people had just exited his office, Roz being the last one to straggle out. Phil patted Harry's shoulder appreciatively—or sympathetically—Harry was too dumbstruck to differentiate.

"And liked it."

"Thanks, Judge." said Phil. "I hope there's no hard feelings. When I heard there was an office pool about the bet Dan had made, and that everyone had bet against him, I felt I had to defend his honor," he explained in an almost reverent manner. He was now leafing through the money and organizing it by bill size. Harry continued to sit in a petrified state as he went on. "But it worked out for the best, anyway. Boss is taking Christine out this weekend, wanted it to be extra special, and this should help out a lot," he said with a toothy, lopsided smile, and shuffled out of the office to find his recipient. Harry was left to ruminate, remembering his words to Dan, how he wouldn't be able to go through with it. He kicked himself soundly for not only second-guessing his high opinion of Dan and starting the office pool, but for the inconceivability of the concept of Dan and Christine together. He slunk over and laid his cheek on the hard surface of the desk.

"Of all the advice I've given him over the years, he chose to follow this!"

"So then, what made you finally do it?" Roz asked Christine in the empty courtroom after she had finally divulged the details of their weekend to her. Roz still couldn't see how Dan had persuaded Christine to kiss him.

Christine looked back down at the papers she was stacking into her briefcase, smiling at the memory of his whispered words in her ear. "He told me he'd dust all of my tea sets and clip my cat's nails, no matter if I chose to let him win or lose."

Just then, Dan came through the back double doors of the courtroom, wearing a frilly white apron over his three-piece suit, a feather duster in the large front pocket, and gripping his suitcase with heavy leather falconer's gloves. "Ready, m'lady?"

"Yup!" Christine called to Dan. She turned to Roz, her face lit up in a giddy smile, and proceeded to leave the courtroom arm-in-arm with Dan. Roz shook her head, not even attempting to figure it out.

"It must be love."

The End

Dedicated to the late, great Reinhold Weege who, through the gentle medium of comedy, told the story of man's need for redemption and grace in the theater of justice: the courthouse. God bless you, and thank you for captivating me with notions too lofty for my age back in the day, which I am now only beginning to adequately appreciate.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading it half as much as I enjoyed writing it! Oh, and I have very little knowledge of how Cajun is spoken, so if someone out there is an expert and sees a boo-boo in my writing, please let me know so I can fix it, thanks :)

Cheers!

~Anne Viktor