“Well, how about just $100 each?”
“That would still hurt, my car needs work and my bank balance is barely going to cover it as it is,” she replied.
“Any less than that and it’s just not much fun for us,” Bill added.
“What if,” Eric said, grinning, “you bet the same thing as that other bet you told us about?
“Bet my clothes? No freaking way! I’ve learned my lesson about doing that; one screwed-up play could be enough to leave me naked!”
“How about if we each bet $200 against your clothes, with you not even needing the Steelers to actually win,” Eric said. “Instead of being vulnerable to one freak play like that other time, as long as they score at all that day, even if their opponent scores 100 points, you win.” A couple of the guys grumbled about how much the odds were in her favor with this offer; the Steelers weren’t a great team, but they didn’t often go scoreless either. Eric reminded them that the bet was just meant to make a game they didn’t care about interesting, which seemed to satisfy them.
“I’m not saying yes, but just so I understand what you’re proposing, you’re saying that as long as Pittsburgh scores, anything at all, even if they lose 100-2, you’ll each give me $200? And the only way I lose is if they don’t score at all? Do I have that right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. You only lose if they don’t score, and even then you wouldn’t lose any cash, just the use of your clothing for the duration of the following game.” Eric replied.
Carla felt goosebumps hearing that if she lost the bet she’d have to stay naked all the way through an entire game. The image of her sitting around in the nude with her new friends refused to leave her alone, but didn’t keep her from focusing on finding out exactly what the men clustered around her had in mind. She pressed them for details, asking, “If I do somehow lose, just what are you expecting me to do? If you’ve got some lurid porno fantasy going, forget about that right now.”
Eric tried to reassure her, “No ma’am, nothing like that. For married geezers like us, just getting to see an intelligent, beautiful young lady like you without any clothes on would be a big deal. Maybe you could take care of serving us our pizza and drinks, but that would be about as wild as it might get.”
“I may be crazy, “she said, “but a shutout seems like a pretty long longshot, so I’ll risk it! You guys are going to have the privilege of helping me get together enough cash to finally move out of my parent’s house!”
Having two lawyers in their group, the men had Joe write up the terms of their bet on a couple of bar napkins, and the gray-haired gang all signed it. Carla was hesitant about putting her name on the improvised document, but signed after Joe told her it was only for reference tomorrow if there was any doubt about the terms of the bet, and that she could have custody of the only copy of the contract. She looked it over and confirmed that it matched what they had talked about, then signed it. Her hand shook a bit as she put her signature on a contract which, however unlikely, would require her to strip naked in full view of a bunch of men she hardly knew if certain conditions were met.
Both sides of the unorthodox bet celebrated with a shot of the best Tequila the hotel bar had to offer and made their plans for the following afternoon. “What time should we arrive?” Bill asked.
“I think the first game starts at 12:30,” said Eric.
“But I’m sure Pittsburgh isn’t playing in the early game,” Ed added.
“I’m embarrassed to admit I haven’t checked the schedule,” Carla replied.
“It’s really not important,” Tim said, “we’d all like to come for the first game anyway, and stay for the other two if that’s okay with you.”
“Sounds good,” Carla replied enthusiastically, “I’ll have our lunch delivered around halftime of the first game.”
More than slightly buzzed, Carla and her gang left for their rooms. Carla was surprised by the size of the tip Ed left for the bartender, but thinking about how long they’d all been drinking thought maybe it wasn’t so unusual after all. The men wished her a good night’s sleep when she got off the elevator on the 4th floor; they continued to their rooms on the 6th floor.
Carla slept well, but not until after 3:00 AM. She worried about precisely what she had agreed to, reading the two-napkin contract a few times to be sure of the meaning of the clause which was making her anxious. “I only see one way to interpret it,” she thought, and smiled a nervous smile.
Setting the napkins down in front of the TV, she moved on to picking out her outfit for the get-together. She set out her pink running shoes and matching no-show socks, a purple thong, and a red lace bra, both bought just a few days ago at a shop in South Beach. She dug through her suitcase for her black silk skirt, the shortest of the four she’d packed, unused during the trip because she found that the women she was training all tended to dress more conservatively, and the Steelers jersey she had bought with her brother in mind. “A little sexy, but not too blatant,” she thought, finally slipping into bed.
A half-hour after she slept through the 11:30 alarm she had set on her phone, Carla crept out of bed and hustled into the bathroom to shower and shave her legs. In a spur of the moment addition to her grooming, she did away with most of her pubes, leaving a narrow strip, barely enough to prove her long blonde hair was her natural color.
Showered and groomed, she had just finished drying her hair when she heard someone knocking on the door to her suite. She wrapped herself up in a towel and checked the peephole. It was Ed, apparently on his own. “Funny, I thought you guys always traveled in a pack,” she said as she let him in. On her way back into the bathroom, she scooped up the clothes she’d set out the night before, adding one more item as an option, a long-sleeved gold button-down blouse.