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“What? Confessed?” Muffy’s stomach sank so far down that it went past her toes. It went through the damn floor, straight into the apartment below them. She imagined a nice family sitting down for breakfast and all of a sudden, wham, a bloody pink stomach comes crashing through the roof and lands right in their cereal bowl.
“Yeah. You know how they were talking about bets last night? Apparently, Jay bet Alex that he couldn’t make a woman interested in him if he was poor. I guess that they’ve had a bad string of women who just want to use them for their money. Alex hadn’t dated anyone in a while because he was sick of women pretending to be interested when really, they just wanted something from them. They were talking about it and the bet kind of just happened.”
“So, you mean- Alex set this all up? I’m just… I’m just some- some stupid game? I’m- oh my god. I- fuck. I- I- slept with him last night. Like, seriously, slept with him. Not just fooling around. Actually slept with him. Does that mean he won the bet? Fuck! How could anyone do something like that? Don’t they know how wrong that is?”
Muffy pushed back her chair so hard it probably left grooves in the linoleum. Carla followed her, their breakfast forgotten. She tailed Muffy into the living room and watched as she threw herself down on the couch. She put her head in her hands as the tears she couldn’t stop spilled over. Carla’s hand landed on her back, gentle, soft, reassuring.
“It’s okay. They’re bastards. That’s all there is to it. I- I feel really bad about all of this. I didn’t want to tell you, but it’s all my fault. I was the one who made you go online. I was the one who pushed you to get back into dating when you didn’t really want to. I’m sorry.”
“But… oh my god. How could he do it? How could he fake being interested in me? He tricked me into sleeping with him!” Rage replaced the sorrow churning inside. Something acrid crawled up her throat and filled her mouth with a bitter taste. She brushed her tears away, ashamed that she’d wasted any on Alex in the first place.
“Well, maybe he didn’t trick you into it. I mean, it could have started out as a game, but he probably did feel something. I don’t think he would have slept with you otherwise. Jay did say that he knew he’d lost the bet when we went out for dinner. He could tell by the way you looked at Alex that you were into him for real. It wasn’t some game or joke for you. Alex wasn’t paying you to act in any way. That’s what the dinner was about.”
“Fuck. Fuck!” Muffy threw up her hands. “Why do I attract only losers and crazy people? Why can’t I just meet a nice guy for real?”
“I know, honey.” Carla said sadly. “Why do you think I don’t date? There isn’t any point? When I want to scratch the itch, I scratch it, but I never make it about anything more than that. I know there is nothing out there but rotten apples and I don’t have time to find the good one that might be hiding in the rancid barrel. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have told you to date. I knew you still believed in it, in finding someone, and I wanted you to be happy, especially after all that shit you went through with Steve. I was just trying to help. I wasn’t trying to make things worse.”
“He seemed- so- so nice,” Muffy fumed. A touch of that sorrow was back, and she pushed it away stubbornly. “But of course, that was just a trick.”
“Well, Jay did say the bet was to see if a woman could be interested in Alex for who he was, not for his money. So maybe he was really being genuine. I mean, it can’t be easy having all that cash. People would really just tend to use you right away. Maybe he needed to do it for himself to find someone that way. Maybe he was going to tell you.”
“I seriously doubt it.” Muffy shook her head. “God. He took me to see the stars. It was so romantic. It was… it was the nicest thing I’ve ever done on a first date. I- argh! How could he ruin it like this! It doesn’t matter if he was going to tell me or not, he lied to me and I can’t trust someone who made up the whole thing in the first place. Who rents a fake run-down apartment and a piece of shit truck? Do you have any idea how much effort he put into tricking me? That’s just… that’s just craziness. Seriously! Who does something like that?”
