The Bet

- Excuse me, haven’t we met before?
- No, I don’t think so.
- I apologize, but your face looked familiar to me. Anyway, may I ask you for a favor, if you don’t mind?
- Yes, what is it?
- It looks like you are here all alone, so I thought we could just sit together and chat for a while. The point is, my boyfriend usually has lunch in this resto, so I would like him to see me with you and get a little jealous.
- No problem at all, you are welcome. What shall we talk about? Shall we speak English or French?
- English. I don’t speak any other language.
- O.K. But what does he do for a living, that boyfriend of yours? By the way, are you engaged?
- Why?
- I have made a bet with a friend of mine that I will get married within two weeks if I want to, so I have to get somewhere to start with.
- A bet? How much?
- A million dollars.
- That sounds exciting. If I marry you, can we share the money?
- It depends. I have to get to know you better before I can answer that. But have you noticed that we are talking business without even knowing each other’s names? I think it is high time we went through introductions. I am John, John Berkly, a drilling engineer.
- A drilling engineer? Does it mean you have something to do with oil?
- Exactly. And what’s your name?
- I am Betsy Grainger. I work for a large insurance company, as an assistant manager. It’s just round the corner.
- Yea, I know, the one with a huge billboard on the high-rise building, across the road. Our headquarters are there, too, on the 37-th floor.
- Pleasant to meet you, anyway. May I call you Betsy?
- Yes, sure. My colleagues call me Bet sometimes, for short.
- How funny. I have made a bet with Robert and the next thing I know I meet Miss Bet as my candidate fianc;e.
- I wonder, how can you make a million dollar bet without being sure you can win it. What if you lose? Have you got a million dollars to pay your debt to that … Robert?
- Oh, you are asking too many questions at a time. But I know I have to explain everything to you very carefully. How much time have you got?
- Another thirty minutes. I only hope that my boyfriend shows up to see us talking like friends.
- We will make friends. We could meet here from time to time at lunch, unless your boyfriend finally decides to keep you company. Well, let me start from the very beginning. Here is how it all came about. It is basically a sad story, although it must look very hackneyed. My girlfriend I had lived with for 5 years suddenly dropped me, without really explaining the reason. But it probably had something to do with my new work. Shortly before, I had met Robert, an old university classmate of mine, now a millionaire and CEO of a major oil company. Robert then invited me to work for them on offshore drilling platforms, 45 in, 45 out, on rotation. The money was right, so I accepted the offer. But when I came home, I found a short good-bye note from Jessy, plus many things missing from our rented apartment. For me, it came as a bolt from the blue, I mean I was really taken by surprise, shocked.
- Oh, I feel so sorry for you! I can imagine what you had to go through!
- Thanks. So, there I was, with a good job, but without any future in my family life. I even took to drinking.
- You mean to say you started kissing the cup? You don’t look like an alco.
- I am not, far from that. I just fell into a habit of having a quick one, before going to bed, to get rid of insomnia. And I changed the apartment, too, to regain my peace of mind. I once shared my problem with Robert, during a corporate party, and he told me not to take the whole story to heart, because if a girl could not wait for 45 days, it wasn’t probably the right girl to build a future with. And he is very smart, Robert, he used to be the best student in our group.
- Look, john, all that you are saying makes sense to me, but I still cannot figure out how in the world you are going to make it square with Robert if you lose your bet.
- I won’t lose it.
- What is it that makes you think so?
- Intuition. Although they say it is more inherent in women, rather than men.
Well, in case I lose Robert wants me to keep working as drilling engineer without promotion for 10 or 15 years, which means I would lose about a million dollars or more without the career growth. But to be honest, I am not anxious at all to make a manager’s career, even though managers earn more by a factor of two or three. I don’t feel like quitting my current job. I hate the idea of making people do what they have to do, I would much rather practice my engineer’s trade. That’s how it works.
- I see. So, you are sitting here in this restaurant headhunting for a wife. But it doesn’t seem to be a suitable place for it. How long have you been waiting for a chance?
- Just a couple of days. It means I am two days behind the schedule now, and I really have to catch up.
- How funny. Why don’t you go to a disco club, or some other place like that with lots of single people looking for adventures?
- The adventures, that’s the word, not a marriage. I could have picked up a girl there for a couple of nights, but I have big doubts whether I could make such type of relationship last. Then, I am not too young and would look out of place there.
- So, you are behind schedule, and how are you going to get back on track? Do you seriously believe there are many decent women who might be interested in that sort of deal?
- I am not ugly, I have got a well-paid job, and I look available. And I must own up to you that this is a goddamn long-term project. Robert wants everything to be perfectly natural, he isn’t anybody’s fool. You cannot take him in that easily. Now it is my turn to ask you something. Do you honestly believe you could feel at ease with me? Supposing you didn’t have a boyfriend, would you care to make a fresh start with me? Even if had no 500 thousand dollars to offer?
- Well, I… I don’t know. It is all so unexpected. You are being so straightforward. All I can say is that me, too, I have to get to know you a little better.
- Look here, Bet, if you hadn’t have any problems with your boyfriend, you would have never approached someone whose face looked familiar or attractive to you. This is a trick you are staging to make him fall in love with you more that he is really capable of. By the way, where is he? Have you spotted him around?
- No, I haven’t I have been so carried away with what you were saying. He could have peeped in and left straight away, it would be very much like him.
- I only hope he is not as jealous as Othello, and won’t kick shit out of me.
- Oh, no way. He is more likely to take it off on me, if at all.
- Anyway, Bet, do you believe that marriages are made in Heaven?
- What do you mean?
- I mean that there is very little that we can really do about our lives. If something has got to happen, it just happens, no matter what you do. It is up to the gentleman upstairs to decide what is to become of you and me. If he wants, I can walk out of this place in 20 minutes and get run over by some crazy Arab kamikaze. By the way, would you like me to order some coffee for you, or anything at all?
- I have already had lunch, thank you. But I really think that a good drink could make us both feel more at ease.
- O.K. then, what time do you clock off?
- 6 p.m. sharp.
- May I take a liberty of inviting you to have dinner with me at 6:15? They say, they serve excellent stakes with red wine here. This would be a good chance to see if we can get on well. We have nothing to lose and have everything to gain.
- If you say so. But, John, I have things to do at home tonight, so I cannot stay very late, if you don’t mind.
- That’s all right, you will stay as late as you please. Me too, I have to get up early and be able to do my job at the office tomorrow. It’s settled, then?
- Yes, let’s meet at 6: 15 tonight.

- Happy birthday! And here is a present for you.
- Thank you, John. But how did you know? How come you know it’s my birthday today? How nice of you!
- That was easy, no miracles. Don’t forget that I know your name and the name of the company you work for. The rest is simple. One has to be prudent nowadays.
- Oh! You’ve been investigating on my resume! You must be a very smart man!
- I hope you don’t mind it. Talking honestly, I have been looking forward to our first evening together. And I was worried as if it were my first date. I was scared you might decide not to come. I haven’t had much luck with women , you know.
- Neither had I with men. It takes you so much time to make a career. First you have to study blue in the face to get a diploma. Next, you work like mad to get a promotion and a raise, then you’ve got to get a job with a decent company. Next thing you know you suddenly discover you are no longer young.
- That’s exactly the way I feel, too. By the way, what shall we drink? How about a glass of red wine to start with, and some shrimp salad as appetizer?
- That’s fine with me. Do you mind if we halve the bill?
- If you say so. I thought it was up to me to treat you with dinner, as long as I was the one to have invited you.
- Well, John, I know you are not a millionaire, not yet.
- You are right, but I can well afford to go out from now and then. Plus, an experienced drilling engineer is the profession that every oil producing company needs.
- And people will always have to get their businesses insured.
- That is true, too. So, as you can see, should we decide to stay together, we’ll never live from hand to mouth. Now that I think about it, it’s all psychology. Are you interested in psycology?
- I don’t know much about it. Actually, I used to visit a psychologist a year or two ago, just to get a peace of mind.
- Did you get it?
- Well, not exactly. But I seemed to feel a little better afterward.
- I used to read lots of books on psychology, but I must say most of them were absolute rubbish. Good for nothing. All those people are after is your money, they pull your leg trying to exaggerate your condition before they start doing anything to help. But I once read a study published by a guy who had made research on relationship between the two sexes.
- Can you tell me about it?
- Well, that’s what I am doing already. It was a very curious book. The guy says that statistically, the human brain decides within 3 or 4 seconds whether or not someone, I mean male or female, can be a potential partner. So, it all happens very quickly. Everything else is secondary.
- Is it what they call love at first sight?
- Yes and no. It’s not love, it’s a liking, love may or may not come next, but there can be no love without a liking. Sorry if am getting too talkative, that may be the effect of the wine. If you care to listen, I have got my own theory on this. I am not a believer, but I am sure there’s some kind of a supreme force that has got a limitless number of souls in stock. All those souls need to find their bodies, like one might want to win in a lottery. Thus, it is up to that force to decide where a soul can meet with its body. To me, a baby is born the moment the right man finds the right woman. It happens long before they actually know it themselves. It happens when they first set eyes on each other.