by Bebe Wilde
So, I gave it up after a while, even though he begged me to keep trying.
“It shouldn’t be that hard, now that I think about it,” he said. “I’ve already got a list of clients, as they say, so I’ll just call them and give them a head’s up and ask them for references.”
Of course, the most powerful people in Los Angeles would give Bear their personal phone numbers. Why wouldn’t they?
“And they can brag to their friends about how a former champion taught them how to surf.” He nodded, like he’d convinced himself of this.
“Well, okay,” I said. “When did you have time to come up with this business plan? I mean, we just got done fucking.”
“I multitask,” he said, then after seeing the look on my face, he laughed. “No, I have to think of something when we’re doing it so I don’t come so quickly. So I can satisfy my lady.”
“Stop calling me your lady,” I snapped. “This isn’t the Old West.”
“I like calling you my lady,” he said and put his empty bottle down. “So, when can we get on with the kid business?”
“We’re not married yet,” I said. “And you have yet to follow through with your business plan. Let’s have a meeting about it when you actually start making some money, Bear.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “Is my lady ready for round two?”
“If you call me lady one more time, I will nut you.”
“Don’t even entertain that idea,” he said and hugged me. “Your body is really rocking tonight. I forgot how much you turn me on. Oh, wait, no I didn’t. I still have those pictures.”
He’d taken some nude pictures of me a while back. In my defense, I was really drunk. I slapped his arm. “You said you deleted those!”
“I lied,” he said. “I have to have something to look at!”
“Look at real porn like most other men,” I said.
“I do that, too,” he said. “But I like a little variety.” He paused and looked around the hotel room. “Like this. This was variety, doing it somewhere different. You had a good idea coming here.”
Whatever. He started kissing me and then all I could do was go along for the ride. We fell back to the bed and had hot sex again, then fell asleep spooning. I awoke about six that next morning, mainly because he was snoring in my ear. I pushed him off and yawned, then got up and into the shower. When I got out, he was sitting on the bed, scratching his head. When he noticed me, he broke out into a big smile.
“Hotness abounds,” he said and got up and tried to take my towel off.
He was still naked. And hot. But what else was new? Maybe I had time for a quickie. I glanced at the alarm clock and shook my head. Not if I wanted breakfast, too. “No,” I said and wriggled away. “I have work.”
“Tell you what,” he said. “Quick shower and then a quick fuck?”
“I’ll think about it,” I said and he disappeared into the bathroom. I got ready quickly, then told him I was going downstairs for coffee. I’d do my makeup and hair when I got back. I grabbed my wallet and hurried to the elevator and caught it just as two businessmen were getting on, then rode down in silence. They stared at me and at my wet hair and bare feet. I ignored them. Men!
I went into the restaurant and, because I had been staying at the hotel for a little while, the hostess greeted me with a smile.
“Table for one again?” she asked.
“No, I’m going to take it to go today,” I said and ordered two big breakfasts with pancakes, bacon and eggs and two coffees. I went ahead and paid for it. “Thanks,” I said and took my change.
“It’ll be ready in a few minutes,” she said.
“Okay,” I said and sat down in a booth. The television was on the local news program. I leaned back into the seat and watched it. The pretty news anchor started babbling about some local reform or something and I zoned out, then she mentioned something about the lottery. I sat up and listened.
“And onto other big news and this is big, people. It looks like we have a winner! A ticket that is worth over three-hundred million dollars was purchased in the Los Angeles area. Now, if you didn’t get the numbers last night, it might just be your lucky morning. Here they are again. No one has come forth to claim the prize yet, so if the winner is out there, please call the lottery headquarters and they’ll tell you what to do.”
What were the numbers? Let’s see Bear not win again. That would be fun. However, I was glad that he was going to stop playing and wasting my money on it.
“Oh, I guess I should call the numbers,” she said.
“She’s a real blonde, folks,” her handsome co-host said.
I cracked up. He was funny.
“Okay, here we go,” she said, laughing to herself. “Here we go. Twenty-seven.”
Twenty-seven? Oh, no, that’s the number I played accidently. Well, it was probably a passive aggressive move on my part but it was a subconscious thing. I’d never fuck his numbers up on purpose. I thought about it. Maybe I would.
“Thirty,” she said.
“No way,” I muttered and stared at the television. Was this really happening? I didn’t think Bear ever even got one number right and on my first try, I had two. Well, that was probably good for nothing.
“The third number… Thirty-six.”
“Seriously?” I said. This couldn’t be right. What was the next number? What was the fourth number?
“The next number is… Forty-one!”
My heart began to beat wildly in my chest. This was too weird. It was fucked up!
The fifth number was, of course, “Forty-nine.”
Forty-fucking-nine! Forty-fucking-nine! I felt like a gambler at a racetrack. I’d never experienced anything like this before in my life. It was like I was on a high or something. I’d won. Almost. But surely not. If I didn’t get the jackpot number… What did that mean? Did I still win? Was I still a winner? I didn’t know how it worked. How could I not have known how it worked? I guess I never expected to actually win.
“And the jackpot number is… Twelve.”
Ding-ding-ding-ding! Jackpot! I was stunned. I could not move. I’d just won the lottery! I was a millionaire! No, I was a multi-millionaire! Who had that kind of money? Movie stars? Rock stars? Tech entrepreneurs? Rockefellers? Vanderbilts? But now I did, too. I was filthy fucking rich. Congratulations to me, bitches! I’d just won the fucking lottery! I’d just won the fucking lottery! Wait a minute. For how much?
She turned to her co-host and said, “Can you believe that? Three hundred and seven million dollars.”
That couldn’t be right. I was just about beside myself. If I hadn’t already been sitting down, I would have collapsed. I’d just won! I was a rich bitch! I could buy that Valextra bag from that asshole at that store. If I even wanted it anymore, that is. I could buy something else. I could buy his whole store lock, stock and barrel and kick him out if I wanted to. I could also buy that house I wanted. Then I remembered I couldn’t because Jed was buying it. But I could… I could buy something even better! I could buy a Maserati! I could drive a fucking Maserati! Wait, Jed had a Maserati. I wouldn’t want him to think I was copying him. Maybe I’d get something else, something even cooler… I couldn’t think of a cooler car, so I’d have to decide on that later. Oh, wait. What about a Tesla? Yes! That was the car I wanted! Oh… Then I knew. A Shelby Cobra… Oh, yeah. That was it, like a vintage ’68 one, one of those two-seaters. Then I really thought about it. Could I even get my hands on one of those? I didn’t know but I didn’t care. I was rich!
Then I wondered what kind of car would Bear want. Bear! The ticket was upstairs with Bear! Oh, fuck! If he got a hold of that ticket first, there was no telling what he would do. I hated to admit it, but I just didn’t trust him with that kind of money. Hell, I didn’t trust him with fifty bucks. I’d once sent him to the store for some bread and milk and he came back with a baby turtle, some pork rinds, and a twelve pack of his favorite beer. But no b
read and no milk. And what was I supposed to do with a baby turtle?! I ended up releasing it into the wild, i.e. our backyard. Bear named him Slow Ass and I had to buy heads of lettuce for years for that thing until one day it just up and disappeared. I don’t know where it went or how as it was a slow as a, well, turtle.
Seriously. Who knew what he would do? He might start a surf school for monkeys or something. He might buy some island out in the middle of the Pacific because it had awesome waves. He might just buy a tree house and expect me to live in it.
But there was no way he was getting his hands on that money first. I had to secure it. I had to get it and I had to get it now! But I couldn’t move. I was too dumbfounded. This was so big, so heavy, so new. What was I going to do with all that money?
“That’s a lot of money,” the news anchor said, nodding at his co-anchor. “I should have bought a ticket yesterday. But c’est la vie!” He paused and turned to face the camera. “Now, onto the weather. Hal, what does it look like for sunny California on this beautiful Monday morning as people head out to work?”
Without a second thought, I jumped up and raced out of the restaurant. I heard the hostess call, “Hey! Your food!” but I ignored her. I got to the elevators but there were already a shitload of people there waiting so I took the stairs, two at a time, all the way up to my fourth floor room and let myself in.
I was in such a hurry I almost fell to the floor. I straightened myself up and looked around. Where was the ticket? Where was it? I looked around in a panic just as Bear came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. Well, two towels. He also had one around his head like a turban.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I did? I glanced at myself in the mirror. I did look kind of freaked out. I straightened up and thought I saw the lottery ticket on the credenza, right next to the flat-screen TV. I was about to make a leap for it when I realized it was just a receipt and not the actual ticket. I also realized that the TV was on and turned to the same station as downstairs. The gig was up. I was more than sure he’d heard the numbers. I stared at him, probably a little crazily, because he laughed and shook his head at me.
“Seriously, what have you been smoking? Give me some of that,” he said and kissed my forehead. “You’re sweaty! Are you getting sick?”
I thought about it. “Uh, no. I dunno. I ate at some weird Chinese place yesterday with Quinn and the sushi tasted a little funky.” Maybe that was it because I really felt like I could throw up. Was this what winning a lot of money did to people? Did it make them sick? I knew it was making me crazy, kind of. My heart literally felt like it was going to come out of my chest.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. We stared at each other. “Who the hell is that?” I asked.
Bear shrugged and took the towel off his head and tossed it on the floor. “How the hell would I know? Want me to answer it?”
“No! I’ll get it!” I said, my voice high.
He leaned in and studied me. “Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Maybe you knocked me up last night,” I said and laughed a weird, high pitched laugh. “Hahhahhahaha!” I felt my skin start itching and I scratched the back of my neck. It felt hot, like I was getting a rash. Nerves, man, nerves. Maybe I did need some weed to calm myself down.
“Well, okay,” he said and kept staring at me. “I’ll get the door.”
“No! I’ll get it,” I said and went to it and opened it. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was the hostess from the restaurant downstairs. And she was holding a big bag of food and two coffees in a little cardboard tray. “Oh, damn! I’m sorry! I forgot!”
She eyed me. “That’s okay, Willa,” she said and smiled. “I told you it would be a few minutes then I thought maybe you misunderstood me and thought I’d bring it up. I don’t know. No need to let it go to waste. I just didn’t know what your hurry was.” She glanced past me at Bear, her eyes widening a little, then smiled at me knowingly. “Oh, I see what your hurry was. Have a good one!”
“That’s just my boyfriend!” I called after her, leaning out of the door. “We’re together! It’s not what it looks like!”
She looked at me like I had lost my mind and waved then disappeared down the hall. I turned to Bear. “I think she thought I just picked you up or something.” I stared at him. “She probably wants to know where I got you.”
He threw his head back and laughed, then said, “Thank you. That’s the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me. Well, not really.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, narrowing my eyes a little at him then took the food to the little table and started getting it out of the bag. Bear came over behind me and started rubbing my back. I wriggled away. He kept at it but I slapped his hands away. He kept at it. I turned on him with a plastic fork. “Seriously, get your hands off me.”
He held his hands up. “Now I know there’s something wrong,” he said. “When have you ever turned down sex?”
“I turn down sex all the time,” I said. “Just not from you.”
He stared at me, digesting this and finally understood the joke. “Whatever. I’m hungry. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with you, too. Let’s eat.”
We sat down at the little table and started to eat. Well, he did at least. I just sat there, shaking my leg nervously, so much that my whole body began to vibrate.
“Willa,” he said and laid a hand over mine. “You’re shaking the table.”
I was? I stared down at my leg. It was shaking like crazy. Oh, God, what was I doing? I didn’t even know. I just had this idea that if I didn’t get the ticket first, he would and then he’d really fuck everything up. If any of his moochers found out we’d won that kind of money, we’d be broke again in a week.
Wait a minute. What if he already had it? What if he’d seen the news and knew it was the winning ticket and was keeping it from me? I thought about that. He wouldn’t do that. He’d have to brag. Besides, I knew he couldn’t keep a secret. He told me things other guys had sworn him to secrecy about merely minutes after they had confided in him. But where was the little fucker? Where are you, lottery ticket?
“I don’t get what’s going on with you,” he said, eying me. “Maybe I fucked you too good last night. Maybe I addled your brain. Did I fuck you too good?”
“Is such a thing even possible?” I asked.
“If it is, I am quite capable of doing it,” he said.
I stared at him. God, why didn’t he just shut up? I turned and looked around again, then spied it on the floor, next to the credenza. Ah, there the fucker was! I was so grateful to have found it, I wanted to break out in a hymnal or something. Thank you, God! Thank you, God! But I kept my cool, sort of.
But then I thought of something. What if I’d gotten the numbers wrong and I was doing this all for nothing? That was possible as I’d played Bear’s numbers for years but not these numbers. They were completely different. I had to get that ticket and find out.
“These flapjacks are good,” he said, chewing. “Are you going to eat?”
I was still staring at the lottery ticket. I turned to him and said, “Who calls pancakes flapjacks?”
“What are you supposed to call them?”
“Pancakes,” I said slowly. “Again, we’re not in the Old West.”
He threw his head back and laughed loudly. He was really getting on my nerves, even more than usual. He leaned over, grabbed the back of my head and pulled me into a deep kiss. I, of course, started kissing back, but pulled away before he could get my juices flowing.
“I’ll get you later,” he promised.
“Not if I get you first,” I muttered and watched him eat. Soon, all of his food was gone and he started on mine. We’d be here all morning! “Don’t you have something to do today?” I asked as innocently as I could, tapping my fingers on the table.
“I don’t,” he said.
“Isn’t there some swell or something you should go check out this morning?” I asked. “I meant what I said. I don’t expect you to give up surfing.”
He shrugged. “The reports aren’t so good this morning,” he said, chewing. “It’s a bum day. Waves are down. Everything’s flat.”
Of course they were down today, for the first time in five years. Everything was all calm. The moon was taking a day off, wasn’t she?
“Hey, I know,” he said. “Take the day off and we’ll do something cool.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What’s something cool?”
“Go to the zoo,” he said.
“If I want to smell animal stink, I will invite your friends over,” I said. I wasn’t going to the zoo. I was going to pick up my money! Well, our money. If he’d ever leave, that was. I didn’t really have a solid plan just then, but I wasn’t about to let him in on anything yet. He was such a fool when it came to money. Yes, I was going to tell him and, yes, I was going to share it but not before I secured the cash. Once I had it and had it put it into some sort of bank account or even a trust, then I would tell him. That way, he couldn’t run through with it by buying all kinds of stupid things. And giving it away to his loser friends.